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June 22, 2004
Dragon Boat Day
dave
01:10 PM
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Today is the Tuen Ng festival, which commemorates the death of Quan Yu, a Chinese statesman and poet.. This festival is celebrated by eating sticky rice dumplings (Zong Zi), and, of course, by paddling a dragon boat.
Today is my first ever dragon boat day in Hong Kong where I'm not out on the water in Stanley, so this is a somewhat sad day for me. This is mainly due to the Tendonitis I've been suffering from ever since I got back from Melbourne. At one point I could hardly type without pain, much less hold a paddle. I'm a lot better now, but I still get pains in my arms when I'm typing too much or stressed.
June 04, 2003
Still Swaying
dave
09:56 PM
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I'm sitting at home now, about two hours after getting home from a long day in Stanley. It was a very successful day for the Scott Wilson Sea Dogs. We placed second in the Expatriate Men's Category A Plate Final. That's a bloody brilliant result, and we were on excellent form all day. We placed seventh in the Stanley Combined Bowl Final, but we were severely outclassed.
Competitions in Hong Kong generally have four competitions: Cup, Plate, Bowl and Shield. This is basically so that you don't end up competing with people who are vastly better than you or vastly worse. There is no fun in competing when you're coming last by a huge margin, and there's not much value to a win you didn't even have to work for. This is further refined in Stanley Dragon Boating by having A-class and B-class divisions, where the B-class are guys who do it for fun (like us normally) and the A-class are guys who take it really seriously. These divisions mean that the optimum strategy is to get in there and paddle your heart out. This is exactly what you want in a race - none of this 'strategic placing' nonsense. We were bumped up to the A-class after the organizers decided that we've had strong teams for many years now. So coming second in the Plate final is a stunning achievement.
And we did it with a perfect race. A tight start - four long deep strokes to get the boat moving forward, followed by twelve short, fast strokes to accelerate the boat up to racing speed, and then into a racing stroke with a rate of about three strokes per two seconds all the way to the finish line. Our timing was sharp across the boat and from front to back, which is the absolutely critical skill for paddling a dragon boat. You can have all the power in the world, but if you're not paddling together, you're wasting your time. We had a tight crew of well trained paddlers, most with many years of experience, and all with the will to go hell for leather and damn the torpedoes.
June 03, 2003
Tuen Ng - Dragon Boat Day!
dave
01:10 PM
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Tomorrow is Dragon Boat day - the Tuen Ng festival of rice dumplings and hard paddling. I'm going to be down in Stanley from Oh-dark-thirty, as is my usual habit. This year, our first race is at 11:30, but it's easier to travel down to Stanley before the racing starts. Also gives me a chance to get my gear out to our Junk, so I don't have to worry about it. The beach is always heaving with people and very, very hot. This year, there's construction work on the beach (rolls eyes), so there will undoubtedly be massive confusion and turmoil there. Me, I'll be out on the junk, with a flask of coffee and some fresh bread.
April 22, 2003
Dragon Boat Season
dave
11:50 PM
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Well, it's dragon boat season again - training starts tomorrow down in Stanley. Once again I'm paddling with Scott Wilson (Hong Kong) Limited.
June 16, 2002
Dragonboating
dave
12:00 AM
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Back from Dragon Boat day down in Stanley yesterday. We had a good day, and did some good racing. Unfortunately we were rammed by them scurvy 'Sea Dogs' who lost control of their boat and impeded some others. They were disqualified, although they had the bloody cheek to go looking for a bye to the final. Hello? You can't steer in a straight line and you want to be compensated for it?
Anyway, we (and another team) got byes into the final (Expat Men's B Cup Final, to be precise) and we came fourth, which was a reasonable showing.
The competitions are different this year with the split between Expat Men's A (Fit Gits) and Expat Men's B (everyone else). It means that you can race your heart out and you'll get as far as you can without suddenly finding yourself completely out of your league. It's never been fair to have casual teams (like us) competing against the Paddle Club, or the Diggers who race all year.
June 03, 2002
Dragon Boat Day
dave
12:00 AM
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Had the second last Dragon Boat training session last Saturday. The Tuen Ng festival is on June 15, and the races will be the same day. I'm rowing for the Scott Wilson team again this year, my sixth year paddling.
July 02, 2001
Roxanne's Birthday, Dragon boating
dave
12:00 AM
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Last Wednesday, 27 June, 2001, my daughter Roxanne was 1 year old. It was my wife's birthday as well. Two days before was Tuen Ng Festival, otherwise known as Dragon Boat day.
I've also tidied up various bits and pieces on the site and made some cosmetic changes.