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| July 25, 2009 Harrison Dragon Fest |
2009 Harrison Lake From my previous visits to Harrison, I’ve done camping and hiking but never dragon boating. As a first year paddler, I was so pumped for the Harrison DB Festival and couldn’t wait to race. A Sleepless Night Harrison was our first out of town race and the excitement was hard to contain; evident for those who endured a sleepless night. We were asked to get plenty of sleep before the race but apparently someone at 3am in the morning started texting other Beaters with a message “I can’t sleep, are you awake?” Needless to say this person shall remain nameless…but you know who you are.
The Beat’s captain, Diego, did a great job in arranging rides for the Beaters and Breakers. Surprisingly no one was left stranded in Vancouver and everyone arrived in Harrison in one piece…ummmm….I guess having an engineering degree does come in handy. As the first race for the Breakers was at 9:20am and the Beat was at 10:00am most of us left Vancouver at 6:00am….way too early…especially for those who have to give rides to everyone else. |
When my car pool buddies arrived at Harrison around 7:30am, the sun was just coming out and the air was fresh and breezy. Looking at Harrison Lake was like looking at a post card. You have a breath taking view of clear, icy water being surrounded by lush green mountains. Can you imagine being in a boat and on the water like that? It was amazing! FOOD!!!! Need I Say More? Our tents had already been set up and racers were just gathering in the athlete’s village. Thanks to Lillian’s lead, we all brought with us food to share. I realize now that dragon boating is synonymous with food. The spread was very impressive, from Martin’s sub-sandwiches to Philip’s cold noodle salad to Victoria’s cookies to Ali B’s fruit salad. The cold drinks, mango salsa, watermelon and blue berries were ideal as the day wore on and the temperature rose. Some of us had already started diving into the food, even before the first race, including myself. Andrew was quite taken with the guacamole nachos. I want to personally thank those who brought the Chinese buns…yummy!
200 Meter Race The first race was the 200 meters. The Breakers, in their bright yellow and blue jerseys, were the first of the DH teams to warm up and race. For most of the members, this was their first time paddling at Harrison and for a few; it was their first time in a formal race. They were all so energized during warm up, that energy must’ve been carried into the boat as they finished with a respectable time of 1min 3 sec.
Magnum paddled at 9:30am and completed the race in first place with a time of 53 sec. Nobody was surprised by the impressive result. [recruiting picture for Magnum @ Harrison during their race] The Beat warmed up with a cardio workout, stretching and visualization on the beach. I think our captain wanted to challenge us because most other teams warmed up under the shade on levelled grass; however Diego decided to make us run under the hot beaming sun on the sand. I think the strategy worked because we did well finishing in 3rd place with a time of 54 sec.
After the race we went back to the tent and practically attacked the food on the table.
The next race wasn’t until noon so we had about an hour and a half to eat…okay…maybe 10 min less for washroom break. Everyone was having such a great time eating, drinking (non-alcoholic of course), laughing, chatting, taking shade underneath the tent and napping.  However, our fearless captain was still hard at work, constantly looking at his clip board and reviewing the seating arrangement for the next races. Kudos to our captain for his hard work!
500 Meter Race What's so special about the 500 meter race? Besides that it was the first full race of the day, the Breakers and the Beat got to race each other. Sibling rivalry!!!!
The Beaters (2 min 19 sec) ‘beat’ the Breakers (2 min 36 sec) by only 17 sec. What was even more exciting was the Beat came in first and the Breakers came in 3rd. How awesome was that! Too bad it wasn’t the championship race...just imagine, gold and bronze medals… Special thanks to Jenny & Martin for calling/steering the Beat boat and Jan & John for calling/steering the Breaker’s boat. Magnum came in first in their heat at a time of 2 min 8 sec. Well done! [Anyone have Magnum Harrison photos to share?] Semi Final Race
Again, Magnum came in first in the Semi-final’s with 2 min and 9 sec. Along the way, a birthday girl got seriously dunked.
Final Race After the disappointing results in the semi finals, the Breakers were motivated to redeem themselves. And did they ever…they did extremely well in Division D Consolation. The race was really tight and they edged into 3rd place. Way to go Breakers for showing guts! Fire of Lights Apparently the forecast for Harrison called for rain, thundershower and lightning. Who would’ve guessed that the weather forecast would be accurate? The weather turned for the worst in the afternoon. There were periods of heavy rain and we got to see some natural firework displays…I thought the Symphony of Fire was suppose to be held at English Bay in Vancouver!?!? Close to 5:00ish and after the Division C Consolation race, everyone were asked to wait until it was safe to go back onto the water. We must’ve waited for more than ½ hour before the event organizers made the difficult decision to cancel the remaining final races. Everyone was so disappointed…but no one wanted to become deep fried calamari. Oh… well, at least no one will forget the 2009 Harrison Festival. We packed it up and waited a couple of days for the organizers to decide on the final standings. The Beat’s First 2009 Medal! Leave it to our captain in his attempt to keep us in the dark about the results for Harrison. I so regret not dunking Diego in Harrison, right now! He wanted to surprise us in our celebratory dinner but he underestimated his team’s ability. Philip found out that we had won a silver medal and spammed everyone! Oh yeahhhh! It was so sweet. I was on cloud 9 for the next few days. Five days later, we held a mock final race and had the celebratory dinner. The atmosphere was so great at the Congee Noodle House. It was like we had just won a medal…oh wait a minute…we did!
The highlight for me is the team work I witnessed…on the water and on land. Winning a medal is really something but it’s over shadowed by everything else that made that day special and memorable. With no exception, everyone contributed to the potluck, cleaning up and helped with getting team mates to and from the festival.
Race fee for Harrison DB Festival…$40
Last Words…Kudos 1. John for being the “heart” of DH, doing all the behind the scene work and for “steering” us in the right direction. 2. James for moulding us to become a winning team. 3. Diego for leading us in this festival, being our left stroker, organizing the car pool arrangements, yada, yada, yada. 4. Joey for being our right stroker. I can always count on you…to be on time. 4. Lillian for organizing the AWESOME potluck. Let’s do it again! 5. Way for captaining the Beat team this season…although your body was not present, your spirit was. 6. Everyone else from the Dragon Hearts family for showing me what dragon boating should be about…team spirit and having fun, win or lose. Now, when I chant “Who’s Got Heart…”, there is a deeper meaning for me. |
| August 30 & 31, 2008 Taiwanese festival |
TARO BALL!! BUBBLE TEA!! HERE I COME! Congratulations to... complete race results(.pdf) from dragonboatassociation videos... Photo: DHBeat leaving the dock for their Nogard race against Eye of the Dragon Hearts Magnum (courtesy of Janice) |
| July 19, 2008 - 4th annual Harrison Dragon Boat Fest |
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Harrison Lake Dragon Boat Festival By: Diego So, I guess I will write about Harrison Lake Dragon Boat Festival. Doing this to keep the online activity of this club alive and to keep my promise to someone who can’t go to Harrison but really really wanted to. So Harrison …. Where should I start. Oh yeah it was a blaaaaaaaaaaaasttttttttttttt sooo much fuuuuuuuuuuunnnnn The whole day was fun. The weather kinda sucked in the morning: cloudy and windy but it picked up in the afternoon: sunny and beautiful. Heard about bad organization last year but nothing like that this year. All went smoothly and ended earlier than expected. Waking up for the event was kind of a pain in the bu** though. Imagine !! We had to wake up by around 4.30 ish and leave Vancouver by 5.30 at the latest. I asked people around when they slept and guess what!?!? Most of them slept at around 11 ish to 2 ish. Heck that was a short beauty sleep - we’re all being bad guys/ bad girls!!. Not to mention, someone gave me a heart attack the night before by telling me that he/she can’t paddle coz his/ her arm is broken. Turns out he/she was just pulling my leg!!! So, we got there around 7 ish. Funny thing, some of us got there at the same time: David & Co. (Way, Carolyn, and Janice). Andre & Co. (Diego, Cindy, and Joyce). Vic and Co. (Terry, Fred, and Maria) claimed they got there first, but I think John and Co. (Justine, Andrew, and Angela) did. U aint got the Speed Racer skills Vic!!. When we got there, we went to the racer’s village to set up our lovely tent. It took a while to set up the tent since there were an argument on how the structure should be : the civil engineer vs the electronic engineer :P. After a while we set it up, look at this (nice eh!): 
Our 1st Race The first race was a 200 meters. The race was realllly early. We didn’t even have time to do warm ups!!! Maybe that’s why we ended up in third position. This first race was kinda PERSONAL -> haha to one of our paddlers. He knows a guy in the other team that “took away” his high school crush, bwahahahaha. Saw the videos, the first race wasn’t bad at all. Our start was a bit slow that gave the other team the edge and proved to be unsurmountable. We did kinda catch up in the end and during the power 10’s but we ended up in third. Again I blame not enough jumping jacks :P. After the race, we had about 2 hours to chill. Walked around and saw Li-kai with big nice continental breakfast hmmm… yummm…. We went cheering for magnum afterwards too!! Our 2nd Race Ha, I really liked our second race .. or at least the first half hahaha. This time we did a lot of jumping jacks – so we were warm and engines were rolling! Too bad gasoline wasn’t enough :P. TO ME, OUR START WAS THE BEST EVER!!!! We were leading from the start!!! Ahead by a lot. But we sagged in the middle – after the 200 m finish line. I guess we weren’t prepared to kick it up a notch in endurance or our mind set was still at the 200 meter race. We died in the middle – not enough power. I think those orange buoys distracted us. But I was really happy that we got 2nd place. Really really happy, I guess the start was indeed helpful. Look at me being happy: 
After the race, we had to wait a realllly long time before the next one. So most of us chilled, walked around, looking at other races:  
Our 3rd Race One word: LAME!!!! -> this is actually John’s words. Dunno wat happened in this race. The power just wasn’t there. Cap’n D rotated a couple of players but nothing significant so it shouldn’t be the problem. Our timing was pretty good too!! Though, I noticed two things: the rate seems a bit slower than the previous 2 races and the SNAP WASN’T SNAPPY ENOUGH!! I think people were getting tired and lazy on that race. John said near the end people just give up. Believe me, we did try our best. My hands were shaking after the race couldn’t even hold a pen to write and had to ask Angela to write our last race grid. Here’s our beaten up face after race 3:
On a side note, the teams we were up against in race # 3 were good teams. In Alcan they are placed above us by 10+ ranks. Noted that their personels might be different but hey, ours too! Our 4th Race Apparently our best of the day!! Well best or not it was certainly the most exciting one of the day. We were pumped. Maybe because the Uncle with the Straw Hat came by and check up on us. Kudos to James, our coach!!! This last race was very important for three people: Michelle, Li Kai, and David. This is their last race with us because they are leaving abroad for school. J and J gave some pep talk of how we looked bad and should kicked it up a notch on the last one: PADDLE TILL U PUKE. So we did and it was sooooooooo goooodddd. We looked like a real dragon boat team now. We “gave the Pirates a run for their money” – James’ words. Timing was good, saw surges in the power 10s. Speaking about power 10’s Way wasssssssss verrrrrrry goooooooodd at calling. Her voice was thunderous it was actually scary. In the last race people’s spirit was waaaaayyyy up, LOTS OF GRUNTS, SCREAMS, SQUEALS, AND WHATEVER!!! They responded well to the calling and to the challenge to top it a notch. JOB WELL DONE GUYS, SO PROUD OF YOU!!! We came in 2nd place but we were sooo close to the first place!
After the race, I dunked myself into the water. A certain someone challenged me to dunk myself into the water and I accepted the challenge. Almost lost my glasses that day but luckily Tiff helped me find it. Kinda weird though, usually people get dunked no one actually dunked himself or herself into the water :P.
Oh, and for the first time there was a boat capsizing in dragon boat. Apparently the team tried to celebrate their win by turning or sth and the boat flipped :P. Look at this:
ALL IN ALL I think it was really fun and hopefully the team had fun. Nice serving you guys as captain and stroker. I am indeed really proud of you guys. Thanks a lot guys!!! Some more pics:  
The Dinner After To close the day, we had AYCE dinner at Fish on Rice with Magnum. People were ordering like crazy, stomach was bursting, and laughter was everywhere. Thanks Guys!!!! Diego |
| June 21 & 22 , 2008 - Rio Tinto Alcan Dragon Boat Festival |
Dragon Hearts bring home 2 GOLD MEDALS!
Dragon Hearts Magnum Dragon Hearts Beat Congratulations!!!
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| June 7 , 2008 - Rio Tinto Alcan Regatta |
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Alcan Regatta Dinner date: Saturday, June 7, 2008 @ 7:30pm If interested, please e-mail Lillian at and note in the subject line: "Alcan Regatta Dinner".
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| May 24, 2008 - False Creek Women's Dragonboat Regatta |
Queen of Hearts Thanks to everyone who participated. Special thanks to Klement (for coaching), Tamyrn (for leading and organizing as captain, and for the hedgehog chocolates), Brian (for steering) and JOHN (for everything!).
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| June 8, 2008 - Scotiabank Wheel Chair Challenge |
Hello everyone, On April 29, 2007 my 20 year old niece Taryn was in a serious car accident...breaking her neck in 3 places and her back in 6 places. As a result, she is paralyzed from the chest down. A spinal cord injury can happen in a moment, but it can change lives forever. Last year was the first time I participated in the Rick Hansen Wheels In Motion Event. It was a meaningful and fun experience. This year I am volunteering for Wheels In Motion. My commitment to this event is to help recruit 50 teams to participate in the SCOTIABANK WHEELCHAIR CHALLENGE that happens during the Wheels In Motion event. Perhaps you can challenge your teammates, competitors or friends! So what is the SCOTIABANK WHEELCHAIR CHALLENGE? Well, it's a fun and exciting experience where teams compete in a relay and gain a better understanding of issues that people living with a spinal cord injury face in their day-to-day lives. Teams race against the clock through an obstacle course and test their dexterity, manoeuvring techniques, hockey skills and painting abilities. The fastest team wins. Sound easy? Perhaps not…you will have to do all this in a wheelchair!
So why am I telling YOU this? Money raised goes towards spinal cord research and some great programs. One program that will receive funding is an Adaptive Paddling and Canoeing program here in Vancouver. When you get involved in a Wheels In Motion event you can help create solutions for people with a spinal cord injury - solutions for someone like my niece Taryn. More information and registration can be found at www.wheelsinmotion.org. Any questions? PLEASE feel free to email me at or call Alexis at the phone number below.
Come out and enjoy the festivities, once the event is over you can spend the day in Playland! THANK YOU for your support! |
| Steering Accreditation Sessions |
Date: Saturday, May 10th, 1:00pm |
| Recruiting paddlers for the Queen of Hearts: Women's team for the FCRCC Regatta |
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| January 20, 2008 - Dragon Hearts Annual Meeting |
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Topics covered: (for contact information, please email ) 1. Welcome new and returning paddlers
4. How to book seats
5. First Practice
6. Paddling technical stuff
7. Membership (Pay by cash or cheque - payable to "Dragon Hearts")
9. Fundraising ideas (please contact Marjorie)
10. Cross training
12. Stress on attendance
16. Team name - and the winner is...
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| Dragon Hearts Fundraiser #2 [2007] |
| Host: Dragon Hearts Team
Magnum
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| DB Racing Club Annual Dinner: [2007] |
Host: Annual Dinner Crew (Audrey,
Tiffany, Lillian) |
| October 7th - "It's in you to give - Donate with Hearts" [2007] |
Successful event! Thanks for
coming Remus, Linus, Henry, Lillian.. and people from other
organization... Such meaningful event today. Good job donors! 2 first time donor and 2 returning donors from Dragon Hearts, and 8 other donors from organization call LYK and Lill's highschool buddies attended this outting. Congratulations, donors. you donated 500 ml + of blood today. Sunday was suposed to be a slow day for the Oak Street clinic. Donors usually come during Saturday or Friday. This Sunday was unusually lively because we had 11 donors at the clinic making noise and filming videos. 4 donors with full stomach arrived at the CBS at about 1:30pm. We were so ahead of schedule. Donors parked their cars and signed up with the front desk right away. Each had a pamphlet in their hand while going to the first testing stage - test iron by nurse. Nurse pokie pokie our finger and took a bit of blood to put in the blue solution. Each of us passed the iron test. Good job. Off to the next stage.. questionaries... Linus had a good laugh on some of the "serious" questions. Next stage in screening is the "screening/interview with a R.N." There was a bit of wait there. Only one R.N. interviewed us.. so a lot of us had to wait for their turn.. Some watched Batman (cartoon) while waiting and some started on donating already. I was busy filming the donors. LOL! Fun stuff! All donors were so brave especially Remus. He even looked at the whole procedure!! Hardly anyone dare to look at it for the first time! While we were filimg him, he did the CBS slogan "18882Donate, It's in you to give" The nurses beside him burst in laughter. I asked the nurse if they can pose for the frame while saying that slogan. But they went "NOooooo way! -_-" Noooo~~" Awww come on~ it'll be cool. I guess they knew I was going to put the video on youtube... lol. Donors, do you have something to say about this event? Feel free to sign our guestbook What's next on the CBS agenda is to have your blood tested. The small pouch they took before the 500 ml has put in 6 test tubes for testing. In two business days, your test result will come in (may take longer). You will receive a donor card or a report. Technicaly, if you don't receive it in 3 weeks, call 1-888-2-donate to check. "It's in you to give" - Donation with Hearts: Host: Dragon Hearts
(LK) |
| On Going upto October - Grouse Grind [2007] |
Host: Hooked On Doing the Grouse Grind - Nature's Own
Stairmaster (facebook group) NOTE: Sky gets dark early. Tuesday Grouse Grind....is postponed till further notice :) Thank you for participating. |
| September 15 & 16, 2007- Kelowna Dragon Boat Festival |
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Congratulations to DH Team they advanced to the 4th place of the Gold Division...two divisions up from the Emerald Division last year. The KDBF had to cancel the final race due to the high wind. We had to accept the race results from the semi-final and that was 4th place. We still feel that we are winners as we beat ourselves from last year. TEAM WORK is so important in the team and I THANK YOU ALL for being on time, cooperative, and for participating. Special thanks to ... If we have practices open for the rest of the 2007, you will see my e-mail. Otherwise, see you all next season. For result please click here For photos/videos please go to:
Photo (top): Dragon Hearts at KDBF ; Photo (bottom): Way and John at the BBQ -- Courtesy of Tiffany |
| September 1 & 2, 2007- Taiwanese Festival |
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First of all, congratulations to Dragon Hearts MAGNUM! As for team Dragon Hearts, bravo on team work! For result please click here For photos/videos please go to:
Photo above: Coach Kevin and Sophia |
| July to August - Robson Square Summer Dance Series |
(Dance- Latin/Ballroom dance) Fee: Free (half hour lesson) Message from Jia:
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| August 18th - Casual Movie Day: Rush Hours 3 (Animation/Comedy) |
Successful event! Thanks for coming
Leanne, Fred, David, and
Roy Synopsis: Watch Rush Hours 3 Trailer (on youtube) Date: August
18 (Saturday)
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| August 18th - Casual Movie Day: Simpsons (Animation/Comedy) |
Successful event! Thanks for coming
Leanne, Fred, David, and
Roy Date: August
18 (SATURDAY)
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| July 28th, 2007 - Garage Sale(3) : For Dragon Hearts @ Holdom St - (Comedy/Animation) |
Successful event! Thanks for coming
Sunny, Swin, John, Lil, Henry, Lena, Martin and Fred, Doris, Marj,
Marga. Thanks,Marjorie for donating all those things to the
team for fundraising! Thank
you~ When: July 28th Marjorie says: "Our Garage Sale was a great success on Saturday!! Thank you to the following paddlers for supporting this fund raising event for our Dragon Hearts Team. Our fund raising team consisted of John, Lillian, Marga, Henry, Martin, Lena, Sunny, Swin and Marjorie. (Also, Fred and Marga for donating some items). We have some terrific sellers on our team - WE MADE $600.00 WHICH WE WOULD BANK FOR OUR DRAGON HEARTS 2008 TEAM! THANK YOU TEAM!! WE COULD NOT HAVE DONE IT WITHOUT YOU!"
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| July 16rd, 2007 - Movie Day (3) : Ratatouille - (Comedy/Animation) |
Successful event! Thanks for coming
Leanne, Fred, David, and
Roy Date: July 16th Monday
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| July 14rd, 2007 - Movie Day (2) : Evan Almighty - (Comedy) |
Successful event! Thanks for coming
Leanne, Fred, David, and
Roy "His name is Evan Baxter, but now he goes by new york's Noah - Heaven's Evan - 'The weirdo with a beardo'" Source:Watch Trailer (on youtube) Showtime: 07:30pm (96 minutes)
and we'll meet at 07:15pm :)
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| July 3rd, 2007 - Movie Day (1) : Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer - (Action) |
Successful event! Thanks for coming
y'all! Date: July 3rd 2007 Tuesday Evening Should you have interest in participating in this event, please contact Lill.
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| June 23rd, 2007 - Movie Day: Pirates of the Caribbean 3 |
Successful event~ Thank you for coming~ How was the movie for you? Start discussion / GuestbookDate: Saturday, June 23rd
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| June 15/07 - Old Spaghetti Factory Dinner |
(Successful event! Thx for coming) "Old Spaghetti Factory 06-14-07" and "Pasta!!!" Date: Friday, June 15th (day before our big race) Please confirm attendance with Marjorie. |
| June 3, 2006 - Alcan Regatta |
3rd row: Audrey, Berry, Jia 2nd row: Leanne, Jess, Marjorie, Swin, Way, Coach Kevin, Ed front: Liz, Lil, Lena, Rheanna, Rebecca |
| June 16 & 17, 2006 - Alcan Dragon Boat Festival - "CCPC Go! GoOO Dragon Hearts!" |
back: Sally, Tracy, Marga the Caller, Calvin, Martin, half of Alan, Manager Ming |
In order to advance to the final round, the teams must be in the top two in their heat. The Breakers were placed in Division D and finished in 4th place. John mentioned that there was a breakdown in timing on the boat which slowed them down...plus the Breakers couldn’t stay away from the food (which added weight?)…who can blame them? Next time, everyone should just bring cheese & crackers for the potluck.
...those food preparation helpers who cut up foods in fair portions and marinated in appropriate time.
