Summer's so close, I can taste it!!
So, this is the fault of Cranjery over on dA. He had questions about my summer obsession...
So, the questions were: You need another on the team? So what do you win? Do you name your boats? How did you get into this? Is the water cold?
First and foremost ... the water's not too cold. Unless it's raining. Or hailing. Or October. Then yes, it's DAMN cold. But the law of being addicted to a water sport in a city like Edmonton, Alberta, Canada is, 'If it ain't frozen, you can paddle in it.'
And yes, we always need more men. *sigh* For some reason, in Edmonton, there are waa-aay more women who dragonboat. Guys, if you want to see two dozen women fight over you, ask a couple teams who needs an extra Y chromosome. (Teams need a minimum of 8 men to qualify as a 'mixed' team.)
Tom and I started dragonboating six years ago, when his co-worker coerced him into joining their team. We've paddle with three other teams since then, coached and steered for a half-dozen more. It's the only sport we could do together, what with his athletic jogging self, and my wide self. There are teams made of entirely of paddlers who are blind, paddlers who've had organ transplants, paddlers who've survived breast cancer. Anyone can do this. At the same time, if you're a hard-core competative type, you can push yourself as hard as you want to.
We don't name the boats, just our teams. That's the fun part. Hehehehe...teams Tom and I have paddled with include Platinum Rats, Waitaniwah, Fighting Dragons and Ship Happens. Other team names here in Edmonton include Uncivil Serpents (government team), Dragon Ass (shipping company) and Cramping Tigers, Hurting Dragons (LAWLZ).
We practice twice a week with our team, and are out 5 or 6 times more with the teams we coach. We've been to festivals in Calgary, Saskatchewa, even San Francisco. We are what is known as "paddle whores." If a team needs a pair of arms, we're in!
Dragonboating is all about timing - getting 20 paddlers to move and pull at the same moment with the same rhythm. It's actually very zen during the hour and a half long practices. The festivals, on the other hand, are pure adrenaline. So, yeah, winning ... *chuckle* We've got a few medals here and there, a trophy or two. And even though we have a stack of golds, our favourite is undoubtably the bronze we picked up in Calgary in the competative 'A' division - because we weren't expected to even qualify, let alone place. And...it was Calgary..hehehe
