During the week before Alcan, the False Creek High Performance (FCHP) program received an invitation to race in the 35th Annual Hong Kong International Dragon Boat Festival. The festival will be held July 23-25 in East Tsim Sha Tsui on the Kowloon side of Victoria Harbour. After several surveys and a ton of additional work by Kam to ping interest from paddlers, we had enough to build not one but two FCHP crews (mixed and women's) so we gladly accepted the invitation to go and race. In total, 33 paddlers from the FCHP program will be heading to race in Hong Kong.
Besides having the opportunity to race in the country from where the sport of dragon boating originated, I'm really excited to race with Catherine and Graham again, who are flying in from Sweden, as well as Jason Au, who will join us before heading off to Macau for the World Club Crews. We also have Vince Kleiss from Sudden Impact, Jim Nosella and Sean Franklin (kayakers), Alan Li from Toronto and Casey Mcdonald from Calgary rounding out our crews.
Amidst a ton of e-mails flying back and forth about flight reservations, rooming, jerseys and general Hong Kong logistics, we squeezed in three practices before we left. We worked on blend in the boat and getting used to paddling in rough water conditions, which we simulated by having a coach boat drive in circles around us as we did pieces. I have to admit that I was not a happy camper after these practices because of the buckets of water pouring onto my lap during the pieces. I was crawling out of the boat at the end of practice looking like a drowned rat!
In addition, we also worked on our race plan. One of the daunting things about racing in Hong Kong (besides the impending dread of having to paddle in poo water, which shouldn't really be that bad since we paddle in False Creek) is that the race course is 640 m long (approximately 2:40 in length). We've broken down our race into thirds with breakthrough calls at the 220 m and 440 m mark and managed to practice a few during our last practice on Thursday.
Tonight, some of the team are flying to Hong Kong with the majority of the rest of the team flying out tomorrow night. We will be staying at the Panda Hotel is Tsuen Wan, which is close to the New Territories. Our sponsors are generously covering our hotel and food expenses plus our registration fees to race and we're responsible for covering our transportation costs.
Leah took some photos of everyone at the airport right now. It looks like Kei and Kiran are already up to no good!
The Troublemakers - Kei and Kiran
Erica
Jamie and Kam
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