Happy 2012! To kick-off the season, we got our board together and came up with some great ideas for the upcoming year.

1. We’re starting a membership incentive program, Adopt-a-Newbie. The more new members you bring in, the more raffle tickets you get for a big end-of-the-year prize! For each full-time membership signed, you get two raffles. For each 6-month membership, one raffle. We hope this fun little race will amp up membership! And everyone knows our team loves to compete.

2. Our kick-off party for the year will be Saturday, February 3 (location TBA).

3. Pay your membership dues! Deadline for the yearly fee of $75 will be pushed back until February 3 (at the kick-off party). After that, dues till be $90. You can also pay online!

4. Practice at 9am, Saturday! The weather is predicted to be beautiful, clear and 72. Bring a friend and enjoy the sunshine!

5. A big welcome to our new board members: Nhut (Race Coordinator), Steve (Treasurer) and JoJo (Co-Social).

2012 will be a fabulous winning year. Let’s go, Coolers!

2011 is rounding out, so what better way to celebrate but our annual end-of-the-year potluck? Our team gathered at Drill Sergeant Patrick’s house to fill our stomachs, give out awards and trade presents for white elephant.

Of course, we had to award those members that really stood out. After official stats and/or team votes:

• Best Attendance (Austn): Kenny Chan
• Best Attendance (Houston): JoJo Tingsanchali, Hong Hua, Steve Dale
• Best Attendance (overall): James Peterson
• Team Spirit: Sheen Chang
• Whiniest: Eddie Hwang
• Most Intense Paddler: George Luc
• Biggest Clown: JoJo Tingsanchali

There are many things to be happy about from 2011:

• Although we had a rough start in the Austin race, we capped our five race run with a hard-working beautiful win in Houston.
• We experienced new races in Shreveport and Long Beach.
• Most of the team have their own paddles now.
• We are also official owners of the boat and insured on top of that.
• Recruitment is up with a solid group of new members.

There are some silly myths floating around about dragon boat. These ideas often prevent people from joining the team and experiencing a very awesome sport!

1. You have to be Asian because Dragon Boat is an Asian sport. 

We can’t stress how wrong (and absurd) this is enough. Yes, dragon boat began in ancient China, but as the fastest growing international sport, it now involves people of every race, age and gender. If you look at any of the international teams, it’s a mixture, including the USA and Canadian teams.

And even if was seen as an “Asian” sport, who cares? Modern times, folks. Get on the boat and start paddling.

 2. Dragon boat is all upper body strength.

Negative, ghostwriter. Dragon boat is designed to work your core. If you’re using your arms, you’re doing it wrong. If your lower back burns the next day, you’re doing it right. Push off with your feet and tighten the core when tired. Big arms are great, but it won’t be the thing that sustains you on a 1000m run. And as our dear friend George said, “it gives me a nice back.”

 3. Row, row, row your boat.

Anytime a true dragon boater hears “row,” it’s like nails on chalkboard. As previously mentioned, it’s never rowing, always paddling. Rowing uses oars that sit in an oarlock; rowers sit backwards in the boat so they face the stern. Paddlers sit facing the front of the boat and use free-standing paddles while moving toward the direction of travel. So remember: hell, no, we don’t row!

4. Steering is easy.

Steering plays a big part in paddling, especially in a race. Who else is going to keep 20 paddlers and a 40ft boat in a straight line? If the steerer falls in (which we’ve experienced) or loses control, the boat veers. If you’re going into a cluster, steering well is the only way you’re going to get out.

Look at those game faces!

To finish off our celebration, I gathered some thoughts about the races! Check out the fun recap below from our coaches, captains and a few members:

Day 1, Part 1: 400m + 1000m

Day 1, Part 2: 400m + 400m final

Day 2, Part 1: 250m + BCS

Day 2, Part 2: 1000m final

Also, check out the photos on our Facebook page from the race!

Thanks again for coming on this ride. We’re so very proud of our team!

Sunday morning proves to be challenging because of the mosquitoes. They’re so big that we can see them flying lazingly towards us. It’s damp and humid under the tent; there are also red ant piles everywhere. We have to ignore the itching and focus! Anything could go wrong today and our lead could slip away in a blink.

Kyle
Day 2, at the captains meeting, they changed the 1000m to the end of the day (instead of after the 1st heat like day 1) and warned us that it would be back to back with the 250m finals.

250m

250m has never traditionally been our strength. We’ve always been a distance team, but we can only race our best race and hope that even if we lose this one, we’ll have enough buffer from the day before and hopefully the finally 1000m to win.

Sheena
Slight separation anxiety, but knew the team was in good hands. Best time of the day! No one — not even ourselves — came close to this time for the rest of the day. Team looks great on the water.

Kyle
The pace felt too fast and a little bit off sync but we got a 1:07? How’d that happen? Either way, with HH only posting a 1:10, Sheena and I agreed that we’d “take it easy” or as Sheena put it, “not kill ourselves” for the 2nd heat and really focus on stroke rate and timing.

Kenny
First race of the day and we got off to a rocky start. Exmar was in lane 3 and I got thrown off by their counting so I almost stopped counting altogether! I could feel the back and the front fighting on that first power call but after that the boat really started to feel good. The best balance of power and sync on both sides from the two race runs I steered. We appeared to fade a little at the end but overall, I thought it was a good run and it ended up being our best run of the day!

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250m second

After the slightly shaky first 250 (despite posting a great time), we go into this thinking about sync and focusing rather than speed. Since we’re sitting in a slightly comfortable spot with some tie-breaker buffers, we can breathe on this one.

Kyle
We did everything we said we were gonna do. Race felt good but we only posted a 1:11. Some members seemed worried. I didn’t think there would be that big of a drop off either, but I chalked it up to different weather conditions plus most people only going about 90% (kinda makes sense since 4sec is a 13% slower time assuming a direct correlation between power vs race time [narrator: Well, we're nothing but nerds here]). Plus we were still barely 1 sec behind HH’s time of 1:10 again and I knew that rest would be needed with the 250m finals and 1000m race being back to back.

Sheena
With finals and 1000m coming up at the end of the day and still a fairly comfortable lead… we can maybe afford to take it a bit easier on this one to save energy for back to back finals. I hate the words “take it easy” for a race, so Kyle and I decided “don’t kill yourselves” was a good enough alternative.

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BCS ceremony:

Houston Heat joined the breast cancer survivor teams on the water in remembrance of Papa Gee. For the few of us that had the pleasure of meeting and interacting with him, we were proud to watch Jeff and all the teams out there on the water. Dragon boat, at the heart, is about community coming together and this ceremony means something to everyone who has been touched with cancer.

Sheena
Papa Gee — our win this weekend was as much for you as it was for anyone else. I can honestly say that without Houston Heat, our team would be nowhere near where we are today, and you represent everything this sport should be about, camaraderie and support for both your own team and your competitors. I find myself incredibly lucky to have known you.

Breast Cancer Survivor Cermony

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250m FINALS

Racing against the HH in 250m always proves to be very exciting, especially since heats can come under a minute on a good day. Like any final, this is chaotic at the start and we know we’ll have to really push it to beat them at their best distance.

Jim
I have never felt the speed with had on the boat for the last 24 strokes. Trying to get water resistance with each stroke and there just was not as much as normal. We were really flying…

Kenny
I sat this one out and my view was from the finish line throughout the entire race. We came out a bit flat but it looked close throughout, especially with lane 1 charging down the second half. As we have come to expect, our power really comes at the end and I was hoping there was enough course left for us to push ahead. There wasn’t a lack of drama for the finish as it reminded me of Michael Phelps’ last second half stroke to win gold in the 2008 Olympics. At the finish, I had a gut feeling that we had squeaked out the victory but honestly nobody knew. I managed to take a peek over the judge’s shoulders and all the pictures showed Austin Coolers ahead but I couldn’t hear what anyone was saying (narrator: way to not tell us this, Kenny! Also, I wish they would post these HD photo finishes). One judge eventually mouthed the words “you got this” and I thought two things: 1) We won the overall championship! 2) We have to sweep it all and win the 1000 m.

Kyle
I really wanted to just give HH the defeating blow and possibly even go for the sweep. I knew it would be a tight race. It was even tighter than i expected from all the teams that were in the race. When we finished, I really thought we lost by a hair and I started thinking about the 1000m coming right up and hoped that nothing would go wrong. It was even a bit more stressful that they were gonna race the slower boats in front of us to give a more “exciting” race.

Sheena
4 boat heat, so we’ll be closer to all boats. Houston Heat Orange right beside us again with Exmar on the other side and Houston Heat Yellow to the right. All boats are powerful during this heat and essentially all cross the finish line at the same time. I looked up after the let it run call and nobody knew who won it.

Onto Part 2, the exciting 1000m!

1000m 

Right after the 250m, there’s yelling on shore that the 1000m will happen right after. If we hadn’t told them we had to swap people out, there would have been no rest. The team chugs water and gets about ten minutes to breathe before hopping back on the boat. This is the final race and the one that could throw everything into a loop. As mentioned, we have been cursed by the 1000m for years. Like the day before, there will be six boats with 15 second staggered starts. We’re last.There’s a little mayhem trying to get all the boats in line and we have to paddle under the low-hanging bridge, turn around and come back.

Jim
Pretty bummed upon hearing that they arranged the boats to be released slowest to fastest. That would definitely cause congestion on the course two U-turns. What are they thinking? We all recall the first year where we tried to pass on the turn what happened. Well… being released last was not so bad with Sheena at the helm dodging the other boats.

Sheena
Even more nervous going into this race than the 1000 from the day before. A LOT more riding on this than yesterday. Not knowing who won the 250 finals, knowing we should be able to win even if there was a tie in the points, but also knowing if we majorly screwed up, as u-turns are prone to do, then there’s a chance that we’d come out behind too. Knowing that they purposely lined the boats up to “see some passing action” didn’t help.

Kyle
I think we were very fortunate to be able to get off the boat and rest for 10min before our 1000m race. At least for me personally, that made a huge difference. I knew our team could handle this based on our practices. What I was worried about at the time was not only having some accident with all those boats trying to pass each other and having us not be able to finish the race, but also the safety of all the racers involved.

Sheena
I’m going up against steersmen a lot more experienced than myself and trying to pass them would be hard. I know some of the team was still a bit shaken from when we hit HH in Austin in April too, so I was determined not to screw up. I wish I the head cam on for this race. Looking up to see the 5 boats in front of us after we started was really kinda cool to see.

Kyle
To me, that was a very stupid move by the race coordinators but I’ll have to admit, it was an exciting race to race in.

View from the Houston Heat's helmet cam

Joseph
After winning the 1000m by >15 secs compared to 2nd place Houston Heat – Orange, I had a huge gut feeling that our endurance was excellent. No doubt that we would win the 2nd and final 1000m race, but that was only questioned when they told us we would race last!

Sheena:
First turn: done, no problem! After the first turn we hit some head wind and the boat also bounced a bit from crossing other boats’ wakes. Then I see the 2nd turn. The 5 boats in front of us all hit that turn around the same time and were cutting each other off like crazy. We hit the turn as the last boat was about halfway through. I THINK I can cut inside. I try, but no can do!

Jim
On the second turn, I hear a sheepish voice from the back crying out for “Tina Hold, Tina Hold”. It was Sheena not in her “normal killer” voice, but the “we are going to T-bone that boat” voice.

Sheena
“tinaholdtinaholdtinaholdtinaholdtinahold”: Apparently this caused some confusion on the boat. I forgot in that moment how loud I can be and how in tune the team is to my voice. I see a dragon head in the water. “Paddle over it!” Turning crisis averted. “tinapaddletinapaddletinapaddle”

Tina
We had agreed the day before if it came down to this, she would just say “TINA” in case the rest of the boat held on habit. That’s not what happened. I shoved my paddle in right when she started yelling and was forced to lean back given the force, but she was still yelling although I was already holding! I saw a dragon head in the water and whispered to Liz, “Is that ours?!” and she looked equally baffled.

Jim
That was some fancy driving on her part to pull us out of that one. No scrapes on our head or tail.

Joseph
Very surprising concerning the circumstances and our time would be much more comparable to the 1st 1000m race it it weren’t for the floating dragon head in the water

Sheena
Home stretch. We pass up HH Yellow and some other boats that I had no idea which teams they were. Boat still going strong. HH Orange crosses finish line in front of us. We cross shortly after. “OMG I THINK WE WON THIS THING.”

Kyle
And to the race coordinators wishes, it really did provide more entertainment than our usual 1000m races and most of the boats avoided major disaster. Thank god, most of those steerers are very experienced and i gotta give a SUPER “I’m not worthy” bow down to Sheena for steering through that mess. Either way, when we passed the finish line without incidence, I was 99.9999% sure that we won the whole thing.

Final Thoughts

Sheena
As they were announcing points for 2nd place… 2 points in 500m Saturday (WE WON THIS!), 2 points in 1000m Saturday, 2 points in 250m today (OMG!), 2 points in 1000m today (OMG WE SWEPT IT ALL!), I think I teared up a bit. I’m such a crybaby today. Now for the nervously looking back every 2 seconds awaiting the inevitable cooler full of ice water. Whatever! I don’t care… WE WON!

Kyle
This win really was three years in the making. Every year, we would be within a hair of winning but just could never get over the hump. I really think this win also is a redemption for all the losses we incurred earlier this year, starting from Austin, to Dallas, to Long Beach to Shreveport (all so close but no cigar). I’m very proud of the progress we made since the beginning of this year when we introduced the new stroke and all the suggestions from all the team members over the course of the year on how we could improve our team.

I’m very thankful and proud of all the team members for their patience in learning this new stroke and believing in the benefits it would give us. I also think this race truly reflected our motto of “If it hurts, keep paddling.” When people knew that we were doing a 250m final and then a 1000m final, there were a few groans but no real complaints. Everyone just sucked it up and did what we do best: paddle. Dragonboating is the ultimate team sport. The team dynamics were amazing this race with everyone encouraging/supporting everyone. This definitely is a defining moment for our team and I’m already looking forward to all the good things for us that will come in the following years. Thanks to all of you for all the hard work this year and being part of this team!

#Winning

For the ten or so of us that have been on this team since the beginning/2008 and were here for this first race, this win means the world to us. When re-watching our videos from that year, we’re so proud and excited about how far we and this team have come! 

Back to the beginning!

400m, Second Round

Coach Sheena finally gets to paddle with us as Captain Kenny is going to steer his first ever race. Fingers crossed the Austin race incident of 2009 when Bruce fell in doesn’t happen here.

Kenny, Captain
First time steering in a race! We won this one pretty easily so I only remember a few things. First off, I didn’t want anyone to complain they couldn’t hear me so I really took in some deep breaths and yelled out the calls. Second, the left side was incredibly strong on this run. Third, how great it felt to not fall off the boat the first time steering. And finally… how much more intensity we bring on a race compared to practice!

Kyle
I also paddled the 3rd heat which was back to a 500m race. That one kinda went by in a blur cause I was still kinda amazed on how  much faster we were in the 1000m. We posted almost identical times. 1:50 some again (maybe about 0.5 seconds slower than the first run) against HH’s 1:52 again. Either way, at this point, I knew our team was for real and I could sense some worry in the HH team.

Sheena
Yay paddling! Figured out two things I can do to make Kenny louder: 1. get him drunk 2. make him steer a dragon boat race. Proud of him for steering his first race run flawlessly. Paddling felt good, but it’s impossible to compare w/ first heat since paddling and steering are such different points of view. Glad I didn’t slow down the boat too much!

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400m Final

Well, this is it: the one that really matters; the other two were great and would give us advantage in a tie-breaker, but this is the one that really counts (another point in the standings). We’re going up against both Houston’s teams; we’ll be sandwiched in the middle. It’s going to be loud and chaotic and down to the last millisecond at the finish line.

Kyle
The finals for 400m was a tight one. I think our team hurried it a bit with HH right beside us. Thankfully, HH also panicked a bit and lost sync at the end which proved to be enough of a difference for a 0.3 second win for us. The trophy was within reaching distance! We really just had to win the 250m or the 1000m on day 2 to secure the win or if we just got 2nd in both, we’d still own the tie breaker. However, I was still being very cautious of night being over confident since we were basically just at half time.

Sheena
Knew this would become a shouting contest b/t me and Jeff. Knew this was going to be close. Had no idea who had the lead crossing the finish line, but those are always the best types of races!

We end the day sitting in 1st place, having won all the heats that day. Relief, exhaustion and happiness flood us as we have a giant team dinner in Chinatown. Those introduced to stinky tofu are not a fan. 

We takeover the restaurant and watch videos from the day. Our sync is looking perfect. No matter how many times we watch it, we still find ourselves cheering. As great as day 1 felt, we know all too well anything could happen in day 2!

Onto Day 2!

Saturday morning is a gorgeous day; not super chilly like the previous years. The team spends most the early morning gleefully spray painting each other’s hair blue and giggling like children. Our 12-year old drummer Jack is having a blast going after his parents. With our pretty new blue paddles and new paddle rope to hang them, there is excitement in the air. This is it. We can feel it. 

Kyle, Assistant Coach
So leading up to the race, I’ve been very impressed with our teams consistent race run times during practice. I knew we had a solid team but was still worried cause I had no idea how we’d stack up against the Heat. After the captain’s meeting on Sat morning, I had great concerns about the 1000m not counting towards the overall score cause I knew that would be our main advantage over HH. Good thing the race coordinator was up to changing that and the rest of the competitive teams agreed on it also.

Sheena, Coach
Crap, I need to re-do line ups again, but can worry about that later. Stupid point system that originally didn’t include the 1000s. Petitioned all teams doing these and we all agreed we want to make them count. We don’t wanna waste precious energy doing races that don’t count!

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400m, First Round

Chen, Pacer
My heart was pounding in my chest.  Here I was, in the home turf of our rivals, pacing for the first heat of the regatta that would determine who would have bragging rights for the next year. I tried all of the tranquility tricks I could think of: focusing on one point, breathing deep, counting, positive thoughts. None of it was working. Then we boarded the boat and started paddling to the start line. I felt my new paddle slide through the water effortlessly and as familiarity set in, I began to feel a little bit of calm.

As the buzzer sounded, all of the distractions, nerves and cluttered thoughts melted away. I focused on feeling the pace, the water and listening to the calls. We quickly lose the other teams next to us and it’s just us and the finish line.

Kyle
Watching from the sidelines, we looked good but with no other boat around us, I was still unsure of where we stood. I remember catching a glimpse of the HH orange team when we were loading for our 2nd heat and thought to myself that they looked faster. However, just like most of the team, I was really surprised with our race time of 1:50 compared with 1:52 of HH’s time. At that point, I started thinking to myself, “Ok, I think we really got a shot this year, or is HH just taking it easy?

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1000m, First Round

If we win this, we get one point (least amount of points win). For those that don’t know, this race has cursed us in 2008 and 2009. And now, we have to do TWO of these? Here we go…

Steve
The 1000m on Saturday was my race to sit out, and so I watched and was amazed at how well Sheena steered through the turns, but what stuck me most was how all those long hard practices really paid off as the boat powered to the finish line.

Kyle
Our 1000m run felt AMAZING. Props to our beautiful pacers who maintained a clock work like pace that was both efficient and powerful for the whole boat. We were just gliding through that water with each powerful stroke. Our times reflected this, posting a 15 sec advantage over the Heat. At this point, I started feeling extremely confident about our chances of winning it all. I knew in an event of a tie in points (which was highly likely), they would combine the times for all the races and use that as a tie breaker. With us being 3+15seconds faster after only the 2nd heat was HUGE!

Sheena
Super nervous going into this race; a lot riding on the steerer to turn well, can’t let the team down! That start came FAST — faster than usual, but the team did great in being prepared and I don’t think anyone missed the first stroke. First turn ended up being super wide, but from that I learned a bit more what I can do w/ steering and was able to turn tighter on the 2nd turn. So so proud of the team for being able to do 3 race starts, 4 power calls, AND a finish call!

Onto part 2 of Saturday!

#WINNING!

As mentioned before, the October Regatta is dear to our hearts as it was our first race as a team in October 2008. After 3 years on coming so closely and losing by a few milliseconds of the cursed 1000m, we were determined to win it this year. Something gelled this time; whether it was mental, physical, team chemistry or all of the above, it worked and we FINALLY WON FIRST PLACE! Stay tuned in the next few days from blog (from various members’ views) for the fun and exciting details!

Click for videos below:

1. 400m 1:50.20
2. 400m 1:50.89
3. 400m Final 1:49.37 (.27 win!)

1. 250m 1:07.95 (best time all day!)
2. 250m 1:11.25
3. 250m Final 1:10.26 (.1 WIN!)   (see Houston Heat’s helmet cam for another version)

1. 1000m 5:44.38 (WIN!)
2. 1000m 5:45.22 (WIN!) (see Houston Heat’s helmet cam for very cool version)

This weekend, our team will be returning to our 4th attempt at the crown in Sugar Land! This race is dear to our hearts as it was our first race as a team in 2008.

In the last month, we’ve gone to 3 practices/a week, working on every little thing that can get us the advantage in a very tough field. As you can see, Houston Heat’s own Jeff G. supports the Coolers!

Join us this weekend for the end of the season! We’ll be back on the water for off-season training November 19th.

GOOOOO, COOLERS!