Stephen, Lily & Zoe: Defense Lake Attack 2008

Referring to our earlier post, both Lily and myself are keen dragon boaters. After much practice every Saturday morning, last Sunday we put our stamina to test. There was a charity event, Defense Lake Attack 2008 hosted by the Australian Defence Force, held at the Albert Park. The team we are in, i.e. Chinese Youth Society of Melbourne (CYSM) joined other teams to compete at this event.

We got there nice and early, got ourselves settled in, all pumped up ready for the race (280 meters long). The race goes by point systems, first place 3 points, second place 2 points and third place 1 point. The top three teams that got the most points proceed for the grand final race.

Moved the boat into the water to start our warm up and getting ourselves use to it. This is not the usual one that we train on every week. Apparently, it is too risky to bring our usual boat from Docklands (where we train every week) to Albert Park. Each boat costs around $10,000? Any damage or scratches is going to be very costly. So, we had to make use of the boats that is already at Albert Park. It's ok since this race is just for charity. The important ones are usually held at Docklands, so thats ok.

Lily getting some motivational support from Hennley.

Both of us before the race starts. All dry, filled with energy and ready to go!

Got into the boat and started doing our warm up.

Then our captain made some changes to our seating and moved my partner and myself up to the front to make the boat more balance. It was heavier at the back, I think. After some warm up and got used to the boat, it was time for us to have our first race. We paddled to the start line and align ourselves with the other boats.

We were in ready position for our first race dragon boat race.

We didn't do too well in this race. Our timing is off, we should be paddling at the same time, which we didn't. We won the race though, but the margin wasn't huge. Got back on shore and receiving some improvement points from the captain.

Then our second race got much better, our timing was much better and everyone was paddling around the same time. This time around, we were racing the navy. Yes! It was a tough second race. We came in second in this round. Got back on shore and had some improvement points from the captain once again.

We won the first round and came in second in the second round. We were in the top 3 teams! Navy was obviously in there as well. Our grand final race photos as below.

Once again, we lost to the Navy but we came in second in the final race. :D That was a good result. We did well. It certainly was a good experience for newbies like myself to have a taste of an actual race. I am already looking forward to a more competitive race in December.