I do have to say that the mini break was good. What have I’ve been doing for the last 26 days? Well I’ve been dealing with dragonboat related stuff off and on the water, since our racing season has began, we are on the water more. I’m also working on my clubs website and working on H2oGeeks behind the scenes stuff (finding a sponsor or two, team uniforms, paying for boat rental and the two regattas out of my own pocket) which I want to have all set in place before the 1st practice which is in a few weeks. :zoned: So by the time I started thinking that I need to write a post on PGN (this site) I just was to tired to type something out. Though I did have a few things to write about but to late now.

How was everyone’s long weekend? I personally didn’t do much this year but relaxed and went to my two practices though I didn’t have to work yesterday so I got an extra day off. YAY!!! Though I did call in to check my voicemail at work so I wouldn’t have a huge number today.. Speaking of work, I should head into the office for a bit. I’d personally would love to work from home more (and work in my pj’s) but we aren’t allowed.

Have a great Wednesday!

Comment for a Cause (C4AC) is back for it’s 3rd year. C4AC is my way to raises funds & awareness. This year I’ve picked Right to Play as my charity of choice. Each comment this site gets equals $1 that I will be donating at the end of the month.. Don’t forget to keep up to date by subscribing to my rss feed

I love dragonboating in Vancouver because of the amazing view of the city and mountains in the backdrop.

* Picture was taken by Aidan at a H2oGeek practice last year.

Comment for a Cause (C4AC) is back for it’s 3rd year. C4AC is my way to raises funds & awareness. This year I’ve picked Right to Play as my charity of choice. Each comment this site gets equals $1 that I will be donating at the end of the month.. Don’t forget to keep up to date by subscribing to my rss feed

Today was an awesome day, Karen and I had a mid afternoon exec meeting for #H2OGeeks which is our twitter/social media Dragon Boat team (which I formed last year). Both of us can’t wait for this up and coming season as we are taking part in two regattas this summer and have 3/4 of the team from last year returning.

I’m still in aw that this team kicked butt last year at Paddle for Kids, here I thought we’d be ranked in the lower bunch but to my surprise we placed 7th overall out of 24 teams and some of them were real dragon boat teams that practice all year long. I wonder what this season has in store for us.

If you are from the Vancouver (BC) area and are interested in trying out dragon boating or wanting to join us please let me know asap as spots are filling up fast

Speaking about twitter and dragon boating, two Florida dragonboaters (who twitter) have put a team together of dragonboaters (who are active on twitter) for a festival happening next month, they are calling themselves Tweam Dragon Boat Team. It would be cool to take part in this dragonboat “tweet up” if you want to call it that but couldn’t get time off work. Hope those who take part have an awesome time!

BC Childrens 11th Annual Paddle for Kids charity event happened on Sunday, 30 teams registered though only 24 teams took part in the event. The weather was nice, wasn’t to hot out either. H2O Geeks raised over $3441 dollars in 7 short weeks and were ranked in 6th spot as of Friday afternoon for most fund-raised, which is not bad if you ask me. In the end Paddle for Kids raised over $95,681 dollars that’s over half a million dollars for BC Childrens hospital in Paddle for kids lifespan.

Our team H2O Geeks could have arrived on site on Sunday never having a chance to be in a dragon boat and then race, for me that was not an option, I wanted this team to be on the water as much as possible, for one get use to the boats and to learn the stroke. Like the old saying goes “practice makes perfect”. All summer long we never had a chance to paddle with a full boat (of 20 paddlers) until race day. It was a great experiences for all.

Some might have called this a “Tweet Up” on water, for me it was a way for Vancouverites who are also in the Vancouver Twitter Community to get together in a non bar setting and to meet people you wouldn’t normally meet at one of those functions and of course give back to our local community. We all know of someone who’s has been in a childrens hospital for one reason or another.

A video of our last race of the day: (I’ll youtube it later) We are in lane 3

We took part in 6 events though out the day, four of them being replay races (on land) and two races on the water. The water races consisted of doing an X obstacle course then line up the boat again and we do a spirit back to the start line. Our afternoon race was a lot better then the morning one (normally afternoon races are better then the morning), we just got more focused and kicked butt placing 7th overall. We stunk doing the relay races but we didn’t care, we were just having fun.

@paddlinggeek, @susanmain, @daydreamz @adeline604, (@bcchf came to support us) @winebard, @jonjennings and @skop
missing from picture: @juicybags, @erinlouise, @joshlavoie

I think Jon said it the best, next year we will have two boats of twitters. So Vancouverites you got two choices either join our team OR support our cause.

The racing was great on Saturday I raced in 3 of our 4 races and I only raced in 2 of the ladies races which was fine for me didn’t want to over do it on a hot day. As we were warming up for our last race of the day the heavens decided to open by the time we were about to start our race the thunder and lighting started so the event organizers canceled the rest of the regatta. I think this is the 2nd regatta that got cancel half way though due to mother nature (the 1st one was two years ago where the wind was nasty and the white caps looked like we were in Hawaii)

In the end 4 heats of 4 boats (so 20 teams.. one of them being our A boat) each did not get a chance to race in the finals. Instead we all have an interesting story to tell as we got to see it before the rest of the lower-mainland did.

This wasn’t a normal thunderstorm either it was a sun storm, the lighting went from cloud to cloud mostly. When I got home I looked outside at the power lines near the house and noticed lighting hitting the same rod more then once. I was surprised that Vancouver still held their annual summer fireworks display.

While the fireworks were going on, I was hanging out with Gary, Rainer until 2:30 in the morning as they took part in the Blogathon.

So now I can say I’ve paddled in a thunderstorm/sun storm, hail (x4), white caps/nasty wind, snow(x3), smoke haze (there was a fire near by), fog, on the hottest day of the summer (outrigger in the morning and then went out again with #H2OGeeks), rain that felt like rhinos and elephants.

Heres a great youtube video of how the day went from nice to amazing/crazy

Paddle update: Still no paddle but the local rep’s mouth dropped when he saw the paddle in half.

Right now #H2OGeeks is ranked 2nd in fund-raising and I’m proud of the team and all their effects. Pads on the back forever one. If you’d like to help support us you please feel free to support me or if you have more then one friend who’s on this team you can donate straight to the team instead. Tax receipts are given to those who donate $20 or more.

I might do some more Dragon Boating Intro for Vancouver techies /anyone starting next spring if anyone would be interested. Please let me know.. It is afterall my dream job to be on the water all (err most of the day) teaching people how to dragon boat and work as one team .. not a bunch of people in a big long boat.

Yesterday at #H2OGeeks practice my brother borrowed my paddle so he could and 6 others could grab the boat and paddle it back to the dock. Well, he came to the dock and was scared shit-less that I was gonna kill him for breaking it. I’m upset and mad but what more can you do? Over the years I’ve seen and heard about carbon fiber paddles breaking somewhere on the shaft and now I have to find myself another paddle and fast (the 3 semi retired paddles I own aren’t at the length I need) as I’m racing this Saturday.

Earlier in the season I thought about getting a new paddle in September when the season ends at the length I’ve been getting use to and a better T-grip.. It just sucks that carbon fiber paddles are anywhere from $200-300 bucks and its money that I just don’t have lying around to spend at the moment.