Victoria Festival - Pearl Final

It was that close. Secrets in Boat 4. Thanks to Trish and Trish's friends for these shots.

We were steady in the heats, and the heats were our first taste of racing as a team outside the relatively calm waters of the Selkirk water and the Gorge. The team handled the boat well on the start line. We didn't have any episodes on the line or during the race as some boats did.

We were strong in the semifinals and the final. We led the final into the finish and through the finish. It was a fast close race. It was just that close.

Race Day - August 9/08

Victorious paddled in the GO Center's Gorge Fun Fest on August 9, coming home with bronze medals in the Green Event.

The day started sunny, but turned to clouds and rain. The tide was running up the course, which contributed to the fast times. The event is competitive, with the majority of teams, outside the very top flight, turning in teams between 2:10 and 2:20 in their final races.

How did our day go? We have pictures. We warmed up. We marshalled, we paddled out. We raced, with good starts and powerful finishes. We took pictures on the grassy knoll in the traffic circle. Captain Nina collected the bling.

We debriefed in the bar at the GO Center, being too snobbish to sit it the beer garden in the rain with the other teams.

We were satisfied with our races. We placed in the middle of the middle. We could have done better, but we felt like we were working and moving the boat. We knew we had been in a race. We were sweaty, sore, tired and happy.

Our teammate Raymond Patts works for Canada Post, and he organized and coached a team of his co-workers in June, the First Class Dragon Boat team, which won the gold medal in the yellow event. They had some rough spots in their first race - they could have taken medals in higher divisions. It felt like he was abandoning us, but he was working on something important.

Practice Photos, July 3

Mike took pictures from the stern with Nina's camera.

Starting 2008

Loco Motion had over a dozen committed paddlers ready for 2008 which is not enough for a team. We decided to join forces with VCKC Vasuki Dragons and carry on under a new name Victorious Secret. The VCKC boats are in the water as of Sunday March 30, 10:20 AM. The practice season begins.

Paddling Clinic

On Sunday, Marie-Eve, Nina, Kandice and Tony took the 7:00 AM ferry to Vancouver to take a clinic with Kamini Jain at the False Creek Racing Canoe Club. We avoided going east of Oak Street, found Granville Island, found the Club, took the clinic and made it back home before dark.

Kamini Jain is a mature competitve athlete. She went to the Olympics for Canada as a racing kayaker and has paddled and coached the successful dragon boat teams that have raced out of FCRCC. She has been hired by several Vancouver and Fraser Valley teams as a coach, and has held many popular and well attended clinics.

She's intelligent, funny, and engaged. She combines positive criticism with positive feedback - she motivates and she holds attention.

For the False Creek clinics, she starts with a discussion of technique and moves to the water. She fills a boat with paddlers. She has a couple of her False Creek men's team members as lead strokes, caller, stern and in boat coaches. She calls some drills and she takes some video and then goes through the video. She has another team member - basically a physio - talk about warm-up, cool-down, stretches, hydration and nutrition.

This built well on what Stephen and Judy taught the novice Loco's last year. It was neat to see how some motivated and reasonably fit paddlers were able to take the lead, follow direction and get that boat moving. It was also frankly scary to see how well the elite men from False Creek could reach and catch and how well they could move a boat. It was also interesting to see how experienced paddlers from other teams assimilated her approach and compared it to what other coaches had taught them.

Kamini takes the idea of opening your body to the inside or turning to your partner on the set up and develops it into a body memory - pivot the inboard hip as if you are stepping back, catch, and then step forward with the inboard hip. Pivot or rotate from the hips, not the torso. Lots of weight on the outboard hip. Lot of motion in hips. Plant both feet on the seat or foot rail.

She emphasizes a strong lean forward, hinged on the hips, a good reach (but with a strong grip with the lower hand) a positive paddle angle going into the catch, a firm catch, a snap after the catch, straightening up, bringing the inboard hip forward, bracing the feet (to push the boat) keeping the paddle dug in. She wants to move the shoulders and rotate the body. The arms hold the body and the lower arm can bend a little, but don't let the paddle come back to the point the arm bends. When the paddle reachs midthigh and the body is square, lift the paddle with the upper hand and pivot into the next stroke by dropping the inboard hip back while driving the paddle forward, and bending into the next catch.

It all makes sense and I saw what it meant in the video. The video caught paddlers doing good and bad things. Kandice and Nina showed good form and I showed how to get in trouble by letting the blade come back too far. The video showed that experienced and semi-experienced paddlers have bad habits or lapses, and that we don't do what we thing we are doing when we paddle. Even a short period of observation can pinpoint things that can be improved.

She introduced some new drills - the push-pull, the pause, the three and three.

There were a lot of good ideas. I hope we can remember and explain them, and that the Club coaches will be interested and will use these in practice.

Getting Ready for '08

Earlier this week, Marie-Eve, Tony, Raymond, Muriel and Heather met to see about getting the team ready for spring.

We are looking at some changes. Robin said goodbye last fall. Heather says she and Ron have a busy summer, and they won't be paddling. Heather is not staying on as Treasurer. Harold is going to be paddling to Thunder Bay with Team Shawnigan and the David Thompson Brigade, May to July.

Marie-Eve has some commitments this summer. She won't be in Victoria for the Festivals in August and she doesn't want to take the responsibility of being the captain.

Tony is going to add all of the 2007 Loco's to the Loco Google group. Marie-Eve is going to push out a message and set up a meeting to discuss what the team will do this year, and how we will organize ourselves.

Signs of Spring

The VCKC Dragon Boat program is looking forward to spring. Mike Fox, the DB representative on Club Executive invited team captains and representatives to a meeting earlier this week. Marie Eve and Tony were there for Loco Motion.

Mike has arranged to have a professional repair the damage at the front of the B boat, which will cost a few hundred. When we get painting weather, he proposes a work party, with sanders and other tools, to clean up the scrapes on the bottom of the boats and to get some new paint on boat boats. The damage to A boat is going to evaluated carefully to see if it is scrape or a crack. The repair costs will be shared among the teams. The goal is to get the boats in the water by the end of March, which will call for another work party.

We had an extensive discussion of launching at low tide, navigation, and responsibility for wear and tear, maintenance and damage repair.

The other Club teams are all planning to stay together and paddle this year. The other teams have all had people dropping out over the winter, or some changes. There is a rumour that Victoria's Secret is being revived. Mike suggests that anyone eligible for, and interested in the Senior Games in Nanaimo in September should organize as a VCKC team and arrange to practice for at least a few weeks before the games.

Mike suggested that the program should adopt last year's practice schedule. This was accepted as a starting point, with some teams negotiating to trade slots.

Mike said that Lloyd has agreed to take enquiries from new paddlers and try to match new paddlers with teams.

Mike was concerned about the load on the club's accredited coaches, and we discussed how to get people to step into coaching roles. The program has funding for coaching courses.

The immediate need is for a steering clinic to share some skills in boat handling and knowledge about the Gorge, and for teams with an experienced stern to put new sterns into the boat and let them practice extensively. Steering is not as easy as it looks, and the Gorge has some hidden hazards.

Mike reported that the paddling skills clinic at False Creek last November was very useful. He asked for someone to step into the role of training officer, to make some calls to check our options to get a clinic at the club. Probably interested paddlers and teams would have to pay for the course, but it would be worth it.

Mike also reported that the Club got the club PFD's and paddles from the medical organization that sponsors Komodo, and that the club PFD's and paddles are intended for the use of the Komodo team and new paddlers, and that club members should be getting their own PFD's and paddles.