DieselFish Year Two

You have to start somewhere. Everyone on the team started out as a rookie. But, with time and practice, you get better. Here’s a conversation I had with Leo and Christie, the recipients of last season’s Rookie of the Year awards. The two looked back at their first season with DieselFish, and talked candidly about their journey and what the team means to them today.

-The Minister of Newbie Happiness

M: How did you find out about DieselFish?

L: My friend Tiffany from work invited me to try it out.

C: My friend was a friend of a friend of Head Coach Birk’s. I had always wanted to try it, so I got connected to Birk who connected me to the team. I signed up with DieselFish, and then, at my first race I realized that there were multiple teams in my area, Oakland. Birk never mentioned that there was a team so close to me. [MINISTER’S NOTE: Christie drives from OAKLAND to practice with us in REDWOOD CITY. She must really enjoy paddling with DieselFish!]

M: What do you remember about your first couple of practices with the team?

L: I remember getting burned by the sun. I was a lot paler before, I hardly had any tan.

C: I remember thinking how great the team was. They were so friendly and inclusive, and made sure that I had a good time. I paddled with the DieselFish Youth for the first several practices, so and I remember being coached by Al (who was steering the DieselFish Youth boat). I remember that I was sore for a couple of days after the practice. And then, I remember coming back from my first practice, and thinking that the people were super nice, but that I wasn’t physically cut out for the sport.

M: What things made the practices easier?

L: SUNSCREEN. At this point, I can’t get any darker...

C: I kept coming out, and each time it got a little better. I was a little less sore after each practice.

M: Why did you become a member?

L: I like chilling on the water, what could be more fun? [MINISTER’S NOTE: I think Leo’s trying sound cool and laid back here. You don’t get the Rookie of the Year award by taking it easy on the boat!] And it keeps me active rather than sleeping all day, which I do miss sometimes.

C: I tried paddling so that I could get an extra workout on the weekend. I became a DieselFish member because the team was incredibly good at recruiting.

M: Why did you come back for a second season?

L: I just wanted to keep paddling, and the practice site is conveniently located in Redwood City, close to my work and home.

C: I had to. I got voted in as the Team Manager.

M: What has changed since your first season?

L: The team’s energy increased exponentially! There are more people on the team, and everybody is on top of their game!

C: I think that the team has really developed both performance wise and as a cohesive group. We’ve got a lot of great energy amongst the paddlers, and we’ve grown our team by a lot. People are really excited about paddling, and about DieselFish, and it’s great to see that.

M: What do you like the most about paddling with DieselFish?

L: Everybody is showing a positive attitude to improve, both for the team and individually.

C: The people are what keep me coming back.

M: Way to go, Leo and Christie! You've both come a long way since your rookie days!











Hello Internet friends! Doesn’t dragon boat racing with DieselFish sound like fun? Go to http://dieselfish.org/ now to sign up for a free practice session!

Special Training with Coach Dom

DieselFish members Birk, Jarmar, Lin and my own bad self recently completed an enlightening 7.5 hour training session with Dominic Shew, a professional dragon boat coach from Vancouver.

In the days leading up the session, I worried that I wouldn’t be able to handle an entire day of drills and paddling. Now that the event is over, however, my body isn’t terribly sore, but my mind is blown! Dominic got me to think about my body mechanics in completely different way. Let’s see how much of this information I can incorporate into regular DieselFish practices.

- The Minister of Newbie Happiness

Coach Dom and Coach Birk

Jarmar takes a well-deserved break - paddling all day is hard work!

Hello Internet friends! Doesn’t dragon boat racing with DieselFish sound like fun? Go to http://dieselfish.org/ now to sign up for a free practice session!

IDBF - Thoughts From the Last Day

[Minister's note: DieselFish members Joyce Lee, Dennis Chen and Colin Morneau recently returned from the International Dragon Boat Federation World Championships with silver medals hanging from their necks. Joyce served as the manager for Team USA’s Under 23 (u23) Squad. On the last day of the race, she collected her thoughts and posted them to Facebook. Here is her first-hand account of this life-changing experience.]

IDBF - thoughts from the last day
by Joyce Lee on Sunday, August 7, 2011 at 7:42am

Today marks the last day of the International Dragon Boat Federation World Championships and the experience has been fulfilling, affirming as well as humbling.

The ‘dream’ of a USA u23 squad started when then USDBF President visited the San Francisco International Dragon Boat Festival almost one year ago. As one of the board members who help organize this event, I had the pleasure of meeting Ginny and introducing her to the large contingent of active high school and college crews in the SF-Bay Area. This was when she said the u23 team has not been formed and would like the west coast to take a stab at this project, and select from those with the desire and ability to represent from across the country.

This experience was fulfilling because despite a rough and disorganized start, we did gather a committed u23 squad to race in Tampa. We would not have fulfilled this without a group of people who genuinely cared, as well as a lot of forgiveness from paddlers and their families – and for that, I thank every single one of you.

This experience has been affirming because many things I know from club dragon boating still speak true. The importance of working as a team, both on and off water, is even more vital with the extra pressures of being away, five straight days of racing and the increased level of competition.

To be perfectly frank the Worlds is like going to a really, really big away festival. Except a zillion times bigger.

Off the water, there are race officials to keep happy, rules to abide by and be gracious enough to not get tied up in the cattiness that happens when you get a group of hyper-competitive people together. We overcame this by working as a team.

On the water, it is hard to not get carried away. I had the chance to meet a number of very experienced coaches during my time here and each has different techniques to bring out the strength of paddlers from all backgrounds. The mantra of ‘race your own race’ still applies and for that, I feel affirmed.

This has been a humbling experience because there was indeed very much we didn’t know. Having now experienced this event first hand, I know what to do better next time. I recognize our team’s results have been mixed, but can assure you everyone on the team – on and off water - tried to do what they felt was right. Humbling yes, but the truth is we wrote a new chapter in history and many in history didn’t get it right the first time either. We can and will only get better if we go out and re-write history once again.

But before we do that, let’s leave it on the water for our last showing in this regatta. Let’s go out with a bang – go USA U23!!!

Watch the World Dragon Boat Championships

You can watch DieselFish members Colin and Dennis race at the World Dragon Boat Championships live at:

http://www.livestream.com/idbfdragon

GO DIESELFISH! GO TEAM USA!

Hello Internet friends! Doesn’t dragon boat racing with DieselFish sound like fun? Go to http://dieselfish.org/ now to sign up for a free practice session!