Montreal DragonFly

Ciao!

What a crazy weekend!!!  And you know what?  I wouldn’t have changed a thing!  Great work DRAGONFLY!!!  We beat all are record times for this season at the Rawdon DB Festival…  from here, we can only get BETTER & STRONGER!  Here are our times over the weekend: 500m - 2:19:31 min, 250 m - 1:06:07 min and 500m - 2:21.41 min.  Most excellent!  I have a feeling that we’ll be going back next year…  close to Montreal…  nice small venue…  and beach to finish-off the day!  What else can-you ask for?  Oh wait…  bubbly wine for winners of the first three position in each category…  we were 3rd in division D out of F.  Bonus, we beat Jade Dragons!

And to celebrate the great season that we have up to now…  we had our annual Montreal DragonFly BBQ at Nancis’…  lots of food…  great company…  crazy laughs…  & tons of memories!  Thanks to all who came and made this day most EXCELLENT!  Leslie, you’ll have to make it next time!!!  You were missed!  And you better grab Melissa who went MIA on us!

Obviously, for every event, we have tons of photos…  Enjoy!

DDDRRRRAAAAGGGGGONNNNFFFFLLLLLYYYYYY!

Nancy

Ciao guys!

Check-out the pics from the Montreal International DB Festival 2009.

Ciao guys!

Have a look at the pic.  Notice anything?

Melissa made me send you this pic for tonight’s practice…  and yes, this was our main focus of practice…  QUICKER EXITS!  I know I know I know…  this was just us during our warm-up on our way to starting line…  but, still, it doesn’t look good.  Like Melissa said during practice…  as everybody exits at different rate…  it slows down the boat till the very last paddle is out.  Keep that in mind!  At tonight’s practice, we did sectional paddling where every second row, the paddler behind would put their paddle vertical behind your bench to block you whenever you pull to far back…  we all did it and realize that we all pulled too far back…  which makes no point since we’re not pulling anymore water at that point…  Remember what Melissa said…  we want the good stuff…  and that’s what’s in front of you!  Towards the end of practice, it made a huge difference when we exit all at the same time and paddled in synch…  the boat was moving so smoothly and also, it avoids the boat from sinking.   By reaching too far back, you’re not reaching fast enough the front to pull more water and gives a chance for the boat to sink…  and we all know that it sucks to paddle a sinking boat!  We feel heavy and sluggish!  Anyways, we gotta work on that.

 Also, at the end of practice, Melissa started making us work on our turns for the Quebec Cup 2km races.  During the turns, for now, we’ll be paddling the exact way as we do now…  unless she calls “PULL”.  When she says that during a turn, this command is only for the first 3 paddlers on the left and the back 3 paddlers on the right.  You guys will start paddling in a 45 degree angle while still keeping pace with the rest of the boat.  For the whole boat, during the turns, the right side has to focus on long reaches while the left side had to focus on very DEEP strokes to get the boat moving.  For those that were at practice tonight knows how heavy the boat feels during a turn…  we need to focus on this to get the boat moving as fast as possible out of the turn…  and once that we’re out of the turn…  I know that this is crazy talk but it must be done…  Melissa will call for a pick-up of 10 strokes right away to get to race pace again.

 For all those that haven’t experienced a 2km race during the Quebec Cup with 3 turns to do during this race with 10 teams at the same time, I’ll strongly suggest that you check-out the Canadian DragonBoat Championship which will be held from 22-23 of August at the Bassin Olympic.  All the top teams in Canada will be there…   and for them to qualify to make it to the Wold DB Championship in Macau in 2010…  they all have to do the 2km race with turns.  This should be quite a show to see!  And also give you a better idea what to expect for Quebec Cup in September!

 Anyways, enjoy the weekend…  get rested…  we have practice on MONDAY!

 Nancy

Ciao!

If you haven’t noticed it, the team still hasn’t register for the Rawdon DB Festival yet.  We’re still missing two girls to be qualified as a mixed team.  We need girls on both side.  So, if you know of anyone who’s an experience woman paddler who would love to join-us in Rawdon, give Vicky or I a shout!

Till then, we’re still trainning hard to reach our personal goals!

 Nancy