Medal ceremony from Parkinson Ward Dragon Boat Festival, 3rd June

Here we all our with our first runner-up medals. It was a very happy moment for us all after all that work and effort all day. But, this wasn't just a matter of one day of paddling hard - it has been more than a year since we first became involved in dragon boat, and everything about it has required a fair bit of effort. It's not that easy to get 20 people together for a start, let alone organise them for training and finally, get them all to turn up in wet weather and work together as a team on the day. Everyone in the team has made the commitment they could within their own circumstances, and those who could, have gone beyond and made the extra effort to motivate and inspire the team.  Despite the fact that we never trained together as a full team, we were still able to do so well on the day.  When we were discussing this with Brisbane River Dragons, Kiong's response was that our crew are very smart - they are able to take instruction and understand it well, analyse what is needed, and respond appropriately.

The photo above is courtesy of the Hakka Association who, along with Cr Angela Owen-Taylor, were the main organisers and the driving force behind the festival. Angela is in the middle of the photo in blue, while Florence from Hakka Assoc is to the left of Angela and Agnes from Hakka Assoc is on the right.

AMBCQ Water Dragons - SECOND AGAIN!!!

Well, after all the training, all the organisation, all the rain threatening to pour, the Parkinson Ward Dragon Boat Festival was held on Sunday 3rd June at Forest Lake.  Kiong and I had been up til midnight the night before, packing the tents, baking muffins and scones, sorting the uniforms, and packing the car in readiness for the next day.  We were at the Lake from 8am to set up - and despite the occasional rain shower, it turned out to be quite a lovely day. Not too cold and not too hot, and not too much mud over where we dragon boat teams assembled.

As you can see by my title, we entered our AMBCQ Water Dragon team into the amateur competition and came second overall - for the second year in a row! A wonderful result but there was a sense of deja vu as we once again came off second best to the Vietnamese MC Dragons.

Last year was the first time the Festival (which only began in 2010) included amateur racing on the Lake, and only four teams featured. This year a total of eight teams competed so in a short amount of time the number of competitors has doubled.  The teams competing on the day included ourselves and the Vietnamese team, the Hakka Association, Pacifica (Pacific Islander community team), the Taiwanese Friendship Association of Queensland, the Commonwealth Bank, Chinese Catholic Community, and World Art and Multicultural Inc team.

Our team getting excited before the opening ceremony - the lady  from the Pacifica team behind us joined in too!

The Score Board after the second round. There we are with 7 points.

This year we paddled with a full crew - in fact we had 22 paddlers in total when we required 20.  Some of the other teams featured several professional paddlers (including Australian national representatives), while our AMBCQ crew was 100% our own, with no professional paddlers. In fact 25% of our team were brand new. Four of the team members had never trained before, and one other had only ever paddled once before.  And unfortunately, because of work and exam commitments, the rest of the team had hardly trained together. This was the first time we had paddled together. We always had a least eight to ten people (out of 20) at training, but it was usually a slightly different mix of members.  So it is definitely a result we can all be very proud of.

Lining up for the beginning of round 3.
I sat this one out so was able to take photos. 

There was amateur races as well as professional races on the day, with 3 rounds for each. In the first round of the amateur races, we won our heat.  In the second round we came second (again to the Vietnamese team!) and in the third round we again took first place. So we went into the finals with 11 points out of a possible 12.  In that second round you can see we gave the Vietnamese team a bit of a surprise - they dominate the race and do train really hard and they have some professional paddlers paddling on their behalf.  So perhaps they were ready for us in the final! In the final, we started well but the Vietnamese team clearly won.

Drawing ahead - we won this round!

Just about to go over the finish line

No matter the result, the whole team had a great day and it was a very nice moment to get up on stage and receive the second place (or first runner up!) medals.  We had a very good drummer Gail throughout the races, and we had Pam and Julie from BRD guiding us and helping us organise throughout the day.  For me personally, it was really nice to compete in front of my two kids, Ilkka and Ilmi, although Ilmi almost cried when we came second! And I was also really pleased to be able to compete despite being almost 20 weeks pregnant - I was a last minute inclusion because during the earlier stages of my pregnancy, I was suffering a lot of morning sickness and nausea and didn't feel up to it. So if anyone says they can't dragon boat race, you can tell them even a pregnant women can do it!

After round 3, everyone looks suitably exhausted.

We have to thank all the individual members of the team.  In a dragon boat team, each team member contributes, otherwise we wouldn't have a dragon boat team! The team work is one of the most important and most rewarding elements of the dragon boat team to me, and I think I've probably said it before, this aspect was like a revelation to me.  We also have to thank Gail, Pam and Julie for all their support and guidance through the day, everyone from Brisbane River Dragons, especially Euan and Blair, for training us and getting us ready, and putting everything together on the day.  Thank you of course to Cr Angela Owen-Taylor and the Hakka Association who are the driving forces behind the event and put all aspects of the festival together.  Without this event, many of us would never even considered getting involved in dragon boat.

Just before the medal ceremony - rubbing Dwight's botak
head for good luck

The Parkinson Ward Dragon Boat Festival also features performances, a citizenship ceremony and food stalls. We barely get to see any of this because the times between dragon boat races is pretty tight and of course we need to warm up before each race, then kit up etc, so there is no time to explore. Perhaps in future when the event becomes more established, more time might be allocated for the festival.