The greatest thing about this race, not only is it a family race, but spectators can actually stand on the beach and watch the boats race. You can actually see the waves caused by the boats as they crash into your feet while you are on the beach. How crazy is that?!?!

If you’ve never seen a dragon boat race, you should come. The excitement is so close, you can almost feel the beat drum as each boat inch their way to the finish line. There will also be food vendors, arts and crafts and small shows throughout the day.

See you at Mother’s Beach!!

If you’ve been coming to paddle, just a small tidbit, there are three people on the team who are cancer survivors, so this event really hits home to us. Can you imagine not seeing one of your team member come to practice because he or she is at home trying to cope with cancer? It’s really hard to think that the person you are paddling next to might not be your benchie the next day. This event is a unique event that it brings so many people together to find a cure for cancer. It’s not curable now, but with continue support and research, we just might be able to find a cure in our lifetime.

So let everyone know. This isn’t just about an event, it’s one way as a Guppy, you can support your teammate who survived it, is going through it, or might be going through it.

So what’s the significance of this day? Well depending on which tradition you hear, today is the day that Chinese people celebrate the life of a very famous poet Qu Yuan . The most beloved poet by all, he died by drowning in the Miluo River. Chinese farmers tried to save him by throwing stick rice paddies, called zongzi , into the river to stop the fish from picking at his body. Farmers jumped into their long narrow boats to paddle out to retrieve his body. It was said that their boat and the paddling rate resembled that of a might dragon traveling at light speed. This is where dragon boat racing started.

The story of Qu Yuan survived generations and to this day, Chinese people celebrate the anniversary of his death, the fifth day of the fifth month on the lunar calendar, by eating the sticky rice paddies that were offered to the fishes and race on Dragon boats.

We have a chance to help find the CURE for cancer. This disease has affected many of our friends and family members. On Saturday, May 30, we will participant in our 2nd Annual Relay for Life 24 hours Cancer Walk/Run to raise money for the CURE. Please support Killer Guppies by donating money via the team website or time by walking and cheering team KG on the track of Orange Coast College. Your support is vital, please help us! Please contact Kevin Chan or Steve Kashynski for additional information.

http://main.acsevents.org/goto/RelayForLifewithKG

Killer Guppies

It is physically demanding race, but racers will be running down the Pacific Coast Highway, this means two days of spectacular views the whole way down.

So wait wait, how the heck does 12 people run the race? A person in the team needs to be on the course the entire time, but once the person finishes his/her leg, there will be a team member who was dropped off at the next stop to swap out with the runner.

The Guppies are expected to pass by Long Beach on Sunday morning, so come wearing your Guppy jersey, or if you’re just curious to see them, stop by Mother’s Beach. And while you’re there, you might as well jump on a boat and paddle, paddle, paddle.

Check out the Ragnar site for more info: http://www.ragnarrelay.com/losangeles/index.php

We do not want finances to get in the way of obtaining basic needs. We view fitness as free health insurance. Paddling with KG adds competitiveness & makes it that much more fun. If you haven’t been doing it for yourself, make yourself a priority this year. Fitness is a part of maintaining your heart health & everything that follows with a great routine only adds bonuses.

Secondly, do it for the team. The programs designed by the team benefit YOU as well as the team as a whole. It always feels great when working hard with others & accomplishing the results together, succeeding as a team. The goal is the finish line; but how & with whom will we cross it? Thus, one goal of ours is to not allow financial hardship to stand in the way of KG participation & membership. So this is a reminder, if you haven’t already done so, to take advantage of this while you can. You can hand in your membership to Steve or Karin at practice, via Paypal online at http://killerguppies.org/blog/join-us/be-a-guppy

Please make your check for $135 payable to Killer Guppies.

For any questions regarding membership, you can post your question to the group or contact Steve &/or Helen directly:
steve.kash@gmail.com

hcle1@yahoo.com

All of the above is simply to say these are challenging times, we care about you, & we want to help.
Other comments or suggestions for the team in general can be addressed to Steve or Harry or any of the board members, Karin, Caroline, Peter, Stephen, Rebecca, Gary as well as myself. Our ears are open & we always want to maintain an open dialogue with all.
Wishing you all the best for a great LB Spring race!!

Helen
KG Treasurer

So take advantage of this lower rate. You can bring a check to practice and hand it over to Captain Steve or pay online (a small fee will be assessed if you pay online): http://killerguppies.org/blog/join-us/be-a-guppy

Also, this Sunday is NEWBIE DAY!! If you have friends who have always wanted to try out dragon boating, well here is their chance to come on out. It’s going to be WARM WARM WARM. So invite them out to give them a taste of the dragon boating world.

I hope you all had a good time, especially newbie’s John S, Gwen, Chris S, Sala and Diane. Tempe Crew, thank you all for making the long trek to Tempe and for making our season opener race possible.

I know we all rose to the occasion, but if it was not for the help of San Diego, we would not be in the Division A semi-finals. We were very fortunate that we just made it into Division A. Many thanks to San Diego’s Crew. Please read other comments about the detailed race results as they have posted on Yahoo groups.

We had solid representation from LA. Lard had two full crews, Space Dragon had two full crews, DPW had two full crews, USC had two full crews, and our team, Killer Guppies, had ¾ crew with 5 newbie’s on the crew roster. What happened to the other ¼? Did we not want to come out and represent our team? What happened to team pride and spirit, did that change with the economy too?

I know we did well last year and as I have said, it’s harder to stay on top when you are one of the top teams in Long Beach. The upcoming teams are always trying to reach the top spot too. Once you are on top, it is harder to maintain the top spot. To stay on top, we must continue to do what made us successful. The hard work and dedication does not stop, it increases.

We had a late start this season compared to Lard and Space Dragons; they started their season practices as early as December not late February. Clearly, their early season practice schedule and aggressive recruitment campaign had paid off as the early results clearly indicated in Tempe. Space Dragons were in the last race of the day and we were not.

Guppies, I ask you all, what do you want to do? Be a recreational team again? Continue to stay competitive? What are you willing to do? What is your commitment? Will I come to all mandatory practices? How are we going to recruit more paddlers, where and how? If everyone can recruit one person, then our team membership will be double.

On May 2, 2009 Saturday, I would like to have a team meeting to discuss these matters and concerns if we want to continue our success from last year.

Thanks
Coach Gary

The Guppies have been practicing really hard, even paddling in the rain and crazy wind last weekend. So send good vibes their way.

Also if you are racing in Tempe this weekend, don’t forget to sign the waiver and give it to Steve before Friday at 11pm. Your first race is at 8am! But you need to get there before 7:15am to stretch and marshal.

Good luck Guppies!!

Plus, we’re going to see if we can knock Coach Gary off of the boat with our start. So helping our team get strong AND getting our coach soaking wet… sounds like fun.

Also, there is a pre-race meeting after Saturday’s practice. MUY IMPORTANTE to come if you are going to Tempe, AZ.

And don’t forget, early bird dues end THIS SUNDAY (2/8). It’s $135 now, but after Sunday, it will be $150. See the “Join Us” page for more details for fill out an On Line application .

Of course, the captain and the coach wanted to gather the Guppies together to celebrate a year of achievements, as a team and as individuals.  This year has been a year of challenges and surprises.  The Guppies provided in both Long Beach and San Francisco that they were a team that they were the team to watch out for.  Stock with motivation and drive, the Guppies succeeded by making their way to the last race of the day for both San Francisco and Long Beach.

But the team couldn’t have made it to where they were without the commitment of the members and to those who went above and beyond.  Steve started out the Awards night by announcing the winners for the Team.  Only missing 3 days since the season started in February, Harry Tam took home the attendance award.  For his active recruitment, Joe Yang received the Recruitment award, for not only bringing in family and friends, but also his patients!  Apparently, paddling strengthens the heart!  The Fitness Staff awarded Marlon Mendoza and Naoko Odajima for their commitment to fitness, their daily posts about their fitness encouraged many of us to put in the extra effort to park a little farther from the entrance way, or at least for this Historian.  The Team Engine Award is generally given to a non board member who helped out with the team whenever needed, basically they lived and breathed for the Guppies and the awards went to Harry Tam and Rebecca Villarama.

Gary Chan went up next to present his Coach’s Awards.  The first award was for Most Improved Paddler.  Gary watched each paddler like a hawk and out of the returning paddlers, he chose one paddler who stood out among the rest, he award Ming Ieong with the Most Improved Paddler Award.  In addition to watching the veterans, Gary selected a newbie for his commitment to the sport, his always ready to participant attitude, and his achievement as a new paddler, Marlon Mendoza was able to take home this achievement.  And last but not least, Gary choose one Guppy for the Coach’s Award, Harry Tam.

Finally, the last team award given for the night was for the Most Inspiration Paddler.  This award was not determined by the coaches or the board members, but the Guppies themselves.  They were able to nominate someone they believed pushed each and every one of us to do our best and then some.  For the third time this year, Ellen Yu won this award.  Not only for her ability to lead the Guppies to be a stronger better team, but also motivating us with her powerful (almost tear jerking) speeches.

Coach Gary Chan stressed to the team to treat every single race as if the Guppies were racing in the last race of the day; to give it your all each time your paddle hit the water. And indeed the Guppies did just that. The waters were choppy as the Guppies paddle out into the harbor, but after Coach Gary’s intense training in the Long Beach by the breakers, this was just another walk in the park.

The Blue boat start off the day with a very early race, racing in Heat 4. It was a tight competition with everyone gunning for a chance to place. Instead of being placed into division, each dragon boat needed to place top three in their seeding to advance up. The Gold boat blew everyone away by taking first in the seeding and semi-finals. They even qualified for the special Visitor race with the second fasted time on Saturday’s race, while taking third in the Visitor race.

Aside from the huge surprise that it did not rain at all that race weekend (not even a gray cloud), the Guppies shocked spectators and other race teams by making it to both the Consolation final and the final race of the day! The Blue boat put up a huge fight in the Consolation race and came up 4th overall. While the Gold boat made it to the last race of the day, fulfilling the goal the Guppies made as they trained for SF. The competition was fierce as the Guppies raced head to head with LA Racing Dragons, Air Canada JetStart, Dragon Warriors, Bay Area Dragons, and Life Scan’s Jambalaya. The Guppies placed 5th in the race, but it wasn’t so much about placing, but the fact that the Guppies wanted to be challenged and they were race with the toughest team of the festival.

The gendered teams and the Masters boat put their best stroke forward. The Men’s made it to the semni finals, but couldn’t place high enough to make it to the Final. The Women’s were joined once again by Arizona’s Hila Dragons, but their combined efforts weren’t enough to take on the power ladies teams. The Guppies Masters joined forces with LA Racing Dragons and put away cross town rivalry to put up a great show.

Wow! We had a great performance at SF and achieved the goals we set at the
beginning of the year: to race in the Comp Championship race, the last race
of the day. The Gold boat advanced to the Championship Final along with
Dragon Warriors, B.A.D., LARD, JetStart and West Coast Jambalaya (False
Creek paddlers). KG finished 5th overall; TOP FIVE of 60 teams!
The Blue boat advanced to the Comp division for the first time in KG
history! They finished 6th in the Comp B Consolation Race making them the
24th team of 60.

GOLD BOATThe Gold boat won both of their preliminary races on Saturday with
the second fastest time of 2:11 in the first round and the 6th fastest time
of 2:21 in the second round. In Sunday’s semi-final, KG Gold finished
second to B.A.D. Before that race KG picked up a Bronze medal in the
Visitor’s Race finishing behind JetStart and LARD with a time of 2:10.
The Comp A finals was a close race until the final meters. KG was in lane 4
and beat Jambalaya for fifth place overall in a time of 2:17. JetStart, DW,
BAD and LARD took 1-4. The preferred lanes were 1-3 which were given to the
top-seeded teams throughout the festival. In general the conditions got
more windy later in the day and we even saw some tidal swells at the start
area.

Here’s a link to video of the race:
http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=aYFnyH2iYBY

Here’s LARDs split-screen of the same race:
http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=EKdTSXx-jRs

BLUE BOAT
The Blue boat finished 4th in both preliminary heats and qualified by time
to advance to the Comp division. On Sunday they finished 5th in the semi
with their fastest time 2:21 and advanced to the Comp B Consolation race.
They finished 6th the first time a KG B Boat made it to the Comp division
at SF. Way to go Blue boat!

WOMEN & MEN
The women combined with Gila Dragons and placed 4th in the semi. The mens
team placed 2nd behind BAD Meat Missile and advanced to the finals. In a
very tight race the KG men placed fourth with a time of 2:09 beating
Jambalaya and JetStart/Aero and behind LARD, DW and BAD.
Check out this video…see how close the race is when the drummer looks
across the course. KG is in lane 5 furthest from LARD (lane 1):
http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=WGQSbz2Tb74

MASTERS
KG combined with people from a few teams including LARD for a masters boat.
We finished 5th with a time of 2:21 behind JetStart, DW, BAD and DragonMax.
Despite the multi-team makeup and limited practice, the boat had good
timing and by all accounts looked impressive. Everyone involved is
interested in continuing and developing a masters team next year.
Not to take anything away from 2002’s Comp A Finals appearance, 2008’s
result is a higher-percentage finish in the field than before: top 8%.
Consider also there are more competitive teams now than in the past.
Regardless, we measure our success by how well we perform to our current
abilities. I think both boats achieved their full capabilities given our
preparation. Each race saw the team improve the execution of the race
program and not once did we falter or panic in a race. Next year I think we
can do better still as we pursue “the perfect race”.

Congratulations to everyone on the team! Everyone who came to practice
helped our team succeed at SF and throughout the year. Thanks to our
coaches Gary, Rebecca, Kevin and everyone who helped coach and steer and
paddle. Thanks to our boat captains who helped managed the teams at the
races; you made my and Gary’s jobs much easier.

It’s been a great year, let’s celebrate!

Steve

Also, there is a pre-race meeting THIS SUNDAY immediately after practice.  We’ll be talking about race logisitics and meeting times.  Please come if you’re racing in San Fran!!