The Killer Guppies Dragon Boat Team

The forecast for San Francisco was rainy and windy, at least for Saturday. Aside from a light rain storm Friday night, no gray clouds blanketed the sky as the Guppies arrived in Treasure Island for their last tournament of the season.

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.

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The stellar 2008 Guppy Quiz written by our awesome Ellen Yu is now posted in the Download section of the site.

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Guppies,
I hope everyone has returned home safe after our successful trip to San
Francisco. I just got back last night after spending a couple of relaxing
days in wine country.

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

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Hey guys! Check out the Downloads section for the latest newsletter!!

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Please see the Guppy’s Download section for the SF Race Waiver.  Sign it and bring it to this weekend’s practice.  Also, there will be a race meeting immediately following Sunday’s practice.  Hope to see you there!!

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If you haven’t signed one already, please visit the Guppy’s Download section and download the PDF files for the 2009 US Dragon Boat Federation and Southern California Dragon Boat Club Waivers.  SIgn it and bring it to Saturday’s practice.

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!!

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Don’t forget, we have mandatory practice this weekend! Here’s the list of mandatory practices until SF:

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It takes about 4 - 6 weeks to build muscle and we actually have 5 weeks left before San Fran.  It’s time to vamp it up if you haven’t been working out.  This week, we’re focusing on the upper body!  Here’s this week’s work out:

STRENGTH:
for time- do 50 pullups, 50 pushups, 50 situps, 50 squats
- you can break these up any way you want it. (i.e. 10 sets of 5,5,5,5,
or 5 sets of 10,10,10,10 - 50 sets of 1,1,1,1 whatever works for you!)
This is do-able by ALL Guppies!

For those of you looking for an extra challenge - the original workout
prescribed was 100 pullups, 100 pushups, 100 situps, 100 squats.

CARDIO - “WE WILL FINISH STRONG”:
3 x 800m, 2 min rest in between — Bring your pace up in the last 200m.
This should mimic what we did on the water Sunday.
Yes - a watch w/timer is best way to get the most out of this workout!

And if you don’t have one - try
a) buying one
b) borrowing one
c) do the best you can w/o one, but not having one isn’t an excuse to
not do this workout Guppies. Winners find a way, not excuses!

We don’t have mandatory practice this weekend, but we’re still going to be out on the waters.  Get some more paddle time in before San Fran.  Also, there’s a slight chance we’ll be able to take the boat out on Monday.  Check your emails and reply to the eVite by Saturday morning!

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pssssssst.  Check out the Guppy Downloads section.

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