History
The Killer Guppies Dragon Boat Team of Los Angeles competes in local, national, and international dragon boat tournaments. In addition to recruiting new members and training in preparation for these competitions, the team promotes the sport and culture of dragon boating in Southern California, while bringing together people of diverse backgrounds to meet, to share cultural experiences, and to have fun.
The team includes students, doctors, accountants, professionals, teachers, and artists. Our members come from all over the Los Angeles area (although some trace their origins from other parts of the U.S., and some hail from as far away as Asia).
We are more than just a dragon boat team. We get together outside of practices and tournaments for purely social gatherings like barbecues, parties, and movie nights. We are a family.
Our mission is to develop a friendly, fun-loving, and hard working team, comprised of a diverse membership that promotes competitive paddling while furthering the culture and sport of dragon boating on a national and international level.
A Brief History of the Killer Guppies
Our humble beginnings
The Killer Guppies were initially formed shortly before the 1999 Long Beach tournament. Given that the original line-up was a hodge-podge of those who weren’t on another team, the expectations were decidedly humble, and this was reflected in the oxymoronic moniker adopted by the new team. Had anyone realized the team would still exist years later, perhaps the name would have been given more consideration.
Okay, probably not. Let’s move on.
The first “real” season
Although very few paddlers from that first race stayed with the team following the 1999 L.B. tournament, those who did stick around compensated by inviting their friends to check it out. That method of recruiting (which continues to this day) made the roster a diverse group of people. By the spring of 2000, our first captain, Karen Perez, had the team practicing weekly. For the Long Beach tournament in July of 2000, the team had matching uniforms. The rag-tag group of misfits had arrived. Or at least we’d spent some money getting t-shirts printed. Our hard work and coordinated attire paid off, as we won our division.
Inspired by this success, in September of 2000 the team made its first trek to an out-of-town tournament, competing in the Northern California championships in (that year) Foster City. Although we did not get any trophies at the races, we met a dragon boater from the Philippines who was moving to L.A. and was looking to join a team.
Movin’ on up
That Filipino transplant, Nathan Salazar, became the KG coach in early 2001. Working with our second captain, Wila Chun, they transformed the Guppies into a paddling machine. That year, in addition to Long Beach and Northern California, we traveled out of the country for the first time to compete at Vancouver, the largest tournament in western North America. By the end of the year, we had proved ourselves to be one of the top teams in California.
Not resting on our laurels
In 2002, Wila turned the reigns over our third captain, Sebastian Cheng, and our first co-captain, Angela Lohmani. With Nathan still coaching, the new regime pushed the team even harder. Besides Long Beach, Northern California, and Vancouver, the team traveled to tournaments in Oakland and New York (our first exposure to the East Coast teams). The efforts made during practices propelled the team to the finals in nearly every one of these tournaments.
Expanding our horizons
For the 2003 season, the team was in the hands of our fourth captain, Rebecca Nelson, and her co-captain, Beverly Steinhauer. The season started earlier than ever before when the team traveled a new race in Las Vegas (taking first place) in May. In Vancouver the team won its first medals ever there, winning silver in the Rec A division. In addition to the usual Long Beach and San Francisco tournaments, we participated in another new race in Newport Beach. And in the middle of it all, the Guppies went all the way to Hawaii to compete in their first flag-catching race. (In October, some KG members also traveled all the way to Shanghai, China, to compete on a team representing the U.S., taking third place in the Open division.)
On the go
The 2004 season had our fifth captain, David Villarama, at the helm. Again the season started early: By March the Guppies had won the inaugural Arizona tournament. In May was another new race place for KG: Washington D.C. June found us up in Vancouver for the fourth year. The end of July brought our home tournament in Long Beach (with three squads participating). This year saw the Guppies head north of the border again (in early September) as the only American team competing in Toronto’s Great White North festival. After winning another new semi-local tournament out in Riverside, we finished with a strong showing up in San Francisco.
A return to glory
The 2005 season found our sixth captain, Saul Romo, directing the team, assisted by co-captain Talal Masri. The team won medals in Arizona and in Long Beach, and we fought hard in Vancouver. However, most impressive was bringing home the gold in the Competitive B division at the San Francisco tournament. Quite a finish to the season.
“The dragon dares not cross the river if it is not the most furious one,” according to a Chinese proverb, and that has inspired our motto: KILL…KILL….KILL…
California Gold Dragons and Killer Guppies Merger
California Golden Dragons has a history that dates back to the inception of Dragon Boating at Long Beach in 1996. At that time Chinese school teachers from Cerritos formed a team called “Cerritos Dragons” to represent their city. Although this was a recreational team, the membership grew to include more competitive paddlers as well as many from outside Cerritos.
In early 2005, to be more competitive, and recruit from a broader region, the team changed its name to California Golden Dragons. CGD made steady progress improving the team-best at the Long Beach tournaments by about 10 seconds each year over the past three years. In 2006 three CGD guest paddlers went with the Killer Guppies to Vancouver, and eight went to San Francisco.
CGD has always been closely allied with the Killer Guppies and with more and more of CGD paddlers joining KG for the out-of-town tournaments, and enjoying the experiences, it became clear that there was merit to combine as one organization.
The proposal was made to CGD during a meeting with KG about dual memberships and guest paddlers. This was followed by a rapid sequence of dinner meetings held over a two week period to discuss the proposal, and culminated with a vote by the CGD team at Frieda’s home on Super Bowl Sunday.
The merger provides critical mass for KG to be able to offer all paddlers the opportunity to perform at their desired level of intensity, from recreational to competitive.