Sydney Dragon Sports Association Dragon Boat Club

Penang

 August 2008

Niki Watters writes about her first international regatta.

In the crisper days of May, a dedicated¹ bunch DSA paddlers started a 3 month campaign, with their sights set on competing as an opens crew in the 6th Asian Dragon Boat Championships (ADBC) held in Penang, Malaysia.
DSA had 2 paddlers carrying on from the State campaign, George Louie, who was named assistant coach, and Peter McAlister. Both Monica and Murray were invited to join the squad as assets to the Australian team, and boy did they show the heart, courage, compassion, drive and laughter, of a DSA paddler. Due to popular demand the squad opened its arms and embraced a further 5 women to make up a mixed crew. I was lucky enough to be offered a place on the squad which added to the already healthy DSA contingent.
The 3 month, or 12 week, campaign consisted of a gruelling schedule which included: 48 water sessions, 12 group boxing sessions², an expected 36 individual cardio and 24 weights sessions and one trip to Canberra³. On top of this full plate of non stop action, just for some fun, we took on the task of learning the dying art of stand up paddling.
The stories that have derived from the teaching and the learning of stand up paddling throughout this campaign would only make you cry from laughter. Lets just say, one guy looked like he was mimicking the primal instincts of a bear attempting to catch a fish when he dunked his head in the water as he leant out of the boat. Grrrr!!
Finally the 28th day of July arrived, and we found ourselves kitted out in our navy, green and gold uniforms⁴, looking like apprehensive little school kids on their first day of school. All bar James, a former Canberra Ice Dragon who decided to wear his Ice dragons uniform instead…. Go figure. A minor brain freeze while still in Sydney, nearly saw George and I paddling without paddles, as I innocently forgot to take them out of the car in my frozen, ½ sleeping state.
Now, I don’t know about you, but it would make a lot of sense to me to seat a group of people, who were travelling together, in a block of seats…. Together… This would prevent a whole lot of interruptions to the general public and possibly the stewards (male and female, we don’t discriminate). Clearly, this was not the case, as we were scattered throughout the plane. Murray was constantly seated next to Kim Murray. The reason? One could only imagine someone assuming that Murray Pellicciaro was married to Kim Murray…
After the seemingly endless plane trip of boring movies, and a whole lot of fidgeting by me, a quick pit stop in at the beautiful Singapore airport – just enough time for a spot of shopping (Monica). The Australia crew finally arrived in Penang, greeted by temperatures of +33°C and 100% humidity, a slight change from the frozen Sydney morning. Warmly received by our tour guide Kenny (no, his real job isn’t cleaning toilets) and his off-sider KY… Yes, apparently that was his real name…
Settling into the Copthorne Orchid;
“host to the blue seas and green rolling hill, this four-star hotel is located on a truly enviable location, directly on the ocean front and conveniently situated at Tanjung Bungah.”
My only advice is not to eat in the restaurant at 11pm at night with 15 of your closest squad buddies, especially when there is only one cook…. It took this one dude 1 ½ hours to cook up 4 burgers… he hadn’t even started to cook the rice for the fried rice. So no matter what they say, the kitchen may be open 24 hours a day, however, it may take them the full 24 hours to make your meal.
Day one and two in Penang saw the Aussies acclimatising to the extreme temperatures of hot and cold… as we walked in and out of air-conditioned shopping plazas, stretching our muscles under the masses of shopping bags owned by Monica…. And lugging 5.5L water bottles back to hotel rooms in drones like it was going out of style. We also managed to fit in 2 training sessions in what Malaysians called 10s boats, but could only be described as bathtubs.
Little did we know, this was only the beginning of the comedy of errors that was the 2008 championships. As both the ADBC and the World Club Championships (WCC) were being run simultaneously on the same body of water, there were bound to be disagreements between both the ADBC organisers and the International Dragon Boat Federation (IDBF) who were running the WCC.
Apparently there were many heated debates and near punch ups regarding a variety of topics, one of these being the lack of a long enough course for the 1000m race…. WHAT THE???! Over the whole of the pre ADBC prep, they only just realised that the course was short the night before the first race…. Hummmm something smells fishy, and it wasn’t the fish… we were later informed that under an IDBF rule, the 1000m race has to be set on a straight course… So the options were black and white…. Scrap the whole 1000m event, or change the 1000m to a 2000m event, which would be 2 laps of the 500x250m⁵ course⁶. So the sensible ones in the bunch (which were clearly few and far between) suggested that we just do 1 lap of the course and call it 1000m… However the decision makers, who I might add, didn’t have to paddle this event were leaning towards the more painful option of a +2000m event.
On top of the possibility of adding an extra 1000 or so metres onto our races, the organisers were mulling over the thought that the ADBC crews should all wear PFDs (Personal Flotation Devices or life jackets) or PDFs as I heard someone call them. This was harsh but understandable as stand up paddling could possibly cause boats to capsize, and consequently, flotation devices could prove handy. But that’s not where our dramas ceased. They then hit us with the “no stand up paddling” allowed during the event, and the fact that no one could find the documentation stipulating that stand up paddling was an acceptable technique within this specific event didn’t help the stand up cause. However, none of these decisions were final, and as such it was similar to a lucky draw (or not-so-lucky draw) depending on what was decided last minute. Confused?? So were we!
The Captains dinner gave everyone a chance to mingle with the ACT girls, who made up the Women’s teams, as we sat outside overlooking the mini beach below our hotel chowing down on a buffet style meal as we enthusiastically listened to the motivational speeches that each captain gave us and learnt a new cheer/chant type thing that the ACT girls swore by.
So the first day of racing was upon us… and clearly, it was less than clear what to expect… were we in fact racing +2000m course? Were we allowed to stand up? Did we have to wear PFDs? What were they going to feed us for lunch? Would there be enough water for us to drink or should we bring our own? Would we have to use the squat toilets? Which way do we face? (Monica) As the day unfolded, all the answers to our questions were reviled…. We did have to race +2000m. I managed to get out of it and drum both the opens and the mixed crews! However, it is a 10min race, and believe it or not, you run out of things to say. We weren’t allowed to stand up… although it wasn’t ruled out of the championships all together, so there was still hope. Thankfully we didn’t have to wear PFDs…. They fed us the food every athlete craves during a serious race day⁷…. Fish and chips… We had to bring our own water… one team took it to the next level and had their own blow up pool… We put those squat sets to use as the facilities were squat toilets, and you are supposed to face the wall (not the door) Unfortunately, the instructions are strategically placed at eye level… when you are already squatting and facing the right direction….
The opens crew hit the +2000m circuit first, with a staggered start, the boys were hooning down the straights and powering up into and out of the first and second corners, not making a nucience of themselves. Speaking from the drummers seat, so far, this race had been pretty ordinary. However, at the 3rd turn, this ordinary race was going to morph into a near contact sport! The two teams who started before us were clearly still confused on how long the race was so decided to cross the start/finish line after they had done one lap of the course.... This would've been the correct thing to do for a +1000m race, but unfortunately for them, we were in fact participating in the afore mentioned +2000m race which included two laps of the course and not just one.... Luckily for the Aus boys, George, who unlike the other team coaches, clearly didn't take a nap in the race meeting, after noticing the other teams failing to turn at the third corner, stopped paddling, and yells at Steve "TURN".... consequently we stuck in a mad hand break turn to save ourselves following the leaders who had, at that stage, remembered that it was a +2000m race and were paddling like daemons towards the start line again. All three teams reached the 4th turn at the same time! With boats crossing paths this way and that, lets just say I would've been biting my nails if I wasn't using them to hold onto the drum so as not to fall off, and to make things even more exciting we still had two more corners to contend with. So the Aussies found themselves on the tail of two teams and were spurred on by the definite possibility of a great result! Unfortunately the two boats ahead of us created havoc at each turn which pulled boat speed off the Aussies and thought it would be fun to throw obstacles off their boat (aka people) in front of us. With a great finish and no casualties the Aussie boys pulled in a ripper 4th place... Beaten out of 3rd by Iran, who were slapped with a 5 second penalty for not just cutting the corners, but taking an inside lane on the two straights... somehow I think they may have come out of that one ahead, never the less the always graceful Aussies were happy to finish the race with everyone still on board and the boat still afloat.... The mixed +2000m race was timid in comparison, no near collisions, no lightening the boat by offloading paddlers or cutting off the straights. Thus came the end of our hideous first day of racing.
Penang has many beautiful attractions, one of them being The Wash Machine. Just ask Murray, George, Peter, Brent, Hui, Kel… Actually, I think it would be safe to ask any of the guys about The Wash Machine. Even the language barrier was no deterrent when it acme to these French Canadian girls.
The second day of racing say the distance thankfully reduced by 1800m, to a more forgiving 200m splash and dash. Australia entered a mixed crew, opens crew and a womens crew both in the small 10s boats and the normal 20s boats. But I use the term “10s boats” loosely, and I think I speak for everyone when I say, in those “boats” we were up the reservoir with paddles, struggling to move the set distances. Hard as these races were, it was an experience of a lifetime to compete against the extremely high rating Asian teams – Indonesia, China, Philippines, Malaysia, Macau and the list goes on. Australia were impressive in all races and made the A finals for the mixed and came a very respectable 5th place. Over the course of the day we were intriqued by the traditions of the Chinese team, and through our resident Chinese-to-English translators (Ling Ling and George) we got some insider information from the China opens team. They figured that the organisers were purposely preventing them from winning a gold medal by excluding stand up racing. Since they “did not want another silver medal” they were just going to stand up anyway. And stand up they did… in fact, they caused a 20min delay at the start line as the whole team refused to sit down. Even after they were yelled at in 2-3 different Asian dialects they refused to sit. After 2 false starts the organisers threw their hands up and let the race run… needless to say the China team was disqualified… AND THAT WAS ONLY THE HEAT!
The final day of racing saw the humidity and sun interrupted by 5 min or so of cool rain! It was amazing, I think it was the first/last time I got cold over there. 500m racing in the bathtubs didn’t get any easier… On the last day of racing it is customary swap uniforms. Following in tradition, the day did not run without technical difficulties. We had a minor incident in a 10s boat where one AUS DB president was unable to hold his bladder… in an attempt to be discreet he tried to relieve himself in a bailer…. However, due to “stage fright” he was unable to do this (which is lucky for everyone, as the bailers were not made to hold water or any other liquid for any period of time if you catch my drift) Separate situation so call for desperate measures…. Consequently Kel jumped out of the boat, into what we dubbed Penang’s drinking water, and did his number 1…. Weak bladders aside, there was absolutely nothing weak about Murray’s EPIC strokes! On the 2nd stroke of a 500m 10s boat race, Murray’s sheer “rip” through the water snaps the carbon blade and he is left holding the handle with the blade hanging by a thread…. To his credit he did attempt to paddle with his hand, but only managed to scoop water into Mario’s face. Muz, Mr Powerhouse, built like a whippit with the power of 20 horses! Other then that, it was as normal as an international competition can get! The Aussies made another tough A final and were pleased with a hard earned 5th place. Awaiting us on the bus home after the final race was paddled was a chilli bin filled with ice cold BEER, that our amazing manager Kim Murray organised for us! These were like a warm up for the epic night ahead…. The after party!
We were given one ridiculous hour to change and make ourselves presentable (for some of us, one hour wasn’t enough) According to the prophecy, we were permitted to bring alcohol into the state sports centre… I blame this fact for the crazy antics of the whole Aussie crew! Duty free al-co-mo-hol was purchased, and along with juice, was placed in the mini bar fridge to “chill”…. HOWEVER, when I say “chill” I mean freeze. As someone… not mentioning any names, Mish Chim City Dragons, decided it would “chill” faster if she turned the fridge temp as low as it could go…. This would’ve been perfect if we were just chilling the al-co-mo-hol, however, the juice froze. Consequently we were mixing vodka with minimal juice and maximal chunks of ice-like-slushy-stuff that possibly tasted like juice if you could get past the overpowering taste of VODKA! Despite this fact, the entire contents of the water bottle (that was actually filled with the 10 part vodka ½ part juice mix) was consumed at an alarming rate… accompanied by grossed out faces as the not-so-palatable liquid was forced down.
Short from attaching a tracking beacon or some sort of homing device onto each paddler so as not to lose anyone over the course of the night, coach Steve took the second best option.... He gave us an object that would allow us to contact each other quickly, and easily! NO, not a mobile phone... a green and gold clapper!! These little plastic green and yellow thingys were ridiculously hilarious, and the bus ride to the venue gave us the perfect opportunity to practice our clapper timing. Lets just say EVERYONE knew we were the Aussies! They could literally hear us from a mile away! Some dodgy food and some even dodgier soft drinks later (Who, in their right mind would call a drink Kick-a-Poo Joy Juice??) The stadium was pumping, and clearly the situation called for some dancing! Dancing on the floor - after dancing and falling off the chairs.... Dancing on the floor again - after being kicked off the stage for the mass dance stampede... Dancing in the toilet line - waiting for your turn, holding the single piece of toilet paper the nice lady was handing out.
Unfortunately the fun had to come to an end, as we were ushered out of the stadium waving our clappers! Some of us pushed on with the City Dragons boys to a place named "Slippery Senoritas" where we partied the night away dancing to a live band. Whilst the majority of the crew trekked it back to the hotel where they apparently got up to mischief... Despite the seemingly fool proof plan for not losing paddlers, there is always one.... Our one will remain anonymous, however, his story will be recounted for all. After making it to Slippery Senoritas MR X decided that he would be very un-cooperative in his intoxicated state, and refused to be put in a cab back to the hotel. He kicked up a stink and insisted that he was fine and walked away in a huff.... Later on that night the skies opened and torrential rain fell for a couple of hours, I spared a thought for MR X as we had no idea where he was. It was only in the morning when we heard the full story of MR X's night. Apparently, he had fallen asleep on a bench, only to be woken up by the masses of
water falling from the sky... so he walked into the hotel, which I must add, was not ours... and just kept sleeping. Luckily for MR X, a nice tourist lady found him and after she figured out that he had no money to get back to his own hotel... and to make matters worse, he had no idea which hotel was his.... She put him into a cab, generously gave him some Ringit and managed to rifle through his wallet for the hotel card, which he thankfully picked up. She was quite worried about him that she even put her number into his mobile phone and proceeded to call him the next morning to check that he was ok. awww, such a loverly lady!
The post-after-party morning saw the crew as quite as I've ever seen them.... it was going to be a long, long, quite plane trip home for some! Jokes aside, this was a trip of a lifetime, where friendship bonds were formed, muscles were formed, and stories were made! Along with the given firsts for the rookies in the Green and Gold, one with vast experience in the Green and Gold, George Louie, was honoured by being named the first ever Australian Team Captain. But after 72 hours of training on the water, 12 hours of boxing, around 54 hours of cardio, and approximately 36 hours in the gym, 18 hours in Canberra, 18 hours on a plane, 168 hours in Penang, and 21 hours of racing, the Australian campaign for the Asian Championships was over.

¹ others may choose describing words such as crazy, insane, frostbitten, and all of the afore mentioned would be correct.
² if I never hear the word “plonk” (plank with an Arnie accent) anymore it will be too soon.
³ where they proceeded to freeze us, lecture us, starve us, lecture us some more, stretch us, and freeze us some more.
⁴ which had arrived in true AUS DB style, a week before competition.
⁵ I hear you saying that is more than 2000m… my answer would be, yes, yes it is….
⁶ The WCC were racing over 2000m their course was already set.
⁷ But doesn’t eat…