By an extraordinary coincidence, we found ourselves trialling for our national Dragon Boat teams - Great Britain and Hong Kong - on the same day! It was C's first national trial, an emotional rollercoaster even before the first test. With the experience of the Senior A trials behind him, A took the onslaught of GB Premier assessments in his stride.In this episode, we share our unfiltered thoughts and emotions before, during, and after the trials. Join us as we navigate the highs and lows of this intense experience. We hope our journey inspires you to embrace an athlete's mindset and find your own path to paddling perfection!
In this day and age, we might think we're spoiled for choice when it comes to opportunities for meeting that special someone. But how do you know you've found a keeper? We've struggled with that question and have seen friends struggle with it too. So here we are, discussing an alternative to dating apps, running clubs, and pickleball: join a dragon boat club! It might take a while to meet your match, but their qualities will be worth the wait. In the meantime, you can get fit, make a bunch of new friends, race, and see the world with a paddle in your hand!
We chat to the founder of The Filipino Dynamo - an all-women dragon boat team in Hong Kong - who made it her mission to empower domestic helpers, and show them they too can achieve greatness in sport through dedication and hard work.
We've been following Canadian dragon boat teams for as long as we've been interested in paddling. And what do you get when you bring together the crème de la crème of Canadian clubs? A legendary national squad, that's what! C needed a few months in HK to get over the effects of seeing some of them up close and personal in Ravenna. And A ... let's just says he's gone bonkers over some Canadian fitness training videos he's found on social media. So we caught up with Matt Smith and Antony Chandra of Canada's Premier dragon boat team - and spent a very enjoyable hour talking about everything from the 4th IDBF World Cup in Miluo, to winter training, and the secrets of putting together a world-beating boat.
After lots of nagging, A gets to wear his favourite Christmas outfit: a Die Hard T-shirt styled with coral red antlers. C bakes a loaf of bread and promptly breaks it with a new bunch of people armed with spoon-shaped paddles. Good luck to anyone trying to stop her talking about her Boxing Day outing in an OC6! Plus we plumb the depths of the internet for some controversial thoughts on dragon boating.
Tis the season for winter training, watching dragon boat videos and asking WILL THIS MAKE MY BOAT GO FASTER? We catch up with Garry Milward, GB Senior A Head Coach, who's been chasing the answer all his paddling life. Is there anything he won't do in pursuit of the ultimate speed? A shares some news about his GB campaign, while C gets an appointment with Dr G at the paddle clinic and is relieved to hear that she won't have to buy a set of golf clubs.
When in Asia, it would be a sin not to train with some local teams. In Hong Kong, C and A went paddling at night with VRC Dragons of Victoria Recreational Club. In Singapore, A reached out to his Latin cousins, got up at the crack of dawn on a Saturday morning and went for a water session right where he first picked up a paddle.
We said we are going to build a dragon boat community without borders, and here we are to deliver.
‘East meets West’ will take you halfway across the globe to check out paddle things on the other side. Are they the same? Are they different? Or are they same same but different?
A had his first taste of international racing at the Penang International, where 1,500 paddlers across 61 teams from all corners of the world came to share their love of dragon boating.
Of course he can’t stop talking about it, living up to the name of Chatterpod.
Hop on the flight with us to Malaysia 🇲🇾 and discover what makes Penang a paddler's paradise!
In this first episode, we share our journey into the world of competitive dragon boating.
Some of us might have accidentally become quite good at paddling (on top of the boat banters) and decided to venture into high-level competitive dragon boating.
But where do you start? What should you do to get there? We’d like to walk the path with all the paddlers who are feeling, have felt, or are worried about feeling lost in the open ocean like us.
Hopefully, we’ll ‘Fly the Flag’ for our homes one day: standing on the podium, watching it rise with our palms on our chests.