Gung Haggis dragon boat team paddles under the new Harvest Moon

Steersperson Adam Purvis waves from the back of the boat, while Gung Haggis team paddlers stretch during a break – photo Todd Wong

The Gung Haggis Fat Choy Dragon Boat team, is preparing for the Sept 30th UBC Day of the Long Boat Race.  It is the largest voyageur canoe race in North America, and designed as a recreation event for UBC students, faculty and staff.  But… there are division for community teams too!  It is a 2km course with 3 big turns.  A normal dragon boat race is only 500m.  So we are now training paddlers for endurance with 2km pieces.

We took out 2 Gemini dragon boats last night, and ran races from Dragon Zone to
Cambie St. Bridge where we took a short break to simulate a paddler jumping out to the beach during the actual Day of the Long Boat race, where they would grab a baton.

After our quick break where some paddlers shed some extra clothes, we then raced up to David Lam Park and to the point.  Along the way we set
up some obstacles for turning, like the sculpture, the buoy markers and
boats.  After a short rest to change sides, we raced back to Cambie
Street Bridge, and all the way back to Dragon Zone.

Longest race pieces we've ever done… lots of fun.

Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team practices on Sundays 1pm and Tuesday 6pm. If you would like to join the team – contact Coach Todd Wong
email gunghaggis at yahoo dot ca

We have participated in this event before with the Tacoma Dragon Boat Association Destiny Dragons:

See my past stories: