Paddle Articles

The following submission was made as an entry to win a OC1 from an amazingly generous donor, who wanted to see the canoe truly enjoyed, rather than turn a profit. Entrants were asked to submit an essay answering the following:

• Part 1: “Describe how paddling has changed your life.”
• Part 2: “How do you plan to use this canoe, and perhaps someday pass it along?”

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Keona Martin, California

How did paddling change my life? Paddling changed my life by teaching me how to be a team and how to think as one nation. I have been paddling for 7 years and I enjoy seeing my family and friends paddle with me.

Over the last 7 years, I have learned the fundamentals and the jobs of each seat. I have been training in seats 1 and 2. Seat 1 is the paddler that sets the pace, while seat 2 sets the rhythm and calls the changes. I enjoy sitting in seats 1 and 2, because it helps me focus on the specific job for the seat.

Paddling also taught me to think as one and to move as one. Paddling in the canoe gave me a mindset of you go into the water with your paddle as one and you come out of the water as one. It taught me to move with my team/family as one together. I love this part because it shows how much each person comes together and how we grow as a family together.

Lastly, paddling has helped me mentally, spiritually, and physically. Before going on the water during a race or just practice we sing our prayer to the lord to keep us safe during our travels. It physically gives you a workout throughout your whole body and test your mental capacity.

In conclusion, I love paddling in everything that it teaches. From the history of the canoe and the people who started the fundamentals of paddling. My overall experience in paddling is fun, amazing, and challenging. This is the best sport I have ever played.

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The following submission was made as an entry to win a OC1 from an amazingly generous donor, who wanted to see the canoe truly enjoyed, rather than turn a profit. Entrants were asked to submit an essay answering the following:

• Part 1: “Describe how paddling has changed your life.”
• Part 2: “How do you plan to use this canoe, and perhaps someday pass it along?”

< View all entries

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Cash Martin, California

Paddling changed my life physically, mentally, spiritually, and socially. I have been paddling for 7 years. 2017-18 was the year that Ikuna Koa’s 10 and under crew won 1st place. It changed my life mentally, because it gave me the nerve to interact with other kids and adults that I’ve never met before.

It changed me physically, because before I started, I went to Hawai’i with my mom (Hauoli) for 6 months, As I was there, I started feeling a change. So, After the vacation my sister and brother have noticed somethings about me. So, when we started paddling it encouraged me to workout and get fit. So, I can feel prouder of myself and some other life goals that still must be achieved.

It changed me spiritually, because I didn’t know much about my culture. Until I started paddling before paddling, we sing a special chant talking about the gods and to let us be blessed on our journey out on the ocean. It taught me the religious and cultural ways of my ancestors. Also, its been amazing to learn about my culture and being able to know myself as a Hawaiian.

In conclusion, it changed me socially, because it got me to communicate to younger and older kids. It also gave me enough courage to make friends. But not only me but my parents as well.

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The following submission was made as an entry to win a OC1 from an amazingly generous donor, who wanted to see the canoe truly enjoyed, rather than turn a profit. Entrants were asked to submit an essay answering the following:

• Part 1: “Describe how paddling has changed your life.”
• Part 2: “How do you plan to use this canoe, and perhaps someday pass it along?”

< View all entries

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Paige Zetooney, California

You are on the beach getting ready to go out on the water. Then begin pushing the boat into the bay. Once you get on the water, you may see some seagulls flying overhead and fish soaring out the bay. You now are beginning to paddle. Before you begin to paddle, you should know what every seat does in an oc. 6. Seat 1 sets the pace of how fast the paddle goes in and out of the water. Seat 2 calls the changes and paddles 3 and 4 are the powerhouses. Seat 5 bails out the boat and if the boat starts to flip the person in seat 5 must push the ama down to stop the boat from flipping. Lastly, seat 6 is the steersman of the canoe. In paddling you learn to cooperate with others, race against other crews and you make friends and family with people in your crew. What paddling means to me is, since I love the water, and when I put the paddle in the water it gives me a connection to the ocean. Same with any body of water I feel at peace.
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The following submission was made as an entry to win a OC1 from an amazingly generous donor, who wanted to see the canoe truly enjoyed, rather than turn a profit. Entrants were asked to submit an essay answering the following:

• Part 1: “Describe how paddling has changed your life.”
• Part 2: “How do you plan to use this canoe, and perhaps someday pass it along?”

< View all entries

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Jared Rivor, California

An OC for the Generations
My name is Jared Rivor, I’m a coach, paddler, and a student at UCR. I paddle for our school’s Dragon Boat team, Riverside Surging Dragons. My story of paddling begins back two years ago, when I arrived at UCR in my Freshman year. I was 300 miles away from home and lost in a new world with so many new people. Back at home, Millbrae (just outside of SF), I went through elementary school, middle school, and high school with the same people, for the first time in my life, I was in an environment where I knew no one. I realized very quickly that I was unfamiliar with making friends from scratch, before I would always be able to say “hey, you know so and so”, but now these strangers didn’t even know of me and I didn’t even know of them. It was terrifying. I spent much of my first couple of weeks in college calling back home to friends and one of them was telling me how she was going to join the Dragon Boat team at their school. While the phone call was brief, the idea of joining my school’s team was embedded in my head. I decided that I would message the team’s public page asking if they had space left. To my surprise, despite their recruitment finishing a week prior, they said I could join if I did a lot of extra practices and I agreed.

My life quickly changed, I started to spend more hours out of my room training, paddling and getting acquainted with a new community called “RSD”. After four brief weeks, we packed our things and headed up to San Francisco for our first race at College Cup. At this point, my feelings towards paddling were mixed, I enjoyed paddling, but the grueling practices early Saturday and Sunday morning had been taking so much out of me, I began wondering, “What is this all for?”. Either way, it was race day, I had to put my game face on and I raced. I raced my heart out, it was intense, thrilling, and most importantly fun. In the past, I did Cross Country, and while that was with a team, its a really independent sport. In Dragon Boat, its a team effort, we lose as a team and win as a team, which made the losses bearable, and the wins all the more incredible. We actually never won anything at that race, but my heart was set, I was going to stay for just a bit longer.

And I guess I’ve been saying that since. I stopped dreading the practices, I greeted those early mornings as an old friend, and I dedicated much of my free time improving myself on behalf of my teammates, now turned close friends I could always reside with in college. Little did I know, my love for the sport pushed me further than I imagined and now, over a year later I coach our team. Paddling wasn’t just a new passion, but in it, I found a place to be, a place where I belonged, and a place where maybe just maybe, I could call home.

Since becoming a coach, I’ve been trying to find ways for our team to grow. For the last three years, Riverside Surging Dragons have been on an upswing, and as a coach I find myself carrying that torch and I’ve desperately been trying to continue it. This year, our captain had two OCs which he gladly shared with the team. He and I worked closely to tune our stroke towards and OC style and we best polished our paddlers individually on those OCs But aside from improvement, so many of my teammates expressed their love for the OC practices despite them being even earlier than our normal practices. Every weekend the sign-ups would be posted and they would fill up within the hour. Nearly 5-10 people every weekend would be eager to get up at 7 A.M just to paddle at the beach for an hour before practice.

The sign-ups were across a five-week time span during our prep for our biggest race of the year, Tempe Dragon Boat Festival. These spots were coveted and hard to land, you’d have to be constantly checking your phone for our captain to announce for sign-ups were open. I could never attend since I always stayed behind to help drive the rest of the team to practice;
however, I always could see the smiles through the exhaustion in the morning when I arrived at the beach.

I knew that the team loved the OCs and their performances on the water noticeably improved. But the OCs, were a short time stint, as the Captain was a senior and with his graduation, they were on the way out too. When I saw the chance to win an OC through this contest, I didn’t even hesitate I knew exactly what I wanted to do.

Were I to win the contest, I would give it right to the team, so we can always have an OC to practice with. This OC is more than just me, it's for my current teammates, my future teammates, my family at RSD. I want us to have it as an amazing paddling resource for us to grow and love the sport all the more. I think with an OC available to our team, we can further
close the gap between us and the upper echelon of college teams which all have consistent access to OCs. An OC is something everyone will appreciate, passed down from generation to generation of paddlers within our team.
Contact:
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The following submission was made as an entry to win a OC1 from an amazingly generous donor, who wanted to see the canoe truly enjoyed, rather than turn a profit. Entrants were asked to submit an essay answering the following:

• Part 1: “Describe how paddling has changed your life.”
• Part 2: “How do you plan to use this canoe, and perhaps someday pass it along?”

< View all entries

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Hanh Larson, California

I never expected to love paddling as much as I do. In fact, I joined Mission High School Dragon Boat my freshman year only to improve my fitness for soccer, which had been my focus since grade school. Five years later, despite many ups and downs in my paddling journey, my bond with paddling continues to strengthen over time. Paddling has changed my life by introducing me to a community that I can call my family, and by allowing me to grow more compassionate as a leader. Most importantly, paddling has taught me that my worth is not my athletic ability, but the way I treat people.

The first thing about paddling that I fell in love with was the feeling of being valued for who I was as a person, rather than who I was as an athlete. My soccer coaches had told me “You don’t have to be friends, you just have to play well together.” It was clear that if you were good, you were important; if you fell behind, you were irrelevant. When I tore my ACL during my sophomore year, my world ended. I watched ten years of dreams and discipline crumble in a few seconds. I was never going to be the player that I’d been before my injury, and so in the soccer community, I had lost my value. It was the paddling that pulled me out of my well of self pity.

Dragon boat not only filled the competitive void that had been left by soccer, it also provided me with an emotional support system. The people of dragon boat were like a breath of fresh air, and unlike any other community I have ever been in. My Dragon Boat coaches treated me as family, regardless of my performance. As a soccer player I had been rushed to recover just enough to play in games. A coach once told me not to go through with surgery because it would postpone my comeback. However, in the paddling community I was encouraged to take my time recovering. For the first time, my long-term health was more important than how fast I got back to competing. The compassion my friends and coaches in Dragon Boat showed me after my injury convinced me that paddling was far more than a fitness tool— it was the next chapter of my life.

Paddling has also taught me that being a leader means considering people, in a deeper and more complete way than I had ever imagined. As a high school soccer captain, I hadn’t done much more than lead warm-ups before practice. I had always admired my previous dragon boat captains and their ability to run such a large team, but I couldn’t have understood how hard their jobs were— until I stepped into their shoes during my senior year. Suddenly I faced real responsibility for my team’s operations. My ability as an athlete wasn’t the most important qualification for leadership; rather, I had to be able to organize and handle multiple tasks, on top of the expectations of a whole team. Figuring out registration paperwork, boat line ups, workouts, and recruitment—there were so many logistical tasks that I hadn’t really ever had to think about before stepping up to lead a dragon boat team.

My biggest challenges, however, were those that asked me to truly understand my teammates. For example, making workouts and practices “fun”. I’d never considered “fun” as a soccer captain; was there any use in having fun together if there was no community to bond around? It wasn’t until I saw my teammates in Dragon Boat as a complete family, with intertwining friendships, that I understood why they’d want to have fun together. I often questioned whether I was considerate enough to be captain, but, again, my friends and mentors in the community pushed me to keep trying. I also had to practice patience with my newer teammates, something I hadn’t needed as a soccer captain because most of the players had already had experience. Joining Mission Dragon Boat was many of my teammates’ first time paddling or even doing a sport. I had to learn that not everyone was going to share my competitive mindset or fitness level. It was my job to welcome them as they were, and help them strive for their own goals. With perseverance and much trial and error, I learned that the most effective tool I could wield as a leader was my compassion.

Part 2

Since competing in Vancouver during the summer of my junior and senior years of high school I have been enamored with the idea of competing in an international race on the USA U24 National dragon boat team. This year, I began to try to make this idea a reality when I participated in the U24 OC-1 time trials. However, I realized that I wasn’t quite ready. When I did my time OC-1 time trial, I saw that my times were significantly slower than the rest of the candidates. Much of the success of the other candidates was in their ability to train on their own OC-1’s. But for me, getting access to an OC was almost impossible. As a college student in SoCal, I am no longer in a place where I have the resources that were available because of my community in San Francisco. Despite this, I am determined to train for the next U24 cycle in 2021. I am a firm believer that one of the best ways of improving as a paddler is to OC and get as much water time as possible. Having this boat would be an incredible opportunity for me to grow and improve as a paddler as well as help me reach my goal of making the U24 team.

As a paddler and as a person I have only gotten as far as I have with the kindness of others whether it be resources, guidance, encouragement or opportunities. The support that I have been given is what allowed me to even dream of trying out for U24. Reaching my goals will be the best way for me to show that their help and faith in me paid off. My high school dragon boat team however, hasn’t been as lucky as I have. Coming from a small school where dragon boat is constantly underfunded, the resources to become a competitive team (such as small training boats) are out of reach. Throughout high school, I was fortunate to have mentors cheering me on and helping me train consistently in OC-1’s. I hope to someday leave the same kind of impression on the younger members of the Mission teams as my friends did for me. I also want to help provide the resources that my high school team needs to compete with the bigger teams like Lincoln and Lowell. Through leading the Mission team during my senior year, I have gotten to know the younger members of the team. I have had the privilege of watching them grow into great athletes and members of the community. I want to help them succeed as reach the goals that they set for themselves and the team. I think that providing them with an OC in the future will help them improve as not only as individual paddlers but as a team as well.

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My name is Hailey Hanh Larson, but I preferred to be called Hanh. I'm 18 years old. I was born in Vietnam but I came to San Francisco when I was two. I graduated from Mission High School, and I’m about to start my second year of college at UC Irvine. I started my paddling career my freshman year of high school and have continued onto paddling in college
for the UCI Dragon Boat team. Over five years, I have paddled for a number of teams such as Mission High School, Cal Dragon Boat, East Harbor, and UCIDB. Prior to paddling I did a wide variety of sports such as swimming and gymnastics but my most notable sport was soccer which
I played for 13 years. However due to injury I was forced to retire as a soccer player after my senior year.

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The following submission was made as an entry to win a OC1 from an amazingly generous donor, who wanted to see the canoe truly enjoyed, rather than turn a profit. Entrants were asked to submit an essay answering the following:

• Part 1: “Describe how paddling has changed your life.”
• Part 2: “How do you plan to use this canoe, and perhaps someday pass it along?”

< View all entries

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Kaelynn Tan, California

PART ONE:

Dragon boat.

Who knew this traditional Chinese sport would become such an influential factor in my life and has shaped me into who I am today. My first few steps into high school was accompanied by my first few steps into becoming a more confident, strong person. Joining dragon boat and its community has helped me grow both as an athlete and person. Throughout the years as an athlete, I've come to realize that participating in a sport is less about building the body, but rather the spirit and community.

As a natural introvert, being in crowded environments often results in me engaging in very limited interactions with others. To say the least, dragon boat is team-based so socializing is a must. At the time when I was thinking of joining, I was very timid and reluctant to try new activities alone. Because of this, when suggested to join by my brother, I immediately asked every friend or acquaintance if they wanted to join with me. If I was unable to find anyone to go along with me, I would not try out dragon boat. Period. This is where I want to thank the four friends who coaxed me out of my shell, otherwise I wouldn’t have found the home I call Mountain View Dragon Boat.

Unlike the previous sports I’ve participated in, dragon boat is a team sport and was the very first sport that required me to collaborate as a team to win. Like I mentioned before, the thought of me interacting with a large amount of people was definitely daunting. I still remember how the curious gazes of everyone on my first few days out felt almost suffocating because I always hated being in the center of attention.

However, what helped me overcome this barrier was just how welcoming and warm-hearted people in dragon boat are. My first few interactions with the team were all positive, uplifting, and supportive. I had never seen such a great community all concentrated in one team, and because of this I came to adore MVDB -- the team and the people behind it. I’ve been on this team for almost two years now. I’ve seen its highs and I’ve seen its lows. There are many people who were dear to me my first year who no longer paddle anymore. I needed to meet new people and make new connections if this team was to continue to be my second home.

Unfortunately, my shyness doesn’t just disappear overnight, so struggling to make new friends was definitely a process that took both time and effort. I went from quietly standing off to the side to exchanging ‘hellos’ with other paddlers. They were small, but meaningful interactions and a good step in the right direction. It wasn’t until our annual trip down to Long Beach where everything clicked for me. Because this trip lasted a whole weekend and required a long drive down, I was stuck with the same people for more than a day. And that was something I did not regret; leaving my comfort zone resulted in becoming closer to many people on the team than I usually do. This slowly strengthened my love for this sport even more.

I still remember my very first day out to practice. After practice the team would usually pick a location to eat and hang out for a few hours. Between me and my small group of friends, we decided that we would join and treat ourselves out because it was our very first practice. We were all still very nervous and timid around these brand new people. The place we had chosen was In - N - Out. My friend and I had just taken our orders and were waiting around. People from the team approached us every now and then as we waited for our food. I can still remember the stiff, awkward tension present. Thankfully my number was called shortly after and I could quickly exit the conversation. My friend’s received her food right after mine as well. We carried our meals out the door and looked outside to find a spot to eat. To the right of us was the whole team crowded around two small tables. To our left was an empty two-seater hidden behind the side of the building. We looked at each other. Then turned left. Our coach immediately noticed this and headed our way. Right as we sat down he looked us both in the eye and said, “Go sit with the team.”

I’m forever grateful to our coach who stopped us from isolating ourselves from the team. Although it did turn out to be very awkward sitting there with new people for the first time, it was one more interaction to becoming great friends with everyone. Nowadays, I always look forward to post-practice hangouts with the team. Seeing how far we’ve come, it’s really amazing. I know I’ve grown as a person in my time being on the team. I’ve learned to embrace my weird quirks and be confident with who I am. I’m no longer as much of a jumbled mess when talking with others. It still takes me time to get used to new people, but I’m much more comfortable than I was before. There are people on this team who I’m extremely close with and never would have imagined I would be before I had joined dragon boat. The team is filled with so many people with different personalities, attributes, and perspectives. Yet, we all coexist as one large, happy family.

It wasn’t until I tried dragon boat did I recognize that this sport was special. Unlike other sports, it does not require a certain height, weight, or level of athleticism. Dragon boat can be for anyone. From young high schoolers to the elderly, dragon boat brings us together to work as one. And that’s hard to find in other sports. It was really inspiring to watch paddlers of all ages work together as one to race to the finish line. Correspondingly, building a relationship with team members is -- if not more -- important than building the body. Yes, winning medals is definitely a great feat but experiencing the behind the scenes of that victory is far more valuable. The core of being successful in dragon boat is teamwork. Factors such as coordination, collaboration, and communication are all important when building a team. I’ve been told by my coaches countless times that one paddler alone will not make a difference in a race, but twenty paddlers together will. This concept is what I feel makes the dragon boat community so wonderful. It doesn’t matter what your origin story is because everyone is welcomed. Getting to know those around you and establishing good relationships only makes the team stronger. I often look back fondly on how my teammates from Mountain View welcomed me with open arms. Even off the water, we always made time to meet up and enjoy each other’s company. Dragon boat doesn’t solely look at one’s athletic capabilities. In this sport, we value who you are as a person.

After witnessing how amazing the community is, I was only more motivated to try my best to live up to the expectations of other outstanding paddlers. I’ve never seriously committed lots of time and training into other sports until now. Despite this, I am still a naturally competitive person. Driven by a desire for self-improvement both due to my innate competitive spirit and encouragement from my peers, I can say that I've become a stronger athlete through improving my self discipline and self motivation. My drive to becoming a top paddler is aided in perseverance and a strong will. No matter how arduous pieces may seem, I will stay in until the very end. I like to follow the thought that a piece should never be easy. There should always be something that I can improve on to get better. Whenever I’m paddling, I’m continuously training both physically and mentally. Additional training outside of regular practice hours are a part of my daily schedule as well. I often pErg and exercise using workouts recommended by my coaches. For cross-training I partake in swimming, badminton, and gymnastics once a week. All these efforts are towards my personal goal of becoming a great paddler that others can look up to. None of this could not have been achieved without leading figures such as my coaches and teammates who have guided me. Dragon boat has really helped open my eyes of what it means to be an athlete. Training, perseverance, the drive to succeed, and learning to become a part of this wonderful community. This has become a sport that I know I want to dedicate my heart and time into. With this in mind, I hope to compete with other top paddlers around the world, and when the time comes, inspire the incoming underclassmen the way others have done for me. I know through lots of dedication and training I will reach that goal.

PART TWO:

For one I will definitely want to use this OC to train more on the water when practices aren’t held. Currently our team houses a pErg but it can only do so much as it’s restricted to land. Having an OC is ideally the best way to train because it allows me to go on the water while pErg can only simulate it. It is also convenient to not need 19 other people to go out and train. Although the team aspect of dragon boat is important to me, if given the opportunity to train by myself, I will utilize it to improve and further contribute my efforts towards the team.

If I were to win the OC, I would share it with everyone who has positively encouraged and supported me throughout my dragon boat career. From friends to coaches to potential teammates, I want to thank them for everything they’ve done to help shape me into who I am today. This will be my token of appreciation.

In the future, this OC will be passed along to another paddler. Whether they do dragon boat or Kilohana OCC, I want to share it with the whole paddling community. I want to continue the heartwarming tradition of giving to others. One day I may stop doing dragon boat or get to old too. Who knows where life will take you. I just know I would be very honored to pass this OC to another fellow paddler and open up their doors of opportunities.

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Hello! My name is Kaelynn Tan and I am an upcoming junior attending Milpitas High School, located in San Jose. I was first introduced to dragonboat my summer of 8th grade. My brother was previously part of Mountain View Dragon Boat, a local team located in San Jose, and asked me to join the team. I’ve been paddling for almost 2 years and plan to continue into college. I have also recently joined another team called Dragon Warriors which is located in San Francisco.

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The following submission was made as an entry to win a OC1 from an amazingly generous donor, who wanted to see the canoe truly enjoyed, rather than turn a profit. Entrants were asked to submit an essay answering the following:

• Part 1: “Describe how paddling has changed your life.”
• Part 2: “How do you plan to use this canoe, and perhaps someday pass it along?”

< View all entries

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Briana Nguyen, California

Part 1: Describe how paddling has changed your life
Hello! My name is Briana Nguyen and I am an incoming third year at the University of California, Irvine. I’m currently majoring in Public Health Science and have been a part of the dragon boat community for two years. In contrast to many of my teammates, I did not have any prior dragon boat experience and truthfully, was not even aware that such a water sport existed in high school. Ironically, although my high school was located only 1.5 mile away from the beach, other water sports such as surfing or rowing was the way to go where I grew up. To put things into perspective, as I wish the reader to have a better understanding of little ol’ me, I was quite the unathletic teenager and a little obsessed with losing weight, counting every single calorie and hopping onto the scale everyday as I aimed to get that body weight down to the lowest number possible. Fortunately for me, I love food so my weight never reduced to a drastic number that would have endangered myself. Not so fortunately, this poisoned my mentality by practicing this poor habit. While I was feeding my brain unhealthy thoughts, I ironically was not feeding my body enough, limiting my full physical potential where it would take me 17 minutes to run one mile (almost passed out), my strength in dodgeball games was, well, dodging, and my greatest sport reign ever? Tetherball, specifically in fifth grade.

While at a certain point during my senior year, I decided enough was enough, and got back up on my feet, I will always tell my friends and family that joining the UCI Dragon Boat team was a definite turning point for me as it pushed me not one, not two, but ten steps forward in the game of life. Dragon boat has certainly changed my life in a variety of ways that cannot be summed up in an essay but if I had to pluck the most impactful changes, I’d break this essay down into three components: my mindset, my career path, and perspective on those around me.

Out of everything that paddling has given back to me, my top answer would most definitely be my new mindset. Coming into UCI, I was a timid, anxious student scared to push past my boundaries and open up to others. Although I had gotten back on my feet, I was still working on building confidence and self-esteem and with very little dragon boat experience, I came into recruitment week constantly comparing myself to all the other “cool” high-school paddlers. In all honesty, I have no idea how I was chosen to be on the team with my lower-than-average land stats, wonky paddling technique, and the fact that I barely spoke to any of the current team members; it was by some miracle my proctor saw me pushing hard for something, noting a glimpse of potential and for that I have her to thank to this day. But enough about that! You get the idea how I was coming into this team. Through demanding water practices and rigorous conditionings, in addition to the ups and downs this team has experienced together, I slowly molded into the passionate and resilient individual I am today. To put into better words, I had become mentally and physically stronger through my discovered passion of the sport itself in addition with the reconstruction of my self-esteem.

It’s funny how one thing leads to another, similar to a set of dominoes falling down one after the other. While a large portion of my changing mindset came from the released endorphins from paddling, and becoming physically and mentally stronger, I would say that building self-esteem derived from that fact that dragon boat has helped me realize my own strengths - strengths that I had all along. Despite viewing myself as a soft-spoken individual, my teammates helped me realize how much of a strong-willed individual I actually am, especially when it came to issues such as personal happiness and mental health. While I do take pride in setting an example as someone who has physically come a long way, I’m honestly the happiest when teammates do come up to me and ask me to share my story; it’s one thing to be “strong” on the boat, but to make a difference in people’s lives off the water is something that is truly rewarding for myself.  What I’m trying to say is, yes, I may have come some ways physically going from 0 to 9 pull-ups in less than a year, or yes, I have come some ways mentally by confidently rejecting the standard notion that all girls have to be skinny, but ultimately I’m so thankful how dragon boat has combined all these different aspects of myself, leading towards this type of activist mindset, realizing what I enjoy most and my purpose - to help others in life.

Admittedly, one of the cons about being on a competitive dragon boat team is the time commitment. Now, combining this with finding internships, other extracurriculars, jobs, fraternities, and of course, the workload that comes with being a full-time student, it can be a bit challenging dedicating more time to our career path - a trend that I often notice among UC dragon boat teams. However, I dare to disagree. While I strive to build a career outside of paddling and despite what others say about dragon boat being a mere sport and sometimes a “waste of time”, I believe that dragon boat has allowed me to strengthen professional skills. Grasping various opportunities such as becoming a DBOT (a dragon boat “internship” before coming onto board, essentially) and 17th Generation Vice President has exposed me to semi-professional scenarios that my timid high school self would have never tackled alone. Whether it was interviews, multi-tasking responsibilities behind-the-scenes, giving speeches, learning when it was appropriate to interject and speak up, public speaking, or thinking one step ahead, I was repeatedly pushed outside my comfort zone. To put it simply, being on UCI Elements has paved the mini steps for me, allowing me to venture off on my own as I search for more jobs and possible internships, ready to tackle any application, interviews, or general challenges that come my way. Furthermore, through personal experiences of my own injuries and those around me, paddling has lead me to settle on physical therapy as a career pathway as I’ve learned to appreciate the body mechanisms on how our body breaks down and how to recuperate from such injuries.

Two years ago, if you told me I was going to be a part of a competitive, driven sports team, I would’ve probably laughed in your face. If you had told me that I would be surrounding myself with a second family that would support me every step of the way, I wouldn’t have believed you. These were the major benefits that UCI Dragon Boat had to offer me when I first joined the team and it feels like the magnitude of these benefits are still expanding the more time I spend with this crew. Combined with the overwhelming support the dragon boat community has given me, paddling has unquestionably grown on me like an old friend. Every year during our annual retreat, we have a team tradition known as “candle pass” where for about 8 hours, from 9 P.M. to 6 A.M. (yes, you read that right), a candle is passed from one person to another as each person tells his or her story. Every year, I am amazed by the different perspectives and strengths every individual has on this team as each and every person share different stories, different backgrounds, and different upbringings that have shaped them to how they are today. Some stories are inspiring and end on a happy note while others, not so much. Overall, candle pass is a reality check and a huge reminder of how every individual endures their own struggles and more importantly, how we’re all in this together - we’re all on the same boat (Get it? Sorry, I’m lame.) All in all, this team tradition never fails to demonstrate the impact UCIDB has had on its members. Despite the grueling training seasons and difficult practices, it’s incredibly obvious how when us UCI paddlers come together to practice, that’s our happy place, this is our safe haven right now and if it wasn’t obvious already, that statement definitely applies to me.

Part 2: How do you plan to use this canoe, and perhaps pass it along?

In our hands, this canoe would provide multiple benefits for our team. Fortunately, UCI is located near the ocean; however, while our team has access to the Newport Aquatic Center (NAC), a center that allows us to pay a monthly membership and rent out outrigger canoes (OC), almost always, at least one or two canoes are out of commission for some reason. While such canoes do get repaired at some point, it often takes weeks or even a whole month for them to be back commission sometimes since out of all the other recreation boats (i.e. rowing or kayaks), outrigger canoes aren’t the most prioritized (in a way, this is understandable as NAC is more known by their excellent rowing teams and tourist attractions such as the kayak bring in more money from the public). In result, this can prove to be annoying or inefficient as UCI Elements, a team comprised of incredibly committed and determined individuals, absolutely love to OC. Typically, out of the fifty people on our team, this past year at least, only a maximum of five people at a time were able to OC (three OC-1’s and one OC-2) with that number sometimes dwindling when more canoes are put out of commission. In addition, this OC can help those on our team who wish to paddle more but unfortunately are not able to afford the expensive monthly membership.

Finally, I believe an extra OC would be a great tool for board members. As board members, we of course prioritize our fellow team members, providing them the best resources at hand meaning that we may sometimes even sacrifice opportunities to OC or paddle during practice (i.e. water coaches/callers/steersman) so that our paddlers have maximum time on the water. This means giving up preferred time slots for OC’ing or subbing out during practices. Furthermore, the canoe would help with time trials where we often have paddlers paddle for 300 meters in an OC-2 with three OC-1’s on hand - one OC for girls to warm up before their trial, another OC for boys, and finally the third as an anchor OC which paddles alongside the proctor boat, recording footage from the side and allowing the paddler to view their trial from an entirely different angle.
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The following submission was made as an entry to win a OC1 from an amazingly generous donor, who wanted to see the canoe truly enjoyed, rather than turn a profit. Entrants were asked to submit an essay answering the following:

• Part 1: “Describe how paddling has changed your life.”
• Part 2: “How do you plan to use this canoe, and perhaps someday pass it along?”

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Lindy Chen, California

In the June 2015, I had my first dragon boat practice ever after my friend, who was the captain of the team I was at the time, convinced me to go. I had no idea what this sport was before I joined and I was fascinated by all of the teams practicing and all of the boats on the water. We warmed up on the land by doing a few exercises and then after spraying a bunch of sunscreen on myself, we loaded onto the boat. The next day, I woke up SORE. I could barely walk down the stairs at my house since I barely exercised before I joined dragonboat. Although the few practices were honestly quite painful at first, I stayed in the team because of the friends I made there and how nice it felt to paddle on the water. Race day finally came and our spirits were high. We got our final pep talk by our coach at Big Long Beach and went on the water. The adrenaline that rushed through my body was amazing. Although it was the fastest 3 minutes of my life, those 3 minutes proved that all of our practice was worth it. These 3 minutes inspired me to continue dragon boat for the next three summers of my high school life and as these summers passed, my passion for this sport grew. However, I didn’t realize how strong my passion was for dragon boat until I joined the team at UC Riverside.

I joined Riverside Surging Dragons last Fall as a first-year and I soon realized how different college teams were from high school. We practiced more frequently and even met up on the weekdays to gym together. I was introduced to the perg, and later on the OC. Everyone was motivated and performing at their best and I gained this new motivation I didn’t have in high school. I found myself doing extra purging sessions and I began learning how to use gym equipment. One day, my former captain, Preston Chu, released a sign up sheet to our team for his OC. As someone who couldn’t swim, I was scared to go to these OC practices and held off signing up for them the entire Fall Quarter. Eventually, after a lot of anxious questions about the OC and team members assuring me that it wasn’t scary at all, I signed up for my first ever OC practice in Winter Quarter.

My first time on it was probably one of the scarier things I have done in my life. I was shaking the entire time and I was too scared to go to the chanel I didn’t want to go too far in case I fell off and couldn’t get back up. I began signing up for every opportunity that was possible and soon enough, I found a liking to OC practice because it helped me focus more on my personal technique and gave me a lot of time to fix mistakes that I couldn’t do on the boat. Everyone who has paddled on the OC on our team has given positive feedback on it. Although I only have a few months of experience with the OC, I realized what an important impact it has made on our team.

Unfortunately, Preston graduated this year and our team doesn’t have an OC to practice with anymore. Our board has talked about purchasing one before, but we simply do not have enough funds to support it so when I saw this generous Facebook post about an OC contest, I knew I immediately had to enter. If I were to win this canoe, I would donate it to our team to use. We would have OC signups again, allowing my fellow teammates to have more time to practice on the water and strengthening our team as a whole. Using an OC has become an essential to our team and has helped us a lot. We all have this shared passion of paddling and growing ourselves in the process - I know everyone in the team would love to be able to use an OC again.

Without the team Riverside Surging Dragons, I would have never been able to challenge myself this much while enjoying all of the times we practice on the water with my teammates.

My teammates mean everything to me and we constantly inspire each other to work harder and to always do our best. We are not just a team, but a family. We hang out outside of practice and these people have not only taught me how to paddle better but also life lessons that I will utilize for the rest of my life. We are a community part of a bigger community that is full of immense support and love. Dragon Boat has given me life-long friends and helped me find a passion not just for this sport but exercise in general. I never would’ve thought that I would be doing this sport for more than 4 years and I know that I will continue doing it. It has impacted my life so much and honestly, I can’t go a day without thinking about it. My team would love to have an OC and I know they would appreciate this gift very much. Thank you so much for your generosity and for giving everyone this opportunity. Additionally, thank you for taking your time in reading all of these essays! I promise that if we win this contest, we will take proper care of your OC and pass it along to the next generations of our team.

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Thank you so much for generosity in donating your OC.

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< View all entries

The following submission was made as an entry to win a OC1 from an amazingly generous donor, who wanted to see the canoe truly enjoyed, rather than turn a profit. Entrants were asked to submit an essay answering the following:

• Part 1: “Describe how paddling has changed your life.”
• Part 2: “How do you plan to use this canoe, and perhaps someday pass it along?”

< View all entries

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Emily Suen, California

My name is Emily Suen and I am currently a student at the University of California, Irvine majoring in Psychology and hope to double major in Criminology. I recently finished my first year paddling for UCI Dragonboat and am going to go into my second year as the fundraising chair of the team. Prior to joining the team, I’ve paddled in high school for a few teams including Wallenberg High School, Galileo High School, and Northwind Dragonboat. Through my 4 years of paddling, I was able to gain many qualities and experiences I otherwise wouldn’t have gained through anything else other than dragonboat.

Going into high school, I wanted to get involved in school through extracurriculars. I had heard about dragonboat because my brother participated in it in high school when I was in middle school. Because of this interesting sport, I asked the athletic directors of my school if we had such a sport, to which they unfortunately said they didn’t. After joining different sports like tennis and badminton, I met a group of girls that wanted to start a dragonboat club at our school, to which I happily volunteered to help them gain members interested. At that moment, the summer after my freshman year, would be the start to something greater than me that I’d never imagined would happen in my mediocre life.

Spending hours of my day at Lake Merced in San Francisco defined my summer of 2015. Despite barely experiencing the sport, I decided to choose dragonboat over a paying job because I thought that I’d gain more in terms of finding a community that suited me. From there, I decided to go to every single practice and every land conditioning. After 3 months of dedicated training from my team, we placed 3rd in the Northern California Dragon Boat Festival at Treasure Island. This accomplishment fueled my passion for this sport and this team. When it was time to elect new leadership positions, my coach elected me as the president because of the hard work I had put in for the year. Having never thought that I would become a leader considering how much of a quiet person I am, I was surprised and scared. Pushing through obstacles like learning to talk to my team, organizing logistics, and fundraising helped strengthen my communication and public speaking skills. After a successful year of running the team, a conflict occurred between the coaches and paddlings, resulting in the team disbanding. Due to this, many of us moved on to join Galileo Celestial Dragons in SF in the spring of 2017.

Wanting to continue pursuing my passion of this sport, I continued working hard as soon as I joined GCD, leading me to be the only new paddler that made it onto their A crew after 2 months. Being a very successful team, GCD was able to provide many resources such as OCing, pERGing, and small gym sessions at one of our coaches’ houses who fortunately lived only a few blocks away from me. With this type of availability, I definitely wanted to push myself in terms of becoming a better athlete. I felt like I had grown a lot as a person physically and mentally, causing me to believe I could have a chance at running to be next season’s female captain despite only being on the team for a few months. After results came out, I didn’t end up winning. Rather than sulking, I began to push myself even harder to become an indirect leader on the team, which is someone who becomes a leader through their actions and hard work rather than being vocal on the team. Through my time on GCD, I was given the opportunity of paddling at Vancouver in 2017, competing with some of the fastest teams in the world. In addition to traveling, through my hard work in the next year I was invited by my coach, Fred Au, to compete with Northwind in the World Championships in Hungary in 2018. To me, this was definitely something that I had never dreamt of before, let alone believe it was real. Given the opportunity of traveling to another continent to compete in a sport is something that was super surreal to me given that I never participated in any sports as competitive as dragonboat. Also being the youngest paddler for Northwind was something that I took great pride in, considering how everyone else were adults. From my experience of paddling on Northwind, I was able to gain experiences such as traveling to 5 different countries in Europe for the first time, needing to plan my own logistics and traveling situation and allowing me to be independent without my family.

After training for World Championships in 2018, I was starting to feel burnout from training so hard for so long, causing me to reconsider trying out for UCI’s dragonboat team. Close to recruitment week, I was pretty set on taking a break from paddling. But one of my former teammates from Northwind wanted to gather our teammates to create a team to paddle for Lake Merritt and have no commitment requirements. This meant we would go into race day without any training and just to see how we would do, since we took about a month break after worlds. After going through race day after taking a month break, I realized how much I loved the sport and how much I had gained through my 3 years of paddling. I ended up realizing I didn’t want to take a break from the sport but instead to try out for the team and not need to put in my maximum effort. After recruitment week was over for UCIDB, I was awaiting the call to see whether or not I was accepted onto the team. After waiting hours for the call, I ended up receiving it and teared up, because of how happy I was that I could continue doing the sport that I loved so much. Paddling for UCIDB for fall quarter, I put more effort into paddling as I intended resulting in a devastating drop in my grades, landing me in academic probation. Despite this, I was actually able to make it onto the A crew after my first quarter with the team. After a quarter of adjusting to college and joining the UCIDB community, I found a few people that are now some of my closest friends and helped me get through my deepest low of academics all the while helping me still enjoy paddling with my team. So much, that I got nominated to be on board for my second year as a fundraising chair. Knowing I have so much support from my teammates as well as overcoming obstacles, I believed I was able to balance academics as well as paddling and being on board as a second year.

In conclusion, dragonboat has given me so much in terms of knowledge, life skills, experiences, and life-long friends that I wouldn’t have gained in any other organization. Through paddling, I was able to gain knowledge of technique and learn how to deeply understand the mechanics of paddling in order to teach people younger than me. Through being on multiple leadership positions, I was able to gain skills of organization, public speaking, and persistence. Through dragonboat, I was able to meet many different kinds of people and develop interpersonal relationships, many of which are my closest friends that I have ever made in my life.

As a board member for my team this upcoming 17th Generation, I want to be able to give back to one of the teams that have given me a lot and have helped me through my lowest lows in my life. By typing and pouring my passion and heart into this essay, I slowly realized how much dragonboat has given me in life and how much I want to give back to this community. This opportunity is a great way to connect with the community and be a thoughtful way to be something that is passed down from generation to generation. I would like to give my team the opportunity to be more competitive considering how expensive college already is, and how OCing at Newport Aquatic Center, our local Outrigger Canoe facility, is both costly as well as difficult to use for all of our competitive team members. This OC would be passed down within our team to provide future members who want to improve their technique as well as be provided extra water time.

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