For 8 seasons I have been a member of a recreational dragon boat team. Some of you who take time out of your day to read my boring blog might be wondering “what the heck is a dragon boat team??”  So I guess I should give a brief run down before carrying on with my post.

 

Dragon boat is a big long, skinny boat that holds 20 paddlers sitting side by side. There is a drummer, who sits at the front of the boat and commands the team and there is a steersman who stands at the back and uses a long sweep (or oar) to keep the boat going straight.  The goal is to have every paddler in the boat taking a stroke at the exact same time and be completely in sync with one another.  If one person is out of time then it can affect an entire race.  The races are usually 500 meters but there can be sprint races of 200 meters.  Each race has different components to it which involve different styles of strokes, speeds of strokes and intensity to the stroke.  It isn’t like paddling a canoe.  It’s a full body use sport.  Even your legs help with giving the “drive” on your paddle.  Here’s two google pictures for a visual that can help.  The second overhead shot is actually of the creek that I race out of with my team.  So you can see a glimpse of the beautiful city I live in.

So, now with that little crash course, I can carry on.

I have been paddling with the same team for 8 seasons. They are the group that got me into the sport.  I loved it and was hooked right off the bat.  Turns out I’m actually a pretty decent paddler.  Not to toot my own horn!  The team was making steps to getting better and better.  For a recreational team that only practices twice a week, we did not too bad in races.  We couldn’t seem to keep a coach though.  For multiple seasons we had someone new each time.  This makes things challenging as each coach has a different style to work with.  We also have a problem of people who have been paddling for 15+ years and think that they know everything.  That they don’t need special coaching.  Because of these two things, the team has kind of hit the ceiling of the level we are at.  People are there more for the social aspect of it (which is fine…to an extent) but not the hard work aspect of it.  I would say about 70% of the members don’t do any other exercise besides the twice a week practices, so physical strength and endurance isn’t there like it could be.  People are more focused on getting to the beer garden after races than they are on the races.  They are happy with the status quo…

….but I’m not. As a somewhat competitive person, the past few seasons I’ve had so many frustrations with people’s lack of dedication to the team.  They arrive to practice late, they give only a small effort and they talk back to the coach when he tries to help them.  We have an international competitive coach who has stayed with the team for 4 seasons now and he’s amazing.  I have learned so much from him and have become a much stronger paddler because of him.  But other people haven’t given him the chance to help make them stronger.  They just want to keep going with how they already are.  Which is a huge waste of money.  Why do we pay this awesome coach to just run us through the motions with nobody even trying?  A couple times the coach has talked with me and my sister and made small comments insinuating that we should check out other teams beyond the one we are on.  It is flattering to hear as we haven’t heard him say it to others.  We know he likes us as he calls us the “turbo twins” and puts us in a “controller” seat in the boat.  But, getting off topic again.  Tooting my own horn again.  We have also had another friend of ours, who has been paddling with numerous competitive teams for years, keep telling us our skills are wasted on our current team and to start looking at moving from recreational paddling to competitive paddling.  It’s been flattering hearing these things but, because I’m a bit of a committer and also have felt obligated to stick with the team that gave me my start, the idea of leaving is terrifying.  I care a lot for our team manager as he’s a bit of a father figure in a lot of ways.  I feel insane levels of guilt for even thinking about leaving my team.

But, last season wore thin on me. Friendships that I had previously had changed.  The lack of dedication to working hard drove me up the wall.  I spent the entire time with my sister, which was fine as we have lots of fun together, but it can be a bit lonely on long race days if she isn’t around as I don’t connect much with others anymore.  The team having issues with the same things year after year after year annoyed the crap out of me.  With an amazing coach it shouldn’t be this way.  I actually started to tell my husband that I think it’s time to hang up my beautiful pink carbon fiber paddle and lifejacket and quit dragon boat.  I didn’t think I could do another season with the team and my enthusiasm for driving into the city for practices and then driving an hour home in the dark after being annoyed at weak practices didn’t appeal to me.  He asked me if my lack of interest in the sport was actually a lack of interest in my current team, and not so much about the sport.  It really got me thinking about it, but I still was pretty sure I was just going to tell our team manager I’m taking a hiatus for a bit.

Buuuut last week the friend of mine who has been trying to get me to leave the team sent me a text asking if I’ve given more consideration into the competitive women’s team that he steers the boat for. He’s been really pressing me (and my sister) to jump boat and join them for some time now.  I’ve never taken much consideration into women’s teams as I’ve always thought that getting 20+ women together Is just asking for drama and bitching.  Plus the level of competition isn’t as hard as a mixed gender team.  I told him all of this and he assured me that there is a lot of competition and that this particular team has some really strong friendships formed through it and that it’s a really great group of women.  He invited me to come to their start up meeting just to meet a few people and see what they are all about.  I wasn’t going to do it.  But then I found out that my sister won’t be able to race this season, which would leave me entirely on my own with a team that I have no interest in being on.  So I agreed to going to the meeting.  I am so glad that I did.  The women all seem pretty awesome.  There were so many laughs at the meeting but also discussion on how hard they want to work this season.  I got to talk to the coach and hear what his vision for the team is and how he runs his practices.  I talked to other mothers who balance work/kids/paddling.  And then I went for a drink with about 15 of them afterwards where I got to talk to a few more of the women.  I left feeling like they could be the team that could reignite my love of the sport again.  The fee to join the team is 3 times as much as I pay with my current team because they aren’t backed by a huge corporate company that heavily subsidizes everything.  The team also is only doing two local races at the beginning of the season and the other 3 are out of town, either an hour and a half drive from the city, or else down in the States.  My current team does every race of the season locally but then there is a “traveling team” that is formed after the main race at the end of June.  So, with the almost $400 fee for joining the team for one season, plus the cost of travel almost monthly, it’s a lot more of an expensive sport than it ever has been.  Plus I need a new lifejacket and protective bag for my paddle.  Which will add about another $200 on to things.  I went home last night and Eddie was still awake so I mentioned all of this to him.  He ended up saying “Do you want to do it?  Do you think you will enjoy it?”  My answer was “I think so” so he said that the money can come out of savings and I should go ahead with it.  He will enjoy daddy/son time on the nights of practices and said for the traveling he is more than happy to have weekends with Hunter all to himself.  So….all that being said….I think I’m going to do it.  I’m going to make the switch to become a more competitive racer.  To find new friendships in the sport.  To improve with a team that wants to improve.  To explore a new area of the sport with women’s teams only races.  It makes me nervous as all heck and I’m terrified to tell my team manager.  But I think it needs to be done.  I’m going to do it through an email since I won’t be seeing him until likely February.  I figure that I’m going to offer up to fill seats in the old team’s boat for race days if they are struggling to get 20 people in the boat, since the races that they do aren’t ones that the women’s team does.  So there is no conflict there.

Sorry for the rambling post. This was more so an opportunity for me to really lay it out and see it all in front of me to help me make the final decision on things.  It isn’t an easy choice for me to make, as I said before, I feel insane levels of guilt for even contemplating not returning to my team…despite the things I dislike about it.  So I really needed to essentially see the pros and cons to make the best decision for myself.  For getting through to this point in reading, I commend you!  Hopefully you were somewhat entertained?  J