NEWS ARCHIVES

FOUND - On Saturday evening (at about 5:30) we found an envelope labeled "Dragon Boat Donations". 

 

FOUND -  Also, we found a Grey Owl wooden paddle with the letter B on one side of the handle and S on the other. Contact Pete at peter.giannola@ngc.com if either belongs to you.

To the Long Beach Dragonboat Community,

The local Long Beach race is on the near horizon.  Even rarer, this year, Long Beach has the great honor of hosting the 2008 U.S. Nationals.  To put this into perspective, the Nationals competition is held every other year, and the chosen race sites alternate between the western, central, and eastern regions.  The opportunity to participate in Nationals in Long Beach is unique and most likely will not return "home" for at least another decade!

In speaking with Dr. Chen, whose contributions to our community cannot be overstated, he finds great pride in the successes of the community at-large, not just in any single team, but in all of us.  As such, we have decided to commit our resources, for planning, evaluating, and coaching to put together a composite Long Beach "All-Star" team to enter into BOTH a MEN'S and WOMEN'S National Squad.

This endeavor is certainly not without its challenges.  An earlier effort yielded untenable results.  And what we are looking for from this request is even more paddlers, enough to qualify two boats to represent at the national caliber.  Thus, I am writing to all of you to solicit your participation.  As a member of this community, I recognize the competitive strength of the teams and its individual paddlers; Long Beach has grown, become stronger, and has established itself in competition.  But not like this.  A strong Long Beach-represented team truly cannot exist, without all your participation.

DETAILS

1.SCHEDULE – final schedule forthcoming.  Anticipated schedule to include 1 day for tryouts followed by one required practice per week.  (TENTATIVE DATES: 5/24, 5/31; 6/7, 6/14, 6/28; 7/5, 7/12, 7/19 - TIMES TBD)  Also, if interested, there's a purely optional Wednesday session (6:00-7:30pm) available.  We can coordinate following tryouts.

 2.TRYOUTS – based on erg testing.  A 2-min. time trial on your preferred side on an erg concept2 with a paddling adapter.  We specifically chose this method of testing because it is easy to use and does not require familiarity to produce strong results.  Paddlers with the top 20 net score (gross score adjusted for weight) per gender automatically qualify for the respective teams.  Additional spots will be reserved for each team to meet the maximum allowed roster per boat.

 3.PRACTICE – required for the top 25 (including alternates).  Practices to be held one day per week for a maximum one-hour session.  Schedule TBD.  Practice duration and frequency may be subject to change as the schedule advances and progress is assessed.  Following time trials, paddlers that qualify are expected to make a minimum of 6 of 8 practices.  Failure to do so will open your seat to the next alternate.

4.We understand and respect each paddler's responsibility and commitment to your own teams and do not expect your involvement with this gender squad to interfere with this.  However discretion should be exercised should any conflicts arise when the National schedule is announced.  

5.If interested, please respond to coaches@laracingdragons.org.  We need your response, ASAP, in order to effectively organize the time trials.

We anticipate this venture and opportunity to be a real exciting one for the entire community and look forward to joining with all of you to represent Long Beach!  Please pass this on to all your teammates and other fellow paddlers you think might be interested in this event. 

Cheers, 

Leon Cheng on behalf of Southern California Dragon Boat Club and the coaching staff of the Los Angeles Racing Dragons, a 501c3 non-profit foundation:

Chuck Chang, Jason Cheng, Otto Jan, Will Lin, and Scott Wu
Long Beach National Team Point of Contact – Chuck Chang
Composite Men's Coach – Scott Wu
Composite Women's Coach – Leon Cheng

• 6/1,2 Mi Luo River,Yue Yang City,Hu Nan Province
• 6/5Tong Ren, GuiZhou Province
• 6/8 Chong Qing, HeChuan Province
• 6/13-15 Nanning City,Guang Xi Province

• Phoenix need 6 paddlers for June 3 Taipei race. Contact Dr. Chen if you are interested!

dr. chen would like paddlers to participate in the Cambodian new year parade this sun April 6th starting at 8:30am. parade route will be in long beach along Anaheim st. starting at junipero - see map here!



please show up wearing your team jersey and bring your paddle!
it's only a 2 mile walk ending at MacArthur park for the Cambodian new year's festival. for more information go to their website at www.cambodiannewyearparade.com/
 

Starters - announcing and lining up the boats at the start of the race

Dock linesmen - people to hold the dragon tails of the boats at the start of the race

Registration - people to handle forms and team registration packets

Chase boat operators - boat operators to help referee the races while in progress

Marshalling/Loading Coordinators - help manage teams efficiently for loading/unloading

Teams scheduled for monitoring this weekend:

SAT - Los Angeles Racing Dragons 1

SUN - Los Angeles Racing Dragons 2

2008 China four City International Dragon Boat Festival Invitation as follow :

1. City of Zhanjiang International Dragon Boat Festival . Hold on 08^th, June . 2008 .  Hosted the overseas team’s from 06 – 09 June (three days two night )
2. City of Guilin International Dragon Boat Festival . Hold on 11^th, June, 2008 . Hosted the overseas team’s from 09 -12 June ( four days three night ) .
3. City of Guangzhou The thirteen International Dragon Boat Festival. Hold on 14^th  June . 2008 . Hosted the overseas team’s from 12 – 15 June ( four days three night )
4. City Zhaoqing International Dragon Boat Festival . Hold on 15^th, June , 2008 .

Please contact Dr. Chen if you or any of your team members are interested!