Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Dragonboat Weekend
In response to Derek's comment on Facebook: oh yeah, I dragonboat!
Well, once a year, anyway. :P
I'm on a team called Out2Paddle, and we compete each year in the Washington DC Dragonboat Festival. The team comes from a group called AQUA, which stands for Asian/Pacific Islander Queers United for Action, and yes, I'm a member (don't forget, I'm Asian on the inside). AQUA has a couple interesting goals: to raise the visibility of Asians in the LGBT community, and to raise the visibility of LGBTs in the Asian community. After four years of doing this, we can safely say that awareness has been raised.
In the past our group has been known the fun we have, the warmups we do, the cheers we yell, and our drummer who wears a tiara. We've done well in the competition -- two years ago we got gold medals in one of the lower divisions, and last year (my first) we took a silver and a bronze -- but we wanted to do better. This was our comeback year. And after this year, we're known, and respected, for our ability as well as our fun.
Yeah, we kicked ass. The video below shows us winning the 250m gold medal on Saturday (we're in the yellow boat, and yes, it was a photo finish -- we won by a second).
The pic below shows us, in the green boat, about to win the gold in the 500m race by 3 seconds, against a group that has talked a little trash in the past. But not anymore.
Based on our time trials and our performance in the semifinals, we moved up to the top division both days, the Open "A" Major division. Even though we won golds two years ago, those were in lower, slower divisions. This year, we proved we can race with the best AND WIN!!!!!!
Stan had a friend down from Philadelphia racing on anther team and he said we should come up for a big festival in October. Hmmmmm...take this show on the road? We just might.
I should add that our team included one Singaporean and one Malaysian, both working in the US. And one of the best things about dragonboat was meeting some new friends, people I look forward to hanging out with in the summer to come.
Ladies and gents, I give you the 2009 Washington DC Dragonboat Festival double gold medalists and #1 totally fabulous team:
Well, once a year, anyway. :P
I'm on a team called Out2Paddle, and we compete each year in the Washington DC Dragonboat Festival. The team comes from a group called AQUA, which stands for Asian/Pacific Islander Queers United for Action, and yes, I'm a member (don't forget, I'm Asian on the inside). AQUA has a couple interesting goals: to raise the visibility of Asians in the LGBT community, and to raise the visibility of LGBTs in the Asian community. After four years of doing this, we can safely say that awareness has been raised.
In the past our group has been known the fun we have, the warmups we do, the cheers we yell, and our drummer who wears a tiara. We've done well in the competition -- two years ago we got gold medals in one of the lower divisions, and last year (my first) we took a silver and a bronze -- but we wanted to do better. This was our comeback year. And after this year, we're known, and respected, for our ability as well as our fun.
Yeah, we kicked ass. The video below shows us winning the 250m gold medal on Saturday (we're in the yellow boat, and yes, it was a photo finish -- we won by a second).
The pic below shows us, in the green boat, about to win the gold in the 500m race by 3 seconds, against a group that has talked a little trash in the past. But not anymore.
Based on our time trials and our performance in the semifinals, we moved up to the top division both days, the Open "A" Major division. Even though we won golds two years ago, those were in lower, slower divisions. This year, we proved we can race with the best AND WIN!!!!!!
Stan had a friend down from Philadelphia racing on anther team and he said we should come up for a big festival in October. Hmmmmm...take this show on the road? We just might.
I should add that our team included one Singaporean and one Malaysian, both working in the US. And one of the best things about dragonboat was meeting some new friends, people I look forward to hanging out with in the summer to come.
Ladies and gents, I give you the 2009 Washington DC Dragonboat Festival double gold medalists and #1 totally fabulous team:
