Local Dragon Boats paddle the magnificent South Arm
The Clarence Coast Dragon Boat Club joined forces with Grafton Dragon Boat Club to enjoy a fabulous Australia Day paddle on the mighty Clarence River at Brushgrove. Following an hour of paddling the South Arm, completing several tasks which challenged the brain as well as the paddling skills (thanks Tracey), both dragon boat crews headed to the Brushgrove Pub for a relaxing breakfast. As part of the social activities, paddlers Australiana slang, history and music knowledge were tested with ‘Winners are Grinners’ winning the quiz and ‘4 Sheilas and 2 Drongos’ showing their superiority winning the ‘Spicks and Specks’ Award. Fashion on the water was awarded to John, who had the Aussie flag flying from his yellow and green hat, add in an Aussie bow tie and a boxing kangaroo shirt. Jan also shared the fashion award with her flashing red white and blue lei. As 2020 has arrived, possibly there are a few new arrivals to the Clarence Valley, or a few locals may have taken the step into retirement! So now is the time to take the opportunity to make new friends, decrease those stress levels further and enjoy regular social activities and try dragon boat paddling. Don’t put it off, act now and help yourself to live long and live well – join us on Wednesday 3.30pm at Hickey Island and/or Saturdays 7.30am at the Yamba Boat ramp. Contact President Ree 0407 436 891 for more details.
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2019 CHRISTMAS PARTY
As members and friends arrived for our annual Christmas dinner the temperature thankfully began to drop and all were treated to a spectacular sunset from the deck of Café Marina. What a night Santa’s helpers had planned. The night began with Elf Chez upstaging Santa, arriving on a motorbike. Sue, Kaye and Jan played their air guitars in a tribute to Freddie Mercury’s Queen, ‘We Will Rock You’ and Santa and Elf Chez delivered presents. To end the night, amidst much laughter, Santa’s crew gave a brilliant rendition of the “12 days of Clarence Coast”. Yamba Triathlon December 2019 A huge thank you to the 23 members and friends (Genie, Ken, Lynnsey, Ali, Greg) who volunteered for the Yamba Triathlon on Sunday 8th December. The organisers passed on their appreciation for the smooth running and coordination of the event - greatly aided by the efforts of our members controlling traffic, managing drinks station and generally being helpful where required. All boats are you ready, attention, GO!
The Grafton Dragon Boat Regatta, held during the Jacaranda Festival, is one of our main racing outings for the year. This year Clarence Coast Dragon Boat Club partnered with the Tweed Dragons to create a combined team. And what a great partnership it was. In our two women’s 200 metre race heats, we were third across the line, very commendable efforts. Like many heats-based sports, times in heats are what get you into the finals and the Clarence/Tweed team were delighted to qualify as the fifth of five finalists. We put our best efforts into the final and lifted again to be third across the line. Getting to races and finals is based on our regular training sessions. Races and winning are not the only reason to get involved in a sport. Exercise, maintaining fitness, social participation and companionship are increasingly identified as important for our health and wellbeing, especially as we grow older. There is evidence that exercise can help prevent and manage adult chronic disease and there is increasing evidence of its importance for preventing dementia. If you want to improve your fitness and make friends while paddling on our beautiful Clarence waterways, come and join us at a training session – Saturdays from the Yamba boat ramp at 7.30 am, Wednesday 4:30pm at Hickey Island boat ramp. Details are on our website. Chris Evans October has been a busy month of participation for CCDBC members, despite the winds that sometimes wreak havoc with our planned paddling sessions! To celebrate the Clarence River 53 Islands, we circumnavigated Dart Island at high tide, braving sand bars with some delicate ‘teacup’ paddling, facing the wind head on and enjoying the scenery and exercise! You get an exceptional view of our beautiful islands and seascapes from a dragon boat, plus the satisfaction of ‘feeling the burn’ and getting fit at the same time. World Mental Health Day was marked by 7 of our members joining staff of Our Healthy Clarence (North Coast Primary Health Care Network) and other community groups with an early morning 5km walk (Steps to Wellbeing) around Ford Park, followed by breakfast. There are some great photos of CCDBC members on the Our Healthy Clarence Facebook page. On Saturday 19th October, club members donned loud shirts with fluoro pink, orange and assorted motley-coloured designs to be part of “Loud Shirt Day” raising funds for Hear and Say: Opening Worlds. This initiative was developed to support young children who have a hearing disability to access timely interventions designed to help them to live life to the best possible. We raised $60 to donate to the cause. We also had four of our elite athletes, Jan Booth, Cheryl Coleman, Kim Sanders and Ree Dunn, travel to Adelaide for the 17th Australian Masters games as part of the Far North Coast (FNC) dragon boat team. This team was made up of women and men from dragon boat clubs between Camden Haven and Ballina. The FNC team competed in multiple races and categories, and most importantly had a fantastic team experience. They even fitted in sampling a few of South Australia’s excellent culinary delights and wines. Jan won a gold medal as a member of a breast cancer survivors’ team from Hunter Newcastle. CCDBC partnered with Tweed Dragons at the Grafton Jacaranda Dragon Boat Regatta. Following two nail biting competitive heats, we made the final and came in third overall; a fantastic outcome. Having several paddlers competing across all races was an effective strategy and we are looking forward to partnering again in future to provide more regatta attendances for the club. Our dragon boat paddles are an excellent way to stay fit, work as a team, promote social awareness campaigns, and they provide opportunities to get an up-close view of stingrays, dolphins, sea eagles and pelicans. We paddle from the boat ramp near the fish co-op on Saturdays at 7.30 am and from the Hickey Island boat ramp Wednesday at 4.30 pm. New paddlers are welcome at any time. Come and give it a try. “If you’re sad, add more lipstick and attack”. Coco Chanel
On Saturday 21st September CCDBC paddlers launched from Witonga boat ramp on a spectacularly calm morning for a social paddle to demonstrate support for Liptember, a campaign dedicated to raising awareness for women’s mental health. Liptember’s priority is to improve the health of all Australian women who take on countless responsibilities as mothers, grandmothers, sisters, daughters, wives and partners. It is suggested that lipstick is worn to improve mood and demonstrate confidence, so our crew – male and female - wore their brightest lipsticks in a myriad of colours during an hour of paddling along Oyster Channel. Kim rocked the lippy & pout from the drummer’s perch. Brendan looked as though he was channelling the Joker! Prizes were awarded for the best display of lippy to Mary Jane, Kathy and Maureen. Paddlers looked fabulous in their new sunsafe shirts which were provided by our new sponsor, Bowlo & Leisure Club Yamba. A superb workout on the water was followed by a BBQ on shore . CCDBC welcomes new paddlers to come and try dragon boating; gaining fitness whilst enjoying our fabulous waterways. We paddle from Hickey Island on Wednesdays at 5.00pm and from Yamba Boat ramp on Saturdays at 7.30am. No experience required and equipment provided. ‘It always seems impossible until it’s done’ Nelson Mandela
Over the course of 21-days, 21 members of Clarence Coast Dragon Boat Club were challenged to complete 3,128 push-ups in total, representing the number of lives lost in Australia due to mental health issues in 2017. Four teams were created – and each day an email was sent with the target number of push-ups to complete reflecting a different statistic to do with mental health in Australia. Team members completed their push-ups any time and any place, as long as they met the daily target and emailed, text or messaged the Chief of Push-Ups when completed. As a team ……… 3,128 push-ups over 21 days CCDBC DID IT. Together, we made a real difference, a new healthy habit was started, and we increased our knowledge of mental health issues. Strength increased; wall push-ups progressed to bench push-ups to bent leg push-ups to plank push-ups! What an achievement. Congratulations one and all. So why not come and join us guaranteed to decrease your stress levels, increase your activity levels and enjoy social activities. Don’t put it off, act now and help yourself to live long and live well – join us Wednesday’s 2.30pm Hickey Island Boat Ramp and Saturday’s 7.30am at the Moby Dick Boat ramp. “There’s always a new challenge to keep you motivated.” Sean Connery.
After dragon boat paddlers completed the inaugural 15km Westpac Helicopter Chopper Paddle from Big River Sailing Club, Harwood to Iluka, CCDBC decided why not go one better! And what better way to keep motivated then to set a new challenge!! Paddle 20kms!!! in the Grafton Rowing Club’s annual ‘2 islands Rowathon’ to again raise money and show our support for the Westpac Helicopter. Forty paddlers from Clarence Coast, Grafton and Titivators (Urunga) Dragon Boat clubs left the shore of Grafton Rowing Club and paddled 10 kms around Susan Island returning to the Rowing Club. A good stretch, a few changeover of paddlers and a sugar fix of snakes to nibble on and we headed out again to do another 10kms around Elizabeth Island. Whilst on the water we were passed by many rowers from Grafton, Iluka and Lower Clarence Rowing Clubs, also completing the challenge. Approximately 2 hours later we stepped out of the boats to replenish the calories lost with a superb BBQ brunch hosted by the Grafton Rowing Club. Congratulations to all paddlers. We were certainly taken out of our comfort zone but we did it! A sign you have a positive club culture is laughter. Just listen to how much laughter there is in your club. Laughter is a very good sign of positivity. You can work hard and still laugh and enjoy your training more. This was more than evident when Clarence Coast Dragon Boat Club changed venues and travelled to Brushgrove to hit the water for our Saturday training session.
After 30 mins of moderate to high intensity drills paddling the Main Arm towards Lawrence a change of sweeps at the back of the boat, we spent the next 30 mins repeating the various drills on the South Arm of the Clarence River in near perfect conditions. After the final drill, the chat began about what breakfast would be ordered at the Brushgrove Pub m’mmm an egg and bacon roll or an eggs benedict or fresh fruit and yoghurt! Not to be disappointed Luke had prepared a table close to the river and we indulged in a feast. As coffee was sipped the award winners were announced for the FIFA Women’s World Cup competition – The Golden Boot, The Best Goal Golden Glove and Best Player received their trophies. Following a surreal paddle along Oyster Channel to Carr’s Drive and then onwards towards Wooloweyah, Clarence Coast Dragon Boat Club enjoyed an Election Day sausage sizzle. As the sausages were cooking, paddlers had an array of SCOnes and SHORTbread to taste.
Members also rose to the challenge to submit a song to contribute to the CCDBC Election Day Playlist. And what an amazing Playlist it was!!!! Congratulations to Ms Ree who took the challenge to the next level. Ms Ree chose to follow the whole campaign!!! Election announced: ‘Here we go again’ Demi Lovato Week 1: ‘Suspicious Minds’ Elvis Presley Week 2: ‘Another one bites the Dust’ Queen Week 3: ‘Won’t Back Down’ Tom Petty Week 4: ‘I Wanna get me a Gun’ Bill Wyman (Homage to Pauline) Week 5: ‘I still haven’t found what I’m Looking For’ U2 Week 6: ‘Under Pressure’ Queen, David Bowie And at the end of it all…..’I still call Australia Home’ Peter Allen Highly commended went to Bruce – ‘Stuck in the Middle with You’ (Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, here I am stuck in the middle with you); Maureen - Can't Get No Satisfaction and Sue - Empty Promises. What a clever mob are we! Remember it may sound a little strange and mythical, but dragon boating is becoming an increasingly popular form of fitness. Contact Lesley 0413 303 995 if you are interested in joining us on the magnificent Clarence River Wednesday 2.30pm and Saturday 7.30am at the Moby Dick Boat Ramp, Yamba. Two highlights for Clarence Coast and Grafton Dragon Boat Paddlers within four days – ANZAC Day and The Westpac Helicopter Appeal – what a memory to tuck away for all involved.
25th April saw Clarence Coast members’ presence at the Dawn Service at Yamba and then car pool to ‘The Farm’ at McLennans Rd, South Grafton for an ANZAC paddle with Grafton Dragon Boat Club. 8am and two dragon boats hit the water for a memorable paddle around Carr’s Island. As both boats drew alongside, the Ode was solemnly read and members placed a sprig of rosemary into the waters and paddlers reflected on how lucky we are to live and have family in both Australia and New Zealand. Following a surreal paddle, watched closely by a territorial circling hawk, we returned for a breakfast feast of bacon and egg rolls, fresh fruit and juice. The morning was completed with the traditional rowdy game of 2-UP with the river and a magnificent fig tree as the backdrop. A special thank you to Andy and Vicki for their hospitality! Sunday again saw the commitment of three clubs, Clarence Coast, Grafton and Rainbows Ballina Dragon Boat Clubs to the inaugural Westpac Helicopter Chopper Paddle from Big River Sailing Club, Harwood to Iluka, the final day of Hell on Water. In near perfect conditions, the 3 dragon boats set off first and wound their way down the mighty Clarence River, morning tea at Goodwood Island and then on to Iluka to be greeted by a sausage and steak sandwich and a refreshing ale from the Sedgers Reef Hotel. An amazing two days of paddling – magic! |
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