From green hair to green hats, to shamrock bras and dresses, T-shirts, boas and…too much to remember.  And, what a wonderful lunch spread we all provided! From fruit to nuts and beyond. An impressive selection of desserts was my favourite.

Our President, Judi Clark, welcomed all of us and introduced a number of our novices. They made an impressive entry under our dragon, Jeannie Lea.  Each novice introduced herself and all seemed to be excited to be entering a new chapter in their lives.  A big welcome to all of you.  We are all looking forward to getting to know you.

Judi mentioned that Jane Frost, one of our original members had received the BC Community Achievement award a few years ago and was pictured in the Sun Newspaper.  Congratulations Jane.

A number of our sponsors were in attendance.  We were introduced to our new crew shirts (modeled by Tracey Capadouca).  The design committee (Yvonne Stitch, Jean Buckley, Carol Short, supported by the Board – Rena Pratt, and Mary Hayden) were thanked for their creativity and design of the shirt.  Canderlla, and Joseph, of MJ Fashions, who made the shirts for AIAB, were thanked for doing a great job, and supporting AIAB over the past several years.

John Short of Vancouver Marina (Carol Short’s husband), also represented AIAB sponsors B.C.M.T.A., and False Creek Fuels, saying a few words to all of us.  AIAB is grateful for the support of our sponsors.  As a result of the generosity of B.C.M.T.A and False Creek Fuels we were able to purchase new life jackets at minimal cost to AIAB.  Thank you!

Henry and Greta Heinen, represented their son, Rick Heinen of BC Greenhouse Builders (1971) Ltd., presented AIAB with a generous financial gift from BC Greenhouse Builders.  We had the opportunity to thank Henry, Greta, and Rick for all of their support.  Sunday was also an extra special date for Henry and Greta as they celebrated their 46^th wedding anniversary!  Congratulations!

All in all, it was a great kick-off for our season.  Hopefully, the sunny day was a good omen for the upcoming season and we will have many more of the same.

Paddles up everyone.

Content submitted by Brenda Tierney and Mary Hayden

21 paddlers attended this event and all AIAB crews were represented.  We had a great turn out of novices, 12 in all and they had a lot of fun once the nerves settled.  Life Guard, Steve Cohen, was a great instructor and covered every possible scenario of being capsized in open water.

 Abreast Up The Creeks Novice, Grace Ein, tells her story:

I must admit that I was a bit apprehensive about the water safety event at the Britannia pool last Saturday evening, because I was not looking forward to getting wet while fully dressed.  However, once I got in the water, it was fine.  Soon after we were in the water, someone beside me said that my PFD (personal flotation device) was not tight enough.  She then proceeded to tighten it for me.  I was so glad that she did, because I later saw lots of ladies with their PFDs floating to the top of their necks because they were too loose.

The life guard then told us to swim away from the boat when it flipped.  I thought to myself – “the boat is not going to flip” – then I remembered that I also never thought that I would get cancer, so I listened carefully to what the life guard had to say.  The best part was the hot tub at the end!  My first wet experience with this Dragon Boat team makes me look forward to our first practice.

Here are the participants and their crews:

Abreast up the Creek              8 participants

Novices:  Eydie Walls, Grace Ein, Rita McAllen, Anna Chow, Carolyn Fisher, Donna Jablonski.

Returning Members:  Cathy Marr, Judy Crumlin

Abreast – Rocky Point              4 participants

Novices:  Gail Campbell, Ruth Hopwood, Judy Buss

Returning members:  Geri Madden, who came to learn, even though she just had surgery and couldn’t go in the water

Abreast Deas Divas                                    3 participants

Novices:  Ellen Davies

Returning members:  Vivian Omori, Barbara Lawrence

Abreast with FORT-itude        3 participants

Novices:  Debbie Kazakoff

Returning members:  Sally Van Ingen, Maria Hindmarch

Abreast In Richmond               2 participants

Returning members: Susan Gam, Sue Tong

 Abreast Hope                           1 participant

Novice:  Deborah Warne

Brief rundown of the demonstration:

Everyone gathered in the foyer in anticipation for their adventure.  Judy Crumlin was there to take the cheques and check off the names.  Maria went over what she was wearing even including her gloves.  Typically what you would be wearing at a Dragon Boat practice.  Basically the instructions for a capsize are:

Stay with the boat, don’t swim to shore, stay together, appoint safety person at every practice to count who’s on board.  Everyone to have a whistle.  If the boat capsizes, first move about a yard away from the boat but still together.  The boat is unpredictable at this point and may flip.  Once the boat comes up and is stable, everyone moves closer and uses the boat to keep afloat.  Keep calm.  Call out your number and blow your whistles.

All participants received a bag of goodies filled with lots of useful information on upcoming events such as “Bust a Move” coming up April 13^th at Richmond Olympic Oval, “The Vancouver Sun Run, happening Sunday, April 21^st and the Scotiabank Vancouver Half-marathon happening June 23^rd.  We also got a pen from Eminence Organics, a fridge magnet from CIBC run for the cure, coming up October 6^th.

The other fridge magnet has a very interesting story, styled on a poster going back to WWII England.  Apparently several of these morale boosting posters were circulated all over the land and one seemed to be the favourite among most people it said “ KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON” with King George VI’s crown logo sitting above these impressive words.

Barb and Eleanor have taken this saying one step further and have created a similar saying which has been printed on this last magnet it says “ KEEP FIT AND PADDLE ON” , very inspiring words.

We even got to see a short movie on London and how these posters came about and how scarce they became, one showing up in a Barter Book shop in North East England and which was so admired that several more were bought and framed to hang on the wall and remain there to this day.  Watch the story on  youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrHkKXFRbCI 

Speaker Jo-Anne Merrell

Iron man athlete and Abreast In A Boat paddler and coach, Jo-Anne Merrell spoke to us about Inspiration and Goal Setting.  She finished her Iron Man Triathlon in Penticton with a time of 15 hrs, 43mins and 42 seconds which entitled her to wear the Iron Man Jacket she proudly wears.  The Swim, Bike, Run race was achieved she says by setting goals that are SMART.

S          Specific

M        Measurable

A         Attainable

R         Realistic

T         Timely

Jo-Anne suggested using the same principles in all of our goals and advised us to have:

Long Term Goals      One to Five Years

Mid Term Goals        Three to Six Months (2013 Season)

Short Term Goals      Daily workouts and Healthy Eating

She also suggested using the Calendar we received to write down our goals and when we would like to achieve them.

She also talked about having Balance in our lives.  Don’t forget about your relationships with Family and Friends.

Rob Williams, Kinesiologist from The Rob Williams Group gave a lecture on how important posture is in being strong in whatever you do.  He showed us how to test our posture and gave exercises to improve it.

Amanda Chan, Kinesiologist from Ares Training took us through a paddlers warm up and we handed out exercise bands and she showed us exercises that we could do at home with the bands to strengthen our core and shoulders.

We had 2 draw prizes.  The first was a gym bag of relaxation bath products and was won by Bunny Rosse.  The second was a gift certificate worth $150.00 for a pair of New Balance runners from Rackets and Runners and New Balance and was won by Grace Ein.  Grace is a new member of AIAB.

Rebecca Chapman helped with registrations and Sally Van Ingen helped with the food. B ]]> http://abreastinaboat.com/2013/03/fitness-forum-february-23rd-2013/feed/ 0 http://abreastinaboat.com/2013/03/the-international-breast-cancer-paddlers-commission-ibcpc-and-abreast-in-a-boat-aiab/ http://abreastinaboat.com/2013/03/the-international-breast-cancer-paddlers-commission-ibcpc-and-abreast-in-a-boat-aiab/#comments Tue, 12 Mar 2013 02:19:06 +0000 admin http://abreastinaboat.com/?p=6696 The story begins with the crew of twenty four Breast Cancer Volunteers departing from the dock at Alder Bay in False Creek in the spring of 1996 on their first anxious and tentative dragon boat paddle as part of a medical project by Dr Don McKenzie, MD PhD Professor and Director, Faculty of Medicine, Division of Sports Medicine, UBC.  This challenged the current medical thinking that those treated for Breast Cancer should not engage in rigorous upper body exercise for fear of getting Lymphedema. After dry land training and a three month season on the water, no one got Lymphedema. Dr McKenzie’s medical project was complete.

The women were fitter, happier and healthier. They named their team Abreast In A Boat and encouraged other survivors to enjoy the benefits and share their exciting experience.

Ten years later in 2005, they invited teams from around the world to celebrate ‘Ten Years Abreast’ in Vancouver.  The Australians caught the spirit and in 2007 paddlers flocked to Caloundra, Queensland as they did to Peterborough, Ontario in 2010. On each of these occasions, for three fun filled days the teams, some 2,000 people in all, and each a Breast Cancer Survivor celebrated on land and water. They are now looking forward to the next Festival in Sarasota, Florida in 2014.

It was agreed that these Festivals, not competitive tournaments, but celebratory regattas characterized by their inclusiveness and camaraderie should continue. To this end in June 2010 the members established the International Breast Cancer Paddlers’ Commission (IBCPC).  Its mandate is to promote participation and inclusiveness in Breast Cancer Dragon Boat Teams, to encourage the establishment of new teams around the world and to act as a link to its member teams for mutual benefit.

All this from Dr McKenzie’s one boat of breast cancer volunteers that paddled out of False Creek in 1996……and so the story continues !

To find out more go to the IBCPC website at www.ibcpc.com

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Read the letter from their teacher, Marie Payne, a friend of one of our Originals, Debbie Middleton, then see the photos of the drum’s before and after shots and read the hand written letters from the Japanese students, from Hiroshima, who were Homestay students attending Meadowridge School.

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This was the 10th Annual Festival and since 2003 has raised nearly $500,000 for the purchase of diagnostic equipment for Nanaimo Regional General Hospital. This Festival donates 100% of the net proceeds to the Nanaimo Hospital Foundation to assist in improving the diagnostic-treatment process of Breast Cancer patients. They state on their website that this Festival is where “paddlers are united in the fight to beat cancer”.

This year’s theme was The Sixties – The Hippy Phase so Friday evening we donned our best “flower power” hippie garb and descended upon the waterfront for an evening of fun, dining and dancing at the Survivors Dinner. Our BCS host teams from Nanaimo put on an outstanding dinner supplied by Save-On-Foods for 11 breast cancer teams under a very large white tent decorated very boldly. At 9pm all BCS teams, many other paddlers and on-lookers headed down to the Sway-a-Lana Lagoon at the water’s edge for the sunset Candles for Courage ceremony. A lone piper led the way from our dining area and played while we all walked the circle around the lagoon with our candles lit in a small plastic bowl. We thought of those we wanted to remember and let the candles float away on the lagoon.

Saturday and Sunday were days for racing with 3-4 lanes per race, challenging water but sunny, sunny days… yahoo! We shared the water way with power boats, sailboats, paddle boards and seaplanes – therefore the challenging water. The Athletes Village tents were all in a grassy area of the park with shade trees. Food vendors, merchandise, a kid’s zone, entertainment bandstand and beer garden rounded out the outer area. On Saturday the women’s races didn’t start until 11:30am – the organizers do this on purpose so we can all enjoy the survivors dinner the night before! Our two Saturday races were mostly for seeding and Sunday’s races were very exciting to watch and race.

The standings for AIAB crews overall were:

Abreast with Fortitude – 2nd in the Women’s Gold Final A
Abreast Deas Divas – 1st in the Women’s Gold Final B
Abreast at Rocky Point – 3rd in the Women’s Gold Final B
Abreast in Richmond – 1st in the Women’s Silver Final B

In the Breast Cancer Races:
Abreast with Fortitude – 1st in the A category
Abreast Deas Divas – 1st in the B category
Abreast at Rocky Point – 3rd in the B category
Abreast in Richmond – 2nd in the C category

The highlight of the whole weekend was the 8 team raft (the other three teams lined the wharf and shore) for the Carnation Ceremony. While waiting to get organized we were given our carnations, bottles of water and were the recipients of buckets of water thrown on us to keep us cool!

We thank the organizers, participants, Peter the crew Marshall and most especially the volunteers (in which Sunday was ALL volunteers). Every person had such enthusiasm and big smiles… they treat the BCS teams very well.

Deb Legree
Photos by Ken McVay

Check out the videos of our Flower Ceremony at the regatta, Flower Ceremony video 1 and Flower Ceremony video 2
]]> http://abreastinaboat.com/2012/07/nanaimo-regatta/feed/ 0 http://abreastinaboat.com/2012/06/golden-spike-days/ http://abreastinaboat.com/2012/06/golden-spike-days/#comments Sat, 30 Jun 2012 07:00:17 +0000 cindyc http://abreastinaboat.com/?p=5550 Golden Spike Days at Rocky Point

Well it was a little soggy on June 30th, 2012 for the Golden Spike Days but thanks to the initiative and the efforts of our Communications Chair, Diane and Vice Chair, Linda, paddlers were available to take the Doriana out (with dragon head and tail I might add!) to proudly show her off to Port Moody and to demonstrate just what it is we do on the water. Linda and Diane had paddlers organized to go out about every hour in the afternoon and despite the drizzle, it was fun to see our ever ready volunteers helping on the water or at the booth. A big thank you goes to Linda and Diane for your tireless efforts to promote AIAB and thank you as well to the volunteers who so graciously give of your time to support us.

Judi Clark
Photos by Steve Smith of World of Stock