Abreast In A Boat » Welcome to Abreast in a Boat

Novice Meeting

cindyc — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 08:00:34 +0000

On Thursday, January 12, 2012 about 25 AIAB members joined 30+ prospective novices at the Accent Inn in Richmond for the Novice Information Meeting. Membership Chair Sandi Moffatt chaired the meeting and introduced the Board Members that were present. Past President Patricia Tanaka spoke on the history of Abreast In A Boat. The Coaches were introduced next and each pair gave a brief description of their venue, practice times and crew activities. Vice President Judi Clark went over the fitness requirement, commitment and safety issues for novices. A good reminder for the rest of us as well! The interested novices-to-be asked questions throughout and the last speaker was ‘Original’ Carol Dale with her witty and humorous talk on appropriate clothing and accessories for paddling on the water. The evening ended with more questions and then those present who decided to join were busy trying on race jerseys and life jackets. It seemed to me we have a very interested group of new members who are committed to a successful 2012 Season.

Welcome Aboard!
Paddles Up!

Malaysia International Dragon Boat Festival

pattisk — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 02:49:15 +0000

October 22-23, 2011

Check out the two articles on AIAB crew members at the Malaysia International Dragon Boat Festival:
Surrey Leader AND North Shore Outlook

Race Results from October 22, 2011
Race Results from October 23, 2011

All Four Medals

Our Medals Up Close

2011 Malaysia Crew

pattisk — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 02:30:42 +0000

Good Luck to the AIAB Malaysia crew. Photo by Boaz Joseph...

This dragon got to taste the hardware of defeat.

Our hardware, up close and personal.

2011 Steveston Regatta

cindyc — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 23:10:13 +0000

photo by Philip Chin of the AIAB Steveston Crew on August 20, 2011

Novice Paddle

pattisk — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 07:00:36 +0000

Many thanks to all the AIAB members who helped make our Second Annual Novice Paddle a great success. We had 22 prospective novices join us for a lovely paddle on False Creek Saturday afternoon and judging by the responses and smiles of our guests they all seemed to have a great time.

A special thanks to Deb Thiessen who coached one of the crews and Eleanor Vandergaag and Judi Clark for steering. Also thanks to Leslie Lewis who ensured we had enough AIAB paddlers and volunteers to help with the event. I would also like to acknowledge the warm AIAB welcome you extended to our prospective new members and the sharing of your personal experiences with AIAB. This was truly a novice focused event.

Paddles Up!

Jane Mann

The Terry Fox Run

pattisk — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 07:00:15 +0000

Terry Fox Home Town Run

It was a wet, gray day but the mood of all the participants at the 31st Terry Fox Run in Port Coquitlam was sunny. Esther Matsubichi, Deb Middleton, Rebecca Chapman, Marcia Rempel, Susan Beye, Susan Anthony and I along with our supporters were on hand to hear speeches by Premier Christy Clark, Mayor Greg Moore and Rolly Fox. His brief tribute to his wife Betty had many of us feeling teary. Esther was interviewed by CKNW prior to the Run. We were part of Terry’s Team of 31 cancer survivors. You may have seen us on CBC, Global or CTV News in our special red T-shirts at the start line.

Patricia Tanaka

A few snapshots at the Terry Fox Run

Esther & Rolly Fox

Esther & Christy Clark

Esther & friend

Steveston Regatta

cindyc — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 07:00:50 +0000

We are very proud of the composite crew that competed at the Steveston Regatta this year. The weather was beautiful and the crew was full of spirit. There were members from virtually every AIAB crew – which was great!

We had four great races and seemed to improve with each one. When “finish it now” was called the boat just seemed to jump. This was a strong crew! We took second place in Division E.

We would like to thank Coach Margaret, Steers Judi, Drummer Lita and Manager Sheila for making this such a great experience for us all.

Another great showing ladies! You have a lot to be proud of!

Paddles Up!
Neoma Quintin and the Steveston crew

Steveston Regatta Crew

Steveston Regatta Prize

Racing - photo by Philip Chin

On the water - photo by Philip Chin

Nanaimo Dragon Boat Festival

cindyc — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 07:00:37 +0000

Deas Divas - July 8 – 10, 2011

Exhilarating, inspiring, hilarious, exhausting, fun, emotional, jubilation, glee, frivolity, camaraderie, spirit, strength, determination, guts and glory!

What a fabulous weekend culminating in a medal which was just the icing on the cake, the cherry on top! Patricia and Jane – thank you for all your hard work and dedication.

Our waterfront accommodations served us just fine and a huge thanks to Ysa for getting us a place to lay our heads at night. We had a delightful 15 minute walk to the race site along the waterfront. The weather cooperated with sunshine both days.

Friday night we donned our Caribbean hats and costumes for the Survivor Dinner – quite a colourful bunch as you can see from the picture. As dusk approached, a bagpiper led us to the water’s edge where we lit candles and set them afloat.

We had time to enjoy the sunshine on our balcony Saturday morning before walking to the race site for our first race at 11:40 am. The water was pretty rough and the start abrupt, but as always, with Elisabeth steering us, all went well and we managed a time of 2:46:92. Our second race at 3:30 pm was 2:43:27. Saturday evening we partied it up in true Diva style with appies, then an early end to the evening since we were up early.

Sunday morning our first race was at 8:20 am and our time was 2:42:55. Do you see a pattern here? We are getting faster each race! This last race advanced us to Women’s Gold Final A at 2:10 pm, but before that, we had the Breast Cancer Challenge Race.

There were ten teams and we were the only original breast cancer survivor dragon boat team. We came in fifth. It was a beautiful flower ceremony and as usual, memories, tears and emotions ran through the boats. As we came off the dock, the arch of paddles and supporters seemed to stretch forever, a pretty special and emotional moment for us all I suspect.

Back to serious business at 2:10 pm with our finals race – Elisabeth in a rare moment urging us on with “You can win this”! From the shore our manager, Dianne was jumping up and down, shouting: “My team”! We came in third with a time of 2:39:55 – an improvement of 7.37 seconds from our first race on Saturday!

We had time before the ferry for a cool one in the beer garden where we danced around with our medals like lunatics!

So many smiles and laughs in one weekend. We missed our fellow team mates unable to join us. Thank you Cathy, Gail, Marcia, Neoma, Sandy and Tracey for joining the Divas for the regatta and to Debbie for coming along to support us.

In closing, I’ll join the love fest – you are an amazing group of women – it’s been an amazing season.
Go Divas! Paddles Up!

Captain Jenny (Wenman)

At the Survivor dinner dressed in our Caribbean themed outfits

Flower Ceremony

Team pose with the Bronze Medal

Royal Dragon Boaters

cindyc — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 07:00:05 +0000

THE ROYAL DASH – 185m, Prince William's crew wins by a dragons head... The Royal Dash

2011 Rio Tinto Bronze winners

pattisk — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 01:30:44 +0000

Up the Creek wins Bronze at 2011 Rio Tinto/Alcan