As summer draws to its end, unfortunately so does the dragon boat season for Mon Sheong's dragon boat team, PaddleBears. The season started off in mid-February with land practices every weekend held at the Mon Sheong McNicoll location's volunteer centre. After months of gruelling land practice, by May we were finally able to begin water practices at Sunnyside Paddling Club.
This season the team participated in 3 races - Pickering Dragon Boat Challenge, Toronto International Dragon Boat Race Festival, and the Toronto Cup. Although the team is created for recreational purposes, everyone gave each and every practice and race their all in hopes to bring home the gold medal. And all our hard work and dedication paid off as we won silver in Division P for 500m at the Toronto International Dragon Boat Race Festival!
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| The team posing for at the Centre island award ceremony |
The team as a whole has grown a lot from the beginning where most of us were unfamiliar with each other, but now we are close enough that we frequently have outings together outside of practice times such as meals after practices, team BBQs at Miliken Park, and board games day. In the fall we are expecting to hold a team potluck too! I think what makes the PaddleBears strong is the team's bond.
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| Group advertising at the Vita booth at Centre Island |
That and the shared determination in never giving up. In the qualifying heat of the Toronto Cup our boat capsized resulting us in dead last. But that didn't stop our spirits and we continued on trying despite the unbalanced weight distribution and the wavy waters. In the end, we managed to win in the Division B Finals with a time of 1:09 for 200m.
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| Team photo right before dunking our captain Simon in the lake. |
All in all, it has been an amazing season and hope to see everyone back next year! We always welcome new members as well, so keep an eye out for when the next season begins : )
-Whitney
-Whitney
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