Sunday saw the Sea Cucumbers return to Stanley Beach for the Short Course, the final race in the Stanley Sunlife Dragon Boat Points series.

The team was rearing to go after taking an unexpected rest last weekend (compliments of the last minute event cancellation by organisers). We were racing two teams this weekend – a mixed standard boat and a mixed small boat. First up was the standard boat. Maja made her debut at drums, and the cukes exploded off the start line taking an early lead and maintaining it for duration of the 200m course. Our comfortable heat win securing our spot in the semi-finals.

The sun was blazing hot and the tide was high as the Sea Cucumbers Mixed Team hit the beach yesterday for the 2019 Sun Life Stanley International Dragon Boat Championships in celebration of the Tuen Ng Festival. Facing a competitive field of 192 mixed teams, we raced 18 person boats down the 270 m course against 11 other teams per heat. We finished 1st in our first heat (which won us a trophy!) and 3rd in our second heat, qualifying for the Mixed Gold Cup Final – the top final for mixed teams. BRING IT!

Huge shout out to Il Bel Paese Discovery Bay! Thanks, guys for accepting our reusable containers to make our lunches green tomorrow. We love that you have done this for us!!!

#IlBelPaese, #paddlewithoutplastic, #GreenDragonsHK, #plasticfreeSeas

We braved thunder, lightning and the infamous loud speaker at the Mui Wo Dragon Boat festival yesterday! Our mixed and ladies teams paddled with speed and power along the 300 m course to respectable finishes against tough competition. Patience was a virtue as we waited out the thunderstorm but the sun came out again and the day was a success.

Big thanks to Green Dragons HK and Plastic Free Seas for their hard work in keeping the Mui Wo beach free of single-use plastic on race day. You are the unsung heroes!

Mui Wo Dragon Boat race results

Mixed Team
Silver Cup Finals
Runners up (on aggregate coming just fractions of a second behind the formidable Mushu and Smugz teams. SUPER RESULT!! )

(7 out of 28 mixed teams overall)

Ladies Team
Gold Cup Finals
3rd runners up

We are proud of all of our paddlers!

Sunday 15^th of April 07:30 AM, this is the day.

The Cuke’s squad is waiting for our ferry to bring us to Lamma Island. This is it! The first race of the year for us and what a race: LAMMA 500!

Look like the weather will be a big player of the day, and from what we can see it will not be accommodating … Rain, Wind, and thunders will join us.

This year’s we did register 4 teams:

• Standard Boat Ladies in 500 m
• Standard Boat Mix in 500 m
• Standard Boat Mix in 1K
• Standard Boat Open in 500 m

The Mix team will be opening today followed by the ladies and we will send the big guys at last!

Around lunchtime the conditions went from bad to worse: heavy rain and thunders strike all over the place.

Wind and rain, we can deal with it but the organizers had to stop the races due to lightenings.

At some stage, the Captains were called to discuss the situation and simply calling it a day.

Race resume to normal around 5:00 PM, 1000 races were skipped.

We can’t make it to the Mix Bowl final some of our crew had to head back home. This year we will not bring any trophies from Lama but we did learn a lot from that event.

All our teams add a slow start, but after a few tips and discussion and changes in the boats, they all improve their performance on the second heat.

The Mix team as always did great and end up being the top 25 % of the performers. Please do remember that we are a Mix team, after all, recognize in the community, but never the less we can get into other categories and be proud of ourselves and learn from those races.

Cukes, let’s get ready for VRC, that will be our second 500 m of the season, we will put extra miles under our paddle and let’s start with a fresh new slate.

1-2-3 Cuke’s Nations!

Results:

Mix Team:

• Heat 1: 2^nd position (13/39 teams)
• Heat 2: 2^nd position (11/39 teams)

Open Team:

• Heat 1: 4^th position
• Heat 2: 5^th position

Ladies Team:

• Heat 1: 4^th position
• Heat 2: 4th ^position

2018 Hong Kong Dragon Boat Carnival!

Could you get a more iconic venue than paddling in Victoria Harbour? With a variable backdrop of dramatic thunderstorms & sunny intervals along with the famous Hong Kong skyline presiding over the dragon boat CArnival, you could not ask for a more spectacular setting.

Cuke nation took to the waters to compete in a ferocious 400m standard mixed boat race. With the first 5 teams across the line in each heat gaining automatic entry into the semi-finals, positions being filled with the next 5 fastest times posted across all heats and the final positions being filled by the fastest in the repechages.

Results

Stanley International 2018

Tuen Ng Festival at the Sun Life Stanley International DB Championships.

The beach was packed with over 6,000 paddlers from 261 teams and countless spectators making for snug conditions anywhere you turned. Exciting to be part of one of the biggest, if not the very biggest, dragon boat festivals in the world.