Back to Wellington and dragon boat practice, a very different experience to kayaking. Our practice is always in the cool of the evening on the waterfront starting from the lagoon. We do our warm up first with workers and tourists often wandering through the middle of it. I almost swiped an elderly Chinese woman who walked through while looking at the nearby fountain.
For once we were organised and on time, and our boat was already waiting for us on the ramp.
We practised our starts, focusing on reaching, moving our body with the the stroke, and snapping out the paddle between knee and hip. With aggression, aggression, AGRESSION!
The sweep and the drummer passed a camera on a tripod between them to try and capture what we were up to, good and bad. The rescue boat guys then offered to take over the videoing. Lets hope we were all doing what we were supposed to be doing!
There was noise over at Frank Kitts Park. A rally was being held to show opposition to asset sales.
I tried to use this to up my aggression and started chanting under my breath (no talking in the boat!) to the rhythm of the paddling: Say no to asset sales, say no to asset sales, sell the bloody lot, sell the bloody lot! Give it away, give it away, keep it here, keep it there, lets be slaves, token knaves, country's riches chucked in ditches...etc etc. Probably by this stage my paddling was all over the show so I put my mind to the task at hand and focused in the boat which is what I was supposed to be doing.
Soon we doing our last race start, continuing into the lagoon and finally off up the ramp. No need to haul the boat up as another team was waiting.
A quick warm down and off home, hungry for food.
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