by Phyllis Parker
Abreast A River Team Member

A few significant changes have occured for the Abreast A River dragon boat team.

Crystal Cameron, who has been with us since the team began in 1999, has retired as our coach. Crystal has volunteered countless hours with the team since then. We are very indebted to both Crystal and her family who have generously shared Crystal with us, and also their own time to us.

Mike Stevenson, who has worked with Crystal and the team for the past few years, is now our coach. We have enjoyed working with Mike and look forward to many good practices and races with him as our coach.

One more change is that our boat is in the water much earlier this year. First practice was held on Tuesday April 27th with a full boatload of paddlers. Weather for the first few practices has been mostly cold, often windy and rainy but the smiles in the boat show that that is a small concern.

Over the years we have experimented with various sequences of strokes for our "race start". As the starters gun or horn sounds the first strokes a team takes are very important. If a dragonboat falls behind other boats, team members encounter wakes which enter their boat's race lane. It is much harder to reach racing speed, especially in center lanes where wakes may be coming at you from both sides. It is crucial to stay even with, or go ahead of, competitors. Coach Mike seems pleased with the "speed"numbers being recorded during our practices with our "new start".

Our race season is only three weeks away. The team is travelling to Peterborough, Ontario for races to be held on the weekend of June 11th and 12th. Many of our newer team members are looking forward to an event of this size. We last raced at an international event in 2005 during Vancouver's Abreast In A Boat 10th Year Anniversary. 1600 breast cancer survivors from around the world raced then. The Peterborough event is an international one strictly for breast cancer dragon boat teams and will be a big one.

All races will be 500 meters long and Abreast A River will race at least four of them. As a team we have often had better times during 500 races than the 250 meter sprints. We are currently working on further improving paddle technique and on strength and endurance.

Abreast A River warmly welcomes any breast cancer survivor who would like to join us and become part of our team. If you are uncertain about whether you would enjoy it come give it a try. We meet on the wharf at Crabbe J's Marina ( formerly Riverfront Marina) downtown New Glasgow every Tuesday and Thursday evening at 6 pm. We are in the boat and on the river by 6:15 pm.

For further information on cancer call the Canadian Cancer Society information line at 1-888-939-3333