Happy Birthday Lori!

Our Dancing Diva!

Conquering the Finger Lakes

Paddle cheers for our Ithaca-bound team, your race is just two weeks away!:

Ada Ayala-Reyes, Bob Robinson-Dassel, Carolyn Newkirk, Dick Northway, Doug Cooper, Frank Petrich, Jacob Witul, Jeanne Sadler, Jen Wheitner, Jonathan Mayes, Jordan Lowe, Kate Northway, Kathi Robinson-Dassel, Laurie Butler, Linda Raschiatore, Lisa Kennard, Lori Swensson, Marie Ulsh, Mina Hare-Rubenstein, Rachael Blair, Rissa Witul, Sophie Jan, Stefani Danes

A Meeting, A Task Force, and Another Meeting

Thanks to all who braved the rain and "muddy" river water to come to practice tonight and our meeting afterwards. Minutes will be shared with everyone, paddle cheers to Jonathan for volunteering to take on that task.

Also huge thanks to those who volunteered for the task force to find/hire an external coaching consultant: Carolyn N., Kris, and Sophie. Laurie (as PICL) and Lisa (as a member of the coach search committee) are ex officio members of that task force as well. Ladies, please let your fellow P'fish know if you need any assistance.

Everyone: please mark your calendars for our next general team meeting: Wednesday, July 11 after a short practice. (That's our last practice before Ithaca, so it would be a lighter/shorter workout anyway.) If you have any suggestions for agenda items, please send them to me via e-mail.

Wednesday Reminder

We will meet as a team following a slightly shortened practice this Wednesday, June 27, to discuss the possibilities and logistics of bringing in a Coaching Consultant. Please try to make this meeting even if you can't make it in time for the practice, and bring your calendars. The meeting will start at 7:45 and end at 8:30.

Also -- if you're going to Ithaca, please try to make this practice! The Ithaca paddlers will be practicing together.

Pretty Paddlefish :)

As ever, click on the image to enlarge (and it really does enLARGE!)

Happy Birthday Kris!

Another Race Shot: Pittsburgh Dragon Boat Races

You know the drill: click on the picture so you can see it without a periscope.


Thanks to Joe Bondi of Detre's Dragons for this one!

Congrats to Team Pittsburgh

Team Pittsburgh got a nice blurb in the Post-Gazette this morning! See http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07171/795402-114.stm.

An appropriate tribute...

...for our departing Coach Ben:
We'll miss you, Ben!

Scrimmage Cancelled

The scrimmage tonight has been cancelled due to low attendance.

While I have your attention, please make sure the following scrimmage dates are on your calendars. I'll wait until you get a pencil.

...

Ready?

Wednesday, July 25 @ TRRA*
Thursday, Aug 23 @ FCM
Saturday, Sept 22 @ South Side

*Steel City has graciously offered to host the next scrimmage, since we threw such a great party last time. Whether that means that we'll head up their direction, or whether they'll bring the party to us at Millvale, has yet to be determined. Please keep your eye on the blog and the weekly update for further information.

Pittsburgh Dragon Boat Races

Click on these to see them full-sized. Photos of the Grand Final from Jack ....

Paddlefish in Pittsburgh: Victories, Fun, & A Little Calamari

What a great day on the river -- and IN the river! Jonathan and Carolyn took one for the team and ended up in the river with Ben during the wrestling match to get him to take a celebratory dunking, and Rachel took one for the team and ended up in the river after she pitched off the drummer's seat while trying to retrieve the rope for the dockhands! Pfish are not afraid of water.

Congratulations to everyone who paddled with such spirit throughout the day!

Special thanks to Rissa, for organizing the event end of things, and to Lisa, Carolyn, Kathi, Mina, Judy and Jim, and Jonathan for their oodles of hours of work in organizing community teams to enter the races this year. The whole day was better for having Detre's Dragons, GSK Alli Nicorette Riverdragons, No Teachers Left Behind, Paddlers for Peace, and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra out on the water with us!

Huge paddle cheers to all of the volunteer drummers and steerers, without whom very few of those boats would have been able to be on the water at the same time, and to GSK for sponsoring the great after-party and the cash prize for the women's race.

Parking on Saturday

If you park at the EAST LOT behind Margarita Momma's, Hooters, Matrix,etc. you will receive a $3 parking for the day. You need to make sure to get a parking pass from Registration.

When/Where to Meet on Saturday

On Saturday, plan to meet at 9:00 AM at the fountain at Bessemer Court in Station Square.

This is a new venue for us. While it would be good to bring a tent, we'll be dealing with concrete rather than grass, so we'd have to get creative if it becomes too windy to hold the tent down. There will be port-o-johns so you can trust that I'll be there with my beloved can o' Wet Ones.

Also remember that this festival has no vendors, so don't plan to snack on yummy Chinese treats between races (unless you bring your own -- but I'm not planning to fly in my aunts to make homemade zongzi).

If anyone can stick around after the races, volunteers will be needed to move the boats:
(1) At Station Square to move all the boats from the water onto TRRA's trailer, then
(2) At Millvale to move Steel City's boats off TRRA's trailer and onto their trailer.

The after party, sponsored by GSK, will be held at Bar Louie at Station Square starting at 7:00 PM. Free appetizers and unlimited soda but you do have to pay for alcohol.

Please keep your eyes on your e-mail and on this blog for further updates.

Greetings from John of Wasabi

John Worcester, our friend from Portland's Wasabi team, sent the photo above. These are the "tugboats" the Wasabi team uses in lieu of tire drills!

The boats weigh 2500 pounds and take 16 paddlers, who use paddles larger than our regular paddles.

Can't you just see Carolyn and Jonathan as flag catchers?

Congratulations, Kate!

Woo-hooo! Congratulations to Kate, Mt. Lebanon HS Class of 2007, and to Dick and Laurie. Happy Graduation Day!

Win a Week at Dragon Boat Camp!

Just heard about this through the DragonBoatForum Yahoogroup...

Against the Wind Breast Cancer Survivors' DB Team is raffling a week at GWN's spring training camp (week of your choice). Tickets are one for $10, 3 for $25. Drawing will be held on the evening of July 15th. Please send check, made payable to Philadelphia Flying Phoenix, to Kathy Dix, 11 Frazer Boulevard, Coatesville, PA, 19320. Please include your email address so that we can email you your ticket(s) stub number(s). We will email the winning # to all that we have addresses for, and of course will call the winner, so please include your phone # as well. Proceeds will benefit Against the Wind and will help to defray the cost of our trip to the Breast Cancer Survivors' Festival in Caloundra, Australia in September.

Thank you for your support. Special thanks to GWN for their generous support as well.

Susan Papada
President, Philadelphia Flying Phoenix/Against the Wind

You go girls!

We think we may have had a 'Paddlefish First' at this evening's practice...

Both boats had women at the helm. Kit (AKA: "Green Boat Goddess") and Carolyn (AKA "Red Boat Banshee") were to be found steering boats at the end of practice tonight - perhaps the first time that we've had two of our marvelous Lady-pfish steering at the same time?

Someone grab the Paddlefish annals and check!

Breaking News

Perfect 10! Team Pittsburgh cleaned out the Philadelphia Independence Races! Our hometown team beat the Philadelphia Police to place 1st overall. Congrats on the great win guys!

Youngest P'Fish goes to the Prom

As you can see Kate looked lovely and by all reports, had a great time.

More DC Photos!

Huge paddle cheers to Jen's friend Brad, who came to cheer us on at the DC Festival last month, and took some excellent photos. I uploaded his pictures to our team gallery on Flickr, but here are a few to whet your paddle-photo-mania...

C-Bob & Cane

Contemplating Charcoal
Originally uploaded by KitAy.

Captain Bob took one for the team (not ours, but still) this weekend and messed up his hip getting the boat out of the water -- thus the cane you see jauntily hanging from his pocket here.

(In Bob's secret life, he's also a bit of a barbecue king at our annual church picnic. Shhh. Don't let on you know!)

June Training Schedule

The June training schedule is now available; please visit the link under "Training Information" in the sidebar. I'll send it around in the Friday update, for those of us that prefer the Excel version to the Google spreadsheet.

Tonight's workout will be...

2 x island laps
3 x 200m timed
Pgh mens boat seating

Happy paddling!

Capsizing the Red Boat

Sometimes, it really is easier being green, despite what Kermit says.

At the end of Saturday's practice, those of us in the green boat cruised up to the Millvale dock to witness something out of the ordinary -- the red boat, completely swamped, with our teammates floating around it, bailing madly.

Turns out, Coach Ben decided that it was time for that capsize drill. Luckily he chose a hot, sunny day, which made the river water seem more appealing than usual.

So, what did we learn?

• Dragon boats hold a LOT of water.
• Our PFDs work -- almost too well, if you ask Marie H.
• We need bigger bailers. Maybe a hand pump. Or at least a pickle bucket.
• It's always good to have a digital camera on hand. ;)

Visit our photo gallery for more: http://www.flickr.com/groups/paddlefish/pool/