3 River Serpents

Snowy River

Winter wonderland!

First it was the rain and a sunken boat. Now it is the

snow and a frozen boat! Sadly we have not been out on

the water since before Christmas due to the weather.

Please can old and new serpents keep in touch with

myself, James or Keni as we hope to be paddling one

Sunday soon weather permitting!  Jane

A full boat!!

We are doing well attracting new members - this is a picture from a few weeks ago at a Sunday training session.

Given the number of new members training sessions are geared towards them with coaches doing technical pieces - great for old and new paddlers alike!

Recovering the dragonboat

James in his lovely waders, came to the Serpents rescue once again by balancing in trees to winch the training boat from its watery resting place. Sorry no action shots as realised too late my phone had a camera!

Despite the mounds of silt in the bottom of the boat, James and Keni managed to float the boat to the landing stage. 

The other serpents got mucky shovelling all the silt out of the boat. Clive as ever lent a hand.

We realised that the quickest way to empty the boat was to balance the boat out of the water on the mud mounds so the silt could be rinsed out down the boat and through the hole caused during the flood.  Simon and Jan were the counter balance!

The boat was sparkling (well almost) when we lifted it out to assess the damage.  Only a smallish hole which we are hoping will mend. 

Serpents are back training in a racing boat so all is good!  See you Sunday mornings 10am and Wednesday evenings 6.30pm.

Great Durham Flood!

Friday 19th July saw torrential rain which caused the River Wear to rise by about 13 feet.  Water reached the new club house on Saturday morning and if it were not for some dedicated rowers the damage would have been much worse - only new carpets were needed.  For even more dramatic photos of the flood please click the links below to Durham Amateur Rowing Club's website, courtesy of Barry Hudson.

http://gallery.durham-arc.org.uk/floods2009/InsideBoathouse/
http://gallery.durham-arc.org.uk/floods2009/OutsideBoathouse/
http://gallery.durham-arc.org.uk/floods2009/AlongTheRiver/
http://gallery.durham-arc.org.uk/floods2009/RacecourseBuildings/

Our dragonboat that was moored on the river was deep underwater but still chained to the trees.  Due to the high river we did not attempt to raise the dragonboat til Wednesday evening when James the star balanced in the trees and started to winch the boat out of the water.  With help from John in an O1 James tried to bail out water once the boat was on the surface.  Despite serpents cheering them on, the bailing didn't seem to be having an effect - the reason was a large hole in the bottom of the boat! 

We will still need to recover the boat to assess the damage and see if it can be repaired so fingers crossed the river drops by Sunday when hopefully it will be all hands on to rescue the boat.  So serpents please bring wellies and buckets to the next training session!

Teeside BDA Event - The Serpents Are Back!!

Sunday 14th June saw our local BDA event at the Watersports Centre on the River Tees.  With a determined crew of 16 serpents we entered our first race event of 2009. 

Cheers Simon for the victory fingers!        Keni and Kerry missed this photo opportunity.

We had two 'virgin' Serpents competing for the first time, well done Paul and Maria, green suits you!

 
The sun was shining all day and Billy made the most of it ...........

....... Debs led the warm ups with Simon ever enthusiastic!

 
........ but we won our first 200m heat by half a boat,

....... going on to finish second overall in the 200m event. 

We only had one warning for being late but we did have to find a pool helm!

We had a little accident with the dragon's head and can't blame Sir Clive this time......

Despite a 'gaffer taped' head the 500m races after lunch were rewarding and we finished a strong 4th overall.

Everyone had a great day and thanks to Glen, Tristan and Ian for travelling from afar. 

The Serpents are back and have their sights set on Preston on 26th July!

 

New College, Durham

Sixty keen students competed in dragonboat races as a team build exercise for their college course on Public Services.  Despite the persistent rain all enjoyed the event!

 

 

Events - Calling all Serpents!

We have a whole bunch of events coming up over the Summer.  Not only do they help to raise funds for the Club but are also an excellent opportunity to show others how much fun dragon boat racing is.  You never know, there may even be some future Serpees in there.

We do need the help of all members if possible so please put these in your diary and let Jane know at training which ones you are able to help out at.

Friday 5th June 2009 9.30am to 3.00pm for NEW COLLEGE DURHAM
Dragonboat racing challenge for 60 students held at DARC

Friday 19th June 2009 1.00pm for DURHAM PRIMARY CARE TRUST
A team building paddle for 12 health trainers on the Wear

Saturday 27th June 2009 12.00pm to 2.00pm ACTIVE DURHAM
Taster session for the public to experience dragonboating

Saturday 12th September 2009 11.00am to 4.00pm BUTTERWICK FUNDRAISER
Six teams competing for a trophy to raise funds for Butterwick Hospice

Want to Paddle at the Tyne Event

The Tyne Event is coming up fast on Sunday 9 May.  If you have friends or colleagues that are going to fill a seat for us they'll need to get down to training at least once before hand.  Trying to recruit a bunch from Crossfit NorthEast England to come down this Sunday.