yearbook

6th Annual Tempe - March 28 & 29

Grrr

Squad Division Place
 
Black 500m Mixed A 2nd (2:07:75)
250m Open 1st (1:05:43)
Red 500m Mixed B 4th (2:24:06)
Pink Breast Cancer Survivor Cup

Wow, another fun dragon boat-filled weekend in Tempe, Arizona! It was nice to see that the races ran so smoothly this year- things were pretty much on time and the organizers didn’t have to cancel any races.

LARD brought up 2 teams – Red and Black (along with Women and Men crews). Historically, LARD approaches the Tempe race as a good time to bring out new paddlers and allow “less seasoned” paddlers ample opportunity to get some races under their belts. This year was no exception. It would have been great to have our full team up there, but I’m sure a lot of you guys (and gals) are pacing yourselves for a long season with our “A” races looming on the horizon. Right?

That being said, I was absolutely impressed with our results – Red advanced to the B Division Finals. Although Black was eliminated in the Comp A semis, Black was able to record the fastest time in the 250 meter sprints. Not too shabby. Our men and women both made it to the Finals in their respective divisions.

William showing off his new box style

Hats off to UCLA and the Space Dragons – both teams had absolutely stellar and unprecedented runs. We can see how hard you guys have been training. You (and your coaches) deserve a big pat on the back. I am so happy to see the teams paddling out of Long Beach getting faster and faster. It raises the bar for all of us. Keep up the good work! Perhaps, most importantly, I am happy that UCLA can destroy SC in dragon boating – maybe some day I can say the same thing about football. ;) (love you, Aileen!).

DPW ran some great races – and thanks to the DPW ladies (and Nathan for allowing them to paddle with us) for rounding out LARD’s women’s crew.

It was also nice to see the Electric Dragons run some solid race pieces. The Rogue Warriors/Thunder Dragons composite also looked great (Henry, we missed you in Tempe!).

LA Pink Dragons

The KG/San Diego composite also looked fabulous. Keep up the good work! It’s always nice to see the KG crew and watch the “seasoned” SD team lay down the wood.

Our very own LA Pink Dragons had a stellar tournament – improving their best time from last year by 28 seconds! You ladies ROCK! All of your hard work is paying off!

All and all, a great time. Hell, how can the weekend be bad if you are paddling?

-Scott

TeamLARD,

I hope that you all returned safely. Congratulations and thanks for all of your efforts this weekend, from traveling, to paddling, cheering, organizing, HPC'ing, coaching - everything. Genders each earning a place in the finals, a red crew that represented LARD in the finals, and black sprint champs.

I had a heck of a weekend, a really packed, condensed, ball 'o fury kind, for which I have burnt lips, a warm glow on my face, and achy muscles to show for it. And a ridiculous thirst. Am I the only one who felt like beef jerky?

For those new to the team, I hope you have an understanding of what our team is all about. For the veterans, thanks for demonstrating [your passion and continued commitment to this team]. And this last weekend is JUST THE BEGINNING! Newbie paddler's event this weekend, introduce some new paddlers to the sport. Baby LB and Vancouver around the corner. LB, SF and PDBA Championships. Can't wait.

The season is off to a strong, promising start, thanks to all of you. See you at practice.

Leon

Paddler's Corner: Morris Chen (MoMo)

I heard of LARD through Megan while we were co-captains at UCI.

My first impression: I heard about you guys and seen you do dryland/hpc so when I was boat monitoring, Leon and Will invited me to try out the dryland, fun stuff. I heard lard was strong, and I expected them to be strong, however my first race with LARD was in Tempe 2009, but I was disheartened by the results of LARD Black then. Smart call on the coaches to mix the crews later on but I'd really want to beat SD there. My most memorable race with LARD was Long Beach 2009, great races and killed the sprints :)

-MoMo


Women

Aileen Chu
Alison Wu
Andrea Wong
Cathleen Kim
Cheryl Schmid
Crystal Wang
Huay Wee
Jeannie Lin
Karen Cheng
Kat Quinto
Kristine Suh
Lorena Yamamoto
Lori Skelton
Megan Yeh
Rachelle Wong
Sarah Leung
Susan Foley
Wynne Cheng
Yonnie Lam
TK Kimura
Lilly Chen

Men

Aaron Fong
Bill Ting
Brent Tambourine
Chuck Chang
Dan Toledo
Dennis Chhean
Dustin Ingagiola
Greg Yee
Hugh Nguyen
Jason Tambourine
Jesse Wong
Jim Ralbovsky
Johnny Tambourine
Leon Cheng
Mark Feng
Michael Espino
Mike Lee
Morris Chen
Nick Chekmizoff
Otto Jan
Phil Sun
Scott Wu
Taylor Tso
Todd Zankich
Will Lin
Los Angeles Racing Dragons Foundation

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