2016 December 21. Wednesday will be the last pad-dling session before the Christmas breakup. 2017 January 2. Paddling resumes again on Mon-day. January 15. DBNSW Regatta Series, Race 4 (DB22 200m) Sydney International Regatta Centre, Penrith. January 28 & 29 Manning Regatta February 11 Chinese New year Regatta, Darling Harbour February 26 State Championships, SIRC Penrith April 19-24 Australian Dragon boat Champion-ships at Gateway Lakes, Albury-Wodonga

P e r f e c t i o n i s n o t a t t a i n a b l e b u t i f w e c h a s e p e r f e c t i o n w e a c h i e v e E X C E L L E N C E !

December, 2016

Pearls of Wisdom Great Lakes Pearl Dragons

www.pearldragons.com

Executive Committee dragons2428@hotmail.com President: Denise Marr 0407 724089 Vice President: Laurie Haydon 0425 234870 Secretary: Carolyn Rich-ards 0448 529280 Treasurer: Fay Brooks 0402 314221 Club Captain Female: Gina Barber 0412 815311 Club Captain Male: Frank Fenech 0412 194200 Director: Wendy Orman 0407 543813

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President’s Report December 2016 Welcome pearls to our final newsletter for 2016. What a year it has been - we have been in-credibly busy both on and off the water.

This evening I have been doing a small article for the Forster Keys Progress Association news-letter in relation to our regatta. While looking through the many pearl photos I have accu-mulated over the year, I couldn’t help but smile at some of the good times we have had paddling, fundraising, socialising, at our Christmas get together and even doing mainte-nance at the container. It is a bit like looking at a family album with many memories that bring a smile while some can also bring a twinge of sadness. As part of a family we aren’t always happy, sometimes we feel agitated by one another, however what we always need to do is strive to be positive and move forward, rejecting any negativity that may occur.

Paddling is a team sport and this year some have embraced the competitive side of pad-dling, training hard with the view to compete at Nationals in Albury-Wodonga after Easter while others work hard to improve their fitness on our beautiful lake. We do have different squads and different training regimes however we are one team “the pearls”. I encourage you to support one and other in whatever journey is chosen.

A huge congratulations to Wendy Orman, Wendy has been named as an Aurora (the high-est you can go in dragon boating) and will compete as part of the Senior B team in the IDBF 13th World Nations Championships 2017 to be held in Beijing, China. This is Wendy’s second time as an Aurora. Wendy also was a finalist in the Myall Lakes Community Senior Sportsper-son of the Year Awards and we have just been notified that she has been nominated as Sportsperson of the Year for the Australia Day Awards. You cannot keep a good person down, congratulations Wendy.

Our regatta was a huge success, with all pearls pulling together. A special thank you to the regatta committee, these guys have worked behind the scenes all year. It is most appreci-ated.

What else have we been doing?

Safety Swim Policy and Capsize Drill has been updated to V6

Frank has replaced our container roof– thanks to ClubGRANTS NSW via TBBC

Swim tests and Capsize drills are almost complete ( a few to be done)

Come and Try paddling – success – 16 people having a go

Come and Try Sweeping – still in progress

Before we say goodbye to 2016 please place your name on the regatta lists that are up on our website. These are for SIRC4- Penrith, Manning Regatta and Chinese New Year at Darling Harbour. I encourage the entire Club to participate in the Manning regatta - we don’t have to travel so it will be very cost effective. Manning is our neighbour and friend and as a Club has had a sad 2016 losing one of their treasured members, it would be lovely for a huge group of pearls to be at their regatta.

Look after yourselves and enjoy your time with family and friends over Christmas. See you on the water in 2017.

Regards

Denise

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Congratulations

Frank Fenech, Laurie Haydon, Claire Pontin and Wendy Orman were selected in the Northern Regional Team (Northern Pride) to compete at the NSW State Championships at Penrith on February 26th 2017. Northern Pride selects paddlers from as far south as For-ster to Ballina in the north of the state.

They had to complete a series of fitness tests including a 2 minute rowing ERG test, 2 minutes of sit ups, maximum pull ups and push ups (all age specific requirements) as part of the selection process. They also had to be video-taped paddling in the dragon boat to determine their compatibility in the team.

The Northern Pride team will compete against the other two regional teams in NSW; Southern and Western, to gain the honour of representing the NSW Regional State team to compete at Nationals in Albury-Wodonga on 22nd April 2017.

Below left: Anna's Trophies winner Senior Community Team . Well done team great on the water and great job also looking after the supply of trophies for the regatta.

Right: Heather from Sandy Point was happy when she won our major raffle prize at our annual regatta. Here she is with her prize, a Typhon adjustable paddle. Happy paddling, Heather.

Northern Pride Pearlers

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SIRC2- 500m Events

Pearl Men paddled their hearts out and were victorious in the Open Senior A’s

500m race getting a Bronze Medal! Frank, Peter and Whady – congratulations

guys – we are so proud of you!

Pearlie Girlies paddled in two heats and made it to the final in the Senior A

Women’s 500m race.

Their times were: Heat 1: 2:29:67; Heat 2: 2:28:76

Final: 2:30:95 (only 0.03 seconds behind 3rd place – a whisker)

SIRC3 -500m Events

The Competitive Training Squad

Yes - we made it into the finals!!

Congratulations Pearl Dragons – we have done it again and made it into the finals – this time we did it for every event we participated in at SIRC3. This was the first time we have paddled in the Senior B Mixed and we beat Newcastle Hunter, Easts and Sudu to get into the finals.

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(cont.) A huge thank you for a great job has to go to our seven women – Lou, Brenda, Rejane, Kim H, Fay, Megan and Angela for paddling in the Senior A Opens with our men and the Port Hacking team and then backing up only two races later with the Senior A Women’s heats and then the finals! True grit and determination: great work ladies J

The Port Hacking/GLPD Senior A Open’s team beat Easts/Marist and Pittwater to make the finals.

Just to show you how much the Senior A ladies have improved since attending the SIRC regattas. At SIRC2 our heat times were: Heat 1: 2:29:67 Heat 2: 2:28:76 Finals: 2:30:95 .

Now compare that time with this final (with our full team) – 2:23:52 Our ladies had to beat Sudu and Pendragons to make it into the finals and powered home to be only just pipped by Pittwater for 4th place (whom we beat in Heat 3). A big thanks has to go to Carol, our wonderful sweep. She made paddling easy in every race. Carol gave us stress free starts and kept us going with-out any hassles all the way down the 500m race. All we had to do was bust ourselves paddling – Carol kept her line and encouraged us from the back! What would we do without our fabulous drummers Jo Harris and Wendy Lum who kept our beat and spurred us on for our over 2 minutes of pain! Love your work. Of course, great job everyone. Let’s see how we can compare to our SIRC1 200m results to the upcoming SIRC4 200m races. Keep an eye out on the regatta page for SIRC4 and the Manning regatta both coming up in January 2017.

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This year saw our regatta being run over two full days with our Community Teams racing on Saturday 19 November with the inaugural combined 500m/2k race for our Sports Teams in the afternoon.

Sunday 20 November we had our Sports Teams competing in the 200m races.

The feedback from both groups, community and sports, has been positive with both enjoying their own events. The community groups especially felt more at ease not having to rush through the events and most have indicated they will be back next year.

Our raffles and BBQ were profitable on both days and were well received.

Naturally we couldn’t have achieved any of this without you! We, the committee, were so pleased with the response from all members. It was wonderful to see so many of you there both days stepping forward and doing whatever task was asked of you.

We are still waiting to receive some accounts and payments but we believe our profit this year will be approximately $12,500!

Thank you Pearlers!

From your Regatta Committee 2016

GREAT LAKES PEARL DRAGONS 5TH ANNUAL REGATTA

“Poetry in Motion” Hard work and dedication paid off for the Pearls when they were victorious in the 2km section of the 500m/2km race. Coach Joe took the team to winning position in this turns race with his expert sweeping and timely requests for more power along with words of en-couragement on the ‘good job’!

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KEMPSEY REGATTA Fantastic to be a Great Lakes Pearl Dragon attending another exciting & fun filled regatta.

Our region has many strong teams & we certainly mixed it with them.

All of our teams had great results in their heats, with both women’s teams making the semi-finals, proving that we will have an almighty 20’s Boat at our next regatta. Although our ‘Man’ power had to be filtered between two boats, both mixed teams had great race starts and showed superb strength & determination from every paddler, lifting our boats and bringing home powerful finishes.

Rising to the challenge -

Congratulations to Our Open Team, who took out 3rd place & brought home a most im-pressive dragon boat trophy to add to our cabinet.

Well done team. Claire W will have plenty to write home about – her first regatta. (Where is Terry B - camera shy, but certainly part of the Team)

These are superb results for our club: 4 teams in semi’s with one 3rd place.

Everyone should feel extremely proud of their team mates—as coaches we are thrilled!

Our admiration, to our drummers, who accepted their roles with enthusiasm & gusto—you did a fantastic job.

Our appreciation to our sweeps at regattas and all year round. It was not a restful Sunday for Helen, who swept ten races.

Thanks to Claire & Peter, for transporting the boat

And thanks to Rejane, our volunteer, keeping a close eye on all races & willing us on from the side line.

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GLPD Members Directory

Attention Members! If you would like to let members know about an event or a fundraiser that you have an interest in please post on the Social Pearlers’ Facebook page. This is not an official Club page, just a way for us to contact each other so we can get together and have a bit of fun…. You might want company to go to the movies, or a night out for dinner… put it out there on ‘Social Pearlers’… https://www.facebook.com/groups/1225946197420967/

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