2013 Season 16

This year we have three new Directors, individuals who support the team by donating their time to manage the legal and financial responsibilities of a non-profit organization. Welcome our new Directors: Richard Boucher, Butch Lucero, and Ging Masinda-Quinto. Staying on as CFO is Kat Quinto.

Also joining us this year is Dan Gee as Equipment Manager, Nick Chekmizoff and Jeannie Lin as Assistant Coach and Kenny Kim as Captain.

Season Kick off was Feb 16, 2013.

The 2013 race season as of Jan 1st 2013 is as follows:

• Long Beach Spring Race aka Baby Long Beach
• Vancouver
• Long Beach
• PDBA Qualifier
• San Francisco Dragon Boat Festival
• Los Angeles Dragon Boat Festival
• San Diego Dragon Boat Festival
• Season End Banquet

You get what you put in

Scott Wu

Welcome to LARD's 2013 Season, our 16th! The coaches are very excited to begin the journey with you. We are excited to welcome new paddlers and are grateful for the hard work and dedication of our veteran and returning members.

The beauty of our team is together we can accomplish all of your goals. Do you want to compete? Are you paddling because you want to get in the best shape of your life? Do you want to meet new and different people? Do you want to have fun? Together, we can reach all of these goals and together we can make this one of our most memorable years ever.

That being said, you've heard the old saying "You get what you put in." It's no different with teamLARD. Maximize the benefit you receive from LARD by doing all you can to make us a better team on and off the water.

C'est la soupe qui fait le soldat (An army marches on its stomach)

Tabitha Huang

Has the 2013 season already started? In that case, welcome back LARDies for our 16th season! There have been some milestones LARD has accomplished this past season and there will be many more in the upcoming season. As Jason has mentioned, I hope you all are well rested and rejuvenated to get back onto the water. Many of you have found different activities during the off-season and we invite you to share them with your teammates.

This season it’s all about setting goals not only for you but also for the team. What do you want this year and how are you going to achieve it? What makes you wake up in the wee hours of the morning to go to practice, when most people sleep in on the weekends? We attend practice not because we have to but because we want to. It’s waiting for the weekend to see your friends and sharing the same passion for paddling. During our time at practice we aren’t just teammates we’re family.

As I enter my 4th season with LARD and final term as a captain I am excited to see what’s in store for us in 2013. It’s been great seeing some old familiar faces along with fresh new faces join us this season. Let’s make 2013 a memorable year. Together we’re LARD.

Let’s do this. 1! 2! 3! Go LARD!

Jason

Hello LARDfolk and LA Pinks!

Welcome to the team's 2013 Season, our 16th, and the LA Pinks' 10th! Seeing some of those 'throwback' photos over the past few months—in contrast to the video that Jeremy recently put together— have certainly been a welcome reminder of how far the paddling community, and our teams, have come since the 'Lego-boat' days of ICEA, even before SCDBC was established. On behalf of the coaches, I hope this message finds you all in good health after a much-deserved 'off-season' and looking forward to getting back in the boat with many new and returning teammates alike to awaken all those paddling senses just itching to reconnect with the water. It was great seeing all of you at practices this past weekend, and getting to catch up over a quick bite afterwards, too, on another beautifully warm southern Cal weekend.

With continued efforts to improve general health and fitness over the past few months by taking up new physical pursuits and engaging in random fitness challenges-- pushups in a bowling alley come to mind-- I would guess that many of you have barely missed a beat in terms of keeping to an active weekly routine. Whether you were able to still get out on the water, enjoy a good climb-run-hike outdoors, try out a new indoor class or elevate your gym workouts, let's apply those cross-training superpowers and strengths together again on and off the boat! Every season is unique, and the coaches are very excited to begin this season's journey with you. We're happy to be welcoming and working with newer members (as well as new paddlers) already and are grateful for the hard work and continued dedication of returning members, our 'LARDcore.'

As the weather continues to warm up and your paddle beckons, think about what you’d like to accomplish together with the support of your teammates. Are you thinking ahead to the next Club Crew World Championship in 2014, or looking forward to other traveling races this season (ie: Vancouver, San Francisco)? Are you paddling and training to work towards the best shape of your life? Are you cross-training for the first-ever obstacle-course-mud-run-bike-dboat team triathlon?! Do you want to have fun and meet new people? These are not mutually exclusive goals; our team—your team—can achieve most, if not all of these if we commit together. In the process, we can make this another memorable season-chapter for the books.

That being said, you've heard the old saying “you get what you put in." It's no different with teamLARD. Whether it’s your 10th, 5th, 1st, or all-of-the-above season with the team, there is always something you can offer to help make us a better both on and off the water: help prep the boat before practice so we can get out on the water sooner; volunteer to clean up the boats afterwards and help rinse off team equipment to make things easier for Dan, who’s graciously bringing it out for newer teammates; become a certified steersperson, then actually steer at practices; learn the ropes of becoming a race manager; volunteer as a paddler during SCDBC steerer certification sessions...you get the idea! Need more? Just take the initiative to ask—we’re happy to match your interests to a relevant need :-)