2009Season
TheFestivals
- Miami Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival - Miami, Florida, USA - April 25-26 results
- Gorge Super Sprints (250m) - Victoria - May 23 results
- Nanaimo Dragon Boat Festival - Nanaimo - July 10-12 results
- Women's Island Classic - Victoria - July 25 results
- Gorge Fest - Victoria - August 8 results
- Victoria Dragon Boat Festival - Victoria - August 14-16 results
- Nanaimo Women's Cup - Nanaimo - August 29
Come cheer us on...
GO IBS!
IBSInTheNews
- ISLAND BREASTSTROKERS TAKE THE GOLD
Above (l-r): Marilyn McBain (Learning & Development), Heather Biasio (Camosun College UNS Programme), Darlene Knott (Cardiology) and Janet Bright (Data & Benefits).
Currents, June 2009
This past April, the Island Breaststrokers Daragon Boat team traveled to Miami to defend their World Championship title as the first World Breast Cancer Survivor Dragon Boat Champions, a title won in Singapore, September 2006.
This year there were fewer boats but the team still had some stiff competition to contend with, and they were up to the challenge.
The Island Breaststrokers managed to capture the gold in both categories in which they participated: the 2000 metre race and the 500 metre race, and they achieved some of the best times the team has ever set, all the while battling the gusty Miami winds.
In the final stretch of the 500 metre race they were five seconds ahead of the second boat from Miami and 10 seconds ahead of the Australian team.
The women trained relentlessly prior to their journey to Miami, practising on the Gorge waterway out of Go Row and Paddle three times a week.
- DRAGON BOATERS BRING HOME THE GOLD
Times Colonist, May 10, 2009
The Island Breaststrokers, a team of dragon-boating breast-cancer survivors, is back from a world-championship event in Florida with a pair of gold medals.
The women were victorious in both the 500- and 2,000-metre races in the breast-cancer survivor division.
The titles are a repeat of a gold-medal performance at the world championships in Singapore in 2006.
The Island Breaststrokers are ambassadors for physical activity and a positive outlook for women who have had breast cancer. The team acknowledged the hard work and dedication of coach Barb Gamble.
- LOCAL WOMAN BRINGS HOME THE GOLD
Salt Spring dragon-boater Lynda Brown with her medals.
Story & Photograph by: Sean Mcintyre , Gulf Islands Driftwood, May 6, 2009
When Salt Spring’s Lynda Brown decided to join the Island Breaststrokers three years ago, she never anticipated standing atop a podium at the Breast Cancer Survivor Challenge Dragon Boat Race in Miami, Florida.
Brown joined her teammates on the podium on two occasions during the April 25 and 26 event. Her team brought home titles for the 2,000-metre mixed event and 500-metre breast cancer survivors race.
The event caps a long winter training season that saw Brown make the trip down to Victoria’s Gorge Waterway up to three times a week for evening practices.
There was sleet, snow, ice and bitterly cold wind. It’s these elements Brown believes helped the team beat the odds in tropical Miami.
“I thought the heat would get us, but I think being hardy helped us out,” said Brown, an employee at Islands Savings Insurance who keeps a photo of her three grandchildren in her life jacket while racing. “We don’t go to win. We try to win, but that’s not what it’s all about.”
The average age of Brown’s crew is roughly 60 years, 10 years older than the second-place team.
Brown credits her participation in the sport to the island’s own dragon boat club and its founder, Mary Rowles.
She said the five-day trip to Miami is an opportunity to compete as a breast cancer survivor and share stories with and learn from other survivors from around the globe.
“The main focus is to encourage everyone to get out,” she said. “It’s all about the camaraderie.”
Clare Barry, daughter of Salt Spring’s Pam Barry, is another team member who participated in the event.
Barry was in a local store when she first heard about the event several years ago.
“I remember that watching the Victoria festival sent shivers down my spine,” she said. “Our message is really one of inspiration. To honour those that are fighting now, remember those that have passed away and show that there is still life to live.”
Barry said the Island Breaststrokers are always looking for new members. Breast cancer survivors of any age with a willingness to have fun and share the message of hope can get more information from the group’s website at www.islandbreaststrokers.com or by calling Barry in Victoria at 250-592-8578.
- PADDLERS A HARDY CREW
Carole West sits in the drummer's position in the bow as
Island Breaststrokers dragon-boat team heads out
onto
the water.
By Jeff Bell, Times Colonist April 19, 2009
Photograph by: Bruce Stotesbury, Times Colonist
You can't call the Island Breaststrokers dragon-boat team fair-weather paddlers.
Dragon boating tends to be a sport for the sunnier months, but the Island Breaststrokers were hitting the water regularly through the winter -- three
times a week, in fact. Snow, ice and biting cold were just slight inconveniences for this hardy bunch of breast-cancer survivors intent on being the
best they can be in a dragon boat.
They only stopped for a couple of weeks when there was so much snow in December and the ice in the boat prevented them from going out," said
team member Carole West.
The winter workouts were a prelude to a trip to Miami next weekend, where the team will be vying for world titles against breast-cancer survivors in
one competition and an open field in another. A dragon boat can hold 20 paddlers, a drummer and a helmsperson.
West said the team hopes to repeat the winning performance it had in Singapore in 2006. "We were actually the world champions in the breast-
cancer-survivor division in the 500 metres."
West and teammate Laurene Clarke both stressed that doing well in races is rewarding, but promoting hope and health for breast-cancer survivors is
what's really important for the team, now in its 12th year.
"While we're going to Miami and we're going to race in a championship and we have some very accomplished paddlers, we also provide the
opportunity for any survivor of breast cancer to paddle with us," said Clarke, who has been with the team for nine years. "We gear our practices to
accommodate new paddlers all the time. That's really important because we want to continue to provide the opportunity for women to have a healthy
lifestyle after their diagnosis of breast cancer.
"That's our mission -- winning is secondary."
Clarke said the Island Breaststrokers do regular fundraising and seek out sponsors to ensure no one is left out due to financial constraints. Six months
of fundraising prior to the Miami trip covered airfare and hotel expenses, West said.
"The community's wonderful -- they're very supportive."
Lack of experience or fitness should not deter any woman from considering picking up a paddle with the Island Breaststrokers, Clarke said, and
neither should age. "The average age on our team is over 60."
She said the Island Breaststrokers hold their own against much-younger rivals, having won bronze medals in both the Victoria and Nanaimo dragon-
boat festivals last year.
West encouraged anyone interested to give dragon boating a try. "Every year we're evolving. People leave and people join. If you're into water sport,
I think it's an awesome thing to do."
To learn more about the team, call 250-652-2708.
RaceResults
Miami Dragon Boat Festival 2009
- 2000m: ? - 1st Breast Cancer Team/3rd Overall (against mixed teams)
- 500m Heat 1: 2:15.90 - 1st
- 500m Heat 2: 2:18.98 - 1st
- 500m Final: 2:20.04 - 1st
Gorge Super Sprints (250m) 2009
- Heat 1: 1.13.01 - 2nd Women's Divison
- Heat 2: 1.13.25 - 2nd Women's Divison
- Semi Final: 1.12.50 - 4th Women's Division
Nanaimo Dragon Boat Festival 2009
- Heat 1: 2:31.93 - 3rd
- Heat 2: 2:43.14 - 3rd
- Heat 3: 2:45.95 - 4th
- Survivor Race: 2:32.97 - 1st
Women's Island Classic 2009
- Heat 1: 2:48.67 - 1st
- Heat 2: 2:43.62 - 2nd
- Heat 3: 2:38.52 - 1st
- Tug-A-War #1 - 1st
- Tug-A-War #2 - 2nd
Gorge Fest 2009
- Heat 1: 2:39.51 - 2nd
- Heat 2: 2:37.86 - 2nd
- Final: 2:35.09 - 2nd
- Survivor Race: 2:35.92 - 1st
Victoria Dragon Boat Festival 2009
- Heat 1: 2:45.12 - 5th
- Heat 2: 2:43.02 - 3rd
- Heat 3: 2:34.02 - 3rd
- Survivor Race: 2:27.05 - 1st
- Heat 4: 2:34.15 - 3rd Diamond A
2008 Results:
False Creek Women's Festival 2008
- Heat 1: 2:36.7 - 2nd
- Heat 2: 2:34.0 - 1st
- Heat 3: 2:30.12 - 3rd (12/100 of a sec seperated top three boats)
Nanaimo Dragon Boat Festival 2008
- Heat 1: 2:33.54 - 3rd
- Heat 2: 2:34.48 - 3rd
- Heat 3: 2:41.25 - 1st
- Survivor Race: 2:31.32 - 1st
- Heat 4: 2:41.06 - 3rd
Vernon Dragon Boat Festival 2008
- Heat 1: 0:57.92 - 3rd
- Heat 2: 0:58.88 - 3rd
- Heat 3: 2:49.35 - 3rd
- Heat 4: 2:42.49 - 4th
- Survivor Race: 2:44.46 - 1st
- Heat 5: 2:44.46 - 5th
Vancouver Island Dragon Boat Championships 2008
- Heat 1: 2:31.29 - 4th
- Heat 2: 2:25.40 - 2nd
- Survivor Race: 2:22.62 - 1st
- Heat 3: 2:24.27 - 3rd
Victoria Dragon Boat Festival 2008
- Heat 1: 2:31.76 - 5th
- Heat 2: 2:36.52 - 4th
- Heat 3: 2:35.75 - 5th
- Heat 4: 2:34.05 - 3rd Women's
- Survivor Race: 2:30.58 - 1st
- Heat 5: 2:29.26 - 5th Pearl Mixed
