A brave groom arranged a surprise mode of transport for his unsuspecting bride on their wedding day.
The moment the bride realised her ‘surprise’!
Is this really happening?
No turning back. . .
Too far to swim!
Guard of honour.
Report from Barb Chester 
What a special community exercise we witnessed on 1 May, a perfect Sunday morning. Cockburn Dragon Boat Club members staying back after training to share their love of dragon boating with those preparing to, or preparing to support those participating in the upcoming Transplant Games, most of whom had no previous knowledge of the sport but a willingness to give it a go.
Such generosity and genuine interest was on display. My take was that all participants, spectators, trainers and learners went home with a ‘life is pretty special’ feel.
I’ve had the great privilege of sharing the journey with some of the participating transplant recipients, to know first-hand the challenges they have and continue to meet. To see them on the water paddling with such gusto, learning new skills, meeting new people and enjoying the laughter and fun was very special. WA will be well prepared to participate in the dragon boating event which is being introduced for these games.
Thank you Cockburn Dragon Boat Club members, feel proud, your club was on full display.
Footnote: Australian Transplant Games will be held in Western Sydney, 24 September – 1 October 2016.
Life Member Graham Potaka cutting the 30th Anniversary cake.
Cockburn’s 2015-2016 season and 30th Anniversary year concluded with a function held on Friday 15 April at the East Fremantle Yacht Club.
President Rick Salisbury acknowledged the momentum the club had gained and coach Tim Byrne was happy with the year’s results. He highlighted the improvement the mixed crew had made to come from behind to win a hard-fought race.
“But the icing on the cake is what the women did when they went to Adelaide. They showed the rest of Australia that Cockburn won’t be trifled with,” he said.
Daniel Grant, Vivienne Wigg, Fiona Barnes, Pamela Soding, Mary Urbano, Ernie Carey
The following awards were presented:
Men’s Most Improved – Daniel Grant
Women’s Best & Fairest – Vivienne Wigg
Women’s Most Improved – Fiona Barnes
President’s Trophy – Pamela Soding
Rising Star Social Paddler – Mary Urbano
Men’s Best & Fairest – Ernie Carey
An anniversary is not an anniversary without a cake and Life Member Graham Potaka was invited to make the first cut.
REPORT FROM THE FIRST REGATTA FOR THE 2015/2016 DRAGON BOAT SEASON HELD ON SUNDAY THE 8TH November 2015 FOR THE COCKBURN BLADES DRAGON BOAT CLUB
Michael Courtis – Coaching Coordinator
The day started bright and early for the Cockburn Blades as the first regatta of the season also celebrated the clubs 30th Anniversary. The members proceeded to set up the tents and the BBQ. The substantial raffle prizes were well displayed and caught the eye of many a paddler willing to try their luck. Club members also contributed to setting for DBWA and helping other clubs unload their boats.
The race program consisted of a first up 2000 metre race. (Got the blood flowing) followed by a series of 200 metre sprints. Each race was named in honour of Life members or past and present long serving members of the club. Those honoured included Graeme (Moose) Bradbury, Trish Truswell, Cary Burgess and Ernie Levitt.
The club also celebrated the first regatta for our three newly qualified sweeps, Tim Byrne, Tanya Cobban and Frank Urbano. All swept a number of heats with distinction and great aplomb. I think all were relieved to have had their duties completed early as the south westerly wind came up in the afternoon and made sweeping a little more interesting!!!
It was also the first regatta for our new coach Tim Byrne who also provided transport to and from Champion Lakes for the club’s tents and gear.
The race results were as follows
The Graeme (Moose) Bradbury 2000M. The Cockburn team finished 3rd in the mixed division.
The Trish Truswell Memorial (10’s) Women held over 3 heats of 200m. Our Cockburn women’s crew finished with a first and two seconds to finish second overall to Fremantle Swan. This was a great effort for the women and shows that they will again be a force this season.
The Cary Burgess Race (10’s) Mixed. Run over 3 heats of 200m. Our mixed crew of 5 men and 5 women finished with a third and two fourth placings in the heats to finish 4th overall.
The last 10’s event Cockburn Blades competed in was the Ernie Levitt Memorial Race (10’s) raced over 3 heats of 200m. This was an open event and had by far the largest number of teams competing so each heat had to be run in two divisions. The Cockburn team finished with a 6th and two 7th placings. This event was highly competitive with very little separating the top 6 teams and a 2 second improvement in our times would see Cockburn climb into 3rd place.
The Trish Truswell Memorial (20”s) Mixed. Run over 3 heats of 200m. Cockburn finished fourth in all 3 heats to finish 4th overall. This event is the one the team can show the most improvement as we build our membership and our fitness improves along with our starts.
Our coach Tim rotated paddlers through the events and made sure that all of our members participated in as many races at possible. I am sure all of us slept very well on Sunday night.
Special mention should also be made of our volunteers who gave up their time to help with the BBQ, raffle and the $100 note. Mike Soding and Rob Dennis deserve a mention along with Di Ash who tended the “store” when not paddling along with other members who helped out on occasions.
Thanks also to those committee members (and others) who purchased the buns, sausages and drinks and wrapped the raffle prizes kindly donated by members of our club. (They know who they are.)
Report from Tim Byrne – Coach
Thank you to all the members who paddled at our 1st regatta this season.
Well done to those new members at their 1st regatta.
Thanks also to all the helpers on the day.
The data from the races is now up on the DBWA website. There were some very encouraging results from the full days racing.
The 2000m result was good with a time of 11.09.32 which was 0.15 sec faster than the Indian Ocean opens crew, well done.
The women’s 10s achieved well with 2 seconds and a first (fastest time 1.04.56)
The mixed crew placed 3rd and 4th in their races (fastest time 58.033)
Opens finished 6th and 7th in their races (fastest time 58.119)
Best mixed 20s time 57.026 in both the 2nd and3rd race.
On behalf of the 3 sweeps going for their accreditation thanks to the crew for making the job as easy as possible. Well done to Frank and Tanya.
Things I learnt about our team:
Great effort by all
In recognition of Cockburn’s 30th anniversary, DBWA have granted Cockburn naming rights for the first regatta of the 2015-2016 season. The following races have been named in honour of members who contributed to the club over a long period of time and are no longer paddling (for various reasons):
Graham (Moose) Bradbury 2000km,
Trish Truswell Memorial Women’s 10s & 20s;
Carey Burgess Mixed 10s & 20s;
Ernie Levett Memorial Open 10s & 20s.
Many thanks to Barb Clarkson from DBWA for the pictorial collage on the front page of the regatta’s Race program 8 November 2015 (2)
Tim Byrne was recently appointed Head Coach of the Cockburn Dragon Boat Club for the 2015-2016 season.
While relatively new to the sport of dragon boating, Tim has trained, played, organised and coached competitive sport for over 30 years.
In his first year of paddling he was selected for the WA State team and won a medal at the Australian Championships.
Paddling fitness and a commitment to improving or helping the team to the best of one’s ability are Tim’s priorities for creating the combined, strong team Cockburn prides itself on being.
The Club looks forward to Tim’s leadership and guidance throughout the season.
The Cockburn Blades team on the bank of the Torrens River.
Cockburn Blades sent a team to the Masters Games in Adelaide to compete in the Dragon Boat racing section of the games. The site for the regatta was an area called Pinky’s Flat which consisted of a parkland area next to the north side of the Torrens River in the Adelaide CBD. This area is in close proximity to the Adelaide Oval and Tennis Centre with the Parliament Building, Casino and Convention Centre just opposite on the south side of the Torrens.
The course was quite short, being 200 metres in length (not 250 metres, as expected) and the lanes not marked as such, however the boats loaded along the bank before paddling out under the traffic bridge to start with the sweep lining up the dragon boat and holding the coloured toggle which dangled from the bridge above. Once the starting gun was sounded the sweeps had to aim to the left of the buoy at the finish line which matched the colour of your toggle. Each of the 5 lanes had a different coloured toggle and finishing buoy to match.
Other movements on the river to avoid were the rowers, the ducks and “Pop Eye” the tourist boat that moved up and down the river from time to time. All of this made for interesting racing. However, as the program proceeded it soon became apparent the program was falling behind. This lead to the cancellation of a bracket of 10’s racing which included some of our races with was most disappointing as it meant that we could not improve of our race times for that event.
The tents were arranged in alphabetical order which meant that we were some distance away from marshalling and the announcers tent but close to the finishing line and both Albany and Amazons, the only other WA teams competing. Merchandise, food and coffee were close by and the Blades attacked all 3 with their usual enthusiasm.
Our team consisted of 13 women and 3 men with age ranges from Senior A through to Senior C. We were joined by 3 special guest paddlers. Garo from Surfers paradise, Julie from South Australia and Yvette from Albany. Some of our Woman also paddled with Albany in their Senior B 20’s and both Barbara and Ruth paddled with the Amazons. We also borrowed some Albany women for our Open 20’s event.
As a consequence of our numbers and age ranges, the only events we could compete as Cockburn Blades in were the Open events when we could use any combination of men and women from any age division. This was a huge challenge as we were competing against mostly male dominated crews in both the Senior A Open 10’s and the Senior A Open 20’s with only the Senior A Open Women’s 10’s competing of an equal gender footing. However we were still at somewhat of a disadvantage as we had only 4 Senior A women along with 3 senior B and 3 Senior C Women paddling in that event.
Having said that, all teams performed well and all paddlers gave their best as the Cockburn Blades were certainly not disgraced as the following results indicate.
The Senior A Women’s 10’s finished second in both their heats but finished just out of the medals in 4th overall out of 17 teams.
The Senior A Open 10’s finished 3rd and 5th in both their heats to finish 8th out of 10 teams.
The Senior A Open 20’s where we co-opted some of the Albany women, the team paddled 3 heats, winning 1 and coming 2nd and 3rd in the others. However these great results were not enough to allow the team to place higher than 5th out of 10 teams in this event as placings were calculated on race times not race finishing positions.
At the end of the day we sat and waited for the medal presentations knowing that although we had paddled well and thoroughly enjoyed our campaign we would not feature in the medals.
However to the whole teams delight the Amazons picked up a Gold Medal in the breast cancer survivors event which included both Barbara and Ruth. There was much cheering and clapping as the Amazons medals were presented and we were all so proud and pleased for both Ruth and Barb who had more paddling commitments that the rest of us. As well as paddling for the Amazons they also paddled with Albany and on both days had to leave our Hotel early to fulfil their paddling duties. Some of the Albany women who paddled with us in the Senior A Open 20’a also tasted success as the Albany team won gold in the Senior C Women’s 10’s thus adding to the WA teams success.
As we all went out for a team dinner to celebrate our success there were two particular team members who had rather large grins on their faces, and who could blame them.
Some of the group then went on to enjoy the closing ceremony to round a great Masters Games experience that was the 15th Masters Games 2015.
Adelaide was very welcoming and the locals were friendly and most helpful overall as most of us did quite a bit of walking around the city centre.
The next Masters Games will be in Tasmania in 2017 for those wishing to attend.
Michael Courtis
Team Manager.
The start line – the sweeps hung on to a coloured toggle hanging from the bridge.
Cockburn Blades Senior A Womens 10’s team.
Loading the boat at the start
Members of the Perth Canoe Polo Club joined the Cockburn crew on Sunday, October 11 to compete in the annual Classic Paddle event, paddling from under the Narrows Bridge on the Swan River to Stirling Bridge. The course is rumoured to be around 13kms and Cockburn was the second dragon boat to finish with a time of 1.06.11. The overall placing was 38th.
In a major operation spanning two weekends the Cockburn dragon-boaters collected one of the old tin dragon boats from the Coogee Surf Life Saving Club and the other from East Fremantle Yacht Club then transported both boats to Burrendah Primary School.
The tinnies had been destined for the scrap heap but as a last minute reprieve the Burrendah Primary School expressed an interest in obtaining the boats for their playgrounds. The school also intends to incorporate the boats in their art program and use them for cultural purposes.
The CDBC Committee is pleased the boats have entered another phase of their life and intend passing on the history of the boats to the school and participating in a formal handover. A fitting outcome for the Club’s 30th Anniversary year!
Six CDBC members volunteered to help at the Western Mudd Rush on Sunday 16 August and were rostered on various stations. Marzia, Lyn and Di manned the Aid Station, supplying drinks to the competitors as they ran past. Rick had an easy time, so we’re told, on the hay bale obstacle and Tanya and Chris played ‘good cop, bad cop’ at the Get Lost maze.
The 2015-16 paddling season kicks off on Sunday 6th September at 8am. Memberships are also due.
Loading the second tinny at East Fremantle Yacht Club
Arrived at Burrendah Primary School
The Cockburn Dragon Boat Club held its Annual General Meeting recently and the following office bearers were elected:
President – Rick Salisbury, Vice President – Cherie Cobban, Secretary – Christine Martin, Treasurer – Tanya Cobban, Racing Coordinator – Frank Urbano, New Members’ Registrar – Carlie Byrne, Fundraising Coordinator – Cherie Cobban, Travel/Events/Uniforms Coordinator – Barb Harris, Bunnings Coordinator – Paula Cottingham. The Head Coach position has been re-advertised with applications due by September 1.
The Club is celebrating its 30th Anniversary this season and plans are underway for a series of celebrations throughout the summer months.
Memberships are due by September 30. Please contact the Secretary at cockburndragonboatclub@gmail.com for further information, or look at our website.
Anyone interested in having a go at dragon boating is welcome to come along to a Sunday session, commencing at 8.30am during the winter months. Paddles are available and if you are unable to swim 50 metres a flotation device will be supplied.
Long-serving members honoured at first regatta
The day started bright and early for the Cockburn Blades as the first regatta of the season also celebrated the clubs 30th Anniversary. The members proceeded to set up the tents and the BBQ. The substantial raffle prizes were well displayed and caught the eye of many a paddler willing to try their luck. Club members also contributed to setting for DBWA and helping other clubs unload their boats.
Read More...