New South Wales : Grafton archives

We welcome all who wish to come and try this great sport. To anyone travelling, make a point of stopping and come for a paddle with us on our beautiful Clarence River. You are bound to enjoy the experience and we will enjoy meeting you.

Well the Jacaranda Festival has come and gone and we are now in training for Chinese New Year.

Our new club shirt was revealed at Jacaranda and received very favourable reports. It took a long time to come up with a design which was acceptable – I think we settled on version 695!!!

Our club is now offering 2 sessions of paddling per meeting. The first run is for those who have higher strength levels and need that little extra challenge. This is followed by a more gentle paddle. Hopefully, by adopting this method of training we satisfy the need of everyone.

Two of our members competed at the Pan Pacs recently and had a wonderful time both on and off the water. Thank you to the ladies of Coomera who looked after Bron and Karen for us.

Last year's highlight was Abreast in Australia!!! We had a wonderful time and thoroughly enjoyed teaming up with the great girls from Port Lincoln, meeting old friends and making new ones. Congratulations to the organisers for a wonderful event.

For Chinese New Year we combined with our near neighbours the Rainbow Dragons, to create the Rainbow Chests, for a terrific weekend of paddling, friendship and fun. What a buzz in the Emerald City!

Three members attended the General Meeting weekend at Eco Point, Myall Shores (a fabulous facility!)and gained a greater insight into Dragons Abreast and allowed us to meet more of our paddling sisters, the Board members and the amazing Jan Skorich.

Michelle visited us for a paddle and casual dinner after the General meeting at Myall Shores. and club members enjoyed the opportunity to meet her in a relaxed and familiar setting and hear the latest developments first hand. Unfortunately the girls from Coffs and Rainbow Dragons were not able to join us. Thanks Michelle for taking the time to visit and please come again.

Our general training programme continues with our sights are set on the regatta in Port Macquarie over the June long weekend. Some of us attended the regatta in Taree and paddled in composite teams, where Rob gained his Level 3 Sweep accreditation. We now have two Level 3 sweeps and more trainees in the offing. Several members have attended courses including Officials, Coaching and Child protection, as well as training workshops which have been conducted with the assistance of DBNSW. We also have an accredited coach and another working hard towards this goal.

We wish everyone health, happiness and calm waters and may all our challenges be little ones that are easily overcome.

January 2007 newsletter - click here (234 kbs)

Treasure Chests in Maclean have a new boat! Our "baby boat" was delivered last month and makes it possible to offer a second training day, as we only need a sweep and 6 paddlers to get out on the water. She has yet to be named so much thought is going into selecting something appropriate.

We now have two paddling practice sessions each week – one at

3.45 pm on Wednesdays and our usual time of 8.30 am on Sundays.

We had a wonderful “Come and Try Paddling” day on Sunday 1st April when seven people took the opportunity to have a test paddle on a beautiful clear morning. Committee members set up our gazebo with banners, table and chairs so all new comers could be registered before they took to the water. Coach David Hailes explained safety and basic paddling commands, everyone took part in warming up exercises, and the Spirit of the Clarence, our large dragon boat, went out twice onto the Clarence with a full complement of paddlers, sweep and drummer. The importance of warming down exercises was explained and all took part in this before the washing down of boat and paddles. We finished the morning off with a sumptuous morning tea. President Karen Kiely thanked all participants for joining in on the day and extended a warm invitation to become members of our group. Feedback on the day was great and new members have resulted. It was very successful and loads of fun!

As well as our own club activities, we are all looking forward to the Regatta at Port Macquarie on the long weekend in June, and the International Regatta in Caloundra in September. Happy paddling to one and all!

The Treasure Chests News Team.

The Treasure Chests are eagerly awaiting the start of the New Year training sessions on the first Sunday in February and take this opportunity to wish all Dragons Abreast members throughout the world good health and happiness for 2007.

We look forward to seeing you all in Caloundra, Queensland, Australia on the last weekend in September for the International Dragons Abreast Regatta.

The Grafton Jacaranda Festival gave the Treasure Chests an opportunity to compete with other dragon boat crews from Northern NSW areas.

We were programmed to compete in the first race of the day against all the local Dragons Abreast crews including the Rainbow Dragons, Titivators, and Flamin’ Dragons. We worked very hard and our training sessions paid off – we didn’t come last! The day was very hot and after paddling in two more heats, we all went home feeling exhilarated and exhausted but very proud of our efforts.

Some of the girls had husbands in attendance and they were able to catch a few of our glorious moments on camera to show to the world.

We had a fantastic day in Grafton and look forward to being there again next year!

We are a Dragon Boating club for those who have had a diagnosis of breast cancer, and their supporters. At our recent Annual General Meeting, the following members were elected to the positions listed below :-

PRESIDENT/CO-ORDINATOR Karen Kiely 6644 9492 0407 313 616 kiely@acemail.com.au

TRAINING: Treasure Chests Dragons Abreast train at the Maclean Rowing Club on the south arm of the Clarence River in Maclean every Sunday morning at 9 am during winter, & 8 am during daylight saving. As members are soon to participate in the Dragon Boat Regatta in Singapore and the Jacaranda Festival in Grafton, extra paddling training has been undertaken recently on other days and times .

MEETINGS : Meetings are held after training. We welcome new members so if you are interested in joining us, please contact any of the above committee members or come along one Sunday morning to the Maclean Rowing Club.

OUR BOAT : The Spirit of the Clarence is the name of our dragon boat and the photo shows members dotting the eyes at the launching ceremony , and paddling on the Clarence River .

The purpose of Treasure Chests Dragons Abreast is to have fun and demonstrate that people can fully participate in life after breast cancer. We look forward to welcoming you in this spirit.