I started paddling in 1998 when my childhood best friend brought me to try sprint kayak at the Calgary Canoe Club. I fell in love with being on the water, the camaraderie of the club, and the adventures of traveling for spring training camps to California and Florida (Canadian lakes are frozen October to May) and regattas all around Canada. The pinnacle of sprint kayak 'career' was medaling in a K2 6000m race with the same friend who introduced me to the sport at a national U18 competition in 2005. I also enjoyed coaching the youth sprint paddling groups for several summers. I was introduced to outrigger paddling in 2006 when our club entered a youth OC6 crew into the Length of the Lake, a 100km change race spanning the length of Lake Okanagan in BC. Later an internship opportunity moved me to Auckland, New Zealand where I bought a surf ski and expanded my paddling experience, learning how to paddle downwind and taking part in the summer race series there. What keeps me paddling are the connections I find on the water - to community, to nature, to my own body. When a career opportunity brought my partner and I to the Bay area in 2023 I joined Ho'okahi Pu'uwai, as I've learned over the years that paddling clubs are a 'cheat code' to finding great people and instant community. This has held true once again - I've enjoyed racing with HPOCC for two seasons and have found great training partners there too (shoutout @Lana Akimova & @Damon Prasad). I'm looking forward to using outrigger races as an excuse to explore more unique corners of the globe.

I started paddling in 2018 because I wanted to lose weight and be outside. Found my local Dragonboat team and fell in love. Bought an oc1 the following year and started OC6. I love steering and learning how to surf my oc1 in the small-ish waves we have here in Florida. I paddled hard and nonstop (there’s only 1 season in Florida and that’s paddling season ;) until injury and burn out have made me rethink my future game plan. I love the sport and all the mental health benefits it brings to me. But for 2025, I’m interested in rediscovering the joy paddling once brought me but with a bit more mental space in my life for other things.

Welcome to the TLC Community! The mission here is to develop community-minded paddler leaders! Whether you are brand new to paddling or a paddling coach yourself, you are in the right place to make a HUGE impact on yourself and the community you’re a part of! Your Next Steps: As easy as 1️⃣ 2️⃣ 3️⃣! 1️⃣ Write an introduction of yourself. Click on post and categorize it in “Introductions.” Title it: "Hello. I'm (name) from (city/country). And attach a photo of you paddling. >> Name. When did you start paddling? What brought you to this Skool community? Where do you paddle? What paddling sports do you do? Which teams do you paddle with? What keeps you showing up day in and day out? What has been challenging for you? What do you hope to gain from this paddling community? If someone referred you here, give them a shoutout here! 2️⃣ Read 2 other people’s introductions and leave them a supportive comment. >> Look for introductions that have the fewest replies and start there. This helps to build our community and help you connect with others who might be in similar situations as yourself. The more we connect with one another, the more we are able to help one another and motivate each other. 3️⃣ Schedule one 90-minute block this upcoming week to complete the workout-of-the-week (WOW) >> This is the starting point. Once you are able to designate and pencil in a time block, you have already taken a step towards making improvement. Next will be following through and completing the workout and then sharing it with the group. We all know how hard it can be to get the workout done sometimes, so make sure to positive comment when people get their workouts done! (No matter how small) 👏 Congratulations for joining this community! You’ve joined at the right time. 🕰️ 🤝 Keep engaging and you can earn prizes at the end of the month! Note that the prices will go up as membership increases. 💸

I've been paddling off and on for several years. I started paddling with the Los Angeles Pink Dragons but life changes stopped that several times...as in I joined and left the team 3x. It's been mostly off until I joined LACDBC (Los Angeles County Dragon Boat Club) in July 2023. I've paddled at Sante Fe Dam longer than I did at Long Beach with the pinks even with all the times combined. One of the reasons why I quit pinks was because I couldn't consistently hold onto a paddle due to arthritis. The doctor said that it would get worse over time. Our bodies are strange and resilient. I can hold a paddle now with no issue. I was thinking of quitting again, because I kept getting sick and my son passed away at the end of July. Life was/is overwhelming at times. I had signed up for the California Dragon Boat Camp in October and decided that I should just go as my son encouraged me to paddle and sign up for that camp. While there, I was reminded that many of us are struggling, coping and living with Dragon boating as anchor and the community as support. With that I will stop writing as this is getting long. Anyways, glad to be with you all!

I started paddling in 1997 with whitewater kayaking and commercial raft guiding. I raced competitively with the U.S Whitewater Raft Team for 10 years. I eventually branched out to OC and dragon boat racing and during COVID learned how much I could do with an OC1 and a speed coach. Lately I helped start the Dillon Outrigger Canoe Club at our lake here locally. I reached out to Tek for help with off season training, managing data for more effective training and hoping to write programming for myself and our club. My goal is to keep shaving seconds and try my hand at V1 racing at some point and to keep exploring more of the great venues there are for a variety of paddle racing.