On the 6th April 2008, Typhoon Tigers travelled the 4 hour journey to BDA Liverpool. Despite, the harsh weather conditions the event still went ahead. Typhoon Tigers won second place and a trophy in the 500m Major Cup Finals in their first BDA event of the season as a Premier Crew.

Well done and many thanks to Amathus for organising a really good event.

BDA Liverpool, Queens Dock 06/04/2008 by Thanh Luong.

"What are you doing Saturday night?"

That was the question put to me by a friend who had plans on hitting a club and probably getting incredibly drunk and broke in the process. Me? I had better things to do. I was spending Saturday night travelling to Liverpool with my Tiger brothers and sisters.

Though the elements were against us, the journey arduous and intensely boring, there was one reason we collectively had in sacrificing our Saturday night, and many Saturday nights gone before and to come. We were making this journey to contend in our debut as a premier team, in the first BDA races of the new season.

The onus to perform was on the newcomers to the Typhoon boat. Don Law, Andy Cheung, Dan Sue and I, were paddling for the first time as Typhoon members. Even though none of us had a share of the hard work of Typhoons previous season to get here, I know that we were itching to prove our places amongst the ranks of the people we worked hard to emulate.

The morning of the race was daunting to begin with. Fighting the effects of sleep deprivation, we awoke to see a blanket of snow had covered our surrounding area. Rumours and text messages started flying around that the BDA had been cancelled, that Batchworth, one of the top teams of previous seasons had pulled out.

The latter rumour turned out to be true, and though we had originally intended to loan one of their boats, instead, we got to loan two of their paddlers. Typhoon veterans Adrian Li Mow Ching and Kin Ming Ho would prove immeasurably beneficial to the team.

Many Premier Teams had indeed pulled out of this event due to the poor weather. The Typhoon Tigers didn't.
We were the minnows swimming with the big fish, and we were here to demand respect and give them all a good fight

During breakfast, there was a sense of animation and urgency amongst the crew. We attempted to wolf down a humble meal of McDonalds porridge, excitement was in the air and everyone was anxious to get to the docks early. Our anxieties were laid to rest as we managed to procure a good spot to set our gear. Here we were, in Liverpool, and the racing was about to begin.

1^st 200m - Qualifier

Our first race was at 10.15 and we were up against Amathus Wasps and an experienced 3-River Serpents. To fend off the cold, we had an intense warm up around what soon became our totem tree, which was actually a mini round-about but I digress. This was followed by an inspirational team pep talk given by Andrew Liu, our new captain, and John Cole, our sturdy head coach. We all understood what was required of us, and after the battle cry of "Who are we? Ty-PHOOOOON!" I could feel electricity come to life in my veins. We were roused, we were ready-we are Typhoon!

As we made our way to the boat, nerves were still racing around my stomach. It was time to put all those months of training into action, and time to show everyone why Typhoon are here to stay. We prepared ourselves to the starting line. Pacing at the front on the right was our previous captain, Shun-Ping Chan, and partnering him on the left was the powerhouse, Wai-Hung Shum. The crew was made up predominantly of core Typhoon members from last season. On the left, behind the pacers were Phan Truong, Andy Liu, Pete Ng, Jeremy Lee, Sam Cheng, Dhana Narayanan, Kin Ming Ho, Me and Dan Sue. On the right, we had Pui-Chi Li, Alan To, Ed Cheung, John Cole, Dan Chin, Kalai Rampachandran, Adrian Li-Mow Ching, Don Law and Yong Sum Lam, and Helen Chan braved the icy Mersey water to drum for us. We were also fortunate to have our own dedicated helmsman in the form of Richard Vorley.

"All teams get ready!"

We were all bowed in unison as the race official made his calls for the race to begin.

"Attention!"

Deep but controlled breathes were sucked in to fill our lungs, ready for the...

"GO!!!!!"

With a roar of aggression, we all made the first stroke count as we surged ahead to take the lead. The first 10 strokes were controlled but tinged with volatile energy, as though this burst of power would combust on itself, but we stayed true to the technique as Richard took us through the ups. Approaching the last 50m, there was a sense that the technique was becoming scrappy, though the power did not drop. This was probably down to nerves, but thankfully, it held, and we surged to our first win of our first race comfortably, setting a good time of 47.45 seconds. We were faster than 3-River Serpents by just under 4 seconds.

We had achieved the fastest time in the first heat of the 200m, but drama unfolded in another race when returning standard team, Cool Runnings crashed into Amathus who was in the lead. This tied up both boats almost to a standstill, giving Notts Anaconda the opportunity to take the lead and take the race.

2^nd 200m – Seedings

Still buzzing from the victory of our previous race, we entered our second race at 12.00 with the same zeal and appetite as before. This time, we were up against the might of two veteran premier teams, Amathus, who were overall 200m and 500m champions of last year, and BA Hurricanes another formidable team. The fourth team to make up the numbers were standard division Amathus Wasps. Typhoon veteran, Kwok Fai Lee was subbed on as Dan Sue sat this one out. Andy Cheung was also brought on to replace Don Law who was struck down by a bad stomach, but fortunately this was only temporary.

At the start line, poised and ready to explode, the call of "GO!" was met by a weak start for Typhoon. Amathus capitalised and took the lead, but this was not a simple race as BA was neck and neck with us, and we made Amathus work to keep their lead. Our strokes did not have the same intensity as our last race, but we still fought on. However, we could not match our previous effort, and Amathus went on to take the win. Typhoon came in second, beating another premier team, this was not enough

We did not make it to the 200m finals. After a very promising first race, we let ourselves down in our second, and lost out on our chance. The feeling of dejection in the team was tangible, and this was magnified by the cold weather as we had to sit the rest of the 200m out. And the hardest test was yet to come in the form of the 500m races.

However, the Typhoon spirit is strong, and we didn't dwell on what could have been. Our next race was at 13.10, so this gave us time to refuel and regroup.

Seeding - 500m

Typhoon was aware of the RD curse of last season, where we failed to beat them head on at every race. It should be noted that there were a lot of new faces on the RD boat this time round, but would this be enough for us to break the curse? Don and Dan S came back on for this race. Chi swapped places with Ping as she would take on pacing duties. We did a spot of evolution paddling to arrive at the start-line. When the teams were in place, the race official made his calls, and boy did we go on "GO!"
Our draw stroke was better this time round, and the first 10 was full of power. Into the next 10, our strokes remained consistent. It was hard not to notice that we had taken the lead on RD. PoL dropped far behind, as a scratch team, they deserve my respect for trying something as difficult as 500m in a dragon boat.

.

As Richard called in the reach, we all dug deep. The stroke rate set by Wai-Hung and Chi was good and long, and though RD continued to fight, they could not take the lead from us. We continued at the same pace, and when Richard called "EASY!" I know I wasn't the only one smiling.
This race was ours and the curse was lifted. We had won our first heat in the 500m. We posted the second fastest 500m time in this heat with a time of 2.00.56. It was enough to take us through to the Cup semis.

Cup Semis – 500m

This race would decide whether or not we could make it to the cup final. Our first win was still high in our minds and so morale was good. Andy C traded places with Don, and Helen Chan came on as Yong-Sum replaced her on the drum.
RD had their opportunity for revenge as we faced them again in lane 3. In Lane 1 was Thames Taniwhas, another top Premier team.

This race would prove to be a great test of our abilities. As the race started, and only 4 strokes in, Andy C who was sitting next to me broke his beautiful trivium paddle. I tried to stifle a grin, but I knew the race was going to be difficult. This was now a 19 person boat, and both RD and Taniwhas had the means to capitalise on it.

We maintained our impressive stroke rate, and bit down hard to get every last ounce of strength to battle through, Andy C made up for his lack of paddling by kicking hard and staying small. I could feel the blood vessels bursting in Richard's throat as he shouted us through the changes, and though it felt like my body would break at any moment, I continued to reach, as I knew my brothers and sisters were.

RRD, who fought valiantly to keep up were starting to weaken at the last 100m, and so they dropped steadily back. Taniwhas however, were breathing down our necks, but we took the fight all the way and never once surrendered.

We won.

With 19 people in the boat, we managed to beat RD a second time, and overcame the might of Taniwhas. We are Typhoon!

Cup Final – 500m

So here we were, the 500m final. Though we came here in high spirits, we did not expect this outcome. The first BDA of the season, and Typhoon Tigers, a fairly young group of like minded hobbyists, had made it to the final. The points from this would cement our standing until the next BDA race.

Hosts and defending champions Amathus had also made it through, posting some very impressive times during the day. And we faced BA Hurricanes again, albeit this time in the 500m.

We readied ourselves in lane 1. BA and Amathus were in lanes 3 and 2 respectively. We had gotten this far and we were going to give them everything. This was the culmination of the training during those cold winter months, of standing toe to toe with the best at the Henley Winter series, of making the sacrifices to make our bodies strong, and our minds steadfast.

As I drew the air into my aching lungs, I knew that every stroke had to count. Giving in to the pain was anathema to my motto: "Pain is weakness leaving your body". I played that in my head like a mantra as the race official called "GO!" and drew the water like I was trying to save the life of a drowning friend. Every one of the strokes for our 10-10-10 was like fire. Amathus, with their crew of GB seniors and juniors instantly took the lead, and kept it. Richard noticed our power dropping and again, hollered us through and keeping BA at bay. Equally, as we did not stop, neither did Richard, and though we did not have enough to take the race, we did not come in last either. We gave BA a good fight and took 2^nd place.

We could not feel dejection for this result. On our maiden steps into the premier leagues, we had indeed made ourselves noticed. Each and every person who came off that boat felt nothing but elation. Typhoon, who were standard league champions of 2007 and also Most Improved Team of 2007, were showing everyone that we are not a flash in the pan. And though we didn't get the results we wanted in the 200m, the points we got for the 500m was just as important to us. As of 06/04/2008, and until the next race, Typhoon was second best in the Premier League.

Special Thanks
• Meme Ly, for sacrificing her weekend to hang around in the cold and look after our gear, and for be a designated driver, and for being gracious when she broke her tooth on my jaffa cake.
• Amathus, for hosting a well run event. They couldn't control the weather, but we had a good time.
• All the designated drivers. You have a tough and boring job, and us non drivers are extremely grateful for this.
• All the other teams who took part, we are all the reason this is such a brilliant sport.

Written by Thanh Luong.