It was a Thursday. The sun was shining feebly outside the large glass windows and the air-con was on too low.

A buzz was beginning to form in the air, a sense of anticipation. The team members were gathering in the hotel lobby, chatting, greeting, the hum increasing in volume. More members arrived. Freshly printed team vest tops were handed out. The transformation was beginning. Soon there was a mass of black-clad individuals, milling about, boisterously joking and laughing. Excited conversations grew louder, and louder. The last few members arrived, and the atmosphere was becoming electric.

Finally, the Typhoon was here!

And it was on the move! Weeks of planning had finally brought us to this point. Earlier in the week we had arrived in Hong Kong in small groups of twos and threes or so. We had enjoyed the sights, the food, the shopping, even the rainy weather, but this was the main reason why 17 members of Typhoon’s first and second teams were here. We even had Tin, a Raging Dragons paddler, on board.

Arriving at the racing venue we quickly found our team booth. It was erected over rubbly ground, and it wasn’t very close to the beach, but it was included for free within the entry pack so we weren’t complaining. We quickly settled in and waited for our race.

A change in the boat.

We had opted for a training session a few days before the race, but unfortunately this was cancelled due to severely high winds. We knew that we would have to adapt very quickly to the choppy tides, old wooden boats, and the short and heavy wooden paddles; And when I say short I mean a difference of about 8 inches!

The weather wasn’t as warm as we would have liked, with little sun, the occasional cold wind and also grey clouds forewarning rain. Oh well, I guess we should have felt right at home then!

We knew we had some acclimatising to do, but there was yet to be another change in the race format; Again due to the high winds and for safety reasons, each boat was only allowed 12 paddlers, 6 of whom had to be female (for the mixed category). Captain Dan had to rethink the whole seating, whilst still keeping the boat balanced and also letting everyone have a chance to experience the races.

After a while of waiting around, taking in the sights and enjoying the atmosphere, our first race was finally upon us. With the seating plan arranged, even just getting into the boat with it being pushed back and forth with the tide was a nightmare. Then we found out that the dragon head was broken, so the team was shifted to another vacant boat. Was this a bad omen? The first-race team members eventually assembled themselves in the boat and set off.

First Race

Watching from the beach I was very proud to see my brothers- and sisters-in-paddles looking strong even as they battled against the rolling tide. Being the only international team from the UK, I was also very proud that our boat unofficially represented the talent from the British Isles. The organisers had also noted this fact, and had asked us to write a short piece about ourselves, so we were listening with keen ears when they mentioned our name:

“In this race we have the Typhoon Tigers. Most of the team members are Chinese born in London. And other parts of Britain. Some of them are ... um... of other races.”

I laughed so hard at this improvised line! Still, thank you to Edwin Hou for our personal announcement!

Our boat had now lined up at the start line, and were prepared to start. As the starting gun went off, the crowd cheered as the boats gained momentum and sped down the course. Typhoon were in the central lane, and quite rightly so as the boat led the pack! Coming towards the finishing line it seemed there was only one other boat close to it, and it was difficult to tell whether the Typhoon team had triumphed or if the blue-clad Sun Hung Kai team had pipped Typhoon to the post. As it turned out, but which was hard to see due to angles, there was another boat vying to cross the finish line 1st:

Typhoon Tigers: 1.25.31, Sun Hung Kai: 1.25.75, The Hong Kong Award for Young People: 1.25.87

Typhoon had just nipped it!

As our breathless team members got off the boat, they were bombarded by photographers and video-journalists, let alone the rest of us trying to congratulate our team members. One particular video-journalist tried to ask our paddler-turned-drummer Carmen a few questions, but she shied away and pulled our Captain to the front:

Not quite the celebrity interview we were hoping for, but it certainly made our day!

Somewhere during the milling about we bumped into Stephan Yip, a fellow dragon boater from the team Imperial Dragons hailing from The Netherlands. We’d met him previously at BDA Liverpool and adopted him as the long lost twin brother of our Captain Dan Chin, so it was a pleasant surprise to find out that he was on holiday at the same time as us and spectating at this event.

Second Race

The second race pitted us against the Deutsche Bank team. A few of us had met up with a few of their members for drinks some nights before, so there was some friendly banter being thrown between the boats as we loaded up and paddled to the start.

This was my first race of the day, and finally I could experience the race first hand. Personally, it felt a bit strange with the short wooden paddles and the choppiness of the sea, and I had to adjust my technique to compensate for this. As we lined up in the middle lane, I admired the thoroughness gone into the organisation of this event; small floating platforms at the start line were to serve as our base, and bow and stern lines held by the steersman and drummer held us in line with the rest of the boats.

The crews all lined up, we waited for the started gun.

“Ready!” *bang!*

We drive our paddles deep into the water and surged forwards. “Ten and UP!” we quickened our pace for another 10 strokes, “Ten and UP!” then into Reach. We were again leading the pack, but with our long reach, I could feel the other boats closing in on us. It seemed that our long reach wasn’t giving us the desired effect, and the short, sharp strokes of the other teams were giving them the edge in the choppy waters.

“Go for the Finish!”

We hammered our paddles again and again in the waters, not wanting to give an inch, but still the other boats pressed on. We crossed the finishing line with Deustche Bank next to us. It was hard to tell who had won. Still, we had come either 1st or 2nd and we had secured our place in the RBS Mixed Division Gold Cup Final. We were ecstatic!

The final race.

As there was a long wait to the last race, and with the rain falling in force, we were invited onboard the Deutsche Bank party boat. We were very happy to get out of the rain and also to have food and drink waiting for us! Our teams mingled, and there was even some shirt-swapping going on.

It was only after a while that we learnt that they had just pipped us to take first place. Kudos to where credit is due, especially considering that for most of them this was only their second season. (Then again, apart from our captain Dan, Yong Sum Lam and myself, this was also just the second season for most of our crew, and I think most of our team would agree that we were performing above expectations, especially considering that I had to coerce some of our team members to paddle even though they hadn’t been training for a year, and the other factors mentioned previously such as the short paddles and choppy waters.)

Deutsche Bank really looked after us – Thanks Leanna, Cecilia, Marc!

With the last race coming up, our two crews made our way back to the dragon boats.

With our last team of 12, we waited by the beach to board our boat. The weather was finally relenting, the weather becoming somewhat milder. As a result, and probably also to make things more interesting, the organisers announced that the Finals were to have crews of up to 16 paddlers! Fortunately, most of our non-racing members had turned up at the beach to cheer on those who would be racing, and so we just had enough numbers. We all bundled onto the boat and set off for the final race.

Although we came 9th in that last race, I feel we really did ourselves proud by getting into the Gold Cup Mixed Finals. I feel that this has been a positive experience for our team members, and it can only fuel more passion for our beloved sport. 9th out of 132 teams is a massive achievement, and now that we’ve got the experience tucked in our belts, and with some more training, I’m sure that we can do even better next time.

We came here to race: We paddled our hearts out.

We came here to experience the excitement of paddling in another country, to see how we would compare against local teams: We reached the Gold Cup Mixed Finals.

We came here to make new friends and party with the best of them: And boy did we party!

Report written by Sam Cheng.

Special thanks to: 

Matt and his cousin for scouring the HK printers for decent vests and prints;

Paul, Ollie and Marina for coordinating the design and payment of our team tops;

Matt, Paulette, Elaine for supporting our team, and offering their paddling services should we have need of them;

Gigi, Julie and Cristian for committing to paddling for the team, even though they hadn’t trained this year;

Tin, for daring to join a rival team for a week to experience the highs and lows with us;

Leanna, Cecilia, Marc from the Deutsche Bank team, for warmly welcoming our team on their party boat;

Jade for arranging the entry fee payment, and securing our place in the races;

The Organisers and friends, Edwin Hou, Nachel, Rosanna Lau for giving us extra attention, and for giving us a special mention on the public announcement system. 

And last but not least, all our friends and family that came to support us on the day!