Greetings

Welcome to the Newcastle Hunter Dragon Boat Club.

Founded in 2000, the Club has 3 squads consisting of energetic, enthusiastic people who come together from all walks of life and from the age of 16 years old upwards to take up the challenge and enjoy the dynamic sport, plus it’s a great way to get fit.

On the water we work hard but all work and no play is not ideal, hence we also enjoy each other’s company off the water. There are regular social activities and events in which members enjoy the company of each other and build everlasting friendships.

So what’s holding you back? Come on – give Dragon Boating a go and come paddling with us.

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What’s on the horizon?

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CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Congratulations to all members who have been selected in the State and National squads for 2019. It is a just reward for all the effort you have put in and the sacrifices you have made.

We wish you all the very best for success in your upcoming regattas.

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Improvements to the Carrington Foreshore

Recently the club president and vice president were invited to, and attended, a range of information sessions for the Carrington Greenspaces project with Newcastle City Council, a master plan for the future development and improvement of sporting and open spaces around Carrington. One of those spaces is the foreshore and aquatic activity areas on our doorstep at Throsby Creek.

Following consultation with a number of working groups, Council has created a website of the ideas generated at these forums and has proposed an open community session for the morning of Saturday, December 15.

This is a worthy and directly relevant project for us with potential to really improve the facilities, experience and enjoyment of the area we train and paddle at in Carrington for the future.

The President and the BOM encourage you to have a look at the website and provide feedback – the more feedback they get,  the more likely that the project will keep going, and we all know the area needs a little love.

Just click here to access the Council website (Carrington Greenspaces Concept Plan) and top provide feedback, click here.

Let’s make sure the changes made are relevant and for the better of all Throsby Creek users.

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2018 Community Regatta

The 2018 Community Regatta has been run and you can read all about it right here.

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EVERY TUESDAY NIGHT

Come on down to The Albion and buy some tickets in our Meat Raffle. 4 meat trays must be won each Tuesday night. So why not make a night of it and have dinner and a few drinks as well.

The Albion – 72 Hannell Street, Wickham.

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DID YOU KNOW ….

The most important and interesting aspect of racing in the Chinese New Year Regatta is the ‘dotting of the eyes’, but do you know why?

It is generally believed that the tradition of “eye-dotting” originated from two Chinese stories concerning printing pictures. During the Eastern Jin Dynasty [314-420 A.D.], a painter named Gu Kai Zhi was famous for painting portraits. However, he had a strange habit of leaving the eyeballs out for several years after the rest of the painting was finished. When he was asked why, he said, “The most life-like strokes of a subtle portrait come from the eyes.” He was actually implying that even a single stroke should not be done casually.

A little later, a painter called Zhang Seng You was asked to paint a mural for the An Le Monastery in Nanjing during the Southern Dynasty [420-589 A.D.], when he had finished it was noticed that all the dragons on the wall paintings lacked pupils in their eyes. Wen the Abbot invited him to add the pupils, Zhang said, “It must not be done, otherwise they will fly away from the wall into the sky.”

The Abbot was not convinced. Eventually the dragons with eyeballs painted on them emerged and flew away, while those without stayed on the wall – (This is the origin of the Chinese proverb “Draw the dragons, dot the eyes”.)

In fact, when we dot the eyes, we are dotting out the essence. When extended to literature, we may say that the most vivid words are “the stroke that dots the eyes.”

When we dot the eyes for dragon boats, lions or masks, the meaning is the same: We draw the eyes, we give them life! We are conveying our personal feelings!

[Chinese Text from Ming Pao Daily, date unknown, possibly around 1993/94, Translated by Edwin Hou]