Melbourne - January 2014
A month had passed off our Christmas and New Year’s
celebrations, for which had be even more to celebrate after making the team,
but celebrations couldn’t be overdone for too long. In the peak of summer now,
we continued on with our training in preparation for an upcoming team training
camp, where the entire team comes together to train as unit. We had met the
fitness and technical requirements and now it was time to put them together as
a team, so we packed our gear and headed down to Melbourne.
In a similar way the Sydney camp had went, Adrian L and I
had got billeted to stay at the house of two other team mates, saves accommodation
and a chance to bond with our new team. Adrian A had been billeted off to
another teammate with another aurora from Canberra. The Melbourne weather was
something that caught me off guard being my first time there, raining when we
arrive to a very humid night. Day One started with freezing winds down at the
docklands area which was something I’ve never paddled before, huge million
dollar yachts and boats flowing in and out, making us feel so small on the
water. This camp now let everyone get to know each other more, with this
slightly less competitive side now that this was the selected team, so going
around and meeting the team was something that everyone did in the breaks
between training. The first day had
ended and instead of everyone leaving to go home and eat, there was a small
dinner set out right in the shed for which we were all day. Bonding and eating
with everyone ads to growing the strength of whole team becoming closer.
The team works better together is there is a sense of
family, and this is what the team starts to feel like. Everyone talks and
shares stories bringing us to a close network as we go through the same
experience together. The second day was Australia day, and all of us away from
our families couldn’t celebrate with them. Instead, as a team we went out to
dinner showing this sense of family within us. As the third day came we felt the nearly all
aspects of Melbourne weather, with a scorching 35-40 degrees, if we weren’t in
the boats, we were in the shed drinking water and eating and relaxing whenever
possible now.
The fourth day was the last and everyone was feeling the
weather, their muscles and aches but was still keen to get out and train hard. Pushing
through a windy 40 degrees to conclude a successful camp, everyone getting closer
and making memories with two big moments happening over the camp. The first big
moment was a large group shot for a local Melbourne newspaper which had
everyone wearing past Auroras jerseys to give everyone the feeling of a jersey.
The photo had us all crammed together and was brilliant to see everyone in the
iconic green and gold. The second big moment was during this camp, a selective
12 men and women from the already large side are going off to represent in the world’s
first IDBF Dragonboat World Cup two weeks after Asian Champs.
Adrian Andrews was selected into this momentous event and couldn’t
be happier being already the first indigenous man to represent Australia in
dragonboating and in the first world cup. More to be posted about that soon,
while we lead up to this huge event.
