The first Eggy mascot - a real ram - was purchased by students from the stockyards in 1961. In all, there were six versions of Eggy until the use of a live ram on campus was discontinued in 1991. The first two Eggies lived on campus in a pen and shed behind what is now Oakham House. Why a ram mascot? Because three rams appear on the Ryerson coat of arms. Photo credit: Ryerson Archives.

Dragon Boating through an Emily Carr painting

Written by Otiena Ellwand

When the paddle hits the water and everything is right, there is a moment of pure perfection, of complete satisfaction. Click. Leaning on the edge of the gunnel, my body tilts outside the boat, upper hand extends, abs tighten, torso rotates, paddle cuts into the water, slices clean through thickness, and it’s out. Repeat.

There’s a thrill to getting the mechanics of dragon boating right. Once you’ve got it, you can fool yourself into thinking that you could keep going forever.

It’s timing that’s the tricky part. You have your own paddle, but you are not solo. Being in sync with the team is more than just watching the in-and-out of the person’s paddle in front of you. I watch for the rocking forward and back of their lower back and copy the pattern. I listen to the orchestra of paddles as they hit the water and I feel for the rhythm of the boat as it blazes forward. Once tuned into the fine notes, I feel attached to everyone on the boat by an invisible cord that goes through each person’s belly button and out their back, connecting one to the other, we communicate energy. We are one solid machine.

“Stretch-it-out-in-one-two-three,” Roman, our coach yells, deliberately. Like a car we gain speed as we merge onto the highway of the ocean. We are soaring, roaring, above the waves. I can’t imagine returning to 40-kilometre-per-hour speed after this invigorating ride.

Out here on the gorge, a sheltered waterway that intersects the city of Victoria, B.C., we’re definitely not sheltered from big juicy raindrops. Still, we don’t call it a day. This is normal, it is British Columbia after all. So we paddle on as the sky above us, thick with clouds, turns a misty gray. White swans swim obliviously by in the distance, like the luscious evergreens that line the shore, they apparently thrive in this weather. It’s an Emily Carr painting. And even though I’m sitting in a boat in my soggy green rain jacket, everything wet, cold and worried about the new iPod in my pocket, I’m smiling because I feel so lucky to be experiencing this. Here I am on the other side of the country discovering how much I love this sport.

With each leg kick and thrust, with each new reach of our paddle, with each stroke, we surge a little farther forward, searching for that click, that release of satisfied perfection. My body feels powerful, strong like the axle of a wheel. It doesn’t think, it just does. And together we go, and go, and go. Together we roll.

With so many paddles in the market today, it's already a headache to decide which one to buy and which one suits you.

I am going to show you how easy it is to find the paddle that is right for you and even give you a method on how to measure the length you need.

Let me start off by telling you that finding a paddle is easier than you think! I have literally done all the hard work for you and tested each of the paddles available in the market. Furthermore, I have written reviews and wrote down all the specifications for you and ensured that all of these paddles are IDBF 202a approved.

If you don't know what IDBF 202a approved means, I suggest visiting this site to read more about it:

http://www.idbf.org/documents/Racing_Paddle_Scheme.pdf

It basically explains why you need to purchase an IDBF paddle to use for Dragonboat Racing.

Also, as I mentioned above I have written reviews for every Dragon Boat paddle currently available in the market and you can view them at:

http://www.dragonglobe.com/reviews/

Some of the reviews also have additional comments written by other paddlers and I suggest reading them as well. Also, you are most welcome to leave your own comments as well.

Have you ever wondered how top athletes can continually improve and make it look so easy as though they are not trying? Well, they are training very hard but no one would know except for their coaches and closest people around them.

One of their secrets to their success is having a training log to record and monitor their progress. That way they continually review and improve. Isn't that how it works back at school? We are given report cards every semester and it tells us if we achieved a high or low score. We can achieve similar results with this little secret and start recording our training... let me show you how.

Many competitive dragonboat paddlers keep a training log to record their training activities and race times. They record in their log the sessions about on-water training, pool, weight training and other aspects important to their success in Dragonboating.

You can also include body vitals, such as: body weight, body fat %, resting heart rate, girth measurements of waist, chest, legs and arms. These are usually recorded initially at the start of a training programme / season and not at each session. Then at the end of the season, a paddler can look back at their improvements, not just in race times, but in their overall body conditioning. If you are interested in putting a training programme together, visit:

http://www.dragonglobe.com/2008/12/mesocycle-for-dragon-boating/