If you have any news you'd like to share, or would like to let people know of an upcoming event, send the details or story to us via our email address: brisbane_river_dragons@hotmail.com

After a momentous lead up to the CCWC in Penang, BRD proved mighty contenders on the water at the recent World Club Crew Championships in Malaysia. As the second largest club entered at the CCWC, BRD contested almost every category across the four days of racing, producing three stunnning podium results, all from our masters crews!

- 200m Ladies Masters - Silver
- 500m Ladies Masters - Silver
- 500m Mixed Masters - Bronze

Not to mention the awesome results from our premier guys, girls and mixed crews who dug deep to make a dent in the placings of the current worlds best crews.

- 2000m Open Men - 7th (26 crews contested)
- 200m Mixed Premier - 7th (36 crews contested)

A great night was had by all who attended The 2008 End of Year Dinner at the Makanan Indonesian restaraunt at West End. Reflecting the continued growth of the club over the past twelve months, this event proved to be the largest in our clubs 10 year history.

One special award given during the offical procedings of the night was the 2008 life Membership Award. This year the honour was awarded to June Stephenson who is the most senior of all our members and has been an active and inspirational part of our club for many years.

Well done and thank you June!!!

Saturday May 3 will see BRD officially kick off our new season and launch headlong into our 2008 World Club Crew Titles campaign. This event in Malaysia will see BRD contest a crew in every category, something never before achieved by an Australian Club!!!

The festivities will take place at our new home at the State Hockey Centre in the Colmslie Recreational Reserve. Join us for some fun and games, the chance to try out a whole range of canoes and kayaks and a ripper bbq!!!

BRD has received grant money from Brisbane City Council to enable interested club members to undertake sweep accreditation, boat licences, coaching qualifications or first aid certificates!

We have received funding for:

Level 1 Coaching Course - 10 participants
Boat License Course - 20 participants
Sweep Accreditation - 10 participants
Senior First Aid Course - 20 participants

Thanks to everyone who helped us move on the weekend.
A big thanks again to Blair Gamble for finding our new home and brokering the deal and to Murray Lavery for getting us our new container and doing it up for us. Great work!!!! The new address is:
 
Qld State Hockey Centre
400 Lytton Road,
Colmslie Qld 4170.
 
It is just a few minutes up the road from our old place.
Continue along Byron Street, Turn right at Apollo Road, Turn left at Lytton Road.
 
Look for the big blue container beside Synthetic Hockey Field #2.

What a week! The team who traveled to Perth did you proud. With only about 50 members competing in 5 categories, Brisbane River Dragons showed their depth, heart and competitive spirit by taking home a swag of medals and the overall trophy for Best Club in Australia. Some paddlers were competing in 4 different categories in one day for the club. Great effort.
 
Some of the highlights:  

• BRD wins it first ever Premier Mixed medal in style with gold in the 1000 and 500 meter and silver in the 200 meter
• BRD paddles with 16 master/grand master women in the master ladies events against full crews of 20 and is still a force
• BRD has now qualified all crews in Premier and Master categories for Penang including Ladies, Mens and Mixed, the only club in Australia to achieve this
• BRD part of the State Premier Mixed crew that wins gold and has entry to represent Australia at Asian Dragon Boat Championships later this year
• BRD wins 5 medals in last day of competition after some long, hard days
• BRD wins Best Overall Club in Australia with 95 points over 3 days!

Congrats to the boys team who had some of the toughest competition but came through earning the right to represent Australia at the World Club Crew Champs. Thanks boys and everyone for your time and financial commitment and making this one of the best nationals ever for BRD.

Congratulations to Tracey Horan, Erica Hamp and Diane Ouwerkerk for their success in getting a grant for BRD to buy 1 new OC6 and 3 OC2's! Thanks again for all your hard work and effort!

These new boats will allow for more people to try and enjoy Outrigging, will allow for overflow of Dragon Boat paddlers, offers a change and variety for the paddlers, is another great tool for people to get use to and get a feel for the water, will be used for injury management, will be used for time trials, will be used for coaching.

Things are looking good for the future of BRD.

A great team effort by BRD at the 2008 State Titles held at Lake Kawana. Here are our results:

Junior Open – Silver
Junior Mixed – Gold
Premier Open – Silver
Premier Mixed – Gold
Masters Open – Silver
Masters Mixed – Gold
Masters Women – Gold
Grand Masters Mixed – Silver
Grand Masters Women – Silver