My first day paddling with the CYSM Sea Dragons was during a July Winter Open Day 3 years ago.

I had tagged along with my other brother (not the twin) who had suggested that I come along. I remember going with him to the shop to purchase some long thermals.

The buzz was there and I felt immediately then that this was a group I'd like to 'play' with. The after-water refreshments with great food and a chance to chat with members of the established group was a winner. Captain Carlos was also trying out at that time and was perhaps the first person I was introduced to by my brother, who had tried out the week earlier.

Fast forward a short few months. I had recruited the twin (Sui) by this time and we, complete with our sleeve lettered with our name initial so that people could tell us apart although it seems funny now, were racing in our first regatta at Bendigo (October 2014). This was an important solidifying experience with the team as was the bonding camp the following month, and that season established in me a personal resolve to get better, fitter and stronger. 

The following season (2015/16), I keenly put my hand up to join the committee in the position of webmaster.

I’d always had an interest in information creation, through words and pictures, and felt at that time that the club’s online presence was not as strong as it could be. I felt that I could facilitate the build of a website to showcase and inform the public of who we are and where we are heading as a club. revolutioniseSPORT was coming into the scene, used primarily for our club administrative functions. When the offer came from DBV to learn about the revolutioniseSPORT system from its managing director, Alex Mednis, at a training session, I jumped at it. I was soon tinkering with the site functions and as they say, the rest is history.

I must say that the role of webmaster has afforded a lot of opportunities to make full use of the promotion machine.

In the early days of my involvement with the club, I was active in creating new Facebook photo albums of our times at regattas and so on. This allowed cross-promotion of the albums via links on our website. This was however not enough and we soon grew our available data store on the RevSPORT server to accommodate in-site web albums. These are now used best as part of the rolling image gallery that you see on our website landing page.

In time, we recruited some exceptional photographers (some examples include Oana, Eric, Thi and so on; we know who you are) and most importantly, an awesome videographer in Chum Chum. With his evolution to drone pilot and two generations of drones - FeiFei and FeiMui - we can only wait to see his next compilation celebrating us and dragon boat in general.

As webmaster for the last two seasons, I had the greatest privilege to be the first to write, read, edit and share (y)our stories.

In essence, they came in three flavours: (i) club successes, (ii) recognizing our members and (iii) retelling (y)our experiences. This of course has the flow on effects of allowing the sharing of a shared experience, boosts team morale and lets the world know just how great we are!

With the conclusion of season 2016/17, I will be stepping down from this webmaster role glad in the knowledge that we have keen members chomping at the chance to make their mark in this important post. I reflect fondly on just what a joy it was to be a cog in this promotion machine.

- Fung Lay
Webmaster, seasons 2015/16 - 2016/17