The CYSM Sea Dragons welcomed in the Lunar New Year of the Fire Monkey with their own dragon awakening ceremony, ahead of the Chinese New Year regatta in Ballarat on Sunday 14 February.

The club recently acquired two purpose-built land paddle boards for training and technique refinement. With one of the paddle boards fitted with a dragon head, much like a dragon boat, the team performed a dragon awakening ceremony, complete with dotting of the dragon's eyes, sprinkling of water with spring onion, and rice for offering. This follows cultural traditions for good luck ahead of a race or launch of a new boat (paddle board in our case) to keep everyone safe.

Thank you to Sui for building the land paddle boards and dragon head, Phil for leading the awakening ceremony and Eric for taking some great photographs and video to mark the auspicious occasion. May all our persistence and hard work lead to race success at this weekend's CNY regatta.

Gung Hei Fat Choy! Gong Xi Fa Cai! 恭喜发财！