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Paddles Ready is your go-to podcast for everything happening in the world of paddle racing.
Hosted by Dougie and Hando, the show brings you inside the sport with race reviews, real-time commentary, and conversations with paddlers from across the globe. Whether it’s breaking down major competitions, sharing behind-the-scenes stories, or hearing directly from the athletes shaping the sport, this podcast keeps you connected to the pulse of paddle racing.
From elite races to grassroots scenes, Paddles Ready covers it all, giving you insight, perspective, and the stories you won’t hear anywhere else.
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Honest race reviews and analysis
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Commentary on trends, performances, and competition results
Stories from the front lines of paddle racing
If you follow paddle racing or want to understand it better, this is where you stay informed.
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Club pride Oh One thing you always do see on the hill when you're at a regatta It's a big thing, isn't it? In, in so many different levels Yeah And we all do paddle for that one club.
Ooh In a dragon boat you can have 20 paddlers and I think how to harness sometimes 40 different personalities, you, you gotta be a proud coach or manager to be able to do that
as well You do.
2025 Berlin. The professional sportsmen and women there- Oh my goodness ... is dragon boating actually a sport or is it just a festival?
So Hando, um, today I thought- Dougie How are you, mate? Woo You good? Oh, mate, always good. Always good. Always good The energy in the room, the electricity Well, when we're, when we're in the, uh, studio, the, uh, frequency is high. That's it. Without a doubt
That's it. A- Adam just, Adam just came in before us. He loves working with you guys at PodPea.
He said it's infectious In- infectious and I said, "Well, some of the questions you ask me, I actually don't know what's in this mind." And that's what I'm trying to pull them out
Oh, right. Well- Is that what he say? Yeah, he said- No one knows ... no one knows. So- My family maybe Yeah, maybe. I dunno. Nah, maybe not.
Nah,
nah, Dougie
Nah. Mate, let's talk about we go to these regattas. Yes. It's a festival, it's dragons, there's people. One thing you always do see on the hill when you're at a regatta is club pride. Oh So I wanted to have a chat about club- Great, great topic, Dougie ... club pride today around- Yeah ... you know, internationally you've been to a lot of different regattas.
Yeah I've been to a lot. Mm Um, we put it over to you at home or listening in the car, if there's something that we miss or we don't know and you're in Denmark and in Denmark you do something that we don't know- South, South America, Indian Islands ... let us know. Let us know what your club pride is Let us know.
Yeah, absolutely So Hando, club pride, it's a big thing, isn't it?
Oh, in, in so many different levels. Yeah For the, from club pride from... There, there, there's a topic. How was your club name formed? We'll touch on that- Right ... and that's part of your club pride. Yeah Uh, whatever sport that you're in, whether it's tennis, football, you, you have your club, you have your colors, you have your team songs.
They do as well. They do There's team songs- Yeah ... in festivals, um, in the club crew worlds we've, we've seen them warm up together- Yeah ... with, with feather boas w- with the breast cancer. But yeah, a lot of club pride. For, for me personally- Yeah ... the Diggers club pride, like- th- this logo was formed- The hat, yeah
after the Bali Bomb. Yeah. Steven Spears, Tom Hunt, they will always be with us. So that's, that's our Diggers Club pride. That's- And then, you know, there's, there's different colors, different uniforms, where they're from around the globe. Yep. You know, what, what province are they from in China?
Well, they, the Chinese do it big, don't they?
Oh my goodness. It's like- The culture, the drums- The culture ... the beat. That's it. It's- The dragons ... and it's great that, you know, a 2,000-year-old sport plus hasn't lost any of that tr- tradition.
No. And, and, and all the festivals around the world, whether it be your local Hakka festival that's happening in June in 2026- Yep
where there's Florence that they bring up a, a, a special dialect from Taiwan. They do their, I think they've only got eight boats. Gotcha. And they, they've got their little clubs and they're proud of what they do. Yeah. And to, to the likes of Stanley Hong Kong- Yep ... where your club is team pride and that's a corporate event.
So that'll be, you know, um, Swire Group versus HSBC versus Standard Chartered Bank versus a construction company versus Cathay Pacific. Yeah. Oh. There's a whole different level of pride again- That's- ... in your club.
That's a whole different level of corporate sponsors. That's it. Hey, while you're out there,
paddles ready- Yeah
by Cathay Pacific.
That'd look good, wouldn't it? Cathay Pacific on it. No, exactly. Buddy.
Emirates Airline sounds good as
well. Yeah. Um, it's funny, a while back we did the state titles, uh, you and I commentated, and I remember looking down, I, I put some music on, or Pete put some music on, and, um, watching the girls from Currumbin and that just dancing, and they had their outfits on.
They all put on little, uh, I don't know, what are those ballerina things? Tutu's. Tutu's. And they had, you know, the Pippi Longstocking, um, plaits and, oh, it was just, and it was a spectacle. Yeah. And there was some... Pete played a song and the girls were war- it was their warm-up song, like you said, and they just had a tradition.
And, and- And that's their
tradition ... and they're proud
of it.
Yeah. And so that's at local festivals. Mm. And when people travel abroad to club cruise or, or even when they go to, to, to local events in the Philippines, in Boracay, in, in, in Cebu- Well, yes ... to Korea, they have, each club has to do a, like a skit- Yeah
afterwards. Yep And, and again, there's your, there's your pride. So I'd love to hear about, send us in on the, on the, on the, on the pod- Well, yeah, it's- What, what is it? The, uh- They've
got your phone number still, so they can text you. Oh, goodness me. Um- On the blog ... I don't know if you saw my Instagram the other day on Insta.
I actually posted the Boracay, the walking, um- Yes ... so, um, the Love, oh, what's it? Love Boracay, that's what it's called. Right. That's the regatta. So on the Friday night, they walk through the center of the town.
Right
All the paddlers. All the teams. All the teams. Presenting, right. So I put it on. If you have a look on our Instagram Paddles Ready, you'll see it.
Um, and all the paddlers walk through. There's over 1,000 paddlers ahead of Boracay- Wow ... which is a great turn up. I think,
I think the Typhoon went to Boracay. It, it's one to go to.
It is one to go to. Um- Beautiful waters ... a lot of Malaysian teams. Beautiful waters. Yeah, Malaysian teams, obviously Filipino teams.
Um, there was some teams there from Singapore. But the tradition of walking through, you know, it's not a town, Boracay's only a small place, so basically through the village. Very nice. And, uh, geez, uh, once again, tradition. They're, they're, they're passionate. Passionate.
Passionate, proud.
Yep. Kabayans, as they say- Um-
in the Philippines ... down in Stanley, another place, great place. Oh, Hong Kong. 1996, '97, being down there and watching the Hong Kong, um, Dragon Boating Festival. Right. Two, two- Holy
smokes. 200 teams in the one day paddling, like 10,000 people on the beach, and then- Yeah ... you talk about pride. You're all... And there, there's another one.
You, y- y- you, you, you, you pride in your club, you have club colors. Yep. Your uniforms, they wear it not only just to the races. They wear it, yeah. Mate, they're wearing it to training, they're we- wearing it to the, the pubs and clubs in Stanley- Yep ... uh, that we're used to, Doug. Well, the club pride, it is. Have a, have a bit of an amber nectar after- Well, there you go
a few training sessions. We were sponsored by Foster's one year. That was a great sponsor. What was that
bar called that we used to go to in Stanley?
Uh, Smugglers. Smugglers. The Smugglers. Smugglers Inn. Smugglers Inn. Smugglers Inn.
With Brian- And- ... and Al- Alf ... um, my day job, I was in banking back then, and I remember, I think it's my tie, they cut your tie off or, and they pinned my tie to the top of The Smugglers above the bar.
Ah, right. You'll still pay. And I think it was because, "Get that bloody tie off," and, uh, yeah, so we get a bit away from it. Yeah. But that was a tradition. We are getting, yeah. That was a tradition, and that was- Yes ... our club. That kind of became our clubhouse, The Smugglers Inn. Um- Yeah. Well,
well, clubs from all over the world, the American teams used to come, Korean, the, the Australian teams.
There was a, a, actually it was, I think it was Sloths- Yep ... actually came to Hong Kong. Right. So Zeus took his, um... Yeah, yeah, yeah, Andrew Penfold came, came to Hong Kong, and, and, and they bring different notes from all around the world. Really? And they pinned them at Smugglers pub. No fucking way. Getting a bit off.
We're, uh- We're reminiscing ... re- re- reminiscing. Just ver- verging on a different
tangent there about notes. When we were in Germany That was different again. Like, you know, and there- Well, there's t-
there's, there's national pride. Yeah. And your national colors. Yep. So that steps up a, a different level again.
Yeah. And, and the, the, and the, we talked about it, I think, on one of the episodes about athletes. Yep. All different shapes and sizes, but they're, they're, they're so proud and, and everyone warms up different. Yep. And like in a, in a dragon boat you can have 20 paddlers and I think how to harness sometimes 40 different personalities, y- you gotta be a proud coach or manager to be able to do that as well.
To do that. Yeah. Mm. You touched on, uh, the, um, uniforms. Geez, merch is getting pretty big with the club pride, isn't it? Like, you can buy anything. You can get anything from your paddling singlet right through to a bomber jacket nearly, um, with the, the clubs' names on them, hats, drink bottles. Um- Yeah. And, and,
and again, that's, that's I suppose when, when you're the Nowra Dragons or- Yep
Falls Creek in, in Vancouver, Canada, y- y- you gotta, you gotta attract sponsors and, and, and they gotta be proud of the club, so obviously they, they go within. Yeah. But, you know, dragon boating is as, as you said, we- we've seen it over the years and I've seen it emerge getting bigger and bigger and better- Yeah
and one of the largest, uh, water sport pickup, takeups globally, and that, that's, there's so many different- And there's
different, you know, Southern Hemisphere, Northern Hemisphere with your clubs and your uniforms. Um, if you're- Well, you, you- ... with the Ice Dragons you need the bomber jacket. Oh, goodness me.
But down here, you know, we get away with a T-shirt. Yeah. Um-
Well, it gets a bit cold in the, in the winter. Especially for us Australian. Not like the Canadians or, or, or the Europeans where it's like they have to wait for the ice to
melt. Yeah. What's your, what's the best you've seen as far as a traditional, um, club pride regatta?
To, you know- Uh- As in, you know, Chinese heritage type stuff ... S- Stanley was amazing. Yep.
But, uh, I think there's some really cool events, as you said in, in, in Asia, in the Philippine, Penang. Yep. They have it. And then, i- it's, it's also how proud the organizers and the event organizers are of their clubs participating and they, and they have that walk past, they have the I dotting ceremony where someone from each club or federation comes up and represents it for that I dotting.
I think that I dotting is so good and is so good for the sport. Mm.
And- Mr. Luau came to the New Zealand- The, yeah ... and then went to the Australian and- The Australian ... and did talk about tradition and
culture. And it's such, you know, if anyone hasn't seen it- And you're at the first over a regatta, um, you know, don't...
Go, go down and watch it. They had a, a couple politicians there the other, when we're at the Aus Champs, I think, uh- Yeah ... um, Jarrod Bleijie was there and Dan Purvi and it was re- and Mr. Luar was there. Um, that tradition of the eye dotting, that, that's so cool. No, it's good. And then they have all the, the, the,
the dragon dances and- Yeah
all of that. So yeah, lot, lot, lots of, uh, different... We'd love to hear if there's any really cool traditions- Well, that's, yeah ... or, or pride that maybe the- I'm sure there's something going on with- ... the South Americans or the Europeans do before. What songs. Maybe they can send their team song
in, Dougie. Maybe, but I'm sure there's something going on, on the other side of the world that we don't know about that we should know about and we can put it on- And we wanna voice it
and we can put it here on the podcast. Nick, that was a short and sweet one. Um- Okay ... but I just wanted to get going. I just wanted to get your thoughts on the club pride because it is massive and we all do paddle for that one club that we love. Um- Thanks, Dougie. Thanks, mate. Paddle's ready. Paddle's ready.
This is 60 Seconds with Dougie, and we are still down on the water tonight at Varsity Lakes. I'm with Tracey. And Tracey, you are from the club?
Gold Coast Dragons. Gold Coast
Dragons. Now, I've, I've been going through these questions, so we're going to hit you with the same ones. Worst excuse you've heard from someone for missing training?
I'm stuck in traffic.
Oh. Downwind or grind when racing or training?
Grind.
Okay. Early morning training or sleep-ins?
Early morning training.
What's more important, fitness or technique?
Oh, gee. Well, both, I think. But yeah, well, technique.
Carbon fiber or wooden when it comes to a paddle?
Carbon fiber.
Coffee before or after training?
After.
Biggest talker on the boat?
Biggest talker on the boat? Yeah.
Who talks too much?
Oh, gee. Wi- Hoggy.
Okay. Well, he's the sweep. Sprint or distance?
Uh, distance.
Beers or a lemonade on a Sunday arvo after a regatta?
Oh, lemonade.
Favorite regatta you competed in to date?
Oh, CCWC at Sarasota.
Beautiful. Your one tip that instantly makes someone a better paddler?
Uh, just get your, um, oh, what do you call it? The timing right.
And if I wasn't with the Gold Coast Dragons and paddling, I'd be?
With Burley.
Thanks, Tracey. That's Paddles Ready. Over and out.
Well, Hando, it's that time of the week again. Dougie's hot take.
Oh. Tell you what, I'm gonna try and I'm gonna talk to the producers, and I'm gonna get the cheat sheet next time- Well- ... because you can't keep putting me on the spot ...
this came from a client of mine this week, this question, believe it or not.
When I was trying to explain to him what we did and what our sport is- Right ... dragon boating And he asked me a question and I thought that is a hot topic and, uh, so that's why it's this week's hot take. This week's hot take, send it. Okay, so I had, had to write this one down. Sport or festival? Is dragon boating actually a sport or is it just a festival?
Ooh. Great question because dragon boating's history and culture matches in with the festivals- With festivals ... with the Chun Moon Festival, ancient Chinese and every Chinese New Year, just like they had this year down in Chinese New Year in Darling Harbor in Sydney, they had the Chinese Dragon Boat Festival.
Is it a sport? Absolutely. Right. That's just my opinion and it- And that's my opinion as well ... and, and it is a sport- Yeah ... but it's a sport for the youth, the people that, like you're talking about elite athletes, you've got people that were runners, basketballers, players, top of their game but their elite knees are gone, their legs are gone.
Yeah. Next minute they can actually get in 'cause their big back and their lats can still work. Yeah. They're the people you're getting. Footballers at definitely a sport but, but at- And that's what, and that's what I said to this gentleman ... at the festivals and we love commentating at festivals. Yes,
but I looked at it- 'Cause I'm a bit of a clown when you really think about it
as being a sport as well because you do have your elite professionals but then you do have, we have, um, in our clubs and around, you know, around the globe the paddlers who just want to paddle once a week. So what determines that being a sport or a fest- because that's every other sport in the world. Well- Swimming
well- I go for a swim every second morning. Yes. But I'm not an elite professional. I'm not training six hours a day in a pool, but it's still deemed a sport, so.
You used to
though, Dougie. I used to. I used to. I haven't been there for a while. Kellogg's own man. No.
But, but so coming up in June it's called the Hakka Festival, which is the Chinese Taiwanese Hakka Foundation- Right
going near Pat Rafter Arena in Tennyson-
Yep ...
where they're having a festival and they're just crews that get together, train for four weeks and have a festival. So they're not in the sport at all. No. They're coming together for a festival. So that pose it to out you guys, send those. What festivals around the world i- is coming up?
What festivals do you have? Yep. And then as a sport, man, absolutely. And it's
crazy. I mean, you know- Queensland they're- Look where we're, we're off to Taipei. We're off here and these are, and I go back to, uh, where were we? 2025 Berlin. The professional sportsmen and women there- Oh my goodness ... that, um, 200 meter race or 500 meter gold medal race we called when China got first and Canada got second.
Oh my goodness. If that's not a sport, I'm not here. So- Yeah ... let's wrap this up quickly.
Like 39 seconds world record for, I think they didn't break- Mental ... the break, break the 40. That, that- So where do we leave
it here today? You and I are both on the same page as a sport. We can see the roots of the festival side of thing.
So is this just one to leave alone?
Yeah. Yeah, but sport, then it's recreation. You wanna get it into the schools, because without the youth- Yep. Who's coming through? There, mate, there's a hot topic in itself. Yeah. Who's coming through? Who's coming through. You wanna be able to have this sport have a recreational aspect of it, have a festival aspect of it-
Yep
but it's still a sport. It's still gotta be in there. Over
to you guys. We're gonna send that back over to you guys on the blog or on the website.
Subscribe, check on, send us a text. Some of you got my numbers. The, the hot- You're still sending
me texts, Dougie. I know. It's unbelievable. Yeah, it's an easy number to remember.
And if you find out the hot topic before I do, send it to me so he doesn't have to get me on. Thanks, Nico. No worries, Dougie. All right, hand over. There's another show. How good was that? That's another one down. I tell you what, if you're listening-
If you're listening or watching-
Or watching,
yeah ... the viewers out there.
Well, what's going on? We're on Spotify, so I tell you what's going on, I have no idea what I'm gonna say. Well, mate, just
like, subscribe, drop your email in. That's it. I'm Hando. I'm Dougie. We're out.
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