Aoraki Dragon Boat
Association (Inc)
Christchurch, NZ

Team Profile:

CCC "Cruiser"

In what seemed like a lifetime ago (back in the early 90’s) Kyle Dow joined the CCC Dragon Boat Team, the first time the Council had entered a team. They were a fairly young team (in more ways than one) and it would be fair to say they enjoyed the social aspect of it as much as the competition. They trained once a week in the gym at the YMCA followed by a team meeting at the Dux and once a week on the water at Lyttelton. Training in “open water” at Lyttelton had its exciting moments including once losing our sweep off the back as a big wave hit.

Kyle recalls the pre-race party at the Police station, the parade down Colombo Street and of course the after race party on the wharf at Lyttelton.

The CCC kept a team in the competition for a few years and enjoyed some great racing in Lyttelton harbour. However, as the competition became more commercial, the focus on the event giving to a good charity was lost and the cost of entering and training went up. It was about this time that the people who were the driving force in our team pulled out and the CCC team was no more, for the time being at least…

Then in 2007 a few people with an interest in Dragon Boating got together, managed to get some funding and the CCC Dragon Boat Team was on the scene again! With only a couple of paddlers who had done it before, it was a steep learning curve. However they got back in the boat and in no time at all it was like most of the team had been doing it all their lives, and of course they still had a good social side to the team, and training was still at Lyttelton!

The team got into Dragon Boating for lots of different reasons, but being a corporate team from a large organisation, one thing that you get is to meet people you would’ve never come in contact with and those people can become great friends and great contacts to have from a work perspective too. "I know for me, some of the people I was in the team with back in the early 90’s are still around the Council" says Kyle "and I still call on them for help occasionally and I even catch up with some of the old team for an after work beer on a Friday night".

Key Team players:

• Kyle Dow (manager)

Long servers:

• Ian McKenzie (Sweep)
• Judy Krom

The Cruisers are grateful for the ongoing generous financial support from Christchurch City Council.

Other teams:

• Abreast of Life
• Airways Paddlateers
• Canterbury Paddling Club (CPC)
• Evacut Express
• Fei Long TNG
• Ridge Riders U23
• Tu Meke Dragons
• Hillmorton High
• Christchurch Girls High
• St Margaret’s College
• Avonside Girls