A common stop among the tourist trail in Hong Kong is Stanley. Know for its markets of cheap souvenirs an things that entice the average tourist. Why not spare an hour or few when in Stanley to try and do some water sport.
Along Stanley beach you will find the HK Aquabound water sport centre where you can kayak, stand up paddle board, wind surf or wake board. if you're visiting in winter (after November) do the things that will keep you out of the water. In the summer all the options are great.
Hire is fairly cheap and generally easy. The centre provides life jackets and all your needs. A few hours on the water is a great way to break up that shopping trip and a way for you to admire the beauty of Stanley Bay.
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| Look at the buildings around Stanley Bay |
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| HK Aquabound Centre |
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| The view out from the beach towards Redhill |
Dragon Boating
Today, I went Dragon boating with my work buddies, a mix of fitness freaks, serious dragon boater and a few "give it a go" junkies like me. Must say it was great fun, the rowing was gruelling, having to get yourself into a strange shape to paddle and then using your core muscles to pull back the paddle. Looks easy but about the only things that's moving on my body, as I type this, are my fingers.
Dragon boating practice took the shape of technique enforcement for all us newbies which meant twisting round reaching the paddle far out in front to you. With the leading hand holding the paddle at the bottom and submerged in the water. Then using your core muscles you twist round pulling the paddle back with the twisting movement. OK, so you got the hang of it.
Then come the training part and the drills.
Drill 1 : Fifty paddles, feeling pretty strong and 30 seconds break
Drill 2 : Same as Drill 1, is this all there is to it ?
Drill 3 : Same as Drill 1, getting a little bored
Drill 4 : Paddle in 2's, each row one at a time and everyone else critiques your technique. Ok so for a newbie like me it embarrassing but fun!
Drill 4: Aerobic training. Front half of the boat paddles 30 strokes, whole boat paddles 10 strokes and the last half of the boat paddles 30 strokes. For a total of 15 mins. By now the body is telling you to get back to shore for a nice lime soda
Drill 5: Straight arm paddling. Basically the idea being you can't use your arms to pull. You can only use your core. This was quite different
Drill 6: Same as drill 5, but now you core is starting to burn
Drill 7: Same as drill 5, and now the your core and back muscles are red hot
Drill 8: Power - row as hard as you can for 30 strokes. This is how races start
Drill 9: Same as drill 8, but now you really want to go back as you are knackered (exhausted)
Drill 10: 100 strokes. Lift the boat the call goes out as you start of with power and then settle into a rhythm. At a 100 strokes you are dead. Apparently the protocol is that if you get off the boat and are so exhausted that you puke you've not worked hard enough. The race the team enter is 115 strokes or roughly 250 meter. The 250 meter of pain.
Drill 11 : 50's to shore. And at 2 hours of paddling hard you want a nice warm shower and some seriously fat (sorry carbohydrate) laden food.
Dragon boating practice took the shape of technique enforcement for all us newbies which meant twisting round reaching the paddle far out in front to you. With the leading hand holding the paddle at the bottom and submerged in the water. Then using your core muscles you twist round pulling the paddle back with the twisting movement. OK, so you got the hang of it.
Then come the training part and the drills.
Drill 1 : Fifty paddles, feeling pretty strong and 30 seconds break
Drill 2 : Same as Drill 1, is this all there is to it ?
Drill 3 : Same as Drill 1, getting a little bored
Drill 4 : Paddle in 2's, each row one at a time and everyone else critiques your technique. Ok so for a newbie like me it embarrassing but fun!
Drill 4: Aerobic training. Front half of the boat paddles 30 strokes, whole boat paddles 10 strokes and the last half of the boat paddles 30 strokes. For a total of 15 mins. By now the body is telling you to get back to shore for a nice lime soda
Drill 5: Straight arm paddling. Basically the idea being you can't use your arms to pull. You can only use your core. This was quite different
Drill 6: Same as drill 5, but now you core is starting to burn
Drill 7: Same as drill 5, and now the your core and back muscles are red hot
Drill 8: Power - row as hard as you can for 30 strokes. This is how races start
Drill 9: Same as drill 8, but now you really want to go back as you are knackered (exhausted)
Drill 10: 100 strokes. Lift the boat the call goes out as you start of with power and then settle into a rhythm. At a 100 strokes you are dead. Apparently the protocol is that if you get off the boat and are so exhausted that you puke you've not worked hard enough. The race the team enter is 115 strokes or roughly 250 meter. The 250 meter of pain.
Drill 11 : 50's to shore. And at 2 hours of paddling hard you want a nice warm shower and some seriously fat (sorry carbohydrate) laden food.
The spaghetti lunch on Stanley beach with fellow exhausted dragon boater was worth the effort.
If you live in HK and get the chance to be part of a dragon boat team give it a shot it looks fun although it seems like a lot of hard work weekend after weekend.
If you live in HK and get the chance to be part of a dragon boat team give it a shot it looks fun although it seems like a lot of hard work weekend after weekend.
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| Dragon Boats all lined up in Stanley |
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