I left Ericsson in May last year, but was lucky enough to be asked to paddle for them again. 

The Ericsson Mobile Dragons had a great 3rd season. It started at the end of 1999 with a silver medal at the Tangaroa festival early in December (see the Tangaroa club page). This with a crew that was 50% new from the previous season which gave a good idea of the potential I guess. The best part being that as they were short they asked me to paddle for them, even tho' I'd left the company earlier in 1999. Coaching this year was done by an experience outrigger/multisport person, who paddled for the team the previous years, John Pullar.

Next regatta was in Masterton. Had a nice tussle with two teams, Jenkins Gym and Saturn with who beat who see-sawing through the day. In the end tho' we had to settle for a 4th place in the finals being pipped for the bronze.

This brings us to the Wellington festival. This year it wasn't the national champs event, this being held in Auckland later in the year. Pipped for the gold by Oarsome Intellect, the Victoria University team.

The biggy, and our primary focus was the nationals in Auckland. A great two days racing at the Viaduct Basin, the site of the Americas Cup earlier in the year, and temporary home to the super yachts that came to watch. This provided a sheltered course running from near theTeam New Zealand sheds to the Loaded Hog bar. For Wellington crews this caused a problem as without the wind and swell to contend with we were at a serious disadvantage :-).

Day one was a just a fun day, with the school teams, intercompany racing and the first set of heats. The school teams bought a dash of colour, and a great deal of noise to the event, with a small clip on the network news that evening. We went into day two with two wins from two starts, both being comfortable victories. However the post-mortem after each race came up with defiencies and areas to improve on.

Day two was the serious racing for the "grownups". Our heats and semis progressed very well, with us typically leading out of the blocks all the way up the course. A close race or two and we made it to the corporate championshipsalong with our nemesis from Wellington..... The resulting, a bronze with once again Oarsome just locking us out (literally by a nose, looking at the video replay) with Dunedin City Council talking the gold back to the mainland.

So another season draws to a close with the best results yet for Ericsson Mobile Dragons. Gold in 2001 perhaps?