Year 2007 is going down in Lightwave history as “The Year We Fielded Two Boats.” This brought unique challenges to the team. The first was coming up with sub-team names. After much deliberation, we came up with creative names…

…Lightwave 1 and Lightwave 2!

The second challenge came from the limited number of callers and steerpersons. Since we teamed up with Stanford for gender races for Paragon Point race, they have to be split among 3 boats. This called for proper planning and back-to-back role switching across races which turned out to be quite smooth.

Despite consisting of mainly new paddlers, Lightwave 2 showed excellent focus and stamina throughout the races. The team took 5th place in Division D. Considering that the new paddlers only had a few months of practice and no prior experience, the team went well beyond expectations.

Similarly, Lightwave 1 paddled strong to finished the final race taking 4th place in Division C. It was less than a second away from the coveted 3rd place prize: water cooler. However, it was significant improvement over the last year’s performance in terms of both position and timing.

Besides practices, both teams performance can also be attributed to the new team race policy: healthy food only and no napping. Some missed the Maui Onion Chips and serene daytime naps but sacrifices had to be made for higher achievements.

All in all, Lightwave as a whole performed great at the first race of the season. Now with race experience for most paddlers and continued practice, we expect to perform even better in subsequent races. It’s time to work that muscles out for power 10 all the way for Fremont sprint race!

Special thanks to the Foodies (Alison, Catherine, Frank, Giny, Olivia) and their helpers for yummy nourishment. Additional thanks to the Coaches (Jackie, Allen, Annie, James, Sunil, Preston) for preparing the team for the race. Honorable mention to the callers (Danielle, Ray, Susan) and steerspeople (Allen, Jackie, Preston, Ray, Wendy) for guiding the team to the finish line.