Dragons Abreast Central Coast

🥉 DIDN’T WE DO WELL! TEAM UNITY TAKES THIRD IN THE 200M IN FRANCE! 🇫🇷🐉

A fantastic result for Dragons Abreast Australia Team Unity 🇦🇺 at the 2026 IBCPC Participatory Dragon Boat Festival, France 🇫🇷.

Team Unity kicked off the 200m racing by winning Heat 24 in 1:01.30, earning their place in the final.

Then in Final 12, they went even faster — 1:01.28 to finish third! 🥉👏

🇦🇺 🇺🇸 🇨🇦 🇫🇷
Team Unity draws members from Far North Queensland (Cairns and Townsville), to South Victoria (Patterson Lakes), west to South Australia, in between South East Queensland and Dragons Abreast Central Coast from Central Coast NSW... with a splash of USA and Canada.

United in our love of dragon boating and our quest for wellbeing and connection at IBCPC.

What a result. Congratulations, ladies! 🥉🐉💗

Friday night training on Budgewoi Lake 🐉🩷

What an evening for our weekly DACC training — cool, clear, barely a ripple on the lake, a beautiful sunset and then that full moon! 🌕✨

We were a smaller crew tonight, with quite a few of our usual shipmates over in France for the IBCPC Festival. 🇫🇷

And while we were incredibly lucky to have such calm conditions here on Budgewoi Lake, our thoughts were very much with our paddlers in France, where Friday's 500m racing had to be cancelled because of the weather conditions.

After travelling halfway around the world and putting in all that training, we know how disappointing that must be. Sending lots of DACC love to our French dragons and hoping the weather gods are much kinder for Saturday's racing. 🐉🩷🇫🇷

Back home, Coach Janice Kennedy ran a tight training session, with Annie Eloise Fahey and Jenice from Central Coast Dragon Boat Club setting the pace as strokes.

There was some sweep training too, with Alison Newell taking the rudder and Michelle guiding her through it. 👏

A beautiful Friday evening on our home waters — and tonight we were particularly grateful for just how kind Budgewoi Lake was to us.

DACC trains every Friday at 4.30 pm on Budgewoi Lake, Toukley.

🎬 CONQUERING BREAST CANCER — AVOCA BEACH

Six of our Dragons Abreast Central Coast ladies headed to Avoca Beach Theatre for a special screening of Conquering Breast Cancer — and what an excellent film.

Informative, educational, sensitive and diverse, it explored breast cancer with real depth — from diagnosis and treatment through to reconstruction, rehabilitation, research, mental health and the realities of living with and beyond breast cancer.

But naturally, there was one part we were particularly excited to see… dragon boating! 🐲💕

Our fellow dragon Sandra Sturgess from Dragons Abreast Newcastle Hunter, sharing her experience of living with metastatic breast cancer and the role dragon boating plays in her life.

Sandra spoke about the physical activity, social connection and having something positive to do — a lifeline throughout the breast cancer journey. And one line particularly resonated with us:

“We’re not a support group, but we support each other.”

That sums up Dragons Abreast rather beautifully.

We don't come together simply to talk about cancer. We paddle, train, race, travel, laugh and get on with living — alongside people who understand the journey without it needing to be explained.

The evening finished with a thoughtful Q&A led by Prof. John Boyages AM, joined by Dr Sharon Laura, breast surgeon; Caitlin Hobday, occupational therapist and lymphoedema therapist from Cancer Rehabilitation & Lymphatic Solutions; and breast cancer survivor Belinda O’Neill. Together they brought medical, surgical, rehabilitation and lived-experience perspectives to the conversation.

Our biggest takeaway? Breast cancer treatment is increasingly about keeping people alive; the bigger human challenge is helping people keep living.

And perhaps that's exactly where dragon boating comes in — connection, movement, friendship, laughter and plenty still to look forward to. 🐉💗

A terrific film, a thought-provoking evening, and we were more than a little proud to see our fellow Dragons up there on the big screen.

Here’s to living — and paddling — well. 💗🐲

📰🐉 FROM THE ARCHIVES | THEN & NOW 🇮🇹 🇫🇷

Sometimes you stumble across something from the past that makes you realise just how far you've come......

Back in June 2018, we featured in The Daily Telegraph / Express Advocate under the headline “Our dragon warriors.”

At the time, five Coastbusters (our racing team name) from Dragons Abreast Central Coast were preparing to travel to Florence, Italy, for the IBCPC Dragon Boat Festival 🇮🇹

The article captured beautifully what was at the heart of the group. Karen Wallwork summed it up simply: “We are a support network.”

She also spoke about how paddling had made the women “fitter and happier”, along with the camaraderie they found together.

Fast-forward eight years.
We're still here. We're still paddling. We're still competing. And we've grown. 💗🐉

This week, ten DACC members are in Aix-les-Bains for the 2026 IBCPC Participatory Dragon Boat Festival, France — twice the number who made that journey to Florence in 2018. Both good & sad that there are more of us 🤷‍♀️

And there's a lovely thread connecting those two moments:
Karen Wallwork and Pam Percic were part of the Coastbusters racing team story back then, and both are in France with DACC today. 🇫🇷

Eight years of paddling, friendship, support, adventures — and plenty of water under the boat.

And those words from 2018 still ring true: “We are a support network.” 💗

We also found this Coast Community News story from the same time, featuring Pam talking about the fun, camaraderie, support and understanding found through breast cancer paddling.

Link to 2018 Coast Community News article:
https://coastcommunitynews.com.au/central-coast/news/2018/06/breast-cancer-survivors-supporters-to-compete-at-dragon-boat-festival/

📰🐉 DRAGON BOATING MAKES HEADLINES AHEAD OF THE 2027 MASTERS GAMES

Great to see Dragons Abreast Central Coast featured in our local newspaper, Coast Community News, following this week's official media launch of the 2027 Australian Masters Games.

We were delighted to be invited by Dragon Boats NSW to attend the launch, alongside Central Coast Dragon Boat Club and Deepwater Dragon Boat Club, where it was announced that dragon boat racing will be one of the sports coming to the Central Coast when Newcastle and the Central Coast co-host the Games from 13–20 November 2027.

For our Dragons Abreast community, there's even more to look forward to — breast cancer paddlers will have their own division, and DACC plans to have our own team on the water competing. 💗🐉

Dragon boating is expected to be one of the Games' largest and most colourful competitions, bringing crews from across Australia to the Coast.

Have a read 👇
https://coastcommunitynews.com.au/central-coast/news/2026/08/on-your-mark-get-set-for-the-masters-games/

On your mark, get set - for the Masters Games - Central Coast News A small town to the north of us called Newcastle will help to co-host our 2027 Games.

🌼 Today is Daffodil Day for Cancer Council Australia and Cancer Council NSW — and this year marks 40 years of it in Australia.

For us at Dragons Abreast Central Coast, this one is pretty close to home.

Daffodil Day raises vital funds for cancer research — research that has changed how cancers are detected and treated, and continues to give people diagnosed with cancer more options and better outcomes.

It also supports Cancer Council’s work with people and families dealing with cancer.

We know how much both matter.

So if you spot a Daffodil Day stall while you’re out and about today, stop by, buy a daffodil or some merchandise and help support the work they do. 🌼

Find out what’s happening in your state or territory:
https://www.daffodilday.com.au/get-involved/states-and-territories

A little yellow alongside our usual pink today. 💛💗🐉

HAPPY DAFFODIL DAY! 🌻

Today on our 40th Daffodil Day we honour the cancer journeys of our mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, friends, carers, loved ones and ourselves for the resilience, compassion, comfort, tears and laughs along the way.

We’re brought together by the many ways cancer has touched our lives but also by the hope we find in cancer research that’s making more lifesaving discoveries year-on-year.

For all that cancer takes, give hope this .

To check out where we will be today or to donate, head here www.daffodilday.com.au/states-and-territories