It has been a busy and exciting year for Wave Walkers; we’ve had collaborations, race opportunities and new experiences for lots of us on the team!

We train each Sunday, rain or shine, and whilst training for Vogalonga took up a lot of our sessions for the first part of the year we’ve been busy locally and further afield too! Wave Walkers gets involved in a variety of Dragon Boat events, giving those team members who want to try competitive racing a chance to do so, and letting those who just want a fun and relaxed paddle to enjoy this as well. Below are some of the types of activities we’ve been up to this year:

Vogalonga (aka Venetian Visit)!
Our crowning achievement of this year is undoubtedly partaking in the 50th annual Vogalonga in Venice in May. Wave Walkers joined 2000 human-powered craft of all types on a 30km route starting from St Mark’s Basin, taking in the islands of Murano and Burano and finishing off with a glorious (if tired!) paddle down the infamous Grand Canal. This year’s Vogalonga was the culmination of dedicated training, practice, commitment and encouragement from the whole team. For many of the crew, this was their first time at Vogalonga and it was a truly incredible paddle with a phenomenal atmosphere. Wrapping the Vogalonga itself was a team meal alongside the Grand Canal, and some post event celebrations, bringing the club together over a fantastic couple of days. Check out some of the photos taken by the team and their supporters to see what an amazing experience this was!

International success!
In March, we were ecstatic to hear that current teammate, Emily, and former members Kate (who paddles with Raging Dragons Dragonboat, our fellow dock-mates) and Bron (with Thames Dragon Boat Club now) had been selected to be part of Team GB Breast Cancer Paddlers. In July, they won Silver medals in Munich at the EDBF National Championships! Well done!

Racing visits!
A group of Wavies joined Raging Dragons Dragonboat to take part in the London-Macao Dragon Boat Festival in June at the London Regatta Centre and had a great day racing, connecting and enjoying being out on the water! Two more of the team went back to the London Regatta Centre in August to join the Cambridgeshire Royals Dragon Boat team for some more racing in the heat!

At the start of July, two of the team combined forces with Notts Anaconda Dragon Boat Club and Yorkshire Sharks Dragonboat Club to take part in a fantastic day of racing at the BDA event in Milton Keynes, hosted by the Secklow Hundred Dragon Boat Club! They had a brilliant day and made some great partnerships with paddlers from other clubs, which is such an important part of being in the Dragon Boat community.

Social Paddle Swaps!
At the start of August, we travelled as a team up to Oxford to paddle with Oxford Paddlers for Life, a fellow cancer team who paddle in beautiful surroundings at the Dorchester Sailing Club and who were incredible hosts, even ferrying us to and from train stations and providing us with lunch! Building connections and friendships between teams is so important to us and being part of such a welcoming and accepting community is incredibly special.

Days out!
In September, we made our way up to Cookham for the annual Cookham Regatta, a fun event of community stalls, games, entertainment and – of course – Dragon Boat racing! The team had a fantastic and enjoyable day and it was a great introduction for racing for those in the team who had not raced before!

Festive fun!
As we approach the end of this year, we can look back on an action-packed and eventful year, but we’re not finished yet! We don’t just paddle, we enjoy socialising as a team and we have a couple of lovely events upcoming, including a Halloween-themed ceilidh and a Christmas party in the pipeline!

Join us!
Don’t forget, you don’t have to wait for an open day to come along and try out with us. We always welcome new paddlers, those who love boating, those who’ve never been on the water before, and everyone in between. Just drop us a note on our contact form here or find us on social media @Wave Walkers – Dragon Boat Team and come and give us a go!

We have another open day coming up on Sunday April 6 2025.  Have a look at our dedicated page for more details.

Come along to our free open day to see what we do - you can chat with the team, join in  some short sessions on the boat, and find out about all the amazing things we get involved with! The open day is at Docklands Sailing and Watersports Centre, 235A Westferry Rd, London E14 3QS.

You can book a place on Eventbrite to guarantee your seat in a boat, or just turn up on the day and we'll do our best to fit you in.  See our open day page for more info.

Wave Walkers have moved back to the Docklands Sailing and Watersports Centre on the Isle of Dogs where our team began over 10 years ago. 

We are now being supported by Raging Dragons, who we started out with at the very beginning and who are now helping us get back out on the water and providing helm training.  We had our first team session with them today in the beautiful sunshine.

A huge thanks go to Paul Coster, Windy Pandas and Thames Dragons for the all the time and support you've given us over the last few years over at Royal Albert Dock.

So, if you have been thinking about trying out dragon boat paddling with us, but not quite got round to it, we are here for you.  Just get in touch using the contact form and we will invite you to our next session to try it out.

We welcome anyone who's looking for a positive challenge out on the water.
We are looking for new members to join the team, and our 1st Sundays are ideal free tasters. Our coach covers the basics and there's guidance and support from fellow paddlers.  Check out our join us page for more details!

On Saturday 4th September, we took a team to the Cookham Regatta. We love this event with a community fair attached. The races are in 10-person boats on the river and it's such fun! 
We won our second race of the day and we are really proud of our team, some of whom have only been paddling a few months! Imagine what they'll be like next year!
You can see a little video of our triumph on our facebook page here

July 11th will be a little bit different for us! Instead of our usual training session, we'll be hosting an Open Day. We've been waiting a year for this so we're really excited. We'll be setting up a welcome station and hoping to greet lots of people new to paddling. Our parent team (Windy Pandas) will be helping us to get people kitted up and into a boat for a short taster session of dragon boat paddling. Obviously we'd like to gain some new members for the team - but more than that, we want to raise awareness of the sport and most importantly the benefits for people affected by cancer. We won't list them here but there are multiple benefits both physical and emotional - we are a support group as much as a sports team. 
We have our fingers crossed for good weather but we'll be there come rain or shine with smiles on our faces and the usual warm Wave Walkers welcome.
We couldn't have got this off the ground without a whole lot of help from others and we are forever grateful to their generosity:
Windy Pandas who have taken us under their wing and support us with everything as a part of their family
Macmillan Cancer Support who helped us get set up to begin with and continue to support and promote us.
Reach Volunteering who helped us find the lovely Kelly to lend a hand with our online presence 
Our extended community - all the friends and family who support us, carry paddles to events, take photos, follow and share our social media, and cheer us on at events. It makes more difference than you know.

​Will we see you there? Hope so!!

The International Breast Cancer Paddlers' Commission (IBCPC) have announced the venue for the 2022 Festival - It will be held in New Zealand. We are so excited!!
​Why not plan to be there? Fill in our contact form and come along to a couple of sessions to try  dragon boating out!