OpenRoad Driver Volume 11 Issue 1 | Page 80

80 » OpenRoad Driver That’s exciting! You’ve represented Canada in many international dragon boat tournaments. Which race was the most memorable? I would say the first official dragon boat championship, the 1st World Dragon Boat Championship in Yueyang, China in 1995. Definitely something to be remembered. This is said to be the birthplace of dragon boat. There were about 250,000 spectators at the event, including many Chinese government officials, and we did very well. Some tough competition, for sure! How many places have you competed in? You must have traveled the world by now! I’ve been racing for quite a long time now, so I’ve been to various places: Australia, the Czech Republic, Italy, Tahiti and Hawaii. Many times in Hong Kong because the official races used to be there; England, and a few other places. You obviously keep yourself in good shape. Describe your normal workout routine. I try to wake up early to go to the gym, and get some boat time in whenever I can. I eat well – I love food and chocolate. I don’t have a very strict diet and I eat what I think is right for me. I do push-pull workouts: three sets push, three sets pull. That way it’s more endurance and cardio. If I spend a lot of time on the water, then I ease off on the workouts because rest is important, too. Some of those dragon boat team names are memorable and hilarious. What are some of the best names you’ve seen? Well, there are many of them. There are names like Shaggin’ Dragon or DHL (Deeper, Harder, Longer). It’s great. People have lots of fun with their team names. Is Vancouver the hotbed of Canadian dragon boating? I think it used to be. Now, you’ve got eastern Canada where there are a lot of strong, serious teams that compete at a very high level, especially in cities like Montreal or Toronto. Vancouver is still very well known and False Creek teams are known. The Rio Tinto Alcan Dragon Boat Festival we have here is still one of the largest races outside of Asia. Do you ever think the sport will become an Olympic sport? Yes, I think eventually. When you are racing at a competitive level, a large number of the teams are actually national teams, and some of the paddlers are Olympians, too. There were talks about it when the Olympics were held in China, but I don’t know how far it went. You’ve coached and mentored the OpenRoad dragon boat team in previous years. What was that like, coaching and yelling at your own colleagues? (laughs) It was great! I liked the team dynamics and team spirit. It was good to be able to motivate people and push them to a level they’ve never been before. It was also a great networking opportunity. What advice would you give to aspiring athletes? What trait would you say is most important? You have to have the drive to push and go further. Everything starts from the drive, and if you don’t have that, it’s very hard to get anything done. You also have to train smart, because no matter how hard you train, there’s always someone out there who trains harder than you. It’s different from business, where it’s all about results. In the world of sports, yes, results are also very important, but it’s also about the process. The process of getting there, the process of doing things right, putting in one stroke at a time, passing through one buoy at a time. Don’t set too many long-term goals. Maybe one long-term goal, and many short-term goals that are achievable. Otherwise, you will get overwhelmed. What does a typical day for you at OpenRoad look like? It’s a lot of problem solving and managing priorities. I have to be the guy who oversees all of OpenRoad’s development projects and always be one step ahead of everybody else in order to see everything. A typical day would start with an action list that I set for myself the day before, and making sure items on that list are resolved. Site visits, filtering through data, and making sure all angles and aspects of a project are covered. I also have to make sure the team – the the consultants, architects, contractors, stakeholders, OpenRoad – are all cohesive and that there’s team spirit. It’s always gogo-go, and I try to keep people motivated. (So in a way, you’re like the coach!) Yeah, I guess you can say that. Can you give our readers a little sneak peek of what’s to come for OpenRoad in 2014? We break ground for the new Audi and Volkswagen stores in February 2014. Porsche will be completed late summer this year. Jaguar and Land Rover will start to take shape shortly. We’re working through the conceptual drawings for the new Toyota store right now, so we’ll start on that project shortly as well.