WE ARE YRD
Who Are we?
Yarra River Dragons are a Premier Racing Crew founded in 2011 and have been performing at podium level at Local, National and International Dragon Boat regattas since 2016.
We pride ourselves on building paddlers from the ground up, with no experience necessary. The majority of our crew had never paddled before and just showed up with a desire for a new challenge.
Coaching Team
Thom Cullem
Head Coach
John Cuzzupi
Coach
Jess Sharpe
Coach
Key Achievements:
In 2019, our women's standard crew obtained a clean sweep at Auschamps in Canberra, winning Gold across all racing distances (200/500/2kms). We were therefore presented with the Gamble-Lewis Trophy for fastest Womens crew in Australia.
Also in 2019, our Head Coach David Abel was selected to be the Head Coach of the Australian National Crew, The Auroras.
In 2018, Yarra River Dragons traveled to Club Crew World Championships in Hungary and won a bronze in the womens small boat 500m.
In 2017, at the Australian Dragon Boat Championship in Albury our Mixed crew won Gold across all distances. We were presented with the Alexandrou Trophy for the Championship’s Overall Fastest Mixed Crew.
Executive Committee
Will Shelmerdine
President
Christine Watson
Secretary
Derek Eer
General Committee
Mark Wheeldon
Andy Gilovitch
Kayla Wong
Fun facts about Yarra River Dragons
Our mascot dragon is called Eli, after a nickname for our founding member Eliza.
Our youngest paddler is 16 and our oldest member, well... won't tell us!
We have paddlers from UK, NZ, Norway, South Africa and many other places!
We are responsible for more than 5 couples and 3 marriages 😉
We build leaders, with the 2016, 2017 and 2018 National crew captains all coming from our club.
Collectively our coaching team have 35 years of experience!
We were part of breaking the Guinness World Record for the longest distance in a dragon boat.
