Dragon boat racing proves inspirational
by Rodney Magazinovic
Barb Rix is quite possibly one of UniSA’s longest serving employees. She
has 40 years experience under her belt working in various administrative
positions. Personal assistant to the Pro Vice Chancellor, Professor
Robin King, she has a full schedule but three nights a week, at the end
of a long day at the office, Barb slips off to training. For almost five
months she has been a dragon boatie!
“I am honored to be part of this inspirational group of amazing positive women and I’m trying to do as much as possible to help them. I love every minute of it and I can’t believe that the team has invited me to accompany them to compete in the international dragon boat races in Penang and Vancouver in June this year,” she said.
While the team is quite serious about its racing, Barb says there is still time for plenty of fun.
“We had a laugh a few weeks ago when we were racing on the Port River. There were six boats in the race and our boat was the furthest away from the PA marquee. It was very windy, so we couldn’t hear our instructions very well. We thought we’d crossed the finish line and stopped paddling. Little did we know that we were nowhere near finished.
"After much calling over the PA and some long distance gesticulations we eventually got the message that we couldn’t come back to shore until we had completed the race. By that time our boat had drifted around 180 degrees and we were facing the wrong way. We decided all we could do was paddle in backwards.
“As we came in the commentary over the PA was ‘Ladies and gentlemen … this is the first time in dragon boat history that a boat has ever finished a race backwards’. There were cheers all round from the crowd,” laughs Barb.
As well as being active on the water, Barb is no slouch when she is back on land. She has raised more than $1,600 to help with expenses for the big trip.
And the team’s efforts haven’t gone unnoticed. The Governor of South Australia and former Olympian, Marjorie Jackson-Nelson, is a great VIP supporter of Adelaide Survivors Abreast. And Barb believes the Marjorie Jackson spirit – to beat the odds and win the race – is alive in every member of the crew.