When you need to wear a mask once you leave house, stay home, play with dragons (I mean play with paper roll)

Etiquette for Exercising in Common Spaces, prepared by Sport Singapore (SportSG)
COVID-19 Latest Updates https://www.myactivesg.com/read/2020/5/covid-19-latest-updates-may#.Xq-R1dXQOoM.whatsapp

For sharing with the DB community:-

Safe Return to Sport

Singapore is moving out of the COVID-19 Circuit Breaker period. The government has decided to gradually re-open and re-start the economy, businesses and activities. However this will be done in gradual phases, to ease back into the groove.

Phase 1
Under the conditions for Phase 1:-
a. Public & private sport and recreational facilities will remain closed.
b. No sport and exercise on water-bodies such as basins, rivers, reservoirs, lakes and seas are to be conducted.

As such:-
a. Sport activities are still suspended.
b. SDBA shall continue to Work From Home (WFH) during the Phase 1 period.
c. Current facility and dragon boat maintenance management plan for KWSC/Nursery shall continue status quo. SDBA will check with the authorities whether can small number of people (from teams that are boat owners) to inspect their dragon boats in Nursery. We will inform the DB community in a follow-up mail if this is permitted.

Phase 2
1. Schedule to come on line at least four(4) weeks after 2nd June. SDBA is working with SportSG to come-up with sport specific advisory and guidelines. We will definitely share them with the DB community at the soonest opportunity.

If is understood that it will not be business as usual. Rather we may need to expect certain new norms such as:-
- limited group size per gathering, i.e. including no. of people permitted to train inside the boat
- safe social distancing, i.e. seating arrangement inside the boat
- health and social screening shall be the norm

2. SDBA will be proposing the following Dragon Boat Activity Action Plan (note that the Action Plan is still a work in progress at this moment):-
a. Pre-dragon boating activity health screening protocols, i.e. participants’ declaration of own health status
b. Registration of participant’s contact detail protocol for contact tracing purposes
c. Implementation of temperature checking protocols for participants at KWSC/Nursery
d. Control and enforcement of safe permissible capacity of participants inside KWSC/Nursery, i.e. no of people allowed to be in KWSC/Nursery, etc.
e. Boat launching/recovery schedule for Nursery, i.e. to introduce gaps between launches/recovery as part of social distancing measures, etc.
f. Staggered diagonal seating inside dragon boat as part of social distancing measures*

*SDBA is revisiting this method. We had initially discounted this in lieu of safety concerns that with lesser no of people inside the dragon boat, minimum required displacement is not achieved which can make the boat more unstable and increase propensity to capsize. Although SDBA believed most pro-elite teams can manage this, it is unfortunately not a one size fit all solution. We are looking at mitigating and/or managing the risks identified.

3. Annual General Meeting (AGM)
Still on schedule. Note that we may be conducting a virtual meeting via mass virtual meeting platforms, i.e. Zoom, etc. As advised by the Singapore Charity Council, voting for office bearers can be conducted via polling. We will share more information in due course

4. Events
Due to Phase 2 coming on-line in July:-
a. SDBF (FATE SHALL BE DECIDED BY MID-JUNE)
- scheduled for September at Shears Bridge/Marina Channel (the only venue available in the only month available)
- insufficient lead time to obtain and deploy the necessary equipment & resources
- unknown Phase 2/3 COVID-19 control measure parameters which affect race planning and therefore what kind of equipment/resources required

b. AustCham (STAY TUNED)
- schedule for September,
- SDBA about to start detail planning.

c. SRW (STILL ON TRACK)
- scheduled for November in Sports Hub
- preliminary planning with Sports Hub already began
- note that fate is dependant on Phase 2/3 COVID-19 control measure parameters

d. Proposed COVID-19 Race (STAY TUNED)
- scheduled for October, venue TBC
- to help kickstart the DB community’s interest and passion for racing
- test event with implementation of COVID-19 control measure parameters
- race format may either be standard seating arrange

ment OR be adjusted to accommodate staggered diagonal seating arrangement

Stay safe & healthy. Dragon Boat Unite....SG United

COVID-19 Update.

Singapore will go into Phase 2 on Friday 19 June 2020. SDBA is waiting for the official communique from the relevant authorities that will determine the T&C for the safe reopening of Sport activities.

No two Sport T&C are the same. Some Sports may not even be permitted to reopen at all.

So we praying and hoping that we can reopen with minimum fuss. Please bear with us and stay tuned.

Hold Your Boat!

Standby!!!

Good news! SportSG has already issued the Advisory for resumption of sport and physical exercises & activities for Phase 2 ("Safe Transition").

SDBA is quickly adopting the advisory to make it more sport specific. There are still a few roadblocks (or should we say bow waves) that needs to be overcome. All parties concerned are working very hard and as fast as we can to resolve the issues.

If all goes well, we should be able to restart our sport next week.

We are very sorry that we cannot do it by the general reopening of Phase 2 across Singapore this Friday 19 June 2020. It is important that we get our plan safe and right as COVID-19 is about life and death.

Ready to Charge!!!

Happy Duan Wu Jie ! WE ARE BACK !!!

Today is the 5th Day of the 5th Month of the Chinese Calendar. So, it is Dragon Boat Festival day which is also celebrated as the Dumpling Festival.

It is fitting that on this Dragon Boat Festival day, we can restart dragon boating in Singapore as part of Phase 2 of the reopening of businesses and activities. It is truly a blessed day for our DB community.

COVID-19 is not only a health threat, it is also a social and economic threat. It hurts everyone and there is no escaping its many impact.

To keep our sport going, the dragon boat community must adapt to living with it. In doing so, we need to adopt new norms to ensure that we are safe while playing our sport. We packaged these new norms into the DB-Safe Plan and emailed them to the respective Team Managers registered with SDBA.

The new norms may not be ideal to all but they are necessary.

We are a strong and close-knit community. Let’s come together, support one another, and help each other so that we can all overcome this.

This will be the hardest and longest race of our lives

DB United....SG Unite !

https://www.facebook.com/1409282319368592/posts/2363589570604524/

Dear DB Community

We regret to inform you that SDBA is invoking a 3-days Time-Out, from 3rd to 5th July 2020, for all dragon boat activities, with immediate effect.

This is arising from public whistle blower’s feedback that certain social distancing control measures were not met when teams were training during the reopening weekend last Saturday 27th and Sunday 28th June. After investigating the feedback, we found that there was indeed some breaches of the DB-Safe Plan and lack of enforcement measures. So we need to review and re-evaluate the DB-Safe Plan.

In the interest of safeguarding our dragon boat community and in the larger grand scheme of things, the status of Sports in Phase 2, we will STOP ALL DB ACTIVITIES until further notice.

The effective running timeline of the Time-Out shall be from Friday 3rd to Sunday 5th July. While we hope to restart from Monday 6th July, at the earliest, this is dependent upon the relevant approval from Sport Singapore and the Authorities. We will of course share the revised DB-Safe Plan with you soonest.

Please contact myself (contact number below) if you require further clarification.

Raizal A Jalil
General Manager,
Singapore Dragon Boat Association

Cancellation of Races Notice

Due to the impact of COVID-19, please take notice that all SDBA-organized and partnered dragon boat racing events shall be cancelled.

We initially tried to save the races in September but as we are now already in July, there is simply not enough time to obtain permits and mobilize resources to organize big scale events which races are. Furthermore as long as we are in Phase 2, industry is only running at limited capability. There are also a lot of uncertainties over future deployments which makes adequate planning rather difficult.

Races cancelled are:
- 4th Dragon Boat Century
- National Inter Schools
- Nationals@SDBF (incorporating PM Cup)
- SDBA-Austcham 5-10km Challenge

The Singapore Regatta Waterfest@Sports Hub, planned to be in November, is still on schedule. However a decision on its fate shall be made by 20 September 2020 or announcement of Phase 3 Control Measures, whichever comes earlier

Let us hope and pray that the future ahead will be kinder to all of us. And that we can rise beyond the COVID-19 spectre. It cannot rain all the time so keep our faith and trust that we can beat this cruel pandemic.

SingaporeDB Jiayou!!

Dear DB Community

While it is understandable that many of you are excited at being able to train once again and have eagerly booked slots at the Kallang Dragon Boat Nursery or Kallang Water Sports Centre (KWSC) for your sessions, we note that there have been crews which did not turn up after booking their slots.

This morning, a total of 5 Nursery slots were booked but only 3 crews showed up while the other 2 crews were absent. While the absent crews may not think that this is an issue, do note that when your booking is confirmed, this means that another team’s crew will be deprived of the opportunity to take up that slot. This will definitely be unfair to teams that earnestly wish to train but were not able to secure a slot due to the quota on each sport venue that is imposed by the Authorities and it will be especially so for popular slots on the weekends.

In view of this, SDBA will impose a penalty from today onwards for teams/crews that do not turn up for their confirmed bookings. This will apply to both bookings at the Nursery and KWSC. Their bookings will be cancelled and they will be debarred from making any bookings for the next seven (7) days.

To check on the availability of slots for launching out from the Nursery, teams may click on the link below:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ti3q72p16fShfZqNgf0YmIwP8L795_XBLEqLNwvdzPs/edit?usp=sharing

Let’s be responsible DB community members and continue to stand united.

DB Unite, SG United!


Raizal A Jalil
General Manager
Singapore Dragon Boat Association

Dear DB community members

We note that with the increasing number of teams returning to training, weather conditions may sometimes throw a wrench into the best laid out plans. As such, we would like to share some of the Lessons learned from Reopening Week II:

1. Thundery Showers Alert and Lightning Warning Alert.

Teams are required to comply with both the Heavy Thundery Showers and Lightning Warning alerts, both necessitating the team to return to base to seek immediate shelter

With regards to lightning alert, Teams can refer to the Lightning Warning System (LWS) installed at the various dragon boating facilities. Therefore, teams are required to comply with the LWS installed at their launching points. For example, teams that launched from KWSC and Nursery must comply with the LWS installed there. Teams launching from Army Fitness Centre at NCC Base will be required to comply with the LWS at KWSC. Teams that launched from PAssionWave and Sports Hub shall comply with the LWS installed at the respective facility where they launched from.

Teams are also required to comply with the Heavy Thundery Showers (Cat 1) alert and return to base. The danger of Cat 1 is the likelihood of PUB opening Marina Barrage to drain water out from Marina Reservoir. This is akin to opening the floodgates of a dam. The increased current velocity will be too much for the boat (now constrained with only 4 paddlers) to negotiate safely. However, the Cat 1 alert can only be obtained from the MyENV app or website. Therefore, the Steer and/or Coach is required to carry his smart phone with him inside the boat. The Team is required to check the MyENV app before they start their training session. Whenever the sky turns dark or begin to rain, to also check the MyENV app.

2. Training Session Affected by Cat 1/Lightning Warning Alerts

The activation of either Heavy Thundery Showers and/or Lightning Warning alerts may cause the training session to be cancelled. Understandably that for people who had already committed time, effort and money to the session, it will be a major disappointment should the session have to be cancelled.

As such, SDBA is okay to relax the controls a bit by permitting the affected team to take-up the next following session to train, subject to the following conditions:-

a) Team had to sit out their booked session or end it prematurely (less than 30 min on water) because of Lightning Warning or Cat 1 Heavy Thundery Showers.
b) Team is still intact (i.e. same 4 paddlers + 1 steer/trainer, etc.) and can wait to train at the next available session on that day
c) There is still capacity in the next session to accommodate the affected team (i.e. there are only 10 pax in the next session so it is possible to accept the 5 pax from the previous session that had to sit out or end their session prematurely because of Cat 1, etc.)
d) Availability of boat and equipment (for teams that are renting boats at KWSC)

Please inform the SDBA officer on duty about the request to take up the next session. They will then check the availability of the slot for you.

Raizal A Jalil
General Manager
Singapore Dragon Boat Association

Please note. Thundery showers forecasted for both Sat 18th & Sun 19th July. Around mid-day to afternoon.