Michael Yu

When Michael lost his sight back in 2009, he thought his life of racing in any sport was over.  Then in 2010, he was invited to try Dragon Boating.  Michael has been going strong ever since. Last year he reached the pinnacle of the sport and was selected to represent two team USA crews in the International Dragon Boat Federation’s World Championships in Thailand.

Michael has worked for American Honda in the motorcycle division for the last twenty five years. He also found the joy of outrigger canoe racing, and became the first blind person to complete the Queen Lili Ukelani short course with a remote-control device called COOP.

Michael enjoys eating out while at race locations with his wife and his second Guide Dog, Devo. He is trying to build the Paradragon division, and currently serves as the US Dragon Boat Federation's Paradragon Committee Chair.

Cathleen Avalos

This is Cat's first year on the Board and she has been paddling for 1 year as a support member.  She is responsible for managing the team funds and bookkeeping. She had some experience with kayaking and stand up paddling before deciding to give dragon boating a try and has enjoyed learning the sport as well as getting to know the team. She has especially enjoyed learning ASL to communicate with the Deaf. Outside of dragon boating,

Cat is a Principal Operations Engineer at SpaceX, enjoys spending time with her husband and two kids, and loves doing escape rooms.

Sally Flowers

Sally is a native Californian, newly retired, and having the time of her life Dragon Boating and traveling.

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Sally has served on elected and appointed positions at the local, County, State, and Federal levels. It was her position as Mayor that earned her an invitation from a new Blind friend to try Dragon Boating. It was his task to get the mayors in the area to compete in an Elected Official’s boat at the Long Beach Dragon Boat Festival. She practiced with his team, fell in love with the people, and was challenged by the sport. 10 years later, Sally continues to be an avid Dragon Boater! She was selected as a support paddler for the 2023 Team USA Paradragons and competed in Thailand. She is honored to serve on the Executive Board for Adaptive Fusion Dragon Boat Club. 

Skip Marler

Skip was born in New Mexico, moved to California in 1971, and has called Long Beach home for the last 25 years. Skip enjoys working out, running Dragon Boat practices, and racing with Adaptive Fusion.  He also enjoys spending extra time out on the water in his own personal Outrigger Canoe.  

Elected by the Adaptive Fusion team to serve as Team Captain for the 5th year in a row, Skip uses his leadership skills that he obtained serving in the United States Navy for 21 years, to keep the equipment organized and the team moving.    

In 2023, Skip tried out and was selected to race with the Team USA Paradragons in Thailand. Skip is not shy to tell people that before Dragon Boating, he spent his days on a couch, watching TV. He attributes his current level of fitness and extensive network of friends, to joining the Adaptive Fusion Dragon Boat Club.

Jana Remy

Jana Remy is an avid advocate for inclusion in paddling sports, especially for adaptive DragonBoat and Outrigger Canoe teams. With nearly two decades of paddling experience herself, she is enthusiastic about helping new athletes develop their skills and capabilities.

In her role as Communications Chair, Jana aims to provide clear, concise, and accessible messaging for team members. In addition to paddling with local club teams, she competes at the national and international level in VL3 sprint Va'a canoe races: 200m, 250m, and 500m.

When not paddling, Jana is the Assistant Vice President of Educational Technology at Chapman University. She holds a PhD in History.

Lynda Razo

Lynda discovered dragon boating in 2008 and was instantly hooked. As an employee of Kaiser Permanente, she was recruited to the KP festival team. She honed her paddling skills with various crews in the Long Beach community. In 2010, she created the KP year-round team for SCAL and served as Captain for 3 years, organizing the team structure into the thriving club it is today. She began coaching dragon boat in 2011 with KP Dragonfit and volunteered her skills with Blind Start, SoCal Masters, LARD, and has coached Adaptive Fusion since 2022.

Lynda led teams at Club Crew World Championships in 2014, 2018 and 2023. She was also selected as an assistant coach for the first Paradragon division to represent Team USA at the IDBF World Championships in 2023.

Lynda holds a BS degree in Kinesiology and an M.Ed. specialized in physical education and is a certified fitness instructor who taught fitness for more than 35 years. As coach for Adaptive Fusion, she strives to guide paddlers toward personal improvement wherever they are in capability, and promote team building, fitness and healthy competition.

Steve Kashynski

Steve started dragon boating in 2004 learning to paddle and steer his first year. He started coaching high school festival teams in 2009. By 2014 he was helping coach the SoCal Masters team and in 2021 he was invited to coach Adaptive Fusion. Since then Adaptive Fusion has competed at the Club Crew Nationals in 2021 and 2023, Club Crew World Championship in 2022 and is currently preparing for CCWC 2024. In 2023 Steve was an assistant coach and steersman for the Team USA Paradragon team which competed in the World Championship in Thailand.

Steve was a track & field and cross country athlete in jr. high through college and continued competitive road racing until dragon boating took over his life. With his background in engineering and his passion for paddling, Steve strives to develop and improve his teammates’ skills and considers paddling and coaching to be a lifelong learning and collaborative experience.

Kim Bushong

Kim Bushong started his athletic endeavors as an age group competitive swimmer. After what he considers to be a mostly failed College swimming career as a sprinter, he turned his attention to endurance athletics. He proceeded to place top 10 in the original Kona Ironman triathlon.

Kim was one of the founding members of the first professional triathlete union. During that time Outside Magazine published an article naming Kim Bushong as one of the 10 fittest Americans. Kim’s pro triathlon and bike racing fizzled after a few years, due to poor self coaching, nutrition and finances. He always stayed in shape during the next 25 years but seldom competed.

Since Kim turned 50 he has become an Offshore National Jet Ski champion, represented Team USA in Masters Dragon Boat, and currently is the defending state champion in his age group in cyclocross bicycle racing. Last October, he also won several events in the Saint George world senior games in swimming, running and triathlon. Kim now is working hard to transform himself into the best paddler he can be and it’s definitely a work in progress.

Heidi Stone

Heidi started paddling SUP in 2011 as a form of physical therapy. It soon turned to training and racing SUP, 6 man & 1 man outrigger canoe and dragon boat, with over 25,000 total miles paddled to date. She has been a volunteer and advocate for adaptive water sports for paddle boarding, surfing, outrigger canoe and dragon boat for many Para organizations.

She was selected for Team USA for Senior B World Championships 2021 and 2023, and was an assistant coach for the first National Paradragons team for 2023 Worlds in Thailand. She has been an ASL signer for over 40 years and assists interpreting for Adaptive Fusion. As a retired graphic designer, she assists with logo and print design & social media, and as an individual coach on 1 man outrigger canoe.