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phoenix heat canoe club

Arizona’s high-performance paddling club.
Join us for your first free practice and experience paddling on Tempe Town Lake!

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Who
we are

Phoenix Heat Canoe Club (PHCC) is Arizona’s destination for competitive paddlers. Our training blends evidence-based fitness principles, high-intensity intervals, and advanced paddling mechanics to help athletes perform at their peak.

We believe in developing paddlers as athletes first by using conditioning, strength training, and technique drills to improve every stroke in the boat. Whether you’re preparing for your first race or your next podium finish, Phoenix Heat offers a challenging, supportive environment that pushes athletes to achieve their best.

Dragon boat race with teams paddling on a sunny day near a waterfront with palm trees and houses.

Not your average Dragon boat team

At Phoenix Heat, we don’t just paddle together — we train smarter.

Our athletes sharpen their technique and build strength to maximize the potential of our boats. That’s why our coach integrates specialized training programs — giving every paddler the chance to develop balance, stroke efficiency, and endurance in every practice.

When you bring that precision back to the team boat, the whole crew moves faster and it shows on race day.

Training is designed to build complete paddlers, not just paddlers in a boat.
We focus on building lasting endurance, creating a solid foundation that supports speed, power, and peak performance.
Athletes are trained to be self-reliant and adaptable in any seat of the dragon boat. From stroking to terminator, every member learns to step up when the team needs them most.
Phoenix Heat is a results-driven program. We focus on measurable improvement, technical mastery, and race execution — giving athletes the edge to outperform on race day.

Meet the team

Ed Lau

Head Coach
Ed Lau is an accomplished paddler and coach with a career that spans over three decades of elite competition, coaching, and innovation in multiple sports. Before Paddling, Ed was a competitive runner, triathlete and volleyball player from High School through College. Earning the MVP in High School Cross Country then ran track for NYU. Ed suffered a knee injury that ended his competitive running. He started a new endeavor at the gym in weight lifting and became a weight trainer and volleyball instructor at NYU.
He began paddling in 1992 and quickly rose to prominence, coaching the fastest team in NYC from 1992–1999, founding both the Liberty International Dragon Boat Race Festival and NYC International Dragon Boat Race Festival. A consistent force in the Premier Open and Premier Mixed of Team USA from 2001–2013, paddling in 8 IDBF World Championships. Ed has earned 24 Premier Open and Premier Mixed division medals at the World Championships, along with two World Nations Cup titles (2007 & 2011). He has also accumulated countless national titles and was known as the fittest paddler in the New York tri-state area in 1998.
An early pioneer of cross-training for paddlers, Ed was among the first OC1 paddlers on the East Coast, competing in both OC1 and OC6 with numerous podium finishes. He has spent decades studying sports physiology, psychology, and training protocols, combining insights from multiple disciplines to create programs that develop high-performance athletes of every body type and background.
“The goal isn’t perfection; it’s progress. Every practice is a chance to get stronger, build technique and make that mind body connection” – Coach Ed
Dorra Tang

Team Captain
Dorra Tang brings a lifelong passion for athletics, community, and leadership to Phoenix Heat Canoe Club. A proud Tempe native and former Arizona State University student-athlete, Dorra swam for the Swimming and Diving program from 1993–1997, earning her the women's captain position her Senior year where the team placed well in the Pac-10 and NCAA Championships. Dorra was honored to have been selected by the USDBF to represent Team USA Women's Senior B in Germany, 2025.
Beyond athletics, Dorra is deeply invested in the Tempe community and is a longtime Sun Devil supporter, recently creating the Hu-Tang Trust Endowment Scholarship to help fund academic excellence for student-athletes. Dorra’s professional journey spans over 2 decades in financial services and private wealth management and is a proud mother to 2 young adults. As PHCC’s captain, she’s committed to fostering a welcoming, high energy environment where paddlers of all levels can grow, connect, and discover the joy of paddling.