Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team won our first medal this year - Bronze in Division D. Results are on www.dragonboatwest.net with pictures taken by Ray Shum (former summer relief GH paddler).
Our team was pretty stoked seeing the BEE-YOU-TI-FUL medals from SF, that Kristine brought to show us at Wednesday's practice.
On Saturday morning we were easily bumped into the lower half by much better teams. Then in the afternoon, we were easily leading the entire pack with a good steady rate that felt a strong surge with every stroke.... when suddenly we discovered we were heading towards the #5 flag instead of #6 flag. From my left stroke position I shouted at our drummer Deb, to tell our steers to go for the BLUE flag!!!
No lane markers, and the flag colours changed lanes with each race. A Blue flag is really hard to see against a blue sky on blue water.... We turned hard to grab our flag - but missed and we had to draw left, but the brand new spare paddler grabbed the flag to pass up to our flag grabber. Bad move... only the flag grabber can officially grab the flag. We were disqualified. The blue flag sat on the dock for all of Sunday, after I recommended changes.
FUN RACES:
We did a blindfold race right after our Saturday morning race - but were short 3 paddlers that had to go race with Tacoma's team, as they were short of the minimum paddlers and needed to make sure they ended up in the upper division (they came 4th in Division A) Blindfold race was tough, lots of waiting, and paddle clashing - a good exercise in sitting up, feeling the surge of the boat, and paying attention.
We also signed up for a slalom and barrel race, but due to barge and tugboat activity, our slalom race was delayed. We spent about an hour standing on the dock - when we could have done our barrel race!!!! When we finally finished our slalom race (I missed the last buoy - FYI so Dave doesn't take all the miss-steering heat), they LOST our slalom race time, inviting us to redo it at 1pm on Sunday. BUMMER! Team Success - the top team of the festival, did a slalom race after us, and got pretty hung up on the course... so we probably still ended up with a better time.
SUNDAY
We redeemed ourselves on Sunday... a good morning race put us in the medal final... and we did a very good slalom race. We still had to wait 20 minutes while they adjusted the flags to straighten them out... (they actually ended up worse in line....)
We also did men's and women's races with Tacoma and Calgary - blending 3 styles together was challenging - especially for the men... Women seemed to have no problem at all, and were only 43/100ths of a second out of 3rd place and 2.20 seconds off from 2nd place.
DIVISION D FINAL
The Div D medal final race was a good tough race. We were lane 1, and Canadianzed Asian-Canadians aka CAC Banana Boat were in lane 2. We went head to head all the way down the course... we were steady but a little ragged... it was a very tight race to the finish... We couldn't tell if we had placed 3rd or 4th.
It was a photo finish for 1st and 2nd place... + a deliberation over what to do... as #6 grabbed #5's flag... results were delayed for 45 minutes... Final results determined that Boats #5 and #6 were disqualified for grabbing the wrong flags... Gung Haggis came third by 44/100 second- at a time of 2:48.50.... legitimately as other boats were behind us.
We had good rapport with the Tacoma and Calgary group. I have raced with the Tacoma group since 2001 when we first did mens and womens teams together, and twice in 2002 for Gold overall at Seattle and Kent WA. So we plan to do more races and functions together with Tacoma including their barrel racing events, plus a very special invitation for Seattle's Sea Festival 100 year old rowing regatta - set for May 2006.
Altogether lots of fun, with paddler friends from Tacoma, Calgary, Chilliwack and throughout Vancouver.
Plus... fun at the Roxy Cabaret nightclub for our paddler's party afterwards!
Cheers, and congratulations to everybody again,
Todd
UNOFFICIAL RESULTS
Race 33 Men's Race - Teak
1. 2:07.15 Team SUCCESS
2. 2:12.48 TD Lightning
3. 2:13.68 Hex Powered by Scotia
4. 2:14.78 Phat Carib
5. 2:20.08 Braveheart Warriors Gung Haggis
6. 2:21.68 Fraser Valley DBC Men's
Race 34 Women's Race - Flag Catcher
1. 2:44.39 Team SUCCESS
2. 2:51.99 Fraser Valley DBC Women
3. 2:53.36 Scotia Powered by Hex
4. 2:54.16 TD Lightning
5. 2:54.19 Mulan Warriors Gung Haggis
6. 2:57.22 Hot Knots
Race 35 Lower Consolation - Teak
1. 2:35.83 Draco Sports Club
2. 2:40.03 JET-Ai
3. 2:41.43 Chilliwack Thunder Strokers
4. 2:42.86 Naluwan
5. 2:53.16 Dragon Stew
Race 36 Group D Final - Flag Catcher
1. 2:45.17 Synergy Souljas
2. 2:45.47 Splash Test Dragons
3. 2:48.50 Gung Haggis Fat Choy
4. 2:49.34 CAC Banana Boat
5. DQ The EH Team
6. DQ (WOW) Women on Water
Race 37 Mid Consolation - Teak
1. 2:30.17 Hydro Power Dragons
2. 2:40.77 Strathcona Youth Dragons
3. 2:41.54 Rogers Wireless Team Vortex
4. 2:42.24 Central Cruizers
5. 2:57.14 Saints Preserve Us
Race 38 Group C Final - Flag Catcher
1. 2:44.23 Synergy Yellow Submarine
2. 2:44.50 Synergy Ship Disturbers
3. 2:45.10 Ready Jet Go
4. 2:49.33 CBC Wave Catchers
5. 2:51.43 Pirates
6. 2:55.66 Nothin' Dragon Seniors
Race 39 Upper Consolation - Teak
1. 2:25.13 Just Dragon Along
2. 2:31.30 RGL United
3. 2:31.70 Team Hex
4. 2:36.20 Hot Knots
Race 40 Group B Final - Flag Catcher
1. 2:36.54 Phat Phish Racing
2. 2:40.01 Scotiabank Dragons
3. 2:40.02 Elephant & Castle Booze Cruise
4. 2:41.04 Synergy J-Speed
5. 2:43.74 TD Lightning
6. 2:47.07 Dr'agonize
Race 41 Group A Final - Flag Catcher
1. 2:25.78 Team SUCCESS
2. 2:32.31 Easy Peezy Lemon Squeezy
3. 2:34.51 Sudden Impact
4. 2:41.25 Tacoma DBA
5. 2:42.55 Synergy Dregoons
6. 2:43.18 TCC Carib Dragoneers
