By Jennifer Dyck
Morning Star Staff
Aug 01 2007
Behind a sea of paddles digging through the waters of Kalamalka Lake was another record year for Vernon’s third annual Dragon Boat Festival.
The weekend-long event, which wrapped up Sunday, brought 1,090 participants to town (not to mention spouses tagging along to cheer them on) from across B.C. and Alberta.
“We had double the teams from last year and the event may even double again next year,” said Shawn Samol, president of the festival.
“A lot of the teams were very ecstatic, especially the ones that had never been here before. They said they’d be back for sure.”
While there was a high number of participants, the spectators on shore far outweighed those numbers throughout the weekend.
An estimated 10,000 people took in the three days of action on Kal Beach.
“The beach was pretty packed most of the day,” said Samol, who was pleased to see the community taking in the sport.
Those on board for the Sunday races were also in for a couple of events that made a big splash.
A Kelowna team capsized in the water during a race after hitting what one team member assumes was a wave.
“The drummer got dumped and the steerer fell off, and all the women on the right side of the boat began sliding down, and then it was a few seconds of body parts and paddles flying as the boat tipped us in the water,” said Cheryl Wierda, from the team.
Another bit of Sunday action (a planned event) was the Good Life Fitness Waterski Challenge. Twelve teams competed in the challenge, with several showing their paddle power by successfully getting a waterskier up out of the water. Calgary’s Top Made Plastics took the winning title for that event.
Overall for the weekend’s dragon boat races, undefeated champion Pacific Reach from Vancouver took the win for their third year in a row in Vernon as No. 1 mix team.
In the mixed B division, Vernon-raised Deb Martin steered her team, Gung Haggis Fat Choy of Vancouver, to a gold finish Sunday.
Although Martin now lives in Vancouver, having been raised on the shores of Kalamalka Lake gives her pride to see the dragon boat festival reach such levels of success in her hometown.
“I am glad that Vernon has the chance to experience dragon boating now, and I am sure it’s going to grow really big here too,” she said.
With double the number of participants, Samol estimates this year’s event had a spinoff of well over $2 million during the weekend.
“Plus talking to a lot of the teams they actually spent a couple extra days in Vernon, some are still here now and some of them are even staying for the rest of the week.”
