Dragon Boat West

West Coast Paddler Out East... Part II

I guess I'll get this out of the way now... yes... the stories are true...this is probably one of the chaotic races in North America with at least seven boats getting swamped through out the weekend, two crashes, countless steerspeople going overboard.  And yes... I swam in the Hudson... more on that later.

Getting there Saturday morning I was kinda underwhelmed by what I saw. I was expecting a larger event judging by what I saw on the website. The race site was held along a seawall which allowed for a very good view of the race.. especially since the race course was essentially right along the seawall. There were some promotional tents for Dragon Boat World Magazine, the New York 2012 olympic bids and Chase along the seawall at about 250m to about where the finish line was. There was also one food vendor ($7 USD for a Philly Cheese Steak... :cry: )in the center of the race site. No tents were provided for teams.

The race course was... a disaster waiting to happen.  Four lanes with the width of approximately what two lanes in ADBF were.  To the left of Lane 1 was the seawall and all the fun rocks that go along with it.  To the right of Lane 4 were a large collection of sailboats moored similar to what we're familar with in False Creek. Throughout the weekend there would also be semi-large logs that would be floating into the race course. It has been pointed out that by the end of the weekend, there was a definately lane bias to the outside lanes with a strong current that helped teams towards the finish line.

Boats, PFDs and paddles provided for use by the festival were supplied by 22Dragons from Montreal. Apparently the carbon fibre paddles that the festival was touting for paddlers to use prior were no where to be found. I didn't hear the reason what happened.

The announcer did a competent job except when he got ahead of himself and caused some confusion when he started announcing teams for the next heat for the current heat on Saturday.

For this race I paddled with BAD Roli, which was a combined team of paddlers from Roli (Vancouver) and Bay Area Dragons (San Francisco). We were travelling on the light side so we were missing a steersperson and were borrowing one for our races. I'm guessing that our Friday afternoon practice should have been a preview of what the weekend would be like.  During out practice, we actually had one of our paddlers go overboard while he was giving out instructions. Saying the water was choppy would be an understatement.  I don't think I have ever paddled in rougher water and have no fear of paddling in False Creek in crappy weather anymore.

The festival eventually postponed Saturdays races after race coditions were "unsatisfactory". This was probably after the 2nd collision and 4th sinking of their boats of the day.  Unfortunately that would be after our 250m B-Final where during the race, our steersperon lost control and fell down causing us to veer right... right in front of the Dragon Boat Club of Boston... the collision hit us between Seat 5&6 on the Right side, causing the boat to flip and trapping some our left side paddlers under the boat. Both 5R and 6R had to move out of the way of the dragon head that was speeding towards them.  I noticed that our 5R was bleeding near his left eye so I'm not sure if he was clipped by the head or not. I was pretty much tossed out of my 4R position and into the water by the collision, losing my sandals in the process (I paddle barefeet). After "swimming" to the boat and doing a quick headcount we waited for the recovery boat to arrive. I must say... the recovery has much to be desired... as me and my 5R had to get out of the way of the boat to prevent our heads from being crushed between it and the upturned dragonboat. Apparently they almost lost and had to chase down the dragon boat as it almost floated to New Jersey. It was almost fitting to be sitting on the docks after the recovery and seeing the dragonhead float by on it's way to Jersey...

Things didn't really get much better on Sunday.  It started off with the city being on Orange Alert because of a possible car bomb attempt in the financial district and heavy rainfall in the morning.  The water was a little calmer than the previous day but it got just as hairy as the day got on.  Our second race of the day saw us coming in third due to Team Prestige flipping over due to a large wake.  We were taking on water from the waves as well and managed to finish the race with about a foot of water inside the boat.

Even the Canadian National Team wasn't successful in avoiding the rough conditions as their boat got swamped during the early part of their men's race. During our 500m B Final, we had our steersperson go overboard due to a wake during our warmup.

In the end, 22Dragons won both the 250m and the 500m Open Mixed divisions. Philly and Canadian Nationals came in 2nd and 3rd respectively in the 500m Open Mixed Division. BAD Roli managed to come in 8th/16 in the 250m Open Mixed event and 6th/19 in the 500m Open Mixed.

Would I recommend the race to a West Coast team? Probably not worth the airfare for just the race itself.  If you are going to see the city of New York, then it might not be all that bad.  It's definately one of those "you have to experience at least once in your life"-kinda things.

I'd like to thank Boston for sharing their tarp when the rain started on Sunday morning.  Even though some of us were from Vancouver, being in the rain sucks...
 
New York International Dragon Boat Festival Official Website (http://www.libertydragonboat.org/)
Photo Album (http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=4286035937) (hosted by ImageStation, so you will need to sign up to see the pictures if you don't have an account there already.)

there's only one thing I have to say about the weekend...  "BAD roli are...   BBAAAADDD"  (that was from the announcer as BAD Roli capsized)

waiting patiently for the video clip....

As requested, here's the long-awaited video clip...compliments of Dragon Boat Club of Boston.  

It will take awhile to load up, but it's well worth the wait.  Enjoy!   :)

http://riotact.mit.edu/videos/Liberty%202004/PICT0321.MOV

Hi Chaos,

It was good to finally meet you and Kimm and other members from Roli and BAD and to see Alvin, Greg and Ana again.

Our club's gone to the Liberty/New York City International race since it got started 3 years ago.  By now, we almost "sell" the race to our paddlers as the race where you go for a wild ride.  And certainly after this year, after our team was both capsized after being hit by the Philadelphia Police team, and after our collision that sent over BAD/Roli, I imagine our paddlers will be telling others about it being a really wild ride and having a great time (due in large part, to no serious injuries or worse).

My general recollection of last year's race at the same location is that there were maybe half as many mishaps as this year in terms of swampings, collisions, etc.  I don't know how much you can chalk it up to there being less steerers this year being adequately prepared for the conditions or if the conditions were indeed rougher than last year.  I don't recall seeing last year the same size of swells that are created as the tide flows out to sea (ie. Sunday afternoon).  And that's separate from the wide rolling wake created by the boat/ship traffic hundreds of yards out in the center of the river, or the reflections of the wake off the seawall.

That aside, if a team is looking for a race that's "fun" in terms of conditions, then Liberty's probably the place to be.  Any steerer looking for a very challenging experience would probably want to come here.

A sensible person may say that this race isn't safe and you can't ignore the fact that there is a much higher risk of physical injury with the much higher number of capsizes and collisions.  But that said, if you get home intact, you'll at least be entitled to a sticker that reads something like, "I Survived Liberty".

Kibble, already beat me to it, but more video is available at:

http://riotact.mit.edu/videos/Liberty%202004/




The Dragon Boat Club of Boston  - BAD/Roli collision is here:

http://riotact.mit.edu/videos/Liberty%202004/PICT0321.MOV



United East gets swamped and capsizes in rollercoaster swells:

http://riotact.mit.edu/videos/Liberty%202004/PICT0373.MOV



Prestige rolls over in swells:

http://riotact.mit.edu/videos/Liberty%202004/PICT0380.MOV


There may be server limitations as the files are in the 40-90 meg range and take a while to download and the system may clog up.


Kind regards,

Bob Lee
Vice President
Dragon Boat Club of Boston, Inc.
www.dbcb.org

What's even funnier is in the Prestige video.  If you look carefully at the Canadian Nationals boat.. you can see a couple guys starting bailing their boat in the middle of the race.

All,

More videos of the excitement at Liberty....



Philadelphia Police hitting Dragon Boat Club of Boston….

http://riotact.mit.edu/videos/Liberty%202004/rammees.MPG


BAD/Roli crossing Dragon Boat Club of Boston's path….

http://riotact.mit.edu/videos/Liberty%202004/rammers.MPG


Another team capsized in shallow waters….

http://riotact.mit.edu/videos/Liberty%202004/shallow.MPG

Watching the latest version of the BAD Roli/Boston collision.. looks like I'm the last one in the boat that went into the water...

The shallow video reminds me of the '98 Golden Spikes dragonboat race in Port Moody.  Our boat ran aground in the middle of the race course due to low tide and our paddlers had to jump out and push the dragonboat along the rest of the race course...

I have to say.. after a whole week to have this experience sink in and it being the festival that it was... I would definately recommend Liberty to anyone looking for something out of the ordinary.  If you go in expecting a proper run festival, you'll be disappointed.  If you're a gambler and want to try your luck or just plain wreckless... you might want to give this a try.  Just make sure you buy some insurance before going.  It's not all that bad... especially when you're there to see the city.

Hey Psynch,

Great to meet you and thanks again for the video clips.

Chaos, nice job of hanging on and being the last member in the team in the Hudson sludge.

We know why he hung on with is dear life... the dude can't swim!   :lol:

Kick your legs next time!!

Yay Me LOL.

I could agree more, it was sweet to finally get to meet you in person. Thank you so much for letting us share your tent/tarps with us on that sunday morning. Triple thanks for the dbcb tanktop jeresy.  

I'm bringing my own lifejacket next time. the ones they had us use weren't that good to paddle in at all.. and they had a nice smell of wet mold. My allergys were going crazy all weekend long.  I wasn't a happy paddler at all..

They could change the name of the festival and call it  "whitewater rafting on the hudson in a dragon boat".. LOL

Greg and Louis kept me updated while they were in NYC - the vidoes are funnier than their e-mails

"whoops...whoooops...going... BAD ROLI A BAAAAAAAAD"

"nothing but drama today"

-smirks-

but i think i'd rather fall in the hudson's river than the feces-fied false creek water[shudders]

goodjob BAD ROLI - 2nd place - you guys still boat raped- total pwnage- :clap: