Dragon Boat West

I know ROLI is going. I heard TD Lightning is going as well. Any others? ACME? Its a fun Festival with Tons of Racing!

I believe VanCity is going

hmmm
Thunder and Lightning!
Hope it is not the weather forecast!
LOL

ACME's not going this year

Hi All,

Here is the latest post which I sent out on our yahoo group that we use to keep folks posted on our festival.  If you are interested in joining the group you can subscribe by sending an e-mail to [email protected] more of you can join us next year as I expect that the racing will be especially tough for our 10th Year Celebrations.

Happy Paddling All !

Hans
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Hi All,

Thanks for the messages.  I was sending messages directly to the participants to cut down on the number of e-mails this list would get but here are some updates regarding the San Francisco races that might be of interest to all.

1)  This Years Rec/Comp Mixed Division (all visiting crews are placed in this division)–

The California Dragon Boat Association (CDBA) is happy that the word has gotten out that we put on a good, solid event run by paddlers for paddlers with top notch competition, equipment and organization as we unfortunately had to turn away visiting crews from our event this year (which I hate to do).  The 48 crews will be split into 24 Rec and 24 Comp teams after the first round.  In the second round, they will then be split into Comp A&B and Rec A&B.   The third round will determine who makes the finals and who makes consolation.  The fourth and final round will be for Da hardware (and you should see the shiny new medals we are ordering) and bragging rights ! =)

Once again we anticipate some exceptional racing as we have a fun, deep, tough field of crews.  The crews participating this year are as follows:

Alameda Dragon Flyers   Alameda
Absolute Dragons 1   Berkeley
Absolute Dragons 2   Berkeley
Cal Bears   Berkeley
Boston Dragon Boat Club   Boston
Suen Feng Loong   Davis
Team DRD   Davis
Para Huti Huti   Edmonton
Blazing Paddles-FCC/Aero Dragons   Los Angeles
Killer Guppies Blue   Los Angeles
Killer Guppies Gold   Los Angeles
LA Pink Dragons   Los Angeles
LA Racing Dragons Black   Los Angeles
LA Racing Dragons Red   Los Angeles
OC Dragons   Los Angeles
Space Dragons            Los Angeles
Team Imua   Los Angeles
JPMorgan Chase New York
DragonMax 1   Oakland
DragonMax 2   Oakland
Arizona Gila Dragons           Phoenix
Blind Ambition PDX   Portland
Castaways   Portland
Multnomah Channel Canoe Racing   Portland
Portland Fire Dragons   Portland
Portland Golden Dragons   Portland
Stumptown   Portland
Wasabi Mixed   Portland
Wasabi Women   Portland
San Diego Dragon Boat Team    San Diego
Bay Area Dragons 1   San Francisco
Bay Area Dragons 2   San Francisco
Bay Area Dragons 3   San Francisco
CCSF   San Francisco
DieselFish 1   San Francisco
DieselFish 2   San Francisco
Dragon Warriors 1   San Francisco
Dragon Warriors 2   San Francisco
Dragon Warriors 3   San Francisco
Dragon Warriors 4   San Francisco
LightWave   San Francisco
Ripple Effect 1   San Francisco
Ripple Effect 2   San Francisco
Team Evolution   San Francisco
Air Canada Jetstart   Toronto
TD Lightning   Vancouver
Van City Thunder   Vancouver
WWW.Roli.com   Vancouver

In addition to the mixed division, many of the above crews will be maxing the amount of racing over the weekend by combining to compete in the mens and womens division and also racing in the masters, survivor and visiting team championships!  I hope the folks who get 10 races over the weekend packed some advil !

When not on the water, folks will be watching the 30 Corporate/novice mixed crews race on Saturday or the 18 youth teams race on Saturday during the day.  

2) Pre-race Party –

The race weekend will get a proper start with our annual pre-race party on Friday night !  Last year we had 800 paddlers coming together for some grub, drinks and of course the big team skit contest !  This year the theme will be the Olympics and we are excited to see if any teams can top last year’s winning skit by the Dragon Warriors…The CDBAtrix.  We have a new menu that includes a pasta feed as well as some pan asian goodies to fuel the weekend’s races.

3) The CDBA’s 10th Anniversary Races

Though the CDBA is hard at work for this year’s races, we are also starting to lay the ground work for next years races !  This will be our 10th year anniversary celebration and is sure to be our best festival ever.  Our hopes are to have some of our international dragon boat friends join us and we are also figuring out how we can increase our capacity for teams but I’m sure it will be a sell out !  So please mark your 2005 race planning calendars for OCTOBER 1&2, 2005 to come on out to San Francisco !!!

Should you have any questions about this or next year’s races, please don’t hesitate to drop me a line.

Happy Paddling All !

Hans Wu
President
California Dragon Boat Association
www.cdba.org

Yup....we're heading down to San Fran for the dragon boat race

oh man... i wish i could go... i'm having serious paddling withdrawl :(

results?

wow, i can't believe the amount of racing that roli did over the 2 days...i guess they might have been a little tired when it came to the finals...they had some pretty impressive times....does anyone know what races they were in???

anyways great job to all the teams !!

Mixed Comp A Results

1. Dragon Warriors 1 2:08:12
2. San Diego Dragon Boat Team 2:08:42
3. Merrill Lynch Bay Area Dragons 2:09:35
4. DieselFish 1 2:10:88
5. www.Roli.com 2:11:89
6. Wasabi Mixed 2:12:02

Womens Championship

1. Wasabi Blast 2:18:33
2. Bay Area Dragons 2:19:83
3. Dragon Warriors 1 2:22:77
4. Jetstart/Roli 2:24:03
5. SanDiego/Space Dragons 2:24:17
6. Killer Guppies 2:31:17

Mens Championship

1. Bay Area Dragons 2:04:33
2. Jetstart/Roli 2:04:91
3. Dragon Warriors 1 2:05:44
4. San Diego Dragon Boat Team/Wasabi 2:05:93
5. Los Angeles Racing Dragons Black 2:07:00
6. Killer Guppies 2:09:35

KTVU Masters Championship (250 meter race)

1. Bay Area Dragons 1:02
2. Jetstart/Roli 1:03:22
3. Dragon Warriors 1:03:81
4. Wasabi 1:04:67
5. DragonMax 1:05:00
6. Golden Dragons 1:11:91


Congratulations to the Bay Area Dragons (4), Dragon Warriors (4),  Roli (3) and Jetstart (2). These first 4 teams took 11 of the 12 medals!  :clap: Looks like there was some awesome racing in San Fran.

Congratulations to all the teams that participated!  :Cheers:


Now I regret not going to San Fran.  :(

missed 1

Ming Pao Visiting Team Cup Championship

1. San Diego Dragon Boat Team 1:40:51
2. Los Angeles Racing Dragons Black 1:42:32
3. Wasabi Mixed 1:42:99
4. www.Roli.com 1:43:48
5. Air Canada Jetstart 1:43:98
6. Killer Guppies Blue 1:50:97

times above are relative - actual times are differnet (but unknown due to timing difficulties).

13 of the 15 medals were won by 4 teams. If you include Wasabi then these 5 teams took all the medals.

I'm pretty surprised that there's been so many posts from the forum about San Fran already.  Just managed to get internet connection over where I am right now...

Here are my thoughts on my experience this past weeken.. in my usual essay format with some pictures of the team breaking the monotony...

For those that enjoy racing will best try San Francisco. Held on Lake Merced,California's largest lake, this race has Mixed, Mens, Womens, Masters (40 years and over), High School and Visiting. Like previous years, Roli entered all the possible events it could enter. For the Mens, Womens & Masters, we teamed up with Air Canada Jetstart from Toronto.

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v479/timjang/040925_SanFrancisco/DSCF0059a.jpg)
San Francisco '04 race site, taken by chaos

The event is probably one of the most organized races I've attended. They somehow got an impressive rate of $94.00 a night at the Renisannce Parc 55 for visiting teams. They even had shuttle services taking paddlers to and from the site and bus schedules in the front lobby for each team so they would make it to their race on time. They even had Miss San Francisco and Miss Asian America (sorry, no pictures) escort the event sponsors onto the stage to receive their plaque.

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v479/timjang/040925_SanFrancisco/DSCF0086a.jpg)
KTVU Masters Championship (250 meter race), taken by chaos

The race site was similar to what  we saw in Kelowna, except smaller. The site was pretty far from "civilization", so you were limited to what you brought with you and what's at the site. With only a couple of foodstands, your only choice was BBQ or Asian (The Racers combo seemed to be pretty popular. $8.00 USD for a plate of rice, noodles, spring roll, vegetables and your choice of beef, chicken or deep fried shrimp on a stick.) There were various vendors ranging from Burnwater products to paddling ergs. The marines also had booth with a pullup bar contest. Depending on how many pullups the contestant does, they won prizes ranging from lanyards to t-shirts. Guys did pullups, girls did flex arm hang. There was even a certain Master paddler that managed something like 15 pullups...

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v479/timjang/040925_SanFrancisco/DSCF0121a.jpg)
Mixed Comp A Semi-Final, taken by nejsam

Something I never knew about Lake Merced was that even if its sunny and warm in San Francisco, doesn't mean it will be at the lake. The first day of racing was cold and windy. Sunday saw heavy fog which delayed the start of the races. It was so bad that they changed the first handful of races to 250m races since the steerspeople could not see the halfway markers from the startline, let alone the finishline. The fog eventually lifted and the sun poked its head at the site in the afternoon.

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v479/timjang/040925_SanFrancisco/DSCF0078a.jpg)
Lunch..., taken by chaos

For those that don't know, San Fran is loaded with races. On Saturday, we had 2 Mixed, a Visiting and one Mens & Womens, going undefeated in all our races. On Sunday, we had the Masters, Womens & Mens finals in the  morning. In the afternoon, we had our Mixed Competitive A semi & final, as well as the Visiting final. With so many races, it would've probably been better to have the Visiting final after the Competitive finals instead of having the out-of-town teams tire themselves out before the big race against fresh local teams. Yes, the Canadian Curse continues at San Fran.

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v479/timjang/040925_SanFrancisco/DSCF0145a.jpg)
The aftermath of a eight race weekend, taken by chaos

I didn't really get to see much on site due to all the racing, but I did manage to see a bit of the lion dance at the main stage. It reminded me that it's been awhile since the Vancouver race had lion dances. The Dragon Warriors from the Bay area had issued us a challenge on Saturdays, saying that they would drink us under table. However, when we headed over to the beer garden after the races on Sunday, we were the only team there with the Dragon Warriors no where in sight... even though there was a total of four DW teams at the event.

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v479/timjang/040925_SanFrancisco/DSCF0165a.jpg)
Mixed Comp A Final, taken by nejsam

l would like to thank Bay Area Dragons  for being great hosts for providing food, drinks and snacks for us at the site, as well as organizing that massive dinner on Saturday where there was about four teams present. Also to Air Canada Jetstart for teaming up with us for the Masters, Mens and Womens races. We'll get that cheer of yours one day. "Who... are we?!? Who-Who... are we?!? Jet-Roli!!!"
Another thanks goes to Stallion from Boston Dragonboat for helping us with steering for most of the weekend.

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v479/timjang/040925_SanFrancisco/DSCF0177a.jpg)
www.roli.com, San Francisco '04 Crew, taken by nejsam

I would definitely recommend this event to teams. However, if you want to see the city of San Francisco as well, it's best to go for more than just the weekend since there isn't much time outside of the racing.

oOooo, nice pics Chaos.

You only had 8 races!!!  Most of the women in Kelowna had 8 races.

When I was younger (last year) a number of us raced 12 times in 2 days.  Of course, we were all fighting to see who could sit out a race, the one time in all my years I have seen people wanting to be the spare on the team  :shock:

Guess you will just have to train harder so you can do 12 races next year  :P

Seriously, seems like great racing, congrats to all those who got to go.

Hi All,

I have to say that I too am pretty surprised by the number of posts here already!  Chaos,  thanks for your write up.  Just an fyi, I thought about putting the visiting team championship after the mixed championships but then if we ran late, all of the visiting teams would have to boogy before the visiting race. So not an easy fix here and I know you all don't want less racing  :D !  Also, on the no show by DW... well I probably have to take the heat there too.  Since I'm their captain and the race organizer, I made em all help me clean up the race site before they could get any beers...bummer for them eh ?   But we made up for it afterward.   We will have go grab a beer next year... perhaps at the pre race party ?

On a more general note, my thanks to all of the Vancouver crews that come on down to support our race every year.  You are indeed a huge part of why the San Francisco races consistantly have one of the deepest field of teams beating each other up on the race course every year.  Keep coming and we will always try to provide you with top-notch racing and a great weekend of fun, festivities and food (while also trying to extend that Cdn Jinx  :lol:

For the complete results and more info, please visit www.sfdragonboat.com

Cheers all,


Hans

oy.. .forgot to mention that I will follow up with more info on next year's 10th Anniversary SF Races once I'm able.  Unfortunately, the originally announced date of Oct 1, 2005 may have to change due to unforeseen circumestance.   I'll let you know as soon as I'm able.

Cheers,

Hans

hey Hans, did you guys have the karaoke contest this year? I was there 2 years ago and it amused me.

Hey Photog,

Glad you made it out here a while back.  We nixed the karaoke in favor of some more professional entertainment this year  :)

Roli crew:  Thanks for the opportunity to race and spend the weekend with you.  I had a blast.  Four races a day feels just about right.  Anyone want me to pick up some more joy buzzer pens?  The Zippo joy buzzer uses a 9 volt.

well, i was down in SF during the dragonboat festival; it was a great thrill to see lion dancing as a traditional to start off the festival. Chao, your right it's been awhile since the Vancouver race had lion dances during our event.  Maybe it would be cool to see lion dancing to start off our Races.  What do you guys think?


(http://us.f2.yahoofs.com/users/40fc5871_b1f0/bc/e1b7/__sr_/a02c.jpg?phm_1WBBXbyMcIbT)

Hey Ipperz....I'm back from SF....I was down there for almost a week!

Lion dancing is a must   :lol:

Lion dancing will always be cool... now matter where or for what occasion. :P