Dragon Boat West

ROLI has been attending the San Fran DB race for the last 5 years and always makes a good showing (for us Canucks!) despite a combined roster for most years.
This Year ROLI  is heading down with other competative teams to give the SF Area teasm so serious competition! Subaru and Alpha are both going so I think there willbe a few Canadian teams in the Comp Final!
Traditionally they offer plenty of racing (You actually can have too much!) and witht the race setup you may race up to 5 times in one day which is not bad but I remember racing  almost back to back from the Visiting team final to the Mixed final (with no spares) and being quite tired (against teams who were rested!) Of course I am an old tired wanna be coach but even the young FODBers we had felt the fatigue.
I think this year that the Canadian will rock and I am almost to the point of saying maybe......there will be a SWEEP!
 Let the Games begin....GO ROLI! Go SUBARU...Yeah..and Go Alpha!
Also I might add Concorde Flying Dragons, Extreme Currents, Castaways (from Calgary) St'Keya (love that green hair!) and the Van City Thunder will be there as well kicking some USA Prime Grade A A$$!

Just a minor point....St'Keya dresses in stylish orange...not green - you may be thinking of the Selkirk Serpents.

I think I saw you in Victoria...I think you dropped into the St'Keya tent once?

The St'Keya team going to SF is mostly the core of St'Keya augmented by some Island Breaststrokers (ie...wives)...also one from Snogard.  We may not do all that well, but expect to have a lot of fun.

Bring it on Roli, Suburu and Alpha et.al.!  The CDBA will be gunning hard to keep the jinx alive.  We have had 9 years of enjoying a home turf advantage.  i do believe that we plan to retain it.

Dragon Warriors is the current king of the bay down here and last years champs. And for the past 9 years BAD has beaten every Canadian team that comes down as well.  I don't think either team is planning on changing their ways.  Last year my team DieselFish also enjoyed finishing ahead of the Canadian contingent for the first time and the new coaches this year hope to stay in the hunt.

And remember that this race is a paddler's race.  Run for the paddlers by the paddlers.  All of the main teams volunteer countless hours before and during (and after) the race.  So not only are the local teams your competition but also your hosts.

So in the spirit of talking the trash, and kickin some a$$, i'll say that it can't be done. the local handi cappers agree.  the candian JINX will live on.   i look forward to seeing all the canadian teams that are coming down. There does seem to be a lot this year, and you do look stronger than some previous years!  But will you manage to paddle fast without your beloved gemini's :-D  

Hope to see all of you at the bar at the padders party saturday night!!

ken\

Good luck to the Canadian teams down in SF...

Dammit! I knew I shoulda just said WTF  :wtf: when my wife said "you gotta be a family man once in a while BernMan! Every weekend you have some sort of paddling affair!" She was hinting that all I seem to care about is the paddling and not our lovely 15 month old daughter. She decided we are going over to Qualicum Beach for the weekend instead! So I decided not to join my crew for this one trip. But dammit now I regret that because I didn't know we had so many of us Canucks going down that just being there would be a blast! My thoughts will go out to all the Canadian teams just so that maybe we can start a new trend, a WINNING ONE! A sweep would be sweet but.... Paddle long and hard folks and let the races begin! Good luck to all Canadian teams. I won't say good luck to the folks in the states 'cuz it is theirs to lose being its in their back yard and I think they know that already! msn(:|)

Good luck to all the CDN teams, especially ROLI........"we love you Vince"

GHood luck to our Canadian teams, esoecially our temas out of Western CanADA.....

sORRY, IVE HAD a few :)

Wasn't there last year dude but just remember most Cdn team that do show up are there for fun as well as paddling so most boats are not their regular full time rosters...BUT not an excuse , you guys really know how to throw together a festival!
Of course you also might mention that the Canadian teams are the only ones in the beer tents afterwards WAZZUP WIT DAT! Maybe with sunnier weather we see some more USA bodies in the tent  :lol:
As for the jinx...........We'll see you on the water! This ain't no lake we're paddling on!
Paddles up!
Its going to be fun. So sorry you can't come Bern man!
Maybe you can teach me to rotate!

Good luck Canadian teams!!

gotta love the visitor's cup right before the finals!!!!

how about this for smack talking?  if your team is matched up against LARD, don't even bother putting your best team on the water.  i'm sure your worst paddlers can beat us....   ;)

can't wait to get it on!!!!  good luck to all the U.S. teams.

UHT!

Hey! Thats all we ever send!  :lol:  :roll:  :D  :wink:

I might even get to paddle!

C Ya Saturday!
I hope the Food Fare is good.......

The reason why you don't see the local teams in the beer tent in SF is that the local teams are all assigned duties to break the site down.  Trust me we'd rather be crowding the keg!

the food fare should be good this year.  the festival aspect of the event has grown.  however the beer tent was not allowed by the city this year.  not that we had any problems before. I have a feeling they just wanted us to hire more police before they let us have a beer tent :-P  So i expect to see a lot of drinking on saturday night at the paddlers party Saturday night.  check out the cool location http://www.regencycentersf.com/

as for paddling for fun, who doesn't?  we don't have any teams that practice 5-6 days a week, heck i don't think any teams practice more than 3 days a week and those @ 3/week are pretty few already.  

We love having teams visit from all over NAmerica. Due to the odd date this year a lot of teams from  the east won't be here.  It gets tiring just racing same teams all the time in our local races.  

hey photog, are you coming down this year?

Ha ha !! I've been a bit absent from the forums this season but is great to see some trash talk and chatter going on about what should be a great weekend of racing and fun.  As always, the CDBA and all of the local teams appreciate the support we receive from our friendly, flag-waiving neighbors up North.  It does indeed look like a strong contingent coming from there this year and with San Diego missing the races this year, it will fall to the local Bay Area crews to keep the beloved jinx alive. We are ready so you all better bring some game down !

Looking forward to a good one and to seeing you all at the race on the water and at the party !  

Hans
Co-Race Director
Dragon Warriors

ok so the grid is out. any predictions??

FYI....Those of us on Vancouver Island are not fond of the "Beloved Gemini's", in fact they are not beloved at all!
The Beer is though...did you actually say NO beer tent?[/quote]

i think that those of us who like the geminis are few and far between.

just to clarify, "beloved gemini's" should be read with a bit of sarcasm.

and "No Beer tent" in SF this year should be read with deep concern!

ken\

lol!

Good luck to all the Canucks!!  :lol:

GO ST'KEYA!!  Representing Victoria and the Gorge!!  
 :wink:

wish i was going...

Any results from Saturday anyone?

Roli / Subaru win both Mens and Womens races.


Subaru takes 1st in International Race.


Open Mixed
1. Dragon Warriors
2. Subaru

Does anyone have complete results?

Always the bridesmaid never the bride.

Were there any dogs/sea lions on the course to cause havoc?

I wonder if they have any medals this year.  One thing about San Fran, you race until you can't race anymore but they don't have medals for every division.  Based on what I have seen, the higher the division the less chance of getting a medal even if you are 1st, 2nd or 3rd.

Congrats to all who went (I am sure they are all celebrating at this point though)!!!

Full results are coming out soon,

i can only recall the final heat.

1 Dragon Warriors 1
2 Specialty Suburu
3 Merrill Lynch BAD
4 Roli Canada
5 LARD Black
6 DieselFish 1

it was a great day of racing.  the weather was nice, the winds stayed reasonable, and everybody had lots of fun!!!

Many thanks to all the race organizers and volunteers to making the 10th anniversary race one to remember!!!!!

ken\

Hi All,

The Canadian contingent was indeed strong and much thanks for your support of our festival and races.  I think all had a great time and the racing was outstanding.

Putting on my Dragon Warriors hat...I'm happy to say that the Canadian jinx still lives on !

Putting back on my race organizer hat.  Here are some of the results.  Full results will be posted within the hour.

On the medals front, we do award 1-3 for Comp A&B and Rec A&B in the mixed division as well as first place in all four consolation rounds.  For mens, women's, masters and visiting team, we also award 1-3.  The previous poster may have been referring to our races a few years ago when we didn't award 1-3 for mens/womens and masters as those were really just "fun" races and the focus was on mixed.  Now that everyone is competing hard in even the "fun" races we have upped the hardware counts.  Hope you all had fun and to see even more Canadian crews next year !

Cheers,

Hans

COMPETITIVE CHAMPIONS      
      
Division A - Kaiser Permanente Champions      
1st   Dragon Warriors 1    2:07.57
2nd   Specialty Subaru    2:08.41
3rd   Merrill Lynch BAD    2:08.76
      
Division A - Consolation Race Champions      
1st   Dragon Warriors 2    2:10.48
2nd   Burnwater BAD    2:11.53
3rd   Cal Paddling Bears    2:13.71
      
Division B - Dodge Chrysler Jeep Champions      
1st   Killer Guppies Gold    2:16.38
2nd   Suen Feng Loong    2:17.17
3rd   Dragon Warriors 3    2:19.23
      
Division B - Consolation Race Champions      
1st   LARD Red    2:21.96
2nd   Space Dragons    2:26.09
3rd   St'Keya    2:26.35
      
Mills-Peninsula Health Services  - Masters Champions      
1st   Dragon Max     2:11.54
2nd   First Republic Bank BAD Masters    2:14.12
3rd   St'Keya    2:19.32
      
Survivor Cup Champions (300 meter race)      
1st   Orange Roughys    1:41.53
2nd   Los Angeles Pink Dragons    1:49.80
      
Womens - Pacific Fusion Champions      
1st   Specialty/Roli    2:24.85
2nd   Women Warriors    2:29.07
3rd   BAD Women    2:29.54
      
Mens - KRON 4 Champions      
1st   Specialty/Roli    2:07.97
2nd   Dragon Warriors    2:09.27
3rd   First Republic Bank BAD    2:09.70
      
Visiting Team Cup Hong Kong Economic & Trade Office Champions      
1st   Specialty Subaru    2:13.07
2nd   LARD Black    2:15.21
3rd   Roli Canada    2:16.18
      
RECREATIONAL CHAMPIONS      
      
Division A - Nielsen Media Research Champions      
1st   Concorde Pacific Flying Dragons    2:24.28
2nd   CCSF 1    2:24.57
3rd   Castaways    2:25.10
      
Division A - Consolation Race Champions      
1st   Omegaweb BAD    2:25.74
2nd   CCSF 2    2:26.64
3rd   OC Dragons    2:28.04
      
Division B - Comcast Champions      
1st   Foster City BAD    2:23.97
2nd   Ripple Effect Furious    2:25.68
3rd   LA Thunder Dragons    2:28.62
      
Division B - Consolation Race Champions      
1st   Alameda Dragon Flyers    2:45.14
2nd   Team Evolution    2:48.12
3rd   Rainbow Koi    2:50.97

Thanks Hans!
It was a great weekend of close racing
The DW took the gold but Subaru gave them a good fight!
Not bad having 2 canuck teams in the top 5 eh?
Heard some rumours that there may be some strong teams from Victoria making an appearance next year if you guys can organize a beer tent.....

It was a great weekend, beer tent or not....race conditions were "interesting" and it was the first time we have paddled in BUC's...also interesting -- we felt very nostalgic for the milleniums!

Many thanks to all the volunteers and organizers in SF -- you put on a very good show!

Also very many thanks to our marvelous host team Dragon Max -- what a great bunch of people and what a really great concept for festivals - they made the weekend a true delight!  We are still talking about the dinner on Sunday night!

Thanks again to all.

Yes the SF race was an awesome experience.  The venue was awesome, paddling right next to the Bay Bridge in San Francisco.  It was a well ran event and thoroughly enjoyed.  Good job DW and CDBA for putting on the event.  Thanks from LARD!

what a great race.  

special thanks to our host Dieselfish.  you guys ROCK.  it's so fun racing in SF every year.  the quality of teams in SF is always great  (although we only got to race San Diego once this year (and of course, we got whipped) - at our race in Long Beach) - if only SF could be as warm as Los Angeles...

congrats to DW, Specialty Subaru, and BAD for their great performances this past weekend.  it's always a humbling experience watching the top teams paddle.  

if anyone is in the L.A. area and wants to paddle to paddle w/ LARD, drop me a note!

(http://msn.foxsports.com/id/4817818_7_2.jpg)

Stroke, man, stroke
The Specialty Subaru Dragon Boat race team from Vancouver, British Columbia, wins their heat at the International Dragon Boat Festival held at Treasure Island's Clipper Cove in San Francisco.

http://msn.foxsports.com/other/pgStory?contentId=4817976&pageNumber=8

You can never trust those news channel they always doctor their pictures to gloss over what really happens.  I have received the unaltered version of Subaru, very interesting I think.

(http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a120/tiger_db/subaru_sf.jpg)

It explains why some of the paddlers are looking outside the boat and have the look of terror on their faces.

I wonder if another team brought the dog with them?

hey, remember the picture thread i started a while back.

well, for your viewing and purchasing pleasure, sundays SF race pictures were shot in digital format and online at www.paddlerpix.com. (all of saturday was shot on film)  there are several 100 on line now, and there is another batch that will be uploaded soon.

notice the pics are taken by paddlers so if you like them let me know, we at paddlerpix are not some bozo generic event photo company.  any comments on price and product selection are welcome as well.  

paddler pix will apply (again) for alcan next year.  and if there are any other races that would like to have us take care of your paddling event feel free to let us know.

i thought i saw ken on the photographer's boat sunday afternoon....