Dragon Boat West

Just a quick update from San Francisco....

The race site was being prepared yesterday at Treasure Island and it's going to be great weekend down here. Warm weather and lots of SUN!.The two race directors (Hans Wu & Nick Tan) have put a tremendous amount of work into getting the weekend ready for the 100+  teams. There are using a fleet of BUK boats which where brought down from Toronto (Great White North).

This group is all community volunteer base and boy do we have it lucky in Vancouver.  I was hanging out with the two Festival PR staff (Linda Cheu (President CDBA) and Jeanie Lee) and their phone was ringing constantly. From media coverage to organization of the race site....these two ladies are amazing. Multi tasking ladies who also race.

Andrew Yan who is heading up the visting teams, has done a magnificent job in getting all the teams "awesome" accommodations and transportation...THANK YOU.

To the rest of the committee (Chris Jasper, Steve Perich, Dennis Broughton, Karen Leung, William Woo, John Hui, Donald Ng, Yvonne Gee, Mike Marines, Ron Marats, Julie Yu, Debbie Mah, Wendy Lai, Ray Thng, Jadene Wong, Mike, Donetta, & Mike Martinez), you guys are amazing down here.

Eventhough the races haven't started, this festival is a MUST for all Lower Mainland teams....You are treaty like royalty...they way racing was meant to be.

BTW, there is another German Team here in San Francisco and they look just as big as the ones we saw in Kelowna...I'm scared!  VO2 Max, DWW (Boats 1&2), Xtreme Reach are down here and one of these teams is going to break the Canadian "curse" which has been published in their local Chinese newspaper....

I'll keep you all posted about the races over the next few days....Hey Lethal Weapon, you need to be done here with your "BIG A$$" camera......get Swordfish down here next year!

See you all soon....

I was in San Francisco last year with St'Keya (from Victoria) and we had a tremendous weekend!  The races were great and the atmosphere was really fun.  Good hotel, great place to visit and our host team - Dragon Max - were incredible.  I know several people on Xtreme Reach and hope they do well....I think they will.

As to the Canadian curse -- there are some great teams in California.  Roli was there last year and just missed winning.  Pity the GD's are in Montreal.

I would really recommend the SF festival to anyone.  Great venue, great city, great racing.

Hi All,

Much thanks to...err.. "puppy", whom we are very lucky to have joining us down here to make everyone feel welcome and pumped up while on the dock. I've been a bit quiet this year as usually I post a bit more leading up to our big race, but don't let that fool you.  I have to say that we have an outstanding field of crews from all over this year and we are definitely looking to a great weekend of racing.  Certainly, there has been much buzz about a very serious effort by our friendly Canuck crews (particularly the composite DWW1) coming down to bust the 10 year old Canadian Curse !  Say it isn't so !  Looks like the local crews are gonna have to work especially hard to be able to razz you all still next year.   

Happy to hear the nice comments about our race and I'd invite all of you all to come on down an join us in San Francisco for some good, tough racing if you get the chance.  We pride ourselves on being a race for paddlers run by paddlers and think that our races attract one of the deepest and most competitive field of teams at a US festival each year.  I'm guessing that others will post updates but I'll be sure to zip the final results here when I get a chance.

Cheers all,


Hans
CDBA Race Director

THE CANADIAN CURSE IS NOW DEAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Division A Championship
 1st place = Dangerous when Wet 1
 2nd place = Jetstart (Toronto)
 3rd place = Dangerous when Wet 2

Congratulations.....

BTW VO2 Max took bronze in the Competitive B championship.......The Sistership Calgary took 3rd in the Women's division...awesome job......

Till next year, we will be back to challenge these awesome teams in California....a great race that should never be missed.........book in on your calendar....

HANS and NICK......WOW, you did an awesone job....thank you again for treating us like family.

Wow, congrats DWW! And all the other Canadian teams! Sounds like it was an awesome weekend! :D :woot:

Anyone know how Xtreme Reach from Victoria did?

congrats everyone!

Don't quote me, but they were in either Rec A or B consolation round. I'm not sure how they placed.  However, a few of them paddled for other teams and did well.

Great to see a strong showing from the Canadians.

In the award ceremony, DWW1, DWW2 and Jetstart received their awards and then sung O Canada out loud.....what a tribute to our wonderful country and our great paddlers.

But to be honest, this race this weekend was not easy....there were some "hungry" teams out there. Dragon Warriors, Bay Area Dragons, Zamboanga, Wasbi, Los Angles Racing Dragons and More.....These team all fought hard and they all raced well.

Thank you San Francisco, for an awesome weekend.

Excellent job...congrats to all the Canadian crews!  I'll have to check it out next year.... ;)

Lehal Weapon, do you have any pictures from this weekend that you can post here? There is alot of new  online users here, from the BAY area.  Thanks

you must want to see what had happened to you up on stage  :lol:

As always, the SF race was an amazing experience.  The event was extremely well organized and the competition was tough as well!  Some strong crews from Canada came down to give us Californians a tough showing.  A much deserved congratulations to all the teams that participated!

Also a big thank you should be given out to Kerry the race marshall for doing an awesome job keeping the race organized and on time!

jeez, Kerry just whores himself out everywhere, doesn't he?  surprised i didn't see him in Toronto!  :lol:

2nd in Rec A consolation, or 32nd overall (out of 53 in the mixed recreational / competitive division).

They joined up with Jetstart for the men and women divisions.  The combined men were 4th (out of 18), and the combined women were 6th (out of 22).

Race results have been posted:  http://www.sfdragonboat.com/documents/2006_race_results.pdf

Man: Did DWW kill the Canadian Curse or what? Way to go. First in the Mixed, Mens, Visiting Teams. An all Canada Comp A final three. Jeez, all this and Toronto too. West Coast club teams are doing well this year (except in Welland, but we all know what happened there). Bring on Penang...

That was a great event! Congratulations to all of the organizers and volunteers for running a very smooth event. Despite some delays in the mornings, (the SF Fog had to make an appearance), the races proceeded smoothly and pretty much on time!

Kerry asked us to provide some feedback, and (if I may):

Kerry is one fabulous dock master! Can we keep him? (tell me he hasn't crossed the border yet?) Can you tell me where we grow more people like him? (wait, I must still have some epithelials on my hand where he shook it?! - oh right, perhaps that would be C-A-N-A-D-A :) I really appreciated the extra (postive) energy he created at the docks, and how that pumped people up for the race and made the event even more special (and inspired people to listen to him!)

Julie at marshaling was fabulous as usual, and who's the new guy with the pink hair?

I don't remember if we had the PA system in the paddler's village last year, but I really appreciated it this year. So much easier than running down to the dock all the time to see how the schedule's going (and from now on we can just set our clocks by the races!)

a few things that could be improved upon (just a few!)
PA System - I know some teams right near the speakers thought they were too loud, but we were just a tent over, and we could barely hear the announcements. Perhaps a different layout, or different speakers. Maybe we just need our own speaker. Also, there were several areas in the viewing area (east of the BIG tree and west of the grandstand), where the announcements were almost inaudible given all of the other noise going on. A few more speakers to serve those areas would be appreciated (didn't hear much during the breast cancer memorial)... and I know the background music during races and awards is sometimes cute and ironic, but... during the awards i couldn't hear the announcements over the music... and well.. enough said.

and apropos of the event, and not of racing:
recycling - perhaps distinct, dedicated recycling bins next to each trashcan? I've been to some events in SF where they get a sponsor to cover (most of) the costs of printing cardboard boxes with a small round hole in the top.

parking control - there was a lot of street parking available near the paddler's parking lot, and people were getting confused about parking in those spots or following the directions of the parking control people. maybe parking control should block off those spots in the morning, or go ahead and let people fill the spots.

portapotties - definitely more hand washing facilities this year... but still ran out of water and TP. Perhaps some hand sanitizer would help to augment the water.  (at Long Beach they had dispensers inside the portas). The water didn't last long at all...


Great Event and Thanks Again. Y'all Canadians and Canadiens keep coming down to visit, ya hear?

Well it was an awesome race and I had a great time .Just want to say thx to DWW for letting me race with them in San Fran .The DWW1 crew carried alot of race experience this time around and under the guidance of Wayne and Dom we had a very short time to pull the crew together and pull off an upset .We hoped to have gone in stealth but apparently someone just couldn't hold it in and they were announcing on the PA that we had been put together to break " The Curse" as they called it .

 We knew we had the strength within this crew but we worked to get the blend and every race we just kept getting stronger .Jetstart ,from Toronto , as well came with a crew who was determined to do the same thing we were trying to pull off . We knew the Dragon Warriors had just come out of the club crews and so they would still be strong but we had faith that we brought enough to do the job .

 DWW 2 showed alot of heart making it to the final and probably pulled off the biggest upset by knocking the dragon warriors completely out of the top 3 which was completely unexpected as most figured they would probably have been 2cd .

 We ( DWW1 ) had a good strong fast start and all I could feel was the Dragon Warriors, to our left , falling back seat by seat right off the start and we just stayed with our game plan .... we had a big finish and the curse was broken .The best part was looking over and seeing the other 2 cdn teams come across .

 Great racing ,it was a fight the whole way and my only complaint would be the lack of a beer gardens .Best memory will be the Oh Canada on the stage .....geez,most people even remembered all the words.  :shock:

 1 thing we found out afterwards was that Kerry aka-Puppy had actually taped loonies underneath the drums of all the BUK's in all lanes for " Good Luck " and none of us knew this ........was this the the golden key to success in San Fran ? :shock:

 Another memorable moment will be Dario's aka-Guido  birthday celebration ( it wasn't his birthday )....I had no idea he liked cake so much .........hahahahaha  :mynig: pictures to follow from lethal

 Thx again all for letting me be a part of it

 

The guy with the "pink" (it was red!) hair on Saturday was a junior paddler for Lowell High School, he was volunteering that day. He paddled on Sunday in the high school division.

http://cbs5.com/local/local_story_266201022.html

Watch the video......

Dragon Boat Teams Battle It Out At Treasure Island

(CBS 5) SAN FRANCISCO Hundreds of paddlers churned the waters around Treasure Island on Saturday as they raced colorful dragon boats in the annual Kaiser Permanente San Francisco International Dragon Boat Festival.

Sponsored by the California Dragon Boat Association, the event, now in its eleventh year, has drawn the largest number of visiting teams ever, with paddlers coming from several US cities and international locales.

Opening ceremonies began at noon on Saturday, and throughout the weekend visitors will hear the beat of taiko drumming, and be treated to cultural entertainment such as Polynesian dance, Chinese folk dancing and Lion dancing.

The festival is the largest competitive dragon boat festival in the U.S. This year's festival hosts the first ever Breast Cancer and Cancer Survivor Challenge Cup. Five teams with 100 paddlers are expected to compete for this cup. A special pink carnation ceremony will honor the survivor teams after the race.

Last year's champions, the San Francisco Dragon Warriors, will be defending their title against an all-star Canadian team coming from Vancouver. The Canadian team (Strathcona - Dangerous when Wet) will be trying to break the "Canadian Curse," as no Canadian team has ever won the championship in the 10 years of the event. Canada is known for their strong dragon boat teams and holds the current dragon boat world champion title.

Other attractions at the festival include Dragon Land, a children's activity area with arts, crafts and games, a US Marines endurance challenge course, and delicious food.

(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

Wow... you can actually catch a brief glimps of Puppy's rear end in one of the clips...

Westies... hello from Toronto!

I wanted to drop a note to say what a fantastic weekend I had in San Francisco. 

Rreally enjoyed the opportunity to race against some west coast Canadian teams -- we get to do that so rarely. I also had a blast teaming up with the good people from Xtreme Reach for the gender races.  Great people paddling through a tough situation short paddlers like they were.   

I was there as a guest paddler on Jetstart with about 7 of my Team Chaos teammates. The rest of the roster were Jetstart regulars.  Chaos and Jetstart are sort of sister crews.  We team up for mens and womens races at major festivals, help each other out when needed, party together and so on...  There's a healthy but friendly rivalry between our two boats, with Chaos ever tighter on Jetstart's heels. 

Anyway it was a huge thrill for me just to be in San Francisco and an even bigger thrill to find ourselves challenging DWW1 in the competitive final.  Somehow the different parts of our crew just clicked over the weekend-- it didn't hurt that there were lots of races to work out the kinks.

The A final was amazing. I remember talk of a 1-2-3 Canadian finish on the loading dock, but I didn't really expect it.  Congrats to DWW1... you guys were clearly top dog all weekend, and congrats to DWW2 for holding off Dragon Warriors.  I also wanted to commend Dragon Warriors who, as 3-time defending champs, showed a lot of class hanging around to congratulate us as we exited the stage. Sunday was probably a bitter pill for them and they took it with dignity... which ain't easy.     

More than anything about this weekend I'll remember sharing our celebration with the two DWW teams: ...looking up to see just Canadian boats past the finish line, our collective celebration in the marshalling area and again on stage together.  Great stuff.   

I also should ad a word of thanks to our fantastic hosts, BAD... and to all the welcoming organizers and volunteers who made this such a pleasant weekend.  Thanks for looking after us.  And thanks to Jetstart for bringing me.

Cheers!       

   
 

I had an awesome time, this one definitely ranks as one of the better festivals I've been to... minor things to tweak here and there (nothing that hasn' tbeen said already), but overall extremely well organized and very much paddler-focussed, which is refreshing!

I was lucky enough to go as a guest paddler with a super fun crew in V02, and we were even luckier to be hosted by a wicked team, the Absolute Dragons.  What an awesome group of people!  definitely made up for the lack of a beer garden!

And thanks for being such a good sport puppy!  :lol:

Dear RightArm....

PAYBACK will be fun......

especially, when you all least expect it....

Sleep with one eye opened.......MMMWWWAAAAHHHHH!

Well, it was my first ever festival so what do I know!

It seemed really, really well done--too many good things to mention!  The marshalling was FANTASTIC!

Thank you Hans and all who put this together!

Areas to improve?  Just a few, as already posted by others:

- improved hand sanitation!  soap and water for all!
- beer garden!
- better PA
- single PA--there was often crossover from the dueling systems
- better music (and not over the announcer)
- clearer, quicker announcement of which team was in which lane at the start of the race
- additional bleacher seating
- more food vendors (to cut down on thos long, long lines)

Don't worry RightArm, he won't remember half the identities revealed to him on the bus  :P

Puppy's OFFICIAL Vo2 Max nickname is now "KY Kerry"   :lol:   


I think KY Kerry is crying in this pic...   :Cheers:
(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y137/Obiwong/Vo2-KerryOwned3.jpg)

This is after he got soooo lubed up that he slipped out of our hands.. lol
(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y137/Obiwong/Vo2-KerryOwned.jpg)

That Kerry really does get around...

lol nice work on the tag team, partner  :mynig: :twisted:

Ok, so i know that i am a little slow with this, but i had heard that DWW had won first and third. What i didn't know about was the "Canadian Curse" and the fact that a Canadian team had not won this festival in the ten years it has been running!!  :shock:  So congrats to DWW1, Jetstart, and DWW2 for bringing home those medals!!  :D I wish i had been there...perhaps next year...

hmmmm...shaggin savy in san fran ?......could get ugly  :lol:

 BTW - DWW1 for the most part wasn't the same crew you saw in Kelowna just in case your wonderin

To say the least

props to the canadian crews you guys (and gals) paddled great even w/ the "visitor's cup finals" right before the comp a finals. 

pictures are posted at www.paddlerpix.com

direct link:

http://orderpicture.com/index.php3?client=Pad_6404850&event=2006_CDBA_Treasure_Island_Races&changed_event=1

enjoy.

were the pictures of the volunteers on sunday ever posted up online?