Dragon Boat West

Does anybody have an update for Calgary?  How is this year's festival looking? Better? Worse?  Has the ADBRF been shunned?  What's the word on the resevoir?

The Calgary Dragon Boat Festival will occur on Glenmore Reservoir on August 9 and 10 of this year.
It will no longer be under the stewardship of the Alberta Dragon Boat Race Foundation as in past years.  A new group comprised of the TopMade/Sistership groups and the Calgary Canoe Club will be running the festival this year.
The festival will be somewhat smaller, with a cap on the number of teams allowed.  Apparently, there will be more of a cultural emphasis on the event this year, rather than emphasizing the athletic side of the sport.
The Calgary Canoe Club just received their 3 new BUK boats this week (I was out in one last night) at Glenmore Reservoir.  Until recently, local teams have only had access to the 2 Dynasty boats belonging to TopMade/Sistership this year. 
The ADBRF has now started running practises out of nearby Chestermere Lake, as well, at discounted rates.
The ADBRF is still running the very successful Vernon Dragon Boat Festival (July 26-27), as well as the new Banff Dragon Boat Festival at Lake Minnewanka (August 23-24).
That pretty much summarizes the current DB situation here.
The change in user groups at the Reservoir has resulted in delays for teams getting out to practise.  For example, CRC only had 6 practises in dragon boats prior to Alcan.  These issues have been very challenging for the sport here...but the sport's popularity is certainly strong enough to endure this and continue to grow in Southern Alberta.

6? I thought we had 4! :(

Why didn't the ADBRF let teams use their boats in the interim?  I'm pretty sure they have just been sitting in their trailer somewhere.

The City will not let the ADBRF boats on the water

Without User Group status, ADBRF boats were not allowed on Glenmore Reservoir.  While the ADBRF made every effort to get this decision overturned; the city (for reasons I will be kind enough not to speculate on here) refused to hear an appeal from the non-profit group that has ran the event for 16 years.
Once that door was shut, the ADBRF committed to an alternate location, specifically, Chestermere and Ghost Lakes.  It took several weeks to get the legal/insurance issues resolved for 2 locations that have never had dragon boats on them.

Another reason for the delay in starting practices has been the cold and wet spring.  There was still ice on the reservoir at the beginning of May when it usually opens.  Then, once the ice was gone it rained for more than a week at the same time as the spring run-off from the mountains, so the reservoir was closed for a bit due to flooding and safety reasons.  The water is starting to clear up, but there's still a fair number of odd logs floating around.  The lane-marking buoys also seem to be a little messed up at this point.  It's been kind of a confusing start this year, but hopefully the festival will turn out okay. 

Remember that mini-regatta that was held on Glenmore in lieu of the Sylvan Lake festival last year? It was great, and with so little time to plan it.  My memory is muddy (what's this river I'm in), but weren't at least some of the new organizers for this year's festival involved with that one?  With fresh blood and hindsight at their disposal, it gives one hope and reassurance that the Calgary festival will be just fine.

What I liked about that mini-regatta was that a couple out of town teams still came, had a great time, and those 250m elimination races were pretty cool too.  I have no idea of Calgary's format, are they looking at anything like this?

I'm hoping for an awesome festival with everyone and anyone.

It's just too bad there has to be 2 competing organizations in one city.  Especially in a city where dragon boating is quite popular.  Too much politics, too much he-said she-said... so sad, why can't we all just get along?

Looks like CRC is having difficulty counting......could be good for the rest of us!

We never were very good at math...it's not like we're engineers, financial consultants, or network administrators...hey, wait a second!
 :P