Dragon Boat West

I just wanted to thank everyone coming from out of town who came and supported our Portland race and especially the Beer Garden.  The beer garden was another successful fund raiser for our club.  With the help of many family and friends we were able to participate in the race as well.

Water conditions on Sunday were a bit choppy but I thought it made for some fun racing. 

See everyone next year! and this time we will make sure stock enough beer so that we do not have to change beer selections mid way.  I guess that there's something to be said about going through 6 kegs on Sat.  Who would of thunk it?

Anyone have results for Sunday?

Great festival!  I had a chance to guest paddle for one of the teams & really enjoyed it.  Thanks to the organizers and volunteers.  Thanks also to Kai Ikaika for hosting the beer garden.  Great beer selection, although there are so many great Oregon beers around, it's kind of a shame to bring in beer from Hawaii (speaking of Saturday's choices).  Not complaining - they were great beers too.  Looking at a lot of your paddlers, it is apparent why you might have brought in Kona beer.  :D  So happy to see something other than fizzy yellow lager.  Great food stall right outside of the entrance as well.

As far as results go, I don't see them on the festival website.  There are currently partial results here:  http://www.dragonsports.org/regatta/2008/2008PDXRaceGrid_Sun.pdf

However, I can tell you with certainty that Kai won the A finals in the mixed division.  Navy Dragon Anchors were second in that race, and they came back to win the (no) Guts & Glory (although Kai declined to enter that 2000m+ long race at the end of the day, so who knows what would have happened had they decided to paddle).  I was not paying close enough attention to remember which boats placed where in the final races, so won't make guesses.  Anniemaniacs raced well.

Thanks also to Shibumi for the hospitality.  Still laughing about the fire dancers, dunk tank and stripper pole.

That is so great. Congrats everyone. This has been Navy's year and I'm so happy for them. They're a team with heart and talent and hot damn, how do they manage to party so hardy, bring so much fun and spirit to every festival they paddle in, be sooo sexeh and still kick _ss?? Oh, and that's with team members always flitting off to protect my sorry butt on the international front. Most teams sooner or later have to choose between a spirit rep or a performance rep. Navy 2008 is one of those rare teams who had both.

If you have to come second, coming second to Kai is an honour. We all dream of unseating you folks but it doesn't happen much, so for Navy this is like a win if you ask me.

Wish I'd been there to see the excitement!!

Thanks everyone who came to Portland (and those that stayed in Portland) to make this race a success! This is my first year on the DragonSports board and it was a lot of fun putting on this event for y'all (and racing to boot). We're already talking about next year and really happy with the interest in the Open Division exhibition on Saturday. I am sure we will come up with a better registration system to make sure that everyone who wants to participate, can participate. I hope that we'll send out a survey soon to get your feedback or feel free to send me a message and I will make sure your feedback gets passed on to the board.

As for the results, I have no control over that department, but I expect they will be up soon! I was out on the start boat Sunday afternoon so I didn't have a very good vantage of the finish line.

Thank you everyone for coming to our festival!!! We had a large Canadian showing this year. Mark your calendars for September 12-13 2009. Our Goal is 80 teams and 20 kegs of beer!

Congratulations to the Navy Team. They won free entrance into the 2009 festival!

The results should be posted to the DSUSA website soon. www.dragonsports.org
If you can't wait, email me and I will send them to you.

Ayla

The Results are up for the 2008 Portland Dragon Boat Race!
http://dragonsports.org/regatta/2008/index.html

Hope to see you next year September 12-13 2009~
Ayla

Bastion Dragons from Nanaimo with help from Chicks with Sticks had a great time and we thank Portland and the Fire Dragons especially for their hospitality