Dragon Boat West

So with all the top teams along the coast going to Harrison, is there anybody left for Vernon?  Gung Haggis is there.  Calgary Race Club.  Who else?

:D
Finish in the A Pool of the Richmond Festival and they are suddenly a "topTeam"....LOL
I love GH but come on!
Anyhoo. there are a few other good teams going, Extreme Currents, Dragnum and a few other teams from Calgary that seem to have changed their names but I am sure will give a decent showing.
Should be a hot one there as well!

lol.  I didn't mean to imply that we were a top team...or did I?  Anyhow, we'll be up in Vernon.

Haha lethal, he mentioned the top teams are going to Harrison... and didn't imply GH is a topteam!

I did laugh out loud at your response at first though.

 :D
No Worries!
You are a Top team in DB spirit and #1 for Kilts and Bag pipes!
Have Fun!

Bring your inhalers! Sounds like its going to be smoky.

any news on vernon? how did our favorite kilt wearing team do at the festival?

They probably scared lots of people when bending over to pick up their paddling gear.   :shock:

Vernon was pretty interesting. I paddled with the Calgary Wave Runners and picked up a bronze in the A division, mainly because all the better teams had lost control of their boats at least once and were in the B and C divisions, steersmen ruled the race. B finals were faster than the A finals, 2:10 vs 2:16 for the gold medal winners. Boys in the kilts picked up a silver in their division but definitely had a gold medal dancing crew on the beach!

Yep.  We had a good time in Vernon again.  There were a couple of downers like the delay of the Sat start by 1 hr, the thunderstorm that delayed the mixed afternoon races until the next day, and the subsequent cancellation of the 1000m.  Oh well.  It gave us more time to play around in kayaks and canoes at our lakeside retreat.

Dynasty boats are still apparently a challenge to steer.  Although nobody capsized this year there were plenty of involuntary turns, spins, and collisions.  One of the teams, I think that it was CRC, did 2 big loops in one of their races.  It goes to show that each team is made of 22 people and not just the muscle.

Hopefully next year more steers can come up.  We were rotating 3 steers in our boat and were quite happy to help out with other teams.  However, we did have to start saying, "No," as there were times our guys were out there for an hour with 3 different teams and it was 35+ degrees.  Never mind the performance issue for our team as they paddled too.  It was more of a safety issue of trying to keep them from suffering from heat stroke.

Overall it was fun weekend again.  You can't really beat the sun, swimming, beer, and paddling combo.

Vernon was fun...

High winds causing sand storms on the beach sent people scurrying to the racers' village to pack up.  Some of us went into the water and tried to body surf on the big waves.  The race was canceled when the lightning, hail and rain took over. Weather in the Okanagan blows over quickly.  There was sunshine soon after in 90 minutes.  The beer garden was open, but by 5:30 many paddlers had vacated the beach.  We hit the hot tub, then canoes and kayaks.

Safety is still a big concern with the Dynasty Boats. Lots of spinouts and collisions. We volunteered 3 steers to help other teams, but even our two most experienced steerspeople still spun out of control after hitting recreation boat waves in the semi-finals.  While steering for Kelowna Blazing Paddles, I scraped my knee, drawing blood, as I avoided a t-bone collision with two teams coming into our lane, glancing off their boat and knocking off their head.

The race course was very hard to see.  On Saturday, the first heat lined up at the 500m start line instead of the 200m start line.
On Sunday boats in lanes 1 & 2, kept heading into lanes 3 & 4.  Red buoys were attached to the skinny white finish lane markers.  Big Yellow pyramid markers would be a big improvement.

Gung Haggis team got the dancing going in the beer garden on Sunday with a "revised lyrics" version of 500 Miles.  eg.  "I WOULD PADDLE 500 MILES".  Lethal Weapon - we will have to teach your teams for improved DB spirit!  We even put a kilt on a Calgary paddler, known to this forum.

A 4 person bong made its appearance in the beer garden.

Calgary Teams ruled the fastest times along with Kamloops' Extreme Currents, and Extreme Curves women's team.

Congratulations to all teams that participated and contributed to the truly friendly atmosphere, and willingly volunteered to help make these races run smoothly, in the wake of so many challenges (eg. Dynasty Boats ugh!)

Does anybody have the results from Vernon?
One week later, and the results still aren't posted ANYWHERE?!