Dragon Boat West

So..the forecast is for high of 26 and 25 degrees and cloudy periods for Sat and Sun!

5 days left!  :D

Anybody know how many teams coming for this year? or list of teams going? early race grid?

Nothing appears to be available yet.

Is Magnum racing in Kelowna, or are a bunch of you teaming up with How Wet Can You Get again ?

I heard a rumour that there are either 57 or 59 mixed teams registered. But no race grid out yet so I can't confirm.

Nah, the three paddlers that joined How Wet You Can Get was a one-time thing for the Last Gasp. Magnum will be going with their regular roster to Kelowna and so will How Wet You Can Get.. But I think they're still looking for some paddlers to fill a seat or 2 for Kelowna. I think there's a thread about it somewhere here.

Until the official race grid is available on the Kelowna website, let's call THIS (http://www.dragonboatwest.net/docs/2009KelownaRaceGrid.pdf) the unofficial race grid for Kelowna 2009. As with all "unofficial" race grids, please check for an official one with the festival before the weekend starts.

29 teams in the Womens Division and 57 in Mixed from what I can see on this race grid.

WOW looks to be some good Competition here!   :D

I'm getting the jitters

Hot DANG!
It looks tougher than Alcan!
Some big boys there for the year ender!
If everyone comes with their full rosters (or supplemented with FCRCC and other Paddlers....) it will make for a very interesting qualifying semi and platinum Final!

Hey Bern Man! What is the name of your Uber team  :P

Me too I am getting the jitters. I haven't paddled in 3 years! YIKES!!!  :shock:

Well either way if I can do the full 500 meters and not cough up a lung that is a victory in itself for me!

Ummm I thought it was a secret but what the heck... I will be a member of the CC SIPR crew.

OK now the secret's out! Please no bashing as we are just a throw together crew. No expectations is the last thing I heard. Right cookie?  :)

No expectations???

It looks like the race organisers have some as they appear to have ranked you in the top-tier of teams placing you in lane 3 in your opening heat.

As for not racing in 3 years... I sure hope they have a defibrillator on hand  :D

1. Magnum
2. WW
3. Masters of D'Zone
4. Navy
5. Crew Yahoo

Out of curiosity, who's part of this team?  Here's my guess.

CC = Crewz Control
SI = Sudden Impact
PR = Pacific Reach

Yea that is a good thing to have on hand as I might be needing a defib!  :lol:

As for expectations, well even the race grid dude can make a mistake can't he? Maybe I should say I don't have expectations but for those of you who know me know that I race to win and... well the partying takes 2nd place in my mind after all the racing is done! It should be fun regardless because I have been coaching/steering for the past 3 years with hardly any paddling. I tend to forget how hard we need to paddle for the short 2 or so minutes that we need in order to get the results we all desire.

man, that's a tough field, indeed.

I'd say that Without Warning/Master/Navy will take the field easily at a glance, but any knows which other teams have picked up formidable ringers?

awesome competition on hand for the weekend!


CC SIPR..coz they got BernMan and his defibrillator! :rofl:

what does the CC SIPR stand for BernMan?

No partying until Sunday night   :shock: 
.... I'll try and make sure there are a few beers left for you in the beer garden, but I can't make any promises. :Cheers:

Official grid is out, doesn't look like any change..

http://www.kelownadragonboatfestival.com/racegrid09mixed1.html

LOL...

Time for my predictions:

Platinum A
1 Dragon Hearts Magnum  (They deserve at least one Gold medal for an awesome year)
2 Navy Dragon Anchors
3 Without Warning
4 Masters of D'Zone
5 Crew Yahoo

Platinum B
1 Oil City Crew
2 How Wet Can You Get
3 RGL United
4 Abraxis Warriors
5 CC SIPR

and a great time for all....... :Cheers:

I think you've done that twice now

...and I'm sure he'll do it again...

old age and children will do that to you.... :wall:

Yes sir old age and kids do that and a whole lot more!  :lol:

And no I will try not to get the crazies mixed up no more.  :?

All kinds of crazies up in here lol


sounds good to me!

BernMan, I think you just plain crazy...and I mean that in the nicest possible way!  I gotta tell you as one who has lived through raising kids and has accumulated more than a few years, confusion never goes away!  We just attribute it to different things :lol:

I just noticed that SYNERGY is on the Kelowna race grid  :shock:

Maybe they've grown out of the whole water fight stage.... or maybe not...

If you're likely to race them on Sunday, make sure you pack a change of clothes or two for the drive home.

If Whistler was any indication, you're never too old to water fight

Oh don't you worry my friend. The Synergy Water Bug has traveled and it's on multiple teams now  :D

We are in a water sport, so of course there will be TONES of splashing

 :D looking forward to racing all of you funny dragons on our lake this weekend!
I just tried to help out teams that are short paddlers by "lending" them some of our juniors - but the race rules state that paddlers on adult teams have to me 19+ ... what a stupid rule!

Only 86 teams this year but it should be fun!
See you on the water!

wow , this is excellent

Here you go:
Place   Lane   Team Name   Time
1   2   Masters of D'Zone   2:08.59
2   4   Dragon Hearts Magnum 2:09.59
3   3   Abraxis Warriors     2:10.17
4   5   Without Warning           2:11.40
5   1   Crew Yahoo                   2:12.24

Since this may not copy/paste right the final winning order is:

1st - Masters of D'Zone (Yay team!!!)
2nd - Dragon Hearts Magnum
3rd - Abraxis Warriors

Big thanks to my old team Masters of D'Zone for having me and my hubby back on board, just like old times. Nice to come out with some blingy hardware.

Thanks to the organizers, a job very well done. Great weekend of racing by everyone :).

See you all on the water! Get out your woolies  :shock:

Thanks all for a great festival on our lake!
Once a year we can show this motor boat crazy city what (almost) 2000 athletes look like! You guys looked awesome out there!
Thanks to all (fellow) steerers too for keeping it safe - no (bad) collisions and only one team swam despite some rather freaky conditions on Saturday.
See you next year! 8))

Thanks to the organizers and volunteers for another great festival.

Thanks for the great final race, Corkscrew ... and to Bear Paws who brought it and kicked some. Well Done.

Just gotta say..swamp?? HA! That was a down right overturn!  :lol: That was some crazy stuff! Kudos to Dragon Fire for re-racing after the flip! (I must admit I was a smidgen jealous that I wasn't in there for the flip cuz it sure looked fun on a hot afternoon!  :lol: )

Kudos to the paddlers racing out to rescue the paddlers!
We do have Ogopogo waves that seem to come out of nowhere

Extreme Currents, Team Vortex - that was a great final race.  Thanks to everyone involved for making this weekend super fantastic, especially to Harvey the Wonder Steers for helping us out!

Your final race was indeed one of the closest finishes I've seen all weekend (though u guys took a long time at the start line, thought another boat capsized out there).  But it gave us enough time to walk to the walkway to watch from the finish line.

Harvey, you were wonderful as always, being there for many many teams that needed a steers.  Thanks to all the other steers who volunteered in the pool as well.   

Just wanna say my thanks as well to all the paddlers, volunteers and management for a well run race.

CONGRATS! to Masters for taking home the win, another fine example that winning can be done by any age group, as long as you have the work ethic and determination. I'll be happy if 20 years down the road I can still paddle as awesome as you guys. msn(u)

I had a blast on the weekend, the silver bling sure did help lol...though I should have kept my free 10 bucks casino cash instead of wasting it on blackjack haha

a couple days of rest, then on to San Fran! woot woot! :wink:

That was a fun weekend..... on and off the water.

Thanks to all the organisers and competitors for all the close racing and comeraderie.

Even though I picked Magnum to win, it sure was great to see Masters take the final race.

I was glad to see Navy make it into Platinum after having to battle that freak head wind that whipped up during the final races on Saturday.

If any of the organiers are on the board, is there a reason why some of the Finish line photos are unavailable?