Dragon Boat West

Hello everyone,

I'm Rob, coach of the Navy Dragon Anchors.  Recently our team returned home from our first competition of 2010, the Boracay International Dragon Boat Festival.  While we didn't place as high in the rankings as some of us may have expected before arriving, we had an incredible time and would return in a heartbeat.  I wanted to share our experience on DBW because of what we came away with and because this festival deserves your attention.

Boracay Island, a very tiny island, is right in the middle of the Philippines.  The entire island is about 8 or 9 km long and, at its skinniest point, only 1 km wide.  It is truly a tropical paradise, one that would show up on the best postcards.  I have been to several tropical locations and this is, by far, the most beautiful I have seen.  The only downside is that it's a huge tourist destination.  However, if you have been to any large festival, all the others wandering by won't seem out of place.

The festival itself was small in numbers, approximately 24 teams covering the men's, women's and mixed divisions, but that shouldn't lead to a false sense of security.  While teams of any caliber would be welcome, Boracay draws strong teams from nearby countries and some incredible teams from within the country.  Some of these teams were nearly untouchable by what most of our teams in Canada are used to and yet their national team was not exactly welcome because, we were told, they would crush all of the competition there.  The racing took place on Friday and Saturday, with a complete and separate 500m competition on the first day and 300m on the second.  Out-of-town teams were welcome to practice on Thursday.  Later that day was a coctail party (dress of the day: team jersey and beachwear, nothing fancy) and welcoming ceremonies.  On Saturday was a dinner on the beach, followed by an awards/closing ceremony, followed by the HUGE, technically-unofficial "midnight party".

Despite the strength of the competition, the festival organizers, volunteers and all the other crews were open, generous and very happy to meet us.  The festival itself was cheap compared to what we're used to; oddly it's charged on a per-person basis (1500 pesos) and, for us, that worked out to about $800 for the entire team.  That included the racing, Thursday's practice, the dinner, about four drinks each, the parties, even a little gift bag for every member!  I believe that also covered you if you wished to race in mixed and a single-gender division.

For those who like to party until the sun comes up, Boracay is the place for you.  As the coach though, I couldn't recommend such behaviour for my paddlers.  ...Not until after the final race at least because the midnight party was scheduled to end at 7 AM.  Canada needed to be represented!

While the focus of our trip was to take the Navy team to a festival in Asia, the best part (in my opinion) was seeing how beautiful the country and the people are.  You would have to try hard to find friendlier people.  I travelled to three different parts of the country (Manila, Boracay, Naga City and vicinity) and everywhere I went, people wanted to know if we were enjoying ourselves, if we were being treated well, and so on.  Filipinos have a well-earned pride in their country, something you will see and respect.

Other highlights of the trip:
- Buying a litre of rum for $1.63.
- Catching flights around the country for approximately $25.
- Swimming with the butanding (whale sharks) in Donsol.  DO THIS IF YOU GO!  Google it.
- Wakeboarding at CWC.  Google this one too if sports like windsurfing and snowboarding interest you.

Although this trip took us about three years to plan and finally arrive at, it isn't as difficult to do as some might think.  My flights cost me less than $900 for Vancouver-Manila, return.  If I had just flown from Manila to Boracay and back, all of my flights would have been less than $1000, taxes included.  With all flights, hotels, festival registration, food, alcohol, etc., my total out-of-pocket cost for my two-week trip was probably just under $2000, and I stayed at some nice places.  If tickets were bought early enough, I could see a thrifty individual spending $1500 total without having to stay anywhere too questionable.

Boracay Festival's website needs to be updated far more frequently and, hopefully, they will someday add the ability to take credit card payments online.  Right now the standard way for paying the entry fee is by international bank transfer.  For some reason, it's difficult to do any online credit card payments for anything in the Philippines.  I did it once or twice for hotel bookings but they were through third-party, probably-international websites.  It didn't help me in Victoria but the Festival's bank has a branch in Vancouver and Toronto; I'm sure I could have done a deposit into their account to avoid all the nonsense of an international bank transfer.  Outside of the payments for the festival and places we travelled to, all other obstacles were minor in comparison.

I really can't say enough about Boracay and the Philippines in general.  My fingers are crossed that I will get to do this trip again in the future.  If you go in 2011 and Navy Dragon Anchors are not, contact me as I will probably have paddlers willing to go with very little notice.  If you are thinking about going, talk to us at the next local festival as my team and I would be happy to share our stories and advice.

See you on the water,

Rob.
Navy Dragon Anchors

 "Some of these teams were nearly untouchable by what most of our teams in Canada are used to and yet their national team was not exactly welcome because, we were told, they would crush all of the competition there."

 That is 100 % true and pretty much most of the rest of the world teams as well

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8k47H7Evp8c
- shows them lane 3 at the 2009 worlds slow motion first then normal . China National Team is in the yellow and Canada was in the top outside lane , check out their stroke rate .....for the 200 its something we all should learn if we want to be successful in the 200 against asian teams .The 500 is a different story...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8MJUmT6jFQ
- again check them out on the start of the 500 - again lane 3  The USA is on the right and China on the left

  

videos from Boracay Festival
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kw82zJY1NQo


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTXajywIkG8

Interesting experience! Thanks for sharing Rob!  msn(u)

My pleasure!  I'm just hoping some teams put Boracay on their radar.  It's really difficult to get a whole team over there without having to play with the roster, but it should be quite easy to say to a bunch of team, "I'm forming up a crew for Boracay.  Who has a couple weeks of vacation time and a few bucks to spend?  Let's go!"  We have GRPC United in Victoria when various people wish to do an event that their team is not registered for.  Most centres and clubs could throw a team together for an ultimate road trip like this.

Hopefully this works.  I wanted to share some of our pictures with everyone...

(http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4011/4607719504_e043c10410_o.jpg)

(http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4035/4607108579_8ca631c87f_o.jpg)

(http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4005/4607719800_b64fffc2b4_o.jpg)

(http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1008/4607719670_9e4627a41b_o.jpg)

(http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1361/4607718392_9b3b69372d_o.jpg)

(http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1031/4607109075_3910868d95_o.jpg)

(http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1077/4607718862_420728362e_o.jpg)

(http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1027/4607718514_9ef6023fb0_o.jpg)

(http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1330/4607107829_ba1b7ca1a0_o.jpg)

(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3344/4607719040_74cbe34572_o.jpg)

(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3412/4607108453_5bff04980d_o.jpg)

(http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1001/4607720040_c6e0ac6cf3_o.jpg)

Great report, Rob.  Looks like it was a wonderful festival to attend.

Also, "Buying a litre of rum for $1.63."   :woot: :drink:

Hey Rob,

Great pics!

What boats did they use?  They look like BUKs, but I just can't be sure from the photos.

Great uniforms this year too by the way, they look awesome.

Thanks Butter.  Credit should be spread around a little though as I used a couple pictures taken by other on my team.

The name on the boats was Champion.  Good call, they did seem very much like BUKs.  While they have ten benches, teams could only load 18 paddlers.  Even then, for us and a couple other teams, there wasn't a lot of freeboard left once we had loaded our boat.

Hi Rob,

Some of us from various teams in the US is thinking about going in 2011.  I believe it is spear headed by Berman Ng.  Last I heard he was trying to round up a couple of teams.  You can find him on facebook too.  Thanks for the information about your trip.  Now I am definitely thinking about going. 

Hello everyone, this is Berman and yes, I am planning on bringing a team (or teams) to Boracay in 2011.  I have raced there for the last 2 years with the Lamma Dragons from Hong Kong and decided that in 2011 I would bring my own team from the San Francisco Bay Area.  As it stands, I have interest from paddlers as far north as Vancouver, Canada, and from various states in the US (California, Arizona, and Texas).  We will definitely be a team made up of different paddlers from different locations, but it should be a great experience.  I am still looking for paddlers as I would like to have enough for the gender races as well as mixed. 

By the way, nice pictures......you even got me in picture #5....I am in the blue jersey...

Hi Rob - such awesome pics - what a great experience.  I know a few S.I.B. that would be interested in joining a team to go next year.

Hey guys,

Sorry I haven't responded right away.

Some of my team are planning to return to Boracay next year.  We won't have all the Navy Dragon Anchors but we will make up probably half of a team.  Max and I (team captain and coach, respectively) were only considering a mixed-gender crew although we haven't yet ruled anything out.

808QT and Berman: I'm not sure if there was an offer in there to merge or something but right now we're looking to recruit from Vancouver Island, Vancouver, and Portland, OR.  Let me know how it goes in building your crew.  I certainly look forward to meeting you both when we're all on Boracay and ready to have a drink.

Honeydew: We would be happy to have some SIB along for the ride.  Karmen can share his experiences with your team from racing with us in Portland.  PM me and we can exchange email addresses.

Anyone from Portland Fire Dragons: I don't have a good contact for your team but I know Max chatting with some of you about going to the Philippines.  Send me a message as well and we can start talking.

On a different note, I have some information straight from the organizers:
1. Race crews will be made of 20 paddlers, not 18 like last year.
2. The dates of the 2011 festival are April 28-30 (Thu-Sat).

Note that Easter is April 24/25 so hotels on Boracay might be more expensive and/or more difficult to book than last year.  I just realized that being away on Easter Monday means one less day of vacation time I have to use.  Sweet!

Rob.

Hi Rob,

Great to hear of your adventure!  My wife lived in the Philippines for  couple of years (she's an Air Force brat).  Maybe I can talk her into this!  Anyway you can contact me at my email.  We're hoping to do Nanaimo & Victoria in 2011.  See you up north!

Steve
Coach, Portland Fire Dragons

Hello NavyRob,

How are you doing?  I am building a crew right now mostly from my club team DragonMax from Berkeley, California plus a lot of paddlers from other teams that I have contacts with.  So far about 14 definites and a lot of folks still thinking about it so it seems like I will at least bring a mixed crew.  Lets keep in touch with our progress just in case we need to supplement each other's rosters.  We will definitely have that drink when we are both in Boracay.....can you say Weng Wengs at Nigi Nigi Noo Noo?

Berman

it's great to hear good reports about my country, especially anything that has to do with dragon boat  :D

i was part of the technical crew on the 4th Boracay International Dragon Boat Festival, and i am thrilled to read all these here. We also had the 1st CWC International Dragon Boat Festival (where the wakeboarding is) on October 2010. it was the largest DB event ever here, with 63 participating teams.

In Boracay, paddlers paddle hard, and party harder. The organizers always make everything exciting from start to finish of the event... everyone goes home with loads of stories, adventures to share. every year, the experience is always something.

Pinky

Hi Pinky,

Looking forward to the races in Boracay next April.  This will be my third race in Boracay and you are correct that this is a memorable festival.  Will you be there next year?  If so, make sure you come by and say hello.  Take care.

Berman

Hi Berman,

yep, been to the boracay races every year (as paddler, drummer, steersman, race official). by 2011, i hope to bring my new team Onslaught Racing Dragons (the newest team in manila)  :)

see you when i see you!

cheers,

Pinky

Pinky,

I will be in Manila next month...when do you practice?  I would love to come paddle with your team while I am visiting if you have room.  I will send an email to your address listed on your profile if that is OK.  Ingat ka.

Berman

Hey Pinky,

I was looking through the CWC photos a couple weeks ago.  It looked like a lot of fun.  Here's the link...
http://cwcwaketv.com/index.php?option=com_datsogallery&func=viewcategory&catid=301&Itemid=109 (http://cwcwaketv.com/index.php?option=com_datsogallery&func=viewcategory&catid=301&Itemid=109)
I'm quite proud to see a Canadian Navy sticker on one of the paddles (second set, seven pictures in)!

Was there a rule that every paddler had to wear a jersey advertising Cobra sports drink when racing?  I would have been strongly opposed to that!  I could be wrong but isn't that also the company that shafted Boracay Festival this year by pulling their sponsorship on the last day possible?

Rob.

Hi Berman,
my team practices @5am on tue/wed/fri/sat/sun. 6am on thursdays. we have a race on December 12 at Manila Bay - the PDBF Annual Championship, come watch if you are in town by that time.
you can email [email protected], no worries.

Hi Rob!
it was great fun in camsur. i have a canadian (flag) sticker on my paddle too :) yes, wearing the Cobra singlet was part of the MOA between the event organizer and the sponsor. the race organizer only conducts the races. the same one, the deal went off somewhere, somehow.

Pinky

Hi Pinky, I made it to the race on Dec 12 and met alot of paddlers and even pick up a Cobra singlet as a souvenier.  Next time I come to Manila, I will try to make some practices.  Did you race in the Championship?  I don't remember seeing Onslaught Racing Dragons....

Navy Rob, how is your team shaping up for next year...I am still gathering names but I think we have enough for one mixed team.  Hopefully we will see each other in Boracay!  Take care.

Berman

Hi Berman,

too bad i didn't see you. i was at the Athlete's Control (loading area), while Onslaught Racing Dragons was on the tent right next to it. i couldn't be with my team because i was officiating, but they did pretty well for a 4mo old team. We had The Onslaught Gliders and Onslaught Strikers. the Gliders made it to the semi-finals, however, they were up against the stronger teams- Fleet Marine and PDRT Fireblades.and i think that heat was the finest, they made it to frontpage (Phil Star) the next day.  the race result below:
1 Maharlika Drakon 1:19.03 4
2 PDRT Fireblades  1:13.91 2
3 Onslaught Racing Dragons Gliders 1:14.41 3
4 Fleet-Marine 1:13.60 1

The Strikers on the other hand were 80% first time racers, so they all had a blast. Over all, the Gliders ranked 5th among the men's team for the 4th Leg. i'm freaking proud of the boys :)

*Sol and Walter of Boracay Guardians also came to join Onslaught.

Pinky

Right now I have almost half of what I need.  We had more than half but three just dropped out due to unforeseen circumstances.  The response from Portland has been poor so far with only one showing strong interest and none from the Fire Dragons (who Max was trying to bring along).  The rest are Navy crew and one from Lima Mahina.  We have a little under four months to go.  That's plenty of time but I'm opening the door a little wider now to anyone wanting to join us.

I'm sure there are many others who would like to go but are afraid to commit until they know this trip is happening.  All I need are a dozen more paddlers saying that they will go if this trip is on; I am more than happy to buy my tickets first to show my commitment and the Navy members will do the same soon after.

Bottom line for anyone interested:
- Flights from Vancouver to Manila are currently $995 and up.
- I plan to travel from Sat 23 Apr to Sun 8 May (15 days inclusive, only 9 days off work).
- The whole trip should cost $1500-2000.  This depends mostly on how long your trip is, where you stay, if you have a roommate, and if you want to travel elsewhere in the Philippines.
- Spouses/partners/travelling buddies are welcome, minors are not.
- Send me a message here on DBW if you want to join us or need more information.

Rob.