Dragon Boat West

The Canada Dry Victoria Dragon Boat Festival is taking place August 13-15.  It's fast and furious in the office right now as we're heading into the home stretch for planning this year's event.

There are still a few spots available if there are any teams out there that want to battle it out in Victoria's Inner Harbour but have been undecided to this point.  The Gorging Dragons took until today to make up their mind, but they have decided to rejoin us again after a bit of a rest last year.  The finals should be exciting once again, so some great racing is expected.

We've expanded our Forbidden City food court this year to showcase a wider range of cultural foods from the Victoria area.  Choose from Caribbean, Mexican, Chinese, Vietnamese, Indian and others!  Also look for Wannawafel serving up breakfast treats on Saturday and Sunday morning near the beer garden.

Did I mention beer?  Yes.  Vancouver Island Brewery will once again be providing the frosty suds in our aptly named "Gan-Bei" Beer Garden this year.  Wines, Ciders and Coolers will be available too, served up by the fine folks from Cascadia Liquor!

Friday night in the beer garden will be our "Sweet Sixteen" birthday party.  $20 gets you a burger with all the fixin's, salad, soft drink and a tasty cupcake! Tickets will be available all day Friday on site or reserve your tickets earlier by contacting the Festival office.  Live music by local favourites, the Midnights!

Saturday night in the beer garden will mark the return of the popular air band contest and paddler's dance, while Sunday will see awards and prizes given out throughout the afternoon.

Keep an eye on our website for more updates!  See you all in 21 days!

Thank you.  Nanaimo's beer garden was so bad that all they had during portion of Sunday's post-race festivities was BUD LIGHT LIME!  Not that Keiths or Kokanee are huge steps up either.  Bleccchhhh! 

I have to disagree about Nanaimo's beer gardens.. I had several Kokanee's on Sunday afternoon. (and I wasn't in the beer gardens till after the platinum final) Oh and I find Keith's and Kokanee much better beer than Vancouver Island Brewery. But thats just me.

Glad to see things are going well Butter!!! Here's hoping there are some good competitive teams in Victoria!!!

What are the times of the beer garden Friday?  Opening and closing hours?  Really looking forward to it, it was such a blast last year.

The beer gardens should be open starting around noon on Friday, going until 10:00PM.

Be sure to come by for dinner as well.  We'll be having the local Rotary Club flipping burgers for us starting at around 7:00 as part of our Sweet Sixteen birthday party.  Salads, soft drink and cupcake included, all for $20.  Spread the word...

Cheers.

List of teams currently participating in the 2010 Canada Dry Victoria Dragon Boat Festival can be found here:
http://www.victoriadragonboat.com/EN/main/race_information/4157.html  (http://www.victoriadragonboat.com/EN/main/race_information/4157.html)

Race grid should be out by this Sunday night or Monday at the latest.  Be sure to keep checking our website for updates.

See you all soon!

Several very strong teams in there; will be interesting to see Gorging Dragons

Yeah, lots of good teams, here's some predictions

Dragon Hearts Magnum
Victoria Gorging Dragons
Dragon Hearts Ultimate

Actually I'll make predictions like this

The Top 8 in order

Dragon Hearts Magnum
Victoria Gorging Dragons
Dragon Hearts Ultimate
Navy Dragon Anchors
Sudden Impact Black
Xtreme Reach
Anniemaniacs
Blu By U

The bottom of Platinum, top of Diamond (in no particular order)

Tao Ti Phat Phish Racing
VO2 Max
Team Lifescan
Eye of the Dragon
Save On Foods Dragonslayers
Dragonauts
Hot Sake
West Shore Warriors
RGL

The rest of Diamond, top of Jade (in no particular order)

Dog Paddlers
Fluid Motion
VCKC Grand Dragons
Amazing Greys

Those predictions for Platinum look pretty close although I think Extreme Reach could be a bit higher up. I've seen the GD's out practicing and even though they look pretty strong, they seem to have a constantly changing roster and rarely have a full boat. They are definitely in a rebuilding phase and will be hard pressed to beat Magnum (depending on who Magnum actually brings of course) This weekend (Gorge Fest) should be a decent indicator of where they are in their training.

Either way its nice to see some good competition coming back to Victoria. Hopefully we can get more fast teams to make the trip in the future. I'm sure the locals would love to see top level dragonboating in the harbour again!!

Don't know if this weekend's Gorge Fest will serve as a good gauge for the GDs at the Victoria Festival as I think they'll be losing a few paddlers to the Outrigger Nationals that same weekend so even more alumni and pick ups will be in the boat for the Vic Festival.  Still should be a competitive team though...

I only wish I wasn't so busy organizing the actual Festival so that I could hop back in the boat with them...it's been too long.

Should be a very intense weekend of paddling, seeing as a lot of teams are racing each other for the first time this season. The predictions seem very accurate although I think they'll be some surprises as to which teams sneak into/out of Platinum + Diamond division.

Should be an interesting weekend! Hopefully the weather will be good to us!

Empress Hotel for the win lol

Saturday morning race grid now up!
http://www.victoriadragonboat.com/EN/main/race_information/2009-race-schedule-results.html (http://www.victoriadragonboat.com/EN/main/race_information/2009-race-schedule-results.html)

Edited... Figured it out on my own...  :)

lol, haven't they always been a consistent comp team?

lol.. my apologizes. I typed before I thought.  :oops: Hence the edit.. On a positive note the weather outlook appears to be good. Highs in the mid low to mid 20's and light winds.

haha, that's what happens when you have a popular cartoon (back then) name as a team name...Whenever I see it, it makes me hum the theme song  :D

Haven't been to Victoria since '08, so it should be nice racing up there again with good competition all around.

Lets hope there's a BC Ferries booth again lol

I'll take a stab at predictions

Victoria Gorging Dragons        These guys were awesome at the funfest last weekend.
Dragon Hearts Magnum          They gave FCRCC a run and beat Kai in (Rio Tinto Alcan)
Navy Dragon Anchors             
Dragon Hearts Ultimate
Sudden Impact Black
Dragonauts                          Called up alot of Alumni (the old school)
Xtreme Reach
Blu By U

The bottom of Platinum, top of Diamond (in no particular order)

RGL                                 
Anniemaniacs
Tao Ti Phat Phish Racing      Dont know these guys could be top 8?
VO2 Max
Team Lifescan
Eye of the Dragon
Save On Foods Dragonslayers
The Goblin Empire                         Young and eager

Pretty much the same teams, just a different order except for one for top eight and a couple of different teams following.
Of course being an Islander I am basing this on speculation, and last year as I havent seen too many mainland teams this year. I wish more mainlanders would come to the Nanaimo races, it's an awesome time! This weekend is going to be FUUUNN! Good Luck everyone!

If your team doesn't have plans for dinner on Friday night, I just want to remind everyone that there will be a burger BBQ going on down at the beer garden that night as party of our Sweet Sixteen birthday party.  $20 gets you a burger, salads, pop and a tasty cupcake (HST included!).  Bring the whole team down and don't worry about getting reservations at a restaurant.:D

Man was I ever off, well I was cheering for all the Island teams.
Great racing all weekend, Both Dragon hearts teams were impressive and fun.
Magnum
GD's
Ultimate
Navy
Extreme       Top five platnium A in order. Thank You to all the staff and volunteers of the VDBF. Fantastic job!

Full Results:

http://victoriadragonboat.com/pdf/10ResultFinal.pdf

Yes, big thanks to the volunteers. There was one bit of crazyness going on after another but it all came together in the end. Saw some AWESOME RACES. 1:57. seriously? That was amazing to watch.

Thanks also for everyone that supported the goblin empire and our spirit award win. Wanted to say more then "For the empire!" but was kinda in the moment. Wanted to mention that we just want to make an enjoyable event even more enjoyable for our friends, spectators, fans and peers. All of those terms being interchangeable at times....and for the empire!

Unfortunately, some teams like the Dragonauts and Team Lifescan who should have been in Platinum, were very poorly seeded in their first races on Saturday (up against other Platinum teams) and ended in Jade even though they posted times throughout the weekend faster then all the Diamond teams and several of the Platinum teams.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't the the advancements from the first day of racing based on the accumulative times? So regardless of if they were in tough heats or not on the first day, if they still posted fast times, they'd be rank accordingly? (top 10 fastest accumulative times in Platinum, next 10 fastest in Diamond, etc.)

And if I remember, Dragonauts and LifeScan had a pretty close 2nd race with Navy, so for them to be bumped down to Jade would be dependent on their 1st race (which would be slower times than at least 1 & 2 other teams from their respective first heats, as they would've needed to come 2nd & 3rd in their first heats to be paired with Navy in the second heat).

I'll correct you.

Advancements are first based on placing, you get 10 pts for 1st place and so on down to 5th.  However, as a bunch of teams can end up with the same points after the 1st 2 rounds then it comes down to cumulative times to break ties.

So, 11 teams came in 1st and 1st but only 10 fit in platinum, thus the one with the slowest cumulative time drops down to diamond.

That's why a sound race grid is so critical.

Exactly,  without a properly seeded initial race grid, top teams can be immediately dropped to lower divisions based on their first heat race.  In our case, we had three platinum-level teams in our first race (RGL, Dragonauts and Paddles of Fury).  First had a chance of making platinum or lower, second diamond or lower only and third Jade or lower only.  There is no mechanism when you have such a poorly seeded initial race grid for teams to work their way back to the respective divisions they belong in.  We got a top 10 or better time in every race we were in over the weekend, however, we were destined for Jade after our first race on Saturday.  

Feelin' you fellow Jade brother/sister.

both our times for race one and two were sub 2.08. in our 2nd race, we went up against navy and the dragonauts. we came in 3rd with less than .50 sec between us and the winning team. regardless, we finished 3rd so we ended up in the jade division.

we left everything on the water for all 4 races. for the first time, i think there wasn't a race where we were saying, "well that just sucked!". the irony is in the fact that we had the best 4 races ever (with amazing times to boot)  but we ended up in a division lower than where we finished last year.

oh well...

on another note, i must say, it's very nice bringing home hardware...even if it's not in the division you wanted to end up in; however,  nothing's sweeter than hearing your coach say for the very first time, "that was an excellent race" (referring to the 2nd race where we came in 3rd).

Have to agree both teams looked a bit short changed by the grid.

Nothing can change it now, best thing to do is go to Kelowna and prove you can beat some/all of the Diamond & Platinum teams.

Remember though that it's not just the teams that get bumped down that are affected, it's also the teams that are in the correct divisions but that now have to face teams bumped down from higher divisions leaving them with little hope of medalling in their own category which also sucks.

Basically grid issues suck for everyone, careful seeding is essential to any festival.

There was more waiting around than normal this year.  Some of it was unnecessary - such as Sunday morning.  PI was scheduled to race at 9:36am and we didn't head out until almost noon. 

i agree with you, katy. it sucked for those teams in jade who were basically fighting for that one spot...bronze.

as i mentioned earlier, it was nice bringing a [silver] medal home, but i think it was satisfying b/c we lost to a really good team who also got shafted (haha).

Even worse is when a bad qualifying grid pushes you up. Its embarassing to be left in a different timezone on your final race. Thank god we dodged that bullet  :shock:

On a positive note, many teams (like us) got to race competitively on ALL of their heats, and a hard race fought well is a reward of sorts...  :)

I hear ya. Our race was scheduled for 9 but didn't get off the water until 11:30AM. We sat for an hour in the boat baking on the water while waiting for the Coho to go out, then waited for the Aquabus ballet to finish, the start line reset, and then raced. We may have won our race because so many of us needed to get to the finish line fast to go to the bathroom  :lol:

Oh well.  It's hard to get upset when the volunteers are so nice and we were treated so nicely all weekend. Sh*t happens.

Thank you for correcting me. I know that's how many organizations run their respective festivals but I was led to believe time was the only factor in Victoria.

I personally felt though that the top 7-8 in Platinum (AND DEFINITELY THE TOP 3-4) were in a league of their own, and I'm sure many will agree that they all belong in the correct finals and were this festival's top teams without a doubt.

It's in lower Platinum to Diamond Division that I think the positioning can dramatically change based on many factors (such as race grid seedings, personal team factors, etc.) and it's a shame that some teams were effected by poor race grid placement.

As a member of a team that was 'shafted', I must admit the end of day 1 was met with disappointment, frustration and downright confusion at first but these feelings were quickly replaced by extraordinary pride knowing that other teams were feeling our pain..and that anyone had actually heard of our motley crue team:) Thanks to those who verbalized our frustration on our behalf, in particular, Blu By U who came up to us as we were warming up for our jade semi and told us we were not in the right division.  Blu By U, we raced you in Race #1 on Saturday.  We came up 2/100s of a second behind you to finish second.  We fought hard but you fought harder.  You showed us that competition is important but beyond that, you demonstrated that class and sportsmanship are just as important.  You gave me confidence when I questioned my ability.  We were truly touched by that short but powerful exchange. You've made a lasting impression.

Kudos also to the Dragonauts who must have been feeling the same way we were.  We raced you in the jade final.  Despite disappointment, neither of our teams gave up, evidenced by our times.  We fought hard but you fought harder.  There is no shame in either of our performances.  I cherish any medal because in my dragon boat world, medals are hard to come by.  Each precious medal that we win is a symbol of much more than a number or a placing.  I honor this medal by thinking of the community that supported us and the dog fight that ensued in so many races despite poor festival design.  Aside from the long waits in the hot sun, I had a great time at the Victoria festival and learned some great life lessons. THANK YOU to all the volunteers who braved the heat to help run the festival.  Congratulations to ALL teams.  See you in SFO or next season!!

You guys definitely deserved that award, I saw so many paddlers assimilated by the goblin empire (tattoos) lol


Agreed!


I saw the very tight and intense race between Navy, Dragonauts, and LifeScan. unfortunately these things does happens sometimes, and as paddlecwazy said, just go and kick ass in kelowna for redemption! (or SF for some)  :D


Based on what we were told, I was also under the assumption that for the Saturday, all advancements were based on times...It was unfortunate that it wasnt the case.

Mad props to the volunteers in the face of the burning heat...I know I melted on saturday, sunday was a little bit better, especially after a helping of a DOUBLE BIG GULP gatorade slushee! lol
Congrats to all teams and thanks to all the teams in the platinum final, that was some intense racing, i think my lungs gave out at the finish line.

An I-wished-I-had-my-camera-moment: AWESOME performance! by who i'm assuming is known to NAVY, a paddler of scottish descent (or can impersonate the accent). The said paddler did a magnificent Braveheart rendition that truly entertained everyone (me included) on the docks during the platinum final while we were waiting go out. Kudos!

"Aye, paddle and you may die. Run, and you'll live... at least a while. And dying in your beds, many years from now, would you be willin' to trade ALL the days, from this day to that, for one chance, just one chance, to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our WIVES, but they'll never take... OUR PADDLE!"

LMAO!

Spark10...the support and camaraderie is why I love dragonboating! It touches my heart to know that a few small words made such an impact to you! I watched the final race between Dragonauts and Team Lifescan and was so impressed that both teams fought hard, despite the division they were in! Both teams should be proud of how they did!

There will be more races to come (Seattle anyone?) to battle it all out again! I am now a fan of Team Lifescan! I will be looking for you at future events and hope to race you again soon! :)

Oh god, yes, I second that Braveheart guy. It was awesome to hear that while we were waiting to head out to the start line. I thought he was with Xtreme Reach? I dunno, but props to him. :D

The Braveheart guy was hilarious. All he needed to do was to throw a paddle in the air, turning over and over and have it stick in one of those little ferries. Hoot mon!

Team Lifescan... There was more than one team this past weekend who had a lot of respect for you.  I think it was clear you deserved your own Lane 3 on Saturday.  I know that the Festival organizers read DBW and I am sure they are fully aware of the mistakes the lack of research caused in seeding.  We can only trust that next year they will be much more careful.

TO EVERYONE: This kills me.  I just discovered that due to a recording error, our third race, one of the most important in our history, was not filmed!  Did anyone film Platinum Semi 1 (Heat 46), hopefully with us in frame??

Thanks to all the volunteers and even more so to the competitors.

This is definitely one of the friendliest events I've been to and it was this especially that made it enjoyable. From the random gorging dragons person in the Subway, to the person, whose team I didn't see, with the dual supersoakers who cooled us down in the racer's village on sunday afternoon it was nice to be welcomed to the island and for there to be very friendly competition.

yes that was priceless.. i was right behind him while he was making his speech... congrats to all the teams and magnum for winning platinum.always a pleasure watching your team race.=)

Hi everyone,

Many of you know who I am, and to those who don't, well, I am the Executive Director of the Victoria Festival.  I'm also a paddler (for the last 9 years) and a former Gorging Dragon.  

I'll likely have something more official to say later, but for now, please just know that the Board of the Victoria Dragon Boat Festival Society is taking all of the "incidents" from this past weekend VERY seriously and we will be discussing ALL of the matters over the coming weeks.

As a paddler, I do feel your frustration regarding these events.  I just want everyone to know that I will be doing everything in my power to ensure they never happen again.

Thanks to those that have commented with good spirits, it's nice to know that many of you took the events in stride and still had fun.

For the record, in case anyone is curious, the Saturday and Sunday (Friday too, but we weren't racing) were the HOTTEST August 14th and 15th on record in Victoria.  I'm thankful that you all survived the heat and stayed hydrated throughout the weekend.

If anyone has any specific (and constructive) comments they'd like to send me please e-mail me at [email protected] and I'll be sure that I and the Board take them into consideration as we discuss these very important issues.

All for now.

Good to see the GD's pull a sub 2 minute time in the finals.  Very impressive for a team put together for this race. 

Congratulations to Dragon Hearts Magnum and Ultimate on their 1st and 3rd placements.  I expect Magnum to dominate in whatever races they continue to attend this year.  Could have some money going on this.  :D

Mad props to the volunteers who baked themselves out in the sun all weekend.  It was a hawt one!  You all handled yourselves very well considering the circumstances.  :clap:

I think pretty much everything has been said about what could be improved upon.  Even though I haven't attended this festival in about 3yrs, it's definitley still one of the more beautiful/interesting race sites out there in North America.  What other festival, out there, can organize around float planes, ferry passenger boats, private vessels, a ferry ballet and dragonboat heats all at the same time?

Is anyone else's body parts sore from paddling this weekend?  msn(;))

Butter, I feel your pain too.  Most people don't realize that some of the major problems were caused by third parties outside of your control.  For example, it was the Harbour Master, not the Festival, that stopped all racing after the boat-swamping incident.  I couldn't understand why Heat 12 didn't go out and then just have Heat 11 race once all racers were dry, warm, and ready to go again.

I don't think anyone has mentioned this issue yet.  We were squeezed during two of our races so I imagine it happened lots of other times during the weekend.  Could giant, evenly-spread lane numbers be hoisted up on the pilings in front of the Empress and/or buoys placed in the water shortly before the finish line?  Obviously with the ferries you can't have buoys over the majority of the course but east of Ship Point should be clear of very large ships.  Helping to keep that breathing room between crews should help calm the adrenaline-fueled anger that sometimes slips out at the finish line.

By the way, the steers from the Thunderstrokers came over and apologized immediately after the first race (he was looking at the wrong spot to finish in his lane).  I admire this team; they put up a hell of a fight and they've got plenty of class!

I heard that lots of steers had a hard time seeing where they were supposed to finish. Big lane numbers at the end would help. Maybe mount them on the seawall.

Lots of teams were in the boats at the dock waiting to go but the water officials would hold them there until the previous race crossed the finish line  :doh:. That wastes lots of time! At Alcan and other festivals the teams in the next heat are paddling towards the start while the current heat is racing. If that's a festival decision then they should send them on their way.

To be fair to the festival organizers, the Victoria Harbor was a lot busier than most venues with the unmarked lanes and all. I can understand them trying to keep the other boats out of the way of the races and the ferries simultaneously. Like others have mentioned additional lane marking would help make it smoother, but the business of the harbour just won't like it happen.

Some stuff

(http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m92/gingersnaps1969/Victoria%20Dragon%20Boat%20Fest%202010/IMG_2167.jpg)

(http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m92/gingersnaps1969/Victoria%20Dragon%20Boat%20Fest%202010/IMG_2162.jpg)

(http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m92/gingersnaps1969/Victoria%20Dragon%20Boat%20Fest%202010/IMG_2161.jpg)

(http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m92/gingersnaps1969/Victoria%20Dragon%20Boat%20Fest%202010/IMG_2156.jpg)

(http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m92/gingersnaps1969/Victoria%20Dragon%20Boat%20Fest%202010/IMG_2327.jpg)

(http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m92/gingersnaps1969/Victoria%20Dragon%20Boat%20Fest%202010/IMG_2313.jpg)

(http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m92/gingersnaps1969/Victoria%20Dragon%20Boat%20Fest%202010/IMG_2311.jpg)

More non-racing photos at this link: http://s102.photobucket.com/albums/m92/gingersnaps1969/Victoria%20Dragon%20Boat%20Fest%202010/

Diamond Semi 2, a very close race

Tao Ti Phat Phish Racing 2:10.29 Lane 3
Eye of the Dragon 2:10.42 Lane 1
Blu By U 2:10.48 Lane 2
Hot Sake 2:10.61 Lane 4
Crusaders 2:13.21 Lane 5

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=di-yTyed-eQ

Diamond Championship

Paddles of Fury 2:09.47 Lane 2
Tao Ti Phat Phish Racing 2:10.54 Lane 3
Blu By U 2:11.27 Lane 5
Eye of the Dragon 2:11.44 Lane 4
Save On Foods Dragonslayers 2:11.63 Lane 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGfaZp2UeLM

Wow...those were close races! Thanks for sharing, Dan! It was great racing Eye of the Dragon in Victoria. I can't remember...are we going to have the opportunity for a re-match in Kelowna? :)

Thanks for sharing pics and vids!


haha, can I get in on that action?


Thanks! Our secret recipe for an entertaining race is paddling hard and yelling out like insane paddlers when we know we've got an audience lol



I dont have a video for this but I saw it and you guys had an awesome race to edge out GD near the finish!

This one was awesome to watch live

it was even more awesome racing that semi.. =)

I was sitting on the bleachers right behind the guy who gave the "Braveheart" oratory. Funny, I thought he ended it with: "You can take our wives...."
Was it just my ears? or my head space?

lol, you are correct sir! I had totally forgotten about that haha

I've edited it to reflect that oversight  :D

We aren't going to Kelowna this year, we're trying Portland! It should be fun. But we always look forward to racing you, it's what Nestor calls a Blu-Eyed race :-)


I've enjoyed watching Magnum and Ultimate get so much faster. Way to go. 

A good read, IMHO

“So, what did you do Sept 14-15th weekend?”Many may have gardened,
walked the dog, went swimming or did something else relaxing.
For most of us it included the caveat “...and tried to keep cool.”
Yes, it was a hot weekend, but for members of the Navy Dragon
Anchors dragon boat team, it was a bit longer and hotter than usual.
Our weekend started on Friday morning beside the Inner
Harbour, assembling nearly 90 military modular tents. The
effort was to build the “Paddlers’ Village,” a refuge for participating
teams in the Canada Dry Victoria Dragon Boat Festival. The beauty
of the inner harbour belied the hot, dusty, dry conditions
as temperatures hovered near 30 degrees and those lofty ocean
breezes seemed too few and far between. By mid-afternoon,the
village was complete and our thirsty crew stopped to take
in the harbour views from the newly constructed beverage garden,
another important part ofthe festival. Race day began early in the
morning on Aug. 14. As is typical, it was a busy day for all of the
teams as well as festival organizers and volunteers. The normally
spacious and quiet Wharf Street pier was magically transformed
into a furious beehive of paddlers, volunteers and onlookers, at
times seemingly packed shoulder to shoulder. This normally sedate
area was awash with the sights and sounds of more than 2,000
participants plus several thousand spectators. In among the organised chaos,
concessions and vendors offered a tantalizing array of local and
international cuisine, the mouthwatering smells wafting over the
crowds. Temperatures were high even before the first race began.
Athletes and spectators were constantly reminded to keep hydrated
and seek shade when possible. Throughout the morning and
into the afternoon, each of the 82 teams met their competition.
Each team was pitted against four others in a battle for the
best placements and fastest times. Despite the heat of the day, the
mood in the marshalling area was festive, generally filled with goodnatured
banter between rivals. Some teams joked or sang team
chants, others stood quietly and tried to focus on their next race,
but everyone enjoyed themselves. The navy team once again distinguished
itself as the only team to march and sing to and from
the boats. Giant crowds gladly parted for the team, offering
words of encouragement and cheers for the defending champions
of the festival. The first race heats of the day began to unfold over the 500
metre race course. Although races generally lasted less than twoand-
a-half minutes, each heat was challenged by changing water conditions, harbour and air traffic
and the occasional Coho Ferry run, sometimes leaving teams onboard the dragon boats for
thirty minutes or more as temperatures climbed. The navy faced some tough
competition in both races on Saturday. The outcome of each
race was difficult to predict and no one was completely certain
until results were officially posted. The team’s first place finish
in both heats, along with some of the fastest times of the day,
helped put them in contention for the top division medals on
Sunday. Sunday’s weather would also prove to be a challenge for many
teams as the temperature once again reached 30 degrees before
noon, especially over the asphalt parking lot in the Paddler’s Village.
Competition between teams became more serious as closer
matched teams were pitted against each other for placement
in the semi-finals. The morning race, the navy team’s third of the
weekend, had them racing against old rivals and new challengers in
what would be their most dramatic race of the weekend.
The crew was in direct competition with the Gorging Dragons,
a local team well known as serious competitors and medallists in
world class competitions. Three other teams, all with great race
times, rounded out the pack. In one of the closest heats of
the weekend, for the first time in the team’s ten-year history, Navy
Dragon Anchors edged out the Gorging Dragons by a mere two
one hundredths of a second to take the win.
That first place win guaranteed the navy a solid place in the final
Platinum race and a shot at the gold medal.
As the tension built throughout the afternoon, the team waited
for the final race of the day. As each of the five finalists moved
into their assigned lanes, “game faces” were on. The only relief for
jitters and nerves came with the starter’s horn.
A brief moment for some, a lifetime for others, all five
boats blasted across the finish line two minutes later. As with
all races, there can be only one winner and that honour went
to Vancouver’s Dragon Hearts Magnum.
Gorging Dragons finished second, Dragon Hearts Ultimate,
one of Magnum’s sister teams, took third, while Navy Dragon Anchors and Xtreme Reach
rounded out the pack at fourth and fifth places.
With the excitement of the races still fresh in everyone’s
mind, the competitors made their way to the medal ceremonies
after hugs and handshakes were exchanged.
As the festival ceremonies concluded, the Paddler’s Village,
buzzing with activity only two hours earlier, began to empty
out, leaving the skeleton shapes of modular tents behind. Within
three hours it was a ghost town, the odd folding chair or other lost
item left behind as a testament to a weekend of hard wins and
harder losses. It was a long, hot weekend and
one for the record books – at leastmfor the Navy Dragon Anchors
and local weathermen. Next stop: Portland, Oregon.

sigh...

A good read indeed! Thanks for sharing  :D

Looking around there's a lot more articles and blog posts about this festival than I thought. There's quite a few good reads by the islanders.

Sorry I have to take off the rose-tinted sunglasses view I see in many of your comments,  and cast a critical eye on the festival, otherwise things will never change for the better.
The marshall and other volunteers did a good job - but - many things didn't work this festival. Here are a few.....
Heard about 4.40pm Sunday in the men's urinal, paddlers village "This is ridiculous, what the hell are they doing changing the schedule around 10 minutes before the race?" "What have they done?" I said. "They have switched the Platinum final,  due after the Grand Dragons Challenge, to be the next race,  don't they know that the elite teams have warmup routines, and seating confirmation to run through?" "they have stolen that time away from us, I have hardly got 20 seconds to come down here to have a p#$$" !, "up until now this has been the worst run festival I have been at this year,  this makes it the worst ever!"  , and off he ran, a very angry man, to his Platinum final.
Suggestion #1  don't go swapping races around 10 minutes before they are due to start.
Heard the day after the race from another competitor " As usual the beer garden was half full of spectators, and no room left for most of the teams to get a table for their team" "we took one look inside the gate and said to hell with it, and left".
Suggestion #2  make the beer garden paddlers only.   Allow  teams to reserve a table for a $20 deposit refundable in drink tickets when they come in.
The computer glitches - In the absence of any official explanation or apology, this is the version a bunch of us in the beer garden came up to interprete what we saw - There was a computer glitch on saturday that caused an incorrect Sunday race Schedule to be posted on the website.  After this caused the phones at VDBF to ring off the hook, they realised their mistake, and  posted the correct schedule by mid-Saturday evening.  Unfortunately, something went wrong on Sunday morning that caused printouts of the prior incorrect schedule to be posted on the official notice boards. By the time the shouting to officials about these wrong schedules started, the first and second race's boats were loaded, and the third race team was standing on the dock. Everyone was hoping we were now getting off to an early start for the day, but no - instead of printing out the correct schedules , everyone was recalled, and a further hour wasted - then the correct scheduled appeared. Then everything started again an hour+ late.
Suggestion #3 get your act together with the computer processes,  this looks like the result of a one-man-band in operation.  Get a second pair of eyes VERIFYING
information produced and printed before it is posted on the website or the notice boards. Do trial run throughs, of the computer processes,  in advance of the festival, with
a backup to the 'expert' doing the work - to verify it is all running correctly.
Heard out on the water around noon Sunday - a quantity of grumbling and cursing by eight boat loads of dragonboaters left out to fry in the sun's glare for over an hour, at
the pre-race assembly spot, while first the Coho came in,  then the water-taxi ballet took place.
Suggestion #4 If you know the Coho and the water-taxi ballet are happening - Don't sent out 8 boatloads of paddlers to fry for over an hour! Hold them on the dock in the
shade!
Suggestion #5 if you lose an hour in the morning due to computer glitches - the things to cancel are the non-dragonboat events like the water-taxi ballet for a start. I couldn't believe we were left out to roast on the water while that nonsense took priority.
The Seeding -  just to confirm what has been mentioned in earlier messages,  too many elite teams racing together at the start, left some elite teams too low placed to
get into the final rounds they should have been in. Some of the qualifing rounds had no elite teams seeded in, so the teams in them, obtained too many 1st and 2nds, so
leaving them to be humiliated in the finals against elites. Some paddlers I talked who had finalized way too high for their abilities, were very bitter over this. Seeding was
especially bad this year.
There is a big difference between VDBF and the Nanaimo festival,  at Nanaimo it is all about the paddlers having an enjoyable event, at Victoria, it is all about a) providing
a spectacle for tourists b)satisfying sponsors c)running the event d) making sure the vendors and beer garden make money  e) not upsetting the council by asking them to
keep water taxis, whale watchers and all the other small boat traffic out of the area of the harbour where the event takes place f) meeting charity targets -  the paddlers enjoying the event, comes after all these things -  I sometimes wonder if we are just regarded as a resource to make items a) through f) happen ! 
Suggestion #6  write a Vision Statement for the festival - where ensuring paddlers have an enjoyable and safe event is item #1. and everything else comes after that.  That
way a decent sized paddlers village, the ability to sit down with your team and have a drink in the beer garden, and officials taking care about how long you are left waiting
around would be addressed.

Just a FYI, the water ballet is something that is scheduled regularly and can't just be told not to happen. It would be like telling the Coho that they can't run the weekend of the festival. Yes it is inconvienent but it is part of running a festival in a working harbour.

The beer gardens were the best they have been in Victoria. None of the platinum teams had to wait in huge lineups to get in like in years past. The music was much better than before. The city of Victoria places limits on the size of the beer gardens and there is nothing the organizers can go about that.

At the chance of starting a bit of a controversy, I have to comment on some of the on water officiating. There were several instances of blantant wake riding that were not called by the water marshals. (One in a platinum semi) This can easily have a huge effect on times and placement and needs to be addressed to ensure even and fair racing in the future.

A couple of suggestions for the organizers of this festival:

1) Build time around the Coho's schedule (which are predefined on their website) into your race grid so you don't fall behind when it comes in and out of the harbour
2) Same thing for the water taxi event on the Sunday
3) Find a couple of hotel sponsors that will offer discounted group rates for out-of-town teams
4) Get more training for your officials both on land (race grid, finish line) and on water

One of the key factors to a successful event is how well planned the event is. When you know certain things are going to happen, build it into your schedule. There's no point scheduling a race at 10:30 when you know the Coho is going to leave the harbour at that time. Put in a blank heat in your grid so that you'll have a 12 minutes buffer. Even if you run ahead or behind, you know you're going to lose the buffer when the ferry does come in or pulls out.

...my two cents...

very sensible--Victoria--Hire this woman!