Dragon Boat West

The race grid is available.  Currently at version 2.  A lot of out of town teams, especially U23 from California.  Competition will be very good amongst local teams who are gearing up for Nationals, or have been training hard to make the next step up.

http://dragonboatbc.ca/for-racers/waivers-rules-results/ (http://dragonboatbc.ca/for-racers/waivers-rules-results/)

*EDIT* There will be a newer version of the race grid as an error was spotted.  Always check the festival web site for updated official and final race grid.
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Since it's the 25th Anniversary, there are additional activities and events this year:


Pancake Breakfast on both days

A pancake breakfast is being planned for the festival weekend from 7 am to 10 am on both Saturday and Sunday in the Beer Garden. This is a fund raiser by dragon boat team Sisters In Sync to raise funds for their out of town activities. Breakfast is by donation so come out and support their event within an event. Pre-orders available and encouraged.

Opening Night Celebration Party featuring a Fire and Light Finale and BBQ

http://dragonboatbc.ca/at-the-festival/25th-anniversary/opening-night-party-june-21st/ (http://dragonboatbc.ca/at-the-festival/25th-anniversary/opening-night-party-june-21st/)

Come join is for our Opening Night Celebration and BBQ. At 5pm please join us at the Dragon Zone Docks for our Blessing Ceremony. Then enjoy World Beat Stage performances including performances by Kevin Cozmick, aka Rokky Mountain and “The Dragon Boat Song”, Reggae On The Rocks, Orquesta Goma Dura and the Madskillz Fire and Light Finale.  On-water activities to include the Breast Cancer Survivor Flower Ceremony, Fundraising Games and demonstration races.

Event Schedule:
 5:00 – 5:45  Eye-dotting Blessing Ceremony (at docks)
 World Beat Main Stage and Plaza
5:45 – 6:00 Kitari Taiko
6:00 – 6:15 Welcome from the Board of Directors and Sponsors
6:15 – 7:15 Reggae On The Rocks
7:15 – 8: 15   Madskillz acrobats
8:15 – 9:15 Orquesta Goma Dura
9:15 – 10:15  MadSkillz fire finale
10:15 Fire and Lights Finale.

Join us as we light up the skyline.  This event is open to the public for free but please also join us for our:

25th Anniversary Celebration BBQ & Party
Village Plaza
Creekside Community Centre,
1 Athletes Way, Vancouver BC
June 21st, 2013
6pm to 10pm

$25 per person includes BBQ and and 2 drink tickets for adults or $15 for kids and teenagers. To purchase tickets please visit their web site.

Come celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the Rio Tinto Alcan Dragon Boat Festival with paddlers, supporters, friends and family!
Proceeds from this event will support the Milton K. Wong Legacy Project, Kids and Youth Programming.

25th Anniversary Gala

http://dragonboatbc.ca/at-the-festival/25th-anniversary/fundraising-gala-june-20th/ (http://dragonboatbc.ca/at-the-festival/25th-anniversary/fundraising-gala-june-20th/)

The Board of Directors for the Canadian International Dragon Boat Festival Society wish to extend an invitation to the 2013 Rio Tinto Alcan Dragon Boat Festival 25th Anniversary Gala Fundraising Event@Shangri-La Hotel, Vancouver

June 20th at Shangri-La Hotel, Vancouver1128 West Georgia Street Vancouver, B.C., V6E 0A8, Canada
$125.00, includes fabulous food provided by the great chefs from the Shangri-La Hotel, Vancouver and beverages from Lang Vineyards, Granville Island Brewery and Twisted Tea, asilent auction and entertainment by Uno Mas!

Biggest race in the west this side of Nationals. Anyone got any predictions? There's been rumblings that CIBC is loaded, but One West and FCRCC have been neck and neck all spring. Of course there's Kai Ikaika who are always a dangerous crew, and Gorging will be over from the island too. That seems to be the top tier, with a bunch of crews (Pemberton, Ares, SI, etc) just one step behind that group. What do you think? I say:

1. One West
2. Kai Ikaika
3. CIBC
4. FCRCC
5. Gorging Dragons

My predictions for Comp A

The top four in order:

1. One West
2. FCRCC
3. Kai
4. Portland Fire Dragons

The rest:

CIBC
Gorging
Bald Eagles
a team from California
a wildcard

Comp A predictions in order...

1) One West
2) FCRCC
3) Kai
4) CIBC
5) Gorging
6) Portland Fire
7) Someone random
8) Someone random


As the coach of Ares I can honestly say we are not peaking for Alcan... we aim to have our team peak at Nationals. I think we are several steps behind what people might expect of us at Alcan. Just a humble opinion from yours truly, but thank you for thinking of us Chillipepper!  :o

Boy oh Boy!  It's going to be a fun weekend of racing.

Glad to see the large number of visiting teams, LARD, BAD, SF Dragon Warriors, Kai, Bridge City, Lightwave, Dragon Healers etc...Welcome Back!! 

Like I've said in my previous post, the creek is filled with paddlers training for Canadian Nationals and Worlds so I'm thinking the top 3 spots will be canadians teams.

1) One West
2) FCRCC HP
3) CIBC Imperial Dragons
4) Kai
5) Gorging
6) Pemberton Bald Eagles
7) DH Ultimate/RGL United  I don't the name of their team.  Anyone?
8) Portland Fire

I'm going with an alternative winner, because I saw One West paddlers eating Doritos at the regatta and it probably made them all fat and slow.  Please don't tell Jackie because I don't want them to get into trouble.  Anyways, my picks:

1)  CIBC Imperial Dragons, because those old farts can still paddle.
2)  One West, because they are still pretty decent and I'm assuming they will wash their hands of Dorito dust before racing.
3)  Gorging Dragons, because it looks like they are trying really, really hard to improve for the Nationals this year.
4)  FCRCC HP, because that lady in bench one, left is going to slow them down.  I heard it took her over four hours to complete a race a couple of months ago.   :P
5)  Whoever is the fastest out of the California or Oregon teams.  At least one of them has to be pretty good.

Not wanting to rain on the parade while it’s raining, but in years past, and not that far in the past for that matter, there’d be as many if not more PAGES for the Deep Cove Dash as there are REPLIES to this years post on Alcan predictions. What’s happening (or not).  Thoughts?

There are more page stalkers than actual posters. And more one-time, looking-for-team or selling-something people instead of regulars who want to discuss the sport. So lonely!

Well, that’s a relief.  For a while there I thought my hiatus from paddling caused general interest to fizzle. 

;)

But seriously, all the best in your races this weekend and to paraphrase the theatrical; Break a paddle!

Here seem to be some results by race, not division.

http://dragonboatbc.ca/live-results/ (http://dragonboatbc.ca/live-results/)

I watched the Comp A finals and its probably the toughest heat i've seen in years. 

1)Congrats to FCRCC HP on your first place finish! This was probably the best win I've seen in person by FCRCC. For me, FCRCC were definately the underdogs going into final heat.  Great win!

2) Kia ...strong as always.

3) CIBC Imperial dragons...what are you guyz planning in the future?  More racing elsewhere

4) One West, the favorites going into the final heat of the festival.....a little adversity will make you stronger.

5) Dragonheart Beat.  A fifth place finish at this years comp A final was no easy feat.  You guyz are really growing as a team.  Im looking forward to seeing you guyz progress the next couple of years. 

Saturday Results
http://dragonboatbc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/AlcanFestival2013-SaturdayResults.pdf (http://dragonboatbc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/AlcanFestival2013-SaturdayResults.pdf)

Sunday Results
http://dragonboatbc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/RioTintoAlcanFestival2013-SundayResults.pdf (http://dragonboatbc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/RioTintoAlcanFestival2013-SundayResults.pdf)

A few surprises here and there.  I did not expect to see CIBC do so well, but good for them.  Good performance by Dragon Hearts Beat beating a lot of the well known Comp A teams.

Congratulations to all who raced!

I'm curious as to how HP wound up in lane 2 for the comp A finals. It would have been nice to see them race Kai Ikaika side by side.

Stuff you find on the internet.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KMZH0f5Nh4

Second turn on mixed crew Guts and Glory.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0czbKmRX9k

Hahaha.  19m mark was funny! 

Garbage Miles, you mean when a steersperson carries a dragon boat paddle on their back during a race, it is not merely a fashion statement ;)

Did anyone notice anything strange going on with the results in the championships rounds?  :eh:

There was a claim made that Black 4 (favoured boat during mixed championship rounds on Sunday afternoon) always seemed to lose big, with the exception of Mixed Recreation F Championships (Race 88) where Making Waves times were consistently improving throughout the festival. It would be then true that Black 4 used in lane 4 odd heats on Saturday would yield the same pattern. Unfortunately, I can't really conclusively tell if that is true or not.

As much as I like to just jump into a boat and race, as a steersperson, I do a quick check if the steering yoke and oar are solid. As a paddler, I reach under and rub the underside of the boat closest to my seat for slime. No, we never have enough time to check if it has run around or do a thorough inspection, but it is nice to know.

For the obvious problems that can't be repaired in a minute (e.g. missing pin from a drummer seat), I guess the dock marshals would replace the boat for the rest of the festival, but I wonder what they would do if we found slime under the hull? If they did nothing, I would try get my team to haul that sucker up, clean it and get it back into the race which would add a 15 minute delay to the race schedule, but at least I know it wasn't the slime's fault for our performance. For a festival the size of RTADBF, don't think they would allow me to do that. Then again, they did make Dreadnought paddle out to the start line for one race, then told us to return to dock to get into the "right" boat.

Someone else noticed that the black labelled boats where IDBF certified in 2012, and the blue labelled boats were certified much earlier. So organizers they gave the newer boats into the championship heats. Mind you, that was beer garden talk after the races, so I am not even sure of the source on that one.

These boats were cleaned once within 2 weeks of the festival by volunteer teams on various days.

The results of boat #4 black:

Race 90: Metro Vancouver 44 Cheeks - 6th out of 8
Race 92: Draggin Riders - 8th out of 8
Race 94: Wasabi Grand Masters Mixed - 8th out of 8
Race 96: LARD - 8th out of 8
Race 98: Skinny Fish Paddling Club - 9th out of 9
Race 100: One West - 4th out of 9

I've never seen so many top seeded teams choke in their final  :lol: :lol:. It's a disgrace to have this happen especially during the festival's 25th anniversary celebration.

This logic would then apply to whoever had black 4 in the Guts/Glory race, Portland Fire Dragons. They finished 6th overall in Comp A and 7th in Guts race. Seems consistent there and not a bad boat scenario.

I don't think you can exactly use a 2K race to compare with 500m considering the multitude factors involved in a 2k plus teams taking it as more of a 'bonus' race.

Random stuff off of YouTube

Race 100 - Mixed Comp A Final
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCya8nmgRCo

Race 99 - Mixed Comp B Final
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9prx4QTQwA

Race 87 - Women's Comp A Final
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQGrFC77mAY

Race 76
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvuvb0od6gs

Race 69
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyPUCxvmI6k

Race 68
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yiXZCGp_Lc

Race 35
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=422I-a2PP1s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USUFsWpPdBU

Race 31
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=In3_rHYYfKI

Fireworks (from Friday, June 21, 2013) for those that were sleeping early before the races on the weekend.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrJXzFnBfGg

The average placement of lane four in the final races, odd races on the left, even on the right.

Odd   Even   Race Nbr
2   4   99/100
1   9   97/98
2   8   95/96
8   8   93/94
4   7   91/92
4   6   89/90
1   3   87/88
5   7   85/86
1   7   83/84
1   3   81/82
1   5   79/80
5   4   77/78
1   2   75/76
2.77   5.62   Average
Hmmm...