Dragon Boat West

I know it's still over a month to go, but predictions for Victoria Dragonboat Festival? There are a few strong teams coming... Team Cream, GD's, False Creek, Dreadnought, Portland Fire Dragons, Paddles of Fury...

Should be an interesting race this year. GD's, False Creek and Portland Fire Dragons are heading to the world club crews... then there is Team Cream (a throw together team of outrigger paddlers I heard) who won last year and almost beat Kai's record. Their times were all sitting at around 1:53 and change... their fastest time was 1:52:70

Troll

Facts:
Victoria course around 475m
Last year flood tide, final started well over the line,
No wonder times were quick!

Very interesting, considering the fastest times were actually during the semis last year, and course length has always been the same. Plus, that's not a prediction.

Based on current form, gds should win. Kamini will have dialled it up for FC so they'll be no pushover. Team Cream will be strong but impossible to know how they'll stack up. I think Portland Firedragons are signed up and are also heading to Ravenna, so should be strong.

I have a feeling Italy will effect visiting crews across all divisions. Some people will be saving their money for that trip so may effect their rosters and therefore their outcome.

I do know Ill be dropping everything to watch finals though.

ps, "Team Cream" is far from a throw together team. Majority paddle together on a regular basis for outrigger season. Despite being focused on outrigger most have extensive dragon boat experience and even coach many of the local dragon boat teams.

What's troll? I thought this was a dragonboat forum?

Good point about all your facts boatbutt, but every team has that same advantage in the festival and any other festival. Line ups are never perfect, weather is never perfect... water conditions change fast... It's plain and simple... The teams will race head to head and whoever crosses the finish line first.... well you know. Either way flooding or not... Shorter course or not... I believe victoria festival has always been 475m. When you look at it that way... Last years times were impressively fast compared to other years.

Maybe this year teams will be even faster since all teams are training harder. Gds and false creek looked sharp and prime at alcan. Team Cream was awesome to watch last year even if they are a bunch of outrigger paddlers... Don't mean that in a bad way.

My prediction.... it could be anyone's game, but I'm voting for team cream to be on top.

Sundays Nanaimo results, perhaps could influence peoples Victoria predictions

http://nanaimodragonboat.com/files/2614/0486/0758/Nanaimo_2014_Sunday_results.pdf (http://nanaimodragonboat.com/files/2614/0486/0758/Nanaimo_2014_Sunday_results.pdf)

1) GD will take top spot for shizzle
2) False Creek
3) Team Cream

VYPC did well at Nanaimo DBF this year. Also, Dreadnought came in a respectable position at RTADBF. Could be a good run for the gold.

Here is Victoria Dragon Boat Festival Society's list of teams to watch this weekend:

(https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2938/14602011228_426fba383f.jpg)

paddlinggirl, Dreadnought ought to be on that list. Your crew was in the Alcan A final (Portland Fire Dragons were not) and has had impressive results ever since. This should be a really interesting race. FC will want to pay back Gorging after finishing behind them at Alcan. Gorging will want local bragging rights over Team Cream. The Creamies have some hype, but they just raced outrigger nationals and you have to think they're coming in tired and not really focused on dragonboat. Portland and Dreadnought are two fast crews that aren't getting the attention they deserve. And there's always some out of left field team that shows quicker than anyone expects. Only a few days left until the fun starts!

@HootHoot  Thanks for your Dreadnought support - we'll definitely take it with us this weekend. 

Portland Fire Dragons came in first in Comp B at Alcan this year so they are definitely a worthy contender.  FCRCC and Gorging definitely have proved their dominance here at Alcan, placing 2nd and 3rd respectively, and Team Cream last year took home gold in Victoria with a dominating win.  All of these are very strong teams which will make it a very interesting race, like you said.

We placed 4th in Victoria last year but we certainly has come a long way over the past year and we still have quite a ways to go. 

With that said, we certainly can't wait to see what we can do this weekend.  :D

OC 20 Team Cream Powered by Jacksons Ice Cream showed their stuff once again with a course record winning time of 1:49:49. Not bad for a bunch of outrigger paddlers that have had zero practice together in a dragon boat. Hopefully they show up at Alcan next year.

Victoria was a really fun festival this year. A few observations on the A final teams:

-Team Cream brought it. I was wrong about them.
-Gorging is legit. The semi-final performance was awesome. Tough break for them with the FC steering adjustment in the final, but they are a threat to medal at worlds.
-Really tough to judge FC. They weren't at full strength this weekend, and they always feel capable of unleashing something awesome but you just never know.
-Dreadnought is coming up. Will be a force next year, but this time around just one very small step down from the alpha dogs.
-Portland Firedragons I expected more from.

That is an Alcan-worthy A final! Really fun to watch.

really great racing from all teams this weekend!

Watching the finals was amazing. Team Cream OC20 coming 1st and taking it by a boat length over False Creek and GD's! That's pretty dominating given the fact that False Creek, GD's and Firedragons are going to the worlds. Team Cream OC20 mixed smashed the course record. Team Cream OC20 open men's team smashed the record at 1:44 and change... I also heard that it's the fastest time ever in the Victoria Dragon Boat history. Team Cream OC20 Sprinkles also set a course record for hitting sub 2 minutes at 1:59 and change.

boatbutt, what do think now?  :)

Dominated? Did you even watch the final? The only reason OC20 won it by that margin was that Gorging had to make 2 huge course corrections about 200M into the final to avoid a collision with FC who were impeding on Gorging. (BTW Gorging was leading at the time) In the only unbiased meeting of the two teams (the semi final) Gorging came out on top. Would they have held on in the final? We'll never know, but to say they were DOMINATED by OC-20 is a load of crap.

I would suggest that the debate of whether or not it was dominating is moot. I think the real debate should be how it is a group of paddlers are that have not had one practice together in a DB since last years Victoria festival is competing with clubs that have had 4 or more a week for the past year. Clubs that are headed for worlds. To me that's a more interesting conversation.

I did watch the final and it was an exciting one. I was sitting close view of the finish line. There must be video out there by now of the race. If the GD's had to make a correction to avoid "collision with FC" I don't think it would had to be that much of a correction. Isn't steering part of the game as well? From my view and was talking to others as well... Team Cream OC20 was already way ahead by the 200m mark. winning by 3 or more seconds does not come right at the end... it most likely comes from shooting out of the blocks and taking the lead right away. The officials would have said something if FC impeded GD's way. Anyways, no need to be so upset about it... it's a local dragon boat festival that was won by a bunch of outrigger paddlers (interesting!) and I think they did dominate when it they won by a boat length and a bit. Anyways... you should look for some videos. I'm gonna see whats out there and post if I can find some.

I just did a search and here is a video of the finals https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t35vkP6k_TE (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t35vkP6k_TE) . Lane 2 is FC and Lane 3 is GD's and from what I can see FC is way far from GD's. lane 1 is Team Cream OC20.  At 0:06 you can see that Team Cream  are in the lead at this point and you can also see that FC is far away from GD's. Then at around 0:10 you can really see the lead of lane 1 and still FC is far away from GD's. So I don't get why you think FC almost collided with the GD's. Watch the rest and you can see if that Team Cream did dominate the race. 

I would have to say from Jamie_a video, that lane 1 was in the pack until the other boats interfered with each other allowing OC20 to take the lead. I have to admit, that this is a horrible angle to see how close the boats were to each other in the race, but without the "drone video copter" flying with them, I don't think there is any really good vantage point to see the race in Victoria.

Congrats to all the teams in the mixed platinum final. It is clear to me that you all deserved to be in the final heat.

Jamie, clearly you have minimal experience. Carry on...

Two things that get my goat (in a very mild and barely goat-like fashion):

- people talking about "records" for paddling competitions. Let's be real, there's no way you can talk about 'records' when the conditions are so different between venues. It's even problematic for 'course records' given the lack of consistency in equipment, not to mention tides and wind. This isn't track and field!

- people arguing about "unfair" races due to barney boats, wash riding, interference, etc.

My take on the video: it's too hard to see if any interference occurred given the angle, distance, and the fact that we only see the last half of the race. However, I'm pretty sure Team Cream has a big lead when the video starts. I now invite the grassy knoll theorists to provide their input. Perhaps there was a second shooter.

At least we don't have to go through a Warren Commission to determine the reason for the winning or losing. We've already gone through enough verbiage to rival any report or conspiracy regarding the final race in Victoria. OMG it is not rocket science people. It's a dragonboat race....please give it a rest.

I agree with Brainiac about "records"  Tidal currents and boat type makes a huge difference with race times.  When some tells me their team did a 1min 45 sec ...500 meter race in uncontrolled waters... i have to quietly turn my head away and roll my eyes.  

I think Barney boats (unclean or waterlogged boats) are unfair.. This can be controlled by race organizers.

Unintentional interference or washing riding....well that's just a part of racing

Just my three cents

Maybe i don't have a lot of experience paddling but I totally understand about conditions, wake riding equipment and etc, the festival has been around for 20 years and all the fast times have been around an average of 1:55 to 1:58. So most of you guys are saying that the paddlers on Team Cream had the help of the wind, current and equipment gods to break the records? There is a little bit more to that. Every other team has/had the same advantage (with the current/winds equipment etc...) The GD's and Kai have posted fast times and had over 20 years to post the fastest times with current and wind help.

Boatbutt... are you a GD?

jamie_a, I am not sure why you are trolling on this matter. OC20 Cream Team won the championship heat for mixed division. None of the earlier writers, whether or not they are from Gorging Dragons or any other paddling club, care about "records" at the Victoria Dragon Boat Festival as each race is different. If you care to, you can look at the preliminary races to find the fast heat over its history. You will find one that probably had the tidal current and wind, and probably "brand new" millennium boats.

This was a good race as the stars aligned for OC20 Cream Team, but it would have been closer if the other boats had their "stars" align. Some of us have seen FCRCC Premier, Gorging Dragons have better races. And as I said earlier, all the teams, including Dreadnought and Portland Fire Dragons, deserved to have been in the final mixed race.

To everyone else reading this, sorry, I was baited by jamie_a.

Jamie A. Give it a rest. This is old news. There is more paddling and racing going on in Ravenna, Italy, than you will ever see. West Coast Canadian teams are winning gold, silver and bronze, and are leading the World Club Crews. Please gain some perspective. Victoria Dragon boat races are a little fish in a big, big pond. Get real.