Whelp, another Kelowna Festival has come and gone, marking the end of the dragonboat season for a large majority of the Vancouver teams.
My first thought when I arrived into Kelowna was probably the first thought on a large number of paddlers travelling to Kelowna. "I don't see any smoke... must be a good sign"
Weatherwise it was pretty good... except for Sunday morning where it rained... and showered... and dumped...
First of all, congratulations to Alpha Dragons Red, Pacific Reach and Team Storm for coming 1, 2 and 3 overall in this year's festival
Fresh Off the Dragonboat came in 6th in the Platinum Division, beating out teams like DWW and Acme Dragons and nearly beating
www.roli.com. Word of advice to the the guys on the boat. When you are planning to dunk your girls, make sure they don't hear you planning it... they'll usually run away after they get off the boat once they know about it. Oh and... you're supposed to throw people in the water... not drag them through the gravel...
MPower came a respectable 5th place (12th overall) in the Platinum Consolation. Considering what happened to some of their paddlers I am impressed that they were able to keep their times consistent. I hope you guys are ok and best of luck to you guys next season.
Congratulations to Eye of the Dragon for winning the Gold in the Diamond Division (15th overall). You guys along with the Grand Dragons are definately an inspiration to us all.
VO2Max ended up finishing 3rd in the Gold Consolation, edged out of a Gold Final berth by something like three-tenths of a second by VanCity Thunder who eventually took the Gold division beating out BC Hydro.
The races were marshalled pretty efficiently at some times heats were going one hour ahead of schedule. Of course once the boats were on the water, it was a different story. I have never seen so many collisions and near collisions *cough* Linguini *cough*
It may be because the race course does not run parallel to the shore but actually at an angle. Also I overheard that lanes 1 and 2 were very disadvantaged lanes since there's a strange current that runs down those lanes that would slow down boats in those lanes (and you thought stories about Ogopogo were stange).
The paddler's party was held in the beer garden again this year. I didn't go in but from what I heard, it was pretty packed as usual. Biggest complaint was that it got pretty dusty since people were kicking up sand when they were dancing.
In general, Kelowna was well run and definately a favorite out here on the West Coast. I definately would recommend teams to attending this race in the future.
