Hi Everybody

Our first race is 10:30am Lane 3.
So…
10:30am race
10:00am loading dock
9:45am martial area
9:15 warm up at tent
9:00am team strategies
8:45am meet at tent.


Very important for everybody to be early and not late.

Please know that 180 teams and hundreds of vendors and thousands of
attendees will be attending. Give yourself plenty of time to find a
parking spot, take skytrain, and to find our tent.

To find our tent – enter the
racer's village area on the North side of Creekside Park – entrance is
probably on Quebec St. just north of Science World and just south of
Pacific Blvd. Got to Racer's info booth – find out Tent number. I will
be there early with Team banner to put up on tent.

Tent space. This is our “home”
for 2 days. Let's make it nice. If anybody has blankets or mats to lay
down on the blacktop or grass – that will be good. deck chairs are
always good. But no security.

If you have a friend who would
like to do some security shifts while we are paddling… please invite
them. Dave Montrose will be our Race Manager for the weekend, but will
need to watch the races in case we need to launch a protest. Our spare
paddlers can also take turns rotating, when not on the boat.

Bring your own water and food for the tent.
We will coordinate some fruits and power bars for sharing… We could
do a pot luck and bring coolers. This means we do not have to go
searching for food and pay top prices. Maybe somebody can do a run to
Chinatown for some buns. I will bring some gatorade and a cooler. It is
very important to make sure everybody is hydrated, and eating lightly…

OUR RACE
Our first race at 10:30am is called a seeding race.
All the teams have been ranked according to past reputations and
performances in recent regattas and races. Ideally, this helps
determine performance ability for each team for placement in Comp A/B/C
or Rec A/B/C/D/E divisions.

Expect approximately, lane 5 to make it to Comp Div, Lane 4 & 6 to
be in Rec A/B, Lane 3 & 7 to be in in Rec B/C, Lane 2 to be in Rec
C, Lane 8 & 1 to be in Rec D/E

Don't read too much into this,
as teams are jostling for positions, and a tight race between two boats
could move one boat up, and one boat down. Repechage races will follow
to further help refine the divisions. Use the Saturday races to get
comfortable, and blend as a team. Sunday races will be very tight. The
bottom line is we want to do the best we can in each race, this helps
hone our racing skills.

Here's the expected order of finish for our first race.
Let's do our best so that lanes 7,2, 8 & 1 don't pass us.

5 Fresh Off the Dragonboat
4 TDBA – Destiny Dragons
6 Drunk'n Dragons Blue
3 Gung Haggis Fat Choy
7 JET-Ai
2 Missabittatitti
8 OC United Dragons
1 Dragons Abreast Australia

Oh – yeah… remember to have fun…