Gung Harrison Fat Choy!

We all had a lot of fun at the inaugural Fraser Valley Dragon Boat Festival – held at Harrison Lake.

All the paddlers integrated very well.
The Drunkn Dragon paddlers brought lots of humour and teasing to the
boat.  The CC Riders bring some centering, The GVRD 44 Cheeks
paddler/steers brought his camera and love for the team.  And our
GHFC paddlers provide the structure and the foundation.

And when combined – a heckuva lotta fun!
Our veteran paddlers shared their experience and supported our rookies,
and our newbie paddlers rose to the occasion.  Together we won our
first race as a team and it pushed us for medals.

Here's my breakdown of the day…
to share with our paddlers who couldn't make it!

There were 24 teams are randomly seeded.  

First race.  We place 2nd.
uneven – Bob says the backs are pushing the fronts

2nd race, We place 3rd.
I explain to the team – that race 2 is the race to
experiment as I switch the lead strokes.
More uneven – Bob says front half and back half were
paddling two different races.  Our slowest race.

24 teams are now settled into 3 categories.
2 heats of women's division
2 heats of Division 2
2 heats of Division 1

3rd race
This is the race that matters.  Only 1st and 2nd place
teams move to the medal round.
We are 7th seed for Division 2.
Switch the lead strokes back – no gap.
I pop into seat 5.
Dave Samis is steering now.

We have our best race ever!
Our time is 2:34.69
We win our first race of the year!
We are now the top seed going into Div 2 Finals
We are racing for medals
Deb is bouncing up and down she is so happy.
She has drummed a winning team!
Bob has to calm her down.


4th Race
Division 4 finals
at the start line – we discover that I don't have a pfd on.  shhh!
Dog fight from start to finish.
We are boat #2 – second from shore.
I paddle the right side, and I can see Boat #1 slowly
pull away from us.  I can hear the drum from boat #3 beside us,
ahead of us, behind us.  I am hoping that it is beside me –
because that would mean they are 5 seats behind our drum.

We cross the finish line.  Only Boat #1 is cheering.
Nobody else is certain of the finish order.
We congratulate everybody on our races.
Bob is at the Finish lane tent with Trev, as DBA was doing the finish line.  We are 4th, by just over 1 second.

Everybody is feeling good about the team, and their
performance.  We gave it our all.

What else?

Mizz Drag-On-Boat contest.
Ian Paul of the Fraser Valley Dragon Boat Club comes by the tent before
the lunch break asking teams to enter a contestant.  Both Bob and
I have our kilts in the cars. I ask the team to vote on having Bob or
myself as our team contestant.  I ask people to put up their hands
to vote for Bob dressing up.  Nobody puts up their hand.  I
ask people to vote for me to dress up.  Everybody puts up their
hand.  As I start to head off to the car to change, Tammy 
offers me her pink bikini swim suit.  Enough said… except that
Jody heard people say that they thought I should have won.
Oh well… what can we do when we make up something on the fly. 
The contestants who won wore evening dresses and put a lot of effort
into their costumes and deserved their tiaras.

Next practice Wednesday 6pm
next race – Richmond or Vernon July 23(if you want to hop another boat – no official GHFC entries)
next race after that…
San Francisco
Vancouver Taiwanese Races

Cheers, Todd

The Harrison Festival of the Arts,
has always sounded real cool. But I have never managed to find my way
out to Harrison since 1989.  This year there is a dragon boat
race, the inaugural Fraser Valley Dragon Boat Festival put on in conjunction with the Festival of the Arts.  Looks like I will finally get there.

Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team
will race with a recreational crew bolstered by some paddlers from CC
Riders and Drunkin' Dragons.  Our practice felt pretty solid on
Wednesday night with only 16 people in the boat.  I think we will
have a good time.

Two hours East of Vancouver is the idyllic resort community of Harrison Hot Spring,
known for its famous hot springs and the annual sand castle
competition.  I first visited the public springs when I was a
pre-teen.  I thought it was crowded.  But in my twenties, I
learned to search for the untamed wild hot springs such as Meagre
Creek, Halcyon, Hot Springs Cove and Hot Springs Island.  Today in
my 40's, I still resist learning to say “Yes” when my girlfriend offers
to take me to the Harrison Resort for a weekend.

Dragonboats and Hot Springs… could be a deadly combination –
especially if you throw in the words “party” and “wineries.” 
Maybe we will find a way to stay overnight in Harrison afterall.