The Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team is planning on attending the following races for our season.
Kent Cornucopia Days Dragon Boat Races, Lake Meridien, WA.
July 15 & 16 – Racing on Saturday July 16th only.
This is a fun race – now grown to about 30 teams. I have attended every year since it started in 2001. In 2001, they raced BUK boats and I went down to support the False Creek Women's Team just before they headed to Philadelphia to compete in the IDBF World Dragon Boat Championships. In 2002, I went down with 3 friends as mercenary paddlers. 2 of us hooked up with Tacoma Dragon Boat Association, and they invited me to join them for the Seattle Breast Cancer Awareness and Dragon Boat Festival. In 2003, they raced 6-16 boats, and I brought down Gung Haggis Fat Choy and also helped steer for Wasabi Women Team Huge.
Check out http://www.kcdays.com/applicat.htm
Portland Dragon Boat Race, August 7th & 8th, 2004 – at Sellwood Park, Portland Oregon.
It is presented by Dragon Sports USA. contact: Joel Schilling at jmackshilli@aol.com and check out their website at: http://www.dragonsports.org/regatta/2004aug/index.html
Again, this is a nice small race. 2003 was its inaugural year, and there were 18 teams I think. Every team went home with a medal except 2. Divisions were Comp A & B, Rec A & B. I also steered some races for Wasabi, and loaned them paddlers, as we borrowed paddlers from Wasabi and Zamboanga. A highlight for the team was Saturday, when we had paddlers from the US National team heading to Poland paddling with us. We received silver medals in Rec A, and Wasabi got bronze in Comp A.
Vancouver International Taiwanese Dragon Boat Race
Sept 4 & 5, Plaza of Nations, Vancouver BC
This was the first ever Taiwanese Dragon Boat race in Canada. This race is lots of fun. It features Taiwanese “Flag catching” boats that were donated to the City of Vancouver last year. The races are held in conjunction with the Taiwanese Cultural Festival so it is like a mini-Alcan Dragon Boat Festival – utilizing the same Plaza of Nations site used for so many years.
30 teams entered last year. The Flag must be “grabbed” or “caught” prior to crossing the finish line. In olden days of yore, prior to photo finishes and stopwatches, this was the way dragon boat finishes were determined in ancient China – whoever raised their flag first won! Last year, one team grabbed the wrong flag and another missed the flag. If you miss your flag, you must go back and grab your flag in order to finish the race.
Last year, in addition to medals, there were lots of nifty prizes for the winning team in each of 4 divisions. The 2nd Division was sponsored by Telus and every person on this gold medal team recieved webcams from Telus who was also the Festival and Race sponsor.