GORGED!

The Dog Paddlers had a good day on the water, at what used to be known as the Vancouver Island Dragon Boat Championships but has now been given the new moniker of "Gorge Fun Fest". The weather couldn't really make up its mind: some sun, some cloud, some wind, some rain.... When we left, the beer garden celebrants were a tad on the dampish side as the rain that had moved in around 2:30 decided to stick around. We decided not to (stick around, that is), so that we could go home, dry off and warm up. It's not the best August summer weather when you find yourself sitting around in the tent with jackets on and blankets draped over you!

The Dog Paddlers won their first race of the day very handily, with our nearest competitors in the heat finishing a good 15 seconds behind us. Our second race (semi-final) saw us racing against our coach's team (Xtreme Reach) again, as we had at the Nanaimo festival. Xtreme won the heat; we came second. We don't know by how much, as the timers forgot to start the clock for our race. Having come second in our semi-final, we were bumped up to compete in the Blue Final A. The top 4.

We gave it our all in the final, but were outstripped by Navy (who beat the field with a sub-two-minute performance); Xtreme Reach finished second, Precision Impossible finished third; and the Dog Paddlers finished a very respectable fourth. So, fourth overall for the "Gorge Fun Fest." We'd have loved to have knocked off Precision Impossible for the bronze medal, but it wasn't to be today. We gave it our all, but maybe three races in a day isn't our cup of tea—we just didn't have the power we needed to pull that off this time. Still, since we hadn't really considered that we might make the A Final when we started the day, we're still feeling pretty pumped about our placement. Despite the rain! And oh, did I mention that we had our best time EVER in this race? It was 2:06:65.

Next week, it's the Victoria Dragon Boat Festival—our final big event of the paddling season. The competition will be much stiffer there, with some of the teams that have been competing in the Worlds returning to give everyone some amazing teams to chase. There will also be more teams from Vancouver, Portland and the Seattle area that usually put in an appearance for this festival. We'll give it our best there too, and whatever the outcome, we've had a pretty darn sensational season!