SPRINTING INTO SPRING

It was time to shine up the PFDs for another dragon boat racing season this past Saturday. The Dog Paddlers kicked off their 2010 season with the Gorge SuperSprints at the Gorge Paddling and Rowing Centre, their home base in Victoria. The PFDs have been getting regularly soaked for the past couple of months as the team practised twice a week, come rain or come shine (but not come wind—some evenings were just way too windy to put boats out on the water).

The Dog Paddlers started off strongly in their first heat, leaving their competition in their wake with a very strong performance. There's nothing quite like the first adrenaline of the season pumping through a paddler's veins to catapult the boat into the top division of the day. The Dog Paddlers' great time punted them into the Blue B semi-final, with what was, I think, the fifth or sixth best time of the first round of heats.

Their semi-final presented a formidable task: beat the Navy team. Hmm. Probably not something that was likely to happen, but as usual, the Dog Paddlers just bore down and headed off in hot pursuit (as any good dog will!). It was a valiant effort, but the Dog Paddlers came up a bit short and found themselves in third place when all was said and done. Still, they remained in the top flight of boats, and headed into the Blue B final with very determined looks on their faces. The competition for this race: our favourite Nanaimo team, the Dragonslayers, and one of our fellow club teams, Xtreme Reach. A close race, with Xtreme Reach surging into the lead at the end, and the Dragonslayers and the Dog Paddlers battling it out for second place. With a final push, the Dragonslayers edged us out by just a couple of seats.

Overall, the Dawgs finished in sixth place out of 24 teams in the mixed division—exactly how we did last year! This is a particularly great result, as there has been some significant turnover in the boat this year, with a number of new paddlers making their competitive debut with this event. Congratulations, Dog Paddlers, on a great start to the 2010 season!

Watch the Dawgs in action:

To see some candid paddler portraits captured during the day, go to my Flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/26205675@N07/

Click on the individual images to see larger versions.