Victoria Dragon Boat Festival - Part 1 - Race Business

Lets take care of the business side of this past race weekend first.

In the Victoria Dragon Boat Festival, there are nine Divisions, beginning with Crystal and working up to Platinum. Each division has an "A" or a "B" subdivision ("A" being the higher ranked).

Portland Fire Dragons were one of the final five teams and raced in the last heat (72) of the day. We placed 5th, Platinum A Division, and 5th place overall. Only the top-3 teams get medals, so we didn't get a medal, but this is the best we've ever done at this race as a team (beating last year's team record for this event which was 3rd, Platinum B Division, 8th place overall).

Here's the full results for Heat 72, Platinum A Division:

1st- Gold Medal - Edgewater Casino Without Warning (Vancouver, BC). Time: 2:02.20 (This was a sleeper team, for sure. We'd never heard of them, and they were in the tent space right next to us all weekend and we didn't even know it until after the race. Silent, but deadly!)

2nd- Silver Medal - Gorging Dragons (Victoria, BC). Time: 2:03.07 (They'd been posting amazing times the entire weekend, including the weekend's only sub-two minute race (1:59.64) in the second round. What an upset.)

3rd - Bronze Medal - Navy Dragon Anchors (Victoria, BC). Time: 2:03.54 (Only 1 and a half seconds behind NAVY! Better watch your back next year, bitches!)

4th - Sudden Impact Black (Cultus Lake, BC). Time: 2:04.34 (Someone on this team mentioned to our team that the back of their boat started to really lose it once we got up on them at the end of the race. It feels pretty good to know we can intmindate even some of these elite teams.)

5th - Portland Fire Dragons (Portland, OR). Time: 2:04.94 (The times between all of us were so.damn.close. This must have been an amazing race to watch. Even though we finished last, we competed against the best of the best at this race. Pretty proud of myself, my team and my coach! Go Fire!)

Full Results

Other Portland teams represented us well, too! Check it out:

Anniemaniacs (5th, Platinum B Division, 10th place overall)
Zamboanga (1st, Diamond A Division, 11th place overall)
Hampton Woods (3rd, Jade A Division, 23rd place overall)
Castaways (1st, Jade B Division, 26th place overall)
Shibumi (1st, Gold B Division, 36th place overall)
Stumptown (4th, Gold B Division, 39th place overall)
Wicked Paddling Club (5th, Silver A Division, 45th place overall)
OWLS -Oregon Women Lawyers- Dragonflies (4th, Bronze A Divison, 54th place overall)
Wasabi Gang Green (1st, Pearl A Division, 61st place overall)
Freedom Dragons International (2nd, Pearl A Division, 62st place overall)
Mighty Women Paddling Club (4th, Amethyst B Division, 78th place overall)

Come check out the Portland Fire Dragons ('cause we're hot!) and these other Portland teams at this year's Portland Dragon Boat Races, September 6 & 7th, at Waterfront Park (at the same place we do the Rose Festival Dragon Boat races, only we don't race the big boats, we race the skinny boats).

If you need extra incentive to show up, the NAVY Dragon Anchors (obviously because they crave an ass-whoopin' from the Fire Dragons) and the Bastion Dragons will be down from Victoria to compete in the Portland races.

There's no cost, so get down to the river, check us out and cheer us on!

FIRE POWER!

(next post: Part 2 - The Debauchery)