Ideal Conditions

The annual Dragon Boat festival was held in Vancouver and given the weather as well as those competing, it was once again a huge success.

As with most events a press release follows and this is one we received from Anita Webster, media relations of the www.dragonboatbc.ca. Special “thanks” for passing it on to us.

Ideal weather, an attractive line-up of activities and noteworthy races brought crowds by the thousands to the 27th Rio Tinto Alcan Dragon Boat festival on the weekend.

The hotly-contested junior (high school) division saw one of the weekend’s biggest surprises when the Eric Hamber Eternal Dragons took first place, edging out perennial winners the Laoyam Eagles from Pemberton.

“The Eternal Dragons took the race by almost two seconds – a long time in dragon boat racing,” said Race Director Greg Lamb. “It was exhilarating for Judy Chan, the team’s longtime manager, as the Eagles have held that spot for 16 years.”

In other Festival news, relaxed liquor laws in BC meant the beer garden welcomed families to enjoy music, food and entertainment together in Village Plaza.

The mood was upbeat with a circus act on the seawall, a juggler entertaining kids in the Dragon’s Den and Latin and African beats on the stage.

The Festival attracted 188 teams from across the lower mainland, the interior and west coast cities such as Seattle, San Francisco and LA.

Two teams were visiting from Australia this year and the local team of visually-impaired paddlers, Eye of the Dragon, hosted a similar team called Team Blindstart from California.

The weekend wrapped up with a two kilometer-plus race for elite teams in which they paddled the course six times, requiring five turns of the boat.

Organizers estimate about 100,000 people were at the Festival over its two days.

The Rio Tinto Alcan Dragon Boat Festival 2016 will be June 17, 18 and 19.

For info on the overall results visit http://dragonboatbc.ca/live-results/

Continued Success