Early September in Penticton usually means blue skies, warm temps and smooth sailing. But this past weekend was a bit out of the ordinary. The wind kicked up Saturday afternoon, a precursor to a powerful thunderstorm and then plenty of rain early Sunday morning.
So one might think it was a tough weather weekend for an event like the 19th annual Penticton Dragon Boat Festival. But here's the thing. The wind and the choppy water Saturday simply made things more exciting. The storm struck when it was dark. And the rain eased off in time for the majority of Sunday's finals.
Ultimately, the festival went off without a hitch. Sixty-eight teams and nearly 2000 athletes from all over BC and parts Alberta did what they usually do – have a great time socializing and hanging out before paddling their arms off to outdo their new-found friends on the water.
"We were a bit challenged by the wind on Saturday," said festival president Don Mulhall as he towed boats to Kamloops for the 55+ BC Games Tuesday morning. "But in the end the teams prevailed. And the steerspepole did a great job with the wind and the safety crews kept everyone on line."
"And then we had the thunderstorm and Sunday started off looking a little grey. But later it was the best racing of the weekend. We knew the weather was going to improve, and the water was calm and everything just flowed beautifully."
Mulhall explained that in choppy water, the long dragon boats "can get high-centered. And once they're high centered, they turn more easily and more quickly, and sometimes that catches people off guard."
Aboard one of the safety vessels Saturday afternoon, PentictonNow witnessed a couple of dragon boats involuntarily veer way off track. And once they began to swing, they were done.
But, said Mulhall, paddlers accustomed to training in less than ideal conditions were positively thrilled. "Some of the teams were rubbing their hands together in anticipation because it was windy."
And when the last boat was pulled from the water Sunday afternoon, it was a squad based in Victoria that turned in the most remarkable performance of the weekend.
Not only did the FGPC (Fairway Gorge Paddling Club) First Responders team win every race they entered, but they straight-up dominated the glamour event, the Mixed Platinum Final A. There, they faced off against the pre-festival favourite, the primarily military-staffed Navy Dragon Anchors.
They won by four full seconds. That they clocked the only sub-two minute time of the weekend (1:59:41) was a bonus.
"The delight from my perspective," said FGPC's Erik Ages, who also happens to be the GM of the Fairway Gorge facility, "is that the people on my team are mostly staff, employees of the Paddling Club."
"My intent going to Penticton is that it's kind of our end of season staff party. We operate events all summer long - the Victoria and Nanaimo dragon boat festivals, all the outrigger races, and much more. We're an event management team, but in Penticton we get to take those hats off and just have a great weekend."
"And it's such a beautiful venue. We run in venues that are logistically quite a bit more complex because they're more heavily urban and there are all kinds of issues. Working harbours, seaplanes, commercial traffic."
"But this is a fantastic site, a gem. And it's such a welcoming and gracious community."
Ages said the "First Responders" moniker is a tribute to a former employee and staff boat paddler named Sarah Hunn, who recently left Fairway Gorge to work with City of Victoria emergency management.
"So First Responders is first a tribute to her and to all those whose first fundamental role in their regular work is safety."
"And," he continued, "Sarah's mom Gillian, who is not one of our staff but is a member of Penticton's Survivorship team (a team comprised of breast cancers survivors), also paddled for us this weekend."
She was one of four Survivorship athletes to join the winning FGPC team.
Mulhall also had reasons to by happy with the festival's final race. The Peach City Dragons, a team he personally coaches, finished third in that race. "If you talk to them, they'll say they're a bunch of old farts," he laughed. "So they did really well finishing third in the very highest final of the whole event."
Mulhall also pointed to the Penticton Golden Dragons, a group of senior paddlers with teams in both the Mixed and Women's sides, and "22nSync" as local squads with good weekends.
When asked why there weren't any men's teams or a men's division at the festival, both Mulhall and Ages said that's typical of the sport at the local level. Seems that dragon boat racing attracts far more women than it does men.
It's a situation they'd both like to see change. Are you listening, men?
In that spirit, the Penticton Dragon Boat Society will hold its annual "Come Try Dragon Boat" program in late May/early June. It's free, it's fun, and it might just get you hyped about a sport that isn't reserved solely for the uber fit.
Write [email protected] for more information.
