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August 27th was a perfect day for dragon boat racing. The sun was bright and warm, and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky as the racing got underway with the first 1250 meter heat of the day.

Three teams had registered for the 2×1250 meter pylon-turn races, and a forth, comprised of eager volunteers, was added the morning of the event to balance the schedule.

VCKC is to be commended for staging dragon boat races covering more than the usual 500 meters. National and International dragon boat racing includes races of both 1,000 and 2,000 meters, and the fact that race organizers on Vancouver Island haven’t thought to organize similar events depresses me. In the end, excluding these distances simply denies sport-level experiences to Island paddlers, depriving them of the opportunity to qualify for national events; how any festival organization can justify this is beyond me. (I understand that a popular Island festival will probably be offering distance events in 2012. If so, it will be a positive breakthrough for Island paddlers.)

I’m hoping that VCKC’s Guts & Glory will grow to include not only 200 meter sprints, but 1,000 and 2,000 meter events as well. (It’s high time someone on Vancouver Island filled this vacuum!) I have long believed the lack of 1,000 and 2,000 meter events has had a negative influence on Vancouver Island teams, as has the lack of IDBF-certified racing boats – it’s difficult practice in an Edsel when you’re going to race in a Ferrari.

Congratulations to VCKC for taking the lead in providing IDBF-certified hulls and dragon boat competitions of both over and under 500 meter distances – it’s an action that’s long overdue!

The Champion 912 boats used during this event were acquired by Victoria’s Gorging Dragons, the club that announced their high performance training program for Vancouver Island paddlers on August 13th.  It’s wonderful to know that IDBF-certified boats are finally going to be available for high performance training here on the Island, and hope that Island teams take full advantage of the opportunity to take it to the next level.

 Nanaimo’s Aquaholics heading for the finish line…

My pick for “Story of the Day?” The amazing performance of Victoria’s MS Warriors, who showed us how to get the job done.

From my point of view, it wasn’t a great day for photography, as my camera seemed to change its modes almost on its own, resulting in zillions of under-exposed and blurred photographs. There are clearly times when simply having a nice camera just isn’t enough – you actually have to understand how to use it, and I confess I really don’t

Shooting on a perfectly bright, cloudless day ought to be easy, but I just couldn’t seem to find that synergy between camera and subjects needed to produce the results I wanted. I have a lot of homework to do!

The complete photo set is being uploaded to Flickr as I write this. Click here to see them!

On another note, I can’t help but comment on the paddlers who treated these IDBF rockets like the sort of training boats they were accustomed to. I have to confess to experiencing more than one heart-stopping moment on the dock while watching paddlers jump in and out of  these 350 pound rocket ships as if they were (forgive me) Milleniums. I watched two boats nearly swamped before they even left the dock as paddlers shifted their weight around without remembering that they were in a racing boat, rather than an overweight barge with training wheels.

The shreiks  made as careless paddlers tipped these lithe little rockets over to the gunwales through their own carelessness was enough to make this 70-year-old’s heart skip a beat – I really didn’t want to watch twelve enthusiastic dragon boaters dump themselves into the Gorge. Fortunately, God was on our side, and the boats managed to remain upright in spite of the paddlers who hadn’t yet learned to respect IDBF racing hulls.

The smiles on everyone’s faces at the end of the day told their own story, and it’s clear the Champion 912s were a hit.

VCKC has posted the results here.