Participated in Tampa Festival. Was very impressed with the Hanelai team who was 3rd and the Dragon Beasts who won. Both teams were from Canada. Apparently it was the first time ever the Dragon Beast team raced! I think they are from Vancouver. Everyone in Canada should know that the venue was superb, there were 55 teams, the racing was great and it is getting very competitive. If you are looking for a great festival, think Tampa.

Close. Dragon Beasts are from out East not West.

Feeling very humbled due to the northern teams this weekend. On the plus side we will train harder. Hope to see more Canadians in Tampa next April.

From where in the east? Any one know who these guys are?
Hanelai is a pretty good team. How close was the race? How far was it?

Clearly, not the first time ever for the dragon beasts.

http://www.tampabaydragonboats.com/popup/teamsmore.html

"The Dragon Beasts, representing Dragon Boat East is proudly making their first appearance at the Tampa Bay Dragon Boat Races! Dragon Boat East, based in Nova Scotia, Canada has the goal of promoting dragon boating in Eastern Canada at both the recreational and elite level. The Dragon Beasts Crew boasts experienced dragon boaters who have had success on the local, national and international stage. Crew members are looking forward to participating in the event but are equally excited about heading south after a long Canadian winter!"

It does not look like they were trying to hide anything.
Why the dig? You must be the same bitter soul that took a shot at them in the other post.

Not 100% but i think there out of the local Scotia Canoe Clubs. Are they going to be at worlds? Anyone? Anyone? Fry?

How can you be first time racers and have had success at the international level. Are these guys from Montreal?

They could be flat water paddlers jumping into a DB for the first time. But could have had Flat water success or some of their paddlers could have been on the one of the national teams. First time under that team name i'm sure.

My bet is that they are from Banook Canoe Club

So who came in second and what were the times?

I heard Albert McDonald from Nova Scotia was in the Dragon Beast crew. I think he has won a bunch of medals at Worlds in dragon boat.
I don't know if he used to be a flattie, I think he paddled marathon canoe.

The Dragon Beasts won by 6 seats in 1:31. A New York team was 2nd narrowly beating Hanelai. The race was about 400m.

They are not entered at CCWC. I think they are going to Ottawa.

So funny reading this. Albert has an impressive flatwater background.Those are his roots.

Well I was there and saw the race. The Dragon Beasts looked a little shaky in the first race, better in the second and really really good in the final - 6 seats in a minute and a half, with NY clinging to their wash. Mayfair, X Pads, Wongs, G&G - look out, these guys are for real.

The poster who said Banook Canoe Club is right on. Albert McDonald has paddled for Banook for like 30 years and has won alot of medals in flatwater. I bet his buddy Tim Schaus, another long time flattie, was there too. Both those guys paddle on the National Senior team for Jimmy. I also heard they had Mihai Aspostal, an ex Olympian.

The women in the boat were pretty hot.

How many of the Beasts actually paddle for G&G??

Is more than paddle for GWN??

"6 seats in a minute and a half, with NY clinging to their wash."

NY DCH washriding? Say it ain't so Joe! Not them!

LOL.
Season's not here yet and already with the wash riding.
Was the wash riding called by the race officials? No?
Then it didn't happen.
I wasn't in Tampa, but enough with the excuses from those that went. It's ok that you got your asses kicked by a second year crew that came in second place, they're Navy SEALs.

See the above link re the teams. DCH brought their Jrs and Srs. Some have been to Worlds - they were not 2nd year paddlers.

It was 3 seats and it was DCH .003 over hanalai

No wonder they ain't talking.

And they thinking they was gunna take the prize

Congrats Tampa on a great regatta, would love to go again.

Times:

1) Dragon Beasts 1:31:47
2) DCH 1:32:72
3) Hanalai 1:32:75
4) DCH Jr 1:40:??

Yes, Dragon Beasts from Halifax with Banook being a focal point for some. Yes, they do have some very experienced flat water paddlers. DCH had 2 crews in the A final. Yes, DCH may have ridden the beasts wash for a point, so what? Clearly a 3 boat race, with 3/100ths separating DCH & Hanalai, in fact so close both teams were not sure who came 2nd.

Hope that helps.

Ok, that makes more sense.

"DCH may have ridden the beasts wash for a point, so what?"

So what? DCH has a history of placing above their heads due to wash. I wasn't in Tampa but I have raced against DCH many times. At best they are a low-level A/High B-Division team that manages to stay and at times beat better teams by not only riding but CLINGING to the wash of faster boats.

LOL.
You think they are a certain level team, but their results are better than that so you, without even being in Tampa, can say they rode wash to whatever place they finished in? Whoa, you're amazing.
If washriding is against the rules, officals should call it. If they don't call it, it didn't happen.

"At best they are a low-level A/High B-Division team that manages to stay and at times beat better teams by not only riding but CLINGING to the wash of faster boats."

Its funny to see people to put down other teams, especially when they weren't at the event to witness any of this. Yeah DCH can't possibly be good enough to place 2nd at an event like this! Maybe the competition wasn't as competitive as you might think, maybe Hanalei partied too much, and maybe just maybe DCH has improved since you last race them...which was when 2 weeks a ago or a season ago?

As for riding the wash, while our team doesn't do it, officials don't call it so its not against the rules and it does take some skill to ride a wash effectively, and if they CLING to the wash like you say, well more power to them and their cox!

Get a life.
Wash is there to ride in Tampa, as the course is not wide.
You can't avoid it.
If they held the event on the rowing course the lanes would be much wider
and this wouldn't occur.

Go back to Welland last year, and then tell everyone how you placed.
Even Hanalie got well and truly bounced there.
As for the Dragon Beasts, at Welland they would have been open water.

I'm sure the Beasts are a great team. Infact i've paddled with and against a few of them. But open water in Welland. Did you froget about how powerfull Scotia/Rouge is. They are flaties too.

I meant open water against Hanalie and DCH.
Shallow water and wash creates opportunities for teams to think
they are better than they imagine

I only casually look at and have never replied on the forum before, but since we are a new crew and our desire is to be part of the dragon boat sport community while having fun, having fun being our goal, I think I should address a few things in this post.

We started practices middle of last July, having finally got a boat to practice in on Lake Banook. We are a dragon boat club crew. We do not recruit anybody, nor do we turn anyone away. Everybody is expected to attend practice, and generally be part of the team. We train 3 to 4 times a week, as a group. We started with 8 people and currently we have 56 people committed to attend our first practice of the season (the Tampa crew was practicing as a group in April) on May 13th. By summer we expect to have 4 crews, regularly training as teams. We have brand new paddlers, Banook paddlers, former paddlers, a big mix.

Being located on Lake Banook it is natural to have former flatwater paddlers, myself included. But of our team, 10 had never raced dragonboat until last summer, and 3 in the Tampa crew had never been in a dragonboat until this April. Almost all of our women have a war canoe background, but many haven't paddled or trained significantly for years. Same goes for several of the men.

We have one athlete who is racing for G&G, and myself and Tim Schaus hope to be part of a National Sr team, as we have in the past. Several other of our athletes also have aspirations of trying out for National teams, but our club team is the Dragon Beasts.

The festival was amazing, I would highly encourage you to go. I have been to festivals all over the world, and this one is one of the top for organization. The lanes are fair and if anyone rode wash it certainly wasn't intentional or unsportsmanlike. The top three crews are similar level, we just came out on top that time.

We aren't the level of Scotia Rouge or Mayfair, etc. yet.
I know what that level is and we aren't there yet. We have more pounds to lose and more training to do. But we are really enjoying festival racing and we look forward to meeting and racing against people.

We were really impressed with the class and sportsmanship our fellow Canadians - Hanelai showed us and we enjoyed meeting them and partying with them and look forward to seeing them at other festivals.

Dragon Boat is an amazing sport. See ya all down the road and let's have alot of fun.

Aw Albert...always a class act! Glad its going well on the lake.

I am confused by the well thought out and positive post. Not used to a post without someone bashing someone else.

Welcome to the forum and hopefully we see a few more posts like this. Brings me back a few years when we used to use our names and discuss constructive topics without slinging poo all around.

Cheers

Come again!

I read it in a paper somewhere that Albert is also an "International Masters Superstar!" in the sprint canoe world....

And should he read this he'll know who posted...

anon 10:23 & 11:00

I think you're the person who needs to get a life.
Neither one of the mentioned crews (Beasts, DCH, Hanalei)
wrote a thread here (till Al did) and obviously neither one of them
stated they were an upper tier crew.

97% of crews in Ontario will be beat by open water by Mayfair, Scotia/Rouge including Piranhas, Big Fish, Tempest, Riptide, Mofos, etc...

Your statements are pointless.

Very true don't forget G&G PDBC elite collective(x-pads)Hanalie(sp) however had good success against Mayfair in two regatta's at the end of last season. They are a second half team. Not to say that they would beat them on a consistant basis. I'm sure Mayfair was peaking for trials and nothing else last year. But after a year with DeGraaw and a year with johnny Jr. they should be a very good team this year.

"97% of crews in Ontario will be beat by open water by Mayfair, Scotia/Rouge including Piranhas, Big Fish, Tempest, Riptide, Mofos, etc..."

you don't go to the regatta, you post NO MESSAGES on this topic, and still someone takes a broadside at your crew.

Well you're obviously not from Riptide or Mofos since they are used to being attacked on a regular basis

I was in Tampa for the races and steered many of the races for the teams out there. The lanes were fairly narrow compared to some of the other courses out there, and in regards to that final race, you are going to have some unintentional wash-riding with 3 boats that close together for most of the race. It was a great contest, by Dragon Beasts pulled it out at the end so they deserve a bit of congratulations there. As for the 2nd and 3rd place finishers, the race was so close that it was impossible to really tell who won at a second's glance.

Overall, the Tampa festival was top-notch. Great race course (even though it was only 400M), great organization (GWN did the officiating but the marshalling of teams, etc was done by local volunteers), and it was a great scenic venue as well.

I can't wait to go there for the Nationals in August, and am interested to see how they'll go about extending the course to 500M then.

Kudos to Tampa!

Great event, locale can't be beat at this time of year. Another festival, Asia Fest held across the avenue made it even better with Asian food and entertainment.

Since no one put a detailed festival account so far, here are some observations imho. I know I will get slagged for some of this, but what the hell those are the risks when you post here.

1. lanes were narrower than normal. adding ghost lanes didn't make sense especially when boats were all over the place in some of the races and crossed into them.
2. Lane one closer to shore was clearly the faster lane, about 2 secs faster.
The majority of the local novice and beginner crews who were in lane one were always in contention to win the race or won the race outright.
3. Tampa staff was great and friendly.
4. GWN did a good job in keeping the races on schedule even with high winds, I believe we were never behind schedule for more than 30-45 minutes.
5. Free team party was a nice touch and gave everyone an opportunity to mingle.
6. The vendors were light, but increasing every year.
7. weather was fantastic, typical Florida sun but windier than normal.
8. In regards to wash riding, I don't think it happened or happened intentionally. The semifinal results were almost identical to the finals.

The semifinal matched DCH and Hanalei in the first race and DCH pulled out a close victory. DCH finished with 1:32 and Hanalei was second with 1:34. Both crews were in the closer lanes, DCH being in lane 2 and Hanalei in lane one.
In the second semifinal Dragon Beasts and DCH Jrs. placed one and two.
The Dragon Beasts finishing time was aprox .20 faster than DCH Srs. in the prior heat. Dragon Beasts were in lane 4 and DCH Jrs. were in lane 5.
Final was DCH Jrs. in Lane 4, Dragon Beasts in Lane 3, DCH Srs in lane 2, Hanalei in lane 1. All the crews except for DCH Jrs were side by side the first half of the race, I don't think any crew had more than a 2 seat lead at that point. Hanalei slides into lane 2 for approx 20-30 meters at that point coming in close to DCH Srs. Dragon Beasts extends a slight lead about 3 seats going into finish, DCH is second and Hanalei is third behind about 1-2 seats behind going into the finish. Hanalei makes a tremedous surge in last 30 meters almost catching DCH at the finish line. The results were delayed since discussions circled about Hanalei crossing over to lane 2 and if interference happened.
In the end no interference was called and all the crews posted similiar times as their semifinals. It was a great race to watch for the Floridians, since we normally don't get to witness high calbre racing.

(Shameless plug here)

Come enjoy the closing of Dragon Boating for 2006 at Miami! Enjoy two days of racing not one! Enjoy South Beach and it's attractions.
Website: http://www.miamidragonboat.com/
October 14 & 15, 2006

Saturday & Sunday

(9 a.m.— 6 p.m.)

Haulover Park & Marina

10800 Collins Ave,

Miami Beach, FL 33154

Dragon beast is from Halifax, Nova Scotia. Just the opposite direction from Vancouver, BC.