A rainy Saturday morning was no deterrent to the participants of the Vancouver Island International Dragon Boat Festival, with one team from Vancouver even claiming that it was a performance enhancer.
“Honestly, we wanted to keep the rain going. I felt like we had a bit of an edge,” said Mauro Moya of DZ Dragon Hybrids. “It kind of gives us a +2 advantage in our stats.”
Erik Ages, the festival’s race director and longtime general manager at the paddling club, said most of the teams are well-versed with paddling in the rain. “Rain never bothers dragon boaters, paddlers in general. It’s just a fact of life.”
“It was raining, but the conditions were perfect for racing,” he said. “The tides were gracious today.”
The last racers of the day had to deal with a westerly wind perpendicular to the course, but that was no problem for the experienced paddlers, Ages said.
It’s the second year that the Vancouver Island Dragon Boat Festival has run its pentathlon format, where racers have to compete in a medley of different races to determine the weekend’s overall champions.
Ages said the festival’s offering is akin to a flight of wine where paddlers can get a taste of everything that they’ve trained for over the dragon boating season.
Sunday’s 1,500 metre-races are expected to be particularly exciting with lots of teams passing each other, Ages said. “It’s seeded so the fastest teams are in the back, so no matter what happens, they will pass.”
Will Slater, captain of the VIP Navy Dragon Anchors, said Sunday’s 1,500 metre race offering will require more thinking than some of the shorter races, as the steersperson will have to plan out the racecourse turns well in advance.
“It is very strategic,” he said. “If you’re in a turn before somebody has got past your stern, then they can’t pass you during the turn. [They] would have to back off a bit.”
The Navy Dragon Anchors, which are made up of active-duty and retired military members, CFB Esquimalt employees and their family members, practice often on the Gorge.
Asked if there was a home advantage for Victoria-based teams, Slater said it likely will depend more on how the lanes are assigned for the races.
Moya said his team, which was optimized to perform well in the Saturday’s shorter races, will likely suffer in Sunday’s endurance entries.
“Tomorrow, you’re going to see a team that’s going to pause every two minutes, take a breather and then it’s going go again,” he said to laughs from his team. “We’re going to do that five times until we finish. So it’s going to be quite a race tomorrow.”
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