By Jason Au

While most dragon boat teams in Southern Ontario head down to Montreal on the third weekend of July, the generous prizes and the beautiful, scenic venue provided by the the friendly and accomodating organizers of the Kiwanis Dragon Boat keeps a smaller but loyal group of teams coming back to the Kiwanis Dragon Boat Festival of Waterloo Region year after year. For the first time in two years, the title was not awarded to the Piranhas who captured their 4th consective Ontario Colleges and Universities Championship, but surrendered the overall title they have held since 2001 to Cartier Partners Tempest in this year's Grand Championship Final.

The Kiwanis Dragon Boat Festival of Waterloo Region serves as the antithesis to the Montreal Dragon Boat Festival. Both festivals are held on the same day, but the Waterloo festival is a much smaller festival that usually attracts only local teams while the Montreal festival has grown into an event attended by teams all across North America. It is held in the quiet and scenic Laurel Crek Conservation Area, complete with trees all around, small booths from local vendors an restauraunts, a fair-sized beer tent, free drinks and crackers and of course, delicious samples of Kettle corn given out in front of a small beach and open fields of grass. It is a peaceful day in the park with 1200 friends, with 6-10 minutes of paddling on the side.

With twelve fewer teams in this year's competition, this was the first year in which the Waterloo festival did not grow in size. Former champs such as Sing Fai and the Shaolin Monks are now defunct. Last year's runners-up the Assante Hammerheads elected not to return to Waterloo, while runners-up from 2001, the Scream'n Demons did not have enough paddlers to fill up a complete boat. A large window was left open for Waterloo Region's local teams and the large number of University-level teams to make their way into the Grand Championship Final. At least three or four of the spots in the Grand Championship Final were up for grabs.

While the times posted at this year's festival were, on average, faster than those seen in previous years, the weeds that occupied the lanes closer to the shore made paddling very challenging. Out-of-town teams that were not aware of the weed problem got the shock of their lives as hitting the catch on some strokes felt much more like pole-vaulting than paddling. Those who have been to the Waterloo festival in previous years come to expect a very weedy dock-area, but never before has the race course itself been so full of weeds on race day. Hopefully the organizers will look into this, as the quality of the race was definitely affected by the severely weedy conditions.

The Western Dragon Boat Team provided the first strong performance of the day by posting the the fourth fastest qualifying time of the day, an 11-second open water victory in a time of 2:13.38. DOA raced well, defeating one of Stratford's strongest mixed teams, Dilligaff, by 3.63 seconds. Two qualifying races in particular pitted a handful of contending teams in head-to-head matchups. The Stratford Dragon Hunters nudged out the Scream'n Mofos (a hybrid team composed of the Scream'n Demons and the Mofos) by 0.4 seconds. In a preview of the Grand Championship Final, Tempest, the U of T Alumni Piranhas and Fox 22 entertained the crowd with the closest qualifying race of the day. Tempest won the heat in a time of 2:10.58, nearly a second ahead of the Piranhas who crossed the finish line in a time of 2:11.48, with Fox 22 following shortly in a time of 2:21.62.

The festival's specialty races were run after the qualifying rounds. Research in Motion B from Mississauga won the E-Commerce Final handily, while the Women's 250 metre sprint was won by the Toronto Women. The Scream'n Mofos and Friends won the Men's 250.

At the conclusion of the semi-final round, the top five teams in both the Open and University divisions had been decided and competed for their respective divisional titles. The U of T Alumni Piranhas won their fourth consecutive Provincial Colleges and Universities Championship in a time of 2:12.87, while their sister team, the UC Physignathus Lesuerii (Latin for Water Dragons) nudged out the Western Dragon Boat Team for second place. UW Alumni Team Ruckus and Western Alumni Who's Your Daddy rounded out the field, finishing in fourth and fifth place respectively. Meanwhile, in the Open Division, Tempest easily won the final in a time of 2:10.73, four seconds ahead of Fox 22. These top two teams were followed by a pack trailing well back made up of Catch 22, Stratford Dragon Hunters and the Scream'n Mofos finishing in the order the teams were listed.

The qualifying criteria for the Kiwanis Grand Championship proved to be a little awkward. While the Open and University Division Champs were guaranteed lanes 3 and 4 respectively, the rest of the spots in the Grand Championship Final were awarded based on times from the Open and University Championship and Consolation Finals. As a result, the Dragon Slayers, who did not make the Open Final qualified for the 6-boat Grand Championship Final, earning lane 6, a relatively weed-free lane. Lanes 1 and 2 were occupied by the Western Dragon Boat Team and the UC Water Dragons, while Fox 22 was assigned lane 5. Off the start, the Piranhas took off on the pack and led by several seats on Tempest. However, after the start, Tempest reeled the Piranhas in and continued to build on their lead all the way down the race course. With the lead Tempest had opened up on all the other boats, it was clear that the race for the title was Tempest's to lose. Despite an inspired finish by the Piranhas, there was no photo finish this year, and no three-peat. Tempest held on to their lead just enough to win their first ever Grand Championship.

Despite the decreasing level of competition at the Kiwanis Dragon Boat Festival, it still receives strong local support and participants get a good return for their entry fees. Free t-shirts are given out to teams that win their first heat. The medals awarded at the festival are arguably the nicest in Ontario and the trophies for divisional winners are second to none. What were once miniature paddle trophies given out as special team awards were upgraded to Grey Owl High Performance Paddles this year. While Grand Championship jackets are no longer given out at the festival, each member of Tempest, the wining team, received something special in addition to their two medals - some funky coolers with a conveniently built-in radio.

With the exception of the weeds on the race course, as well as the awkward qualifying format for the Grand Championship, the Kiwanis Dragon Boat Festival of Waterloo was well organized and executed.

This article also appeared on the CCDBA Website, Paddles Up. You can access the article here