July 27, 2004

The Piranhas were sponsored by Simon River Sports for the US National Dragon Boat Championships

Most Canadians do not associate the American Prairies and their vast fields of corn and soy with the sport of dragon boat racing. However, it was in the heartland of America in which the Piranhas Dragon Boat Club, sponsored by Simon River Sports, participated in United States Dragon Boat Federation's (USDBF) National Championships on July 24-26 in Fort Dodge, Iowa. Competing as an exhibition crew in the USDBF National Championship draw, the SRS Piranhas dominated all their heats with the exception of their heat against the Philadephia Mixed Team. The SRS Piranhas also captured the International Championship in the American Dragon Boat Assocation's (ADBA) , asserting itself as the fastest team in the local 300-metre Taiwanese Flag-Catching races.

A map of the SRS Piranhas' 917 mile trek to Fort Dodge, Iowa

The drive from Toronto, Ontario to Fort Dodge, Iowa was a daunting 917-mile drive which lasted roughly 16 hours each way, including breaks. On Wednesday, July 21, the majority of the group hastily convened at Coach Rob Chang's house. Contributing to the last minute rush were two of our crew members who had just finished a War Canoe practice at Mississauga Canoe Club with the GTDBC Crewsers from 7-8 pm. Only two hours after they got off the water, the crew finally departed from Mississauga at around 10 pm the main group of vans left. The team crossed the Canada-U.S. border between Windsor, Ontario and Detroit, Michigan at around 1 am on Thursday. The overnight portion of this journey trek led the team through the countryside of three states -- Michigan, Indiana and Illinois prior to the sun rising a couple hundred miles before reaching Chicago in the afternoon. Among the team's many stops was an inevitable one-hour stop at a Tanger Shopping outlet in Williamsburg, Iowa and finally at 3 pm the Piranhas finally made it to Fort Dodge, checking into the Super 8 Motel exhausted, but still curious and exciting enough about the racing to check out the race course on Badger Lake.

Upon our arrival at the race site, we drove through a road lined with at least twenty American flags. The officials had set up their base in a cabin with a concession stand overlooking a large hill leading down to the four-lane race course. Badger Lake seemed to be somewhat of a misnomer, as the strip of water we raced on was only wide enough to fairly accomodate four boats. BuK boats for the USDBF Championships were provided by Great White North and managed by Rob Atwill at the docks. Meanwhile, the ADBA Taiwanese flag-catching boat races were held in a set of six boats owned by the local Rotary organization.

Trying out the flag-catching boats: If the boat looks and feels like a cow then it is a cow

The crew had never seen Taiwanese Flag Catching boats prior to that day. At the stern of the boat, there is room for a steersperson to sit or stand at the back while steering very much in the same fashion as in a War Canoe. The Taiwanese boat also features nine rows of seats for paddlers, supported by both the floor and gunnel of the boat, eliminating the need for extra footrests. However, with the seats flush with the top of the gunnel, paddlers must brace their feet in a staggered position with the outside foot forward and inside foot backward. A centre rail also runs down the middle of the boat which is large enough for paddlers to walk on top of when loading and unloading the boat.

Following the brief tour of the site, the team opted to call it an early night to rest up for the first day of racing.

The Piranhas race to their first of several open water victories

After a continental breakfast which included the option of fresh waffles and biscuits and gravy, the team prepared for a morning which would include three 500m races. The opening heats were won by the SRS Piranhas, Philly and Portland respectively with Philadelphia clearly asserting themselves over the next-best crew, Portland, which was actually a hybrid of paddlers from Portland, San Diego and New York. Much like Portland, the SRS Piranhas, made up of fifteen Piranhas, two Tempest, a former Junior Womens War Canoe paddler from MCC and two Imperial Dragons, were paddling together for the first time. The boat felt very spinning and a concerted effort was made to bring the rate down in the second race, which felt better but resulted in a much slower time. The Piranhas' fortunes seemed to mirror those of Portland in the second heat, as the Oregoners also slowed down significantly. With Philly also coming in over four seconds slower than in their first heat, it seemed that water conditions were slowing down. On the other hand, lower tier teams were getting significantly faster, so the Piranhas could only remain steadfast in their race strategy and ignore the times they were posting. The Piranhas won their International Final, while the Cedar River Gang (Cedar Rapids, IA) won the Minor Final commandingly. In the first marquee matchup of the day between Philly and Portland, Philly won by open water, but serving notice were Solid Steel from Dubuque, Iowa. Solid Steel were previously unknown to us as Canadians, but it turns out that this crew trains with dedication for four times a week only to race in one regatta every year, with that one regatta being the US Nationals. We could not help but admire their dedication to a sport with limited opportunities for competition within their area.

After only three hours of racing, we were done for the day and had the whole day ahead of us. After a quick practice to get used to the Taiwanese style boats, we grabbed a bite to eat, shower, and rested up in our hotel rooms. The cost-conscious students on the team went to the local Wal-Mart for groceries while others went to the Tom Thumb restaurant for some Ribs. Despite the fact that the restaurant was a little dingy and the entire restaurant stopped eating and stared at our group (they had never seen so many Oriental people together in one group and were all probably at least thirty years old than us), the promise of good ribs kept the team steadfast. Unfortunately, the ribs were not so good, and the team continued in its quest for good ribs. .

The Opening Ceremonies included a spectacular laser and fireworks show that never seemed to end

After dinner, the team re-descended upon Badger Lake for the Opening Ceremonies, expected to be at the site for only a short time. The Opening Ceremonies began with a parade of teams in which all teams actually participated, a sharp contrast to the Parade of Dragons at the Toronto International Dragon Boat Race Festival. The highlight of the evening was a fourty-minute fireworks and laser show which completely outdid what most Torontonians and New Yorkers who were present considered to be a good show. Just when you thought the fireworks were over, they just kept going and going. Fort Dodge sure knew how to put on a show, and the team left the celebrations impressed with the job the small town of 25,000 was doing as the host.

Saturday's racing for the Premier Mixed Division consisted of the 250 metre heats. After finishing 6th in the 250 metre races at the 2003 NACCC's, the Piranhas felt confident heading into their matchup with Philly in the opening heats. Solid Steel started the morning with a victory over Cedar River, while Portland handily won over Illinois by two boat lengths. In the Piranhas' matchup against Philly, Philly won off the start and never looked back. The Piranhas closed the gap down the race course with an aggressive race body and finish and were able to come within what seemed to be a quarter of a boat. The times did not reflect this and we were left wondering what had happened. It was after this race when we looked at the scaffolding on which the officials were timing the races and noticed races were actually being hand timed at a National event. While it was evident that Philly was the dominant team at the event as usual, this discovery made us realize how lucky we were in Canada to have accurate timing at most of our major and mid-sized festivals. Luckily at this race in particular, margins of victory were large enough to clearly determine the victors of each race, but with the shorter distances, the danger of some mess-ups did exist. Cedar River's victory over the Cedar River Gang was the first have teams within milliseconds of each other, followed by another close finish between the SRS Piranhas and Solid Steel followed. Philly won their semi-final, and in the biggest upset in the Premier Mixed Division, Solid Steel broke the one-minute barrier, commandingly winning over Portland. With no international competitors in the 250 metre races, the SRS Piranhas raced in the Minor Final and won by open water. USDBF rules did not allow an international crew to race in the Major Final despite the fact there was an empty lane available for us. Philly handily won over Portland and Solid Steel in the Major Final. Some members of Philly approached us and expressed their regrets about the situation, and we gratefully accepted their kind words. Their kind gesture was more than enough to cancel out the ill-will from one of their paddlers who felt it necessary to to point out to us that our desire to race in the Major final was "pointless" because our times were nowhere close to theirs.

Posing it up at the Des Moines Street Festival

Once again, races in the Premier Mixed Division were done shortly after noon and the Piranhas had the opportunity to try out the Taiwanese style boats, eat, shower, and rest up a bit before heading down to the state capital of Des Moines to discover what else Iowa had to offer. The downtown core was hosting a small street festival with food vendors similar to those at Toronto's Taste of the Danforth. Among the typical burgers and fries were some unexpected booths such as a Southern-style restaurant which offered some delicious Gumbo, Jambalaya, crawfish and other typically Southern dishes. Even more of a surprise were the two or three booths set up by local Thai restaurants, as we were unaware of the significant Thai community in Des Moines. The Indian booth on the far end of the bridge on which the event took place was an indication of an increasingly diverse community in Iowa's capital city. The team left shortly, and returned to the hotel to bond and party it up in our rooms with the help of the alcohol we had purchased from, you guessed, it, Wal-Mart. Only in America.

Frolicking in the corn: After frolicking in the corn, we were ready to drink

The lunch break at the festival served up one of the best memories of the festival. Solid Steel from Dubuque were dancing in a circle to the music being played at the grandstand. Team Captain Jason Au suggested that rookie Darian Cheng take his air-guitaring and lip synching prowess over to the stage on the grandstand. Darian one-upped Jason's suggestion by spontaneously going into the middle of Solid Steel's circle and doing his own rendition of "White Wedding", dancing with the ladies and attracting paddler after paddler into the fray. Members from a vast majority of the teams came rushing, some of whom formed mini-mosh pits throwing people up in the air, while break-dancers strutted their stuff duelling against each other. Those who were not as fleet-footed circled around the life of the party with simple old-school two-step moves. As the water bottles sprayed up in the air, the team looked completely shocked at what our teammate had started, a completely unplanned and unbelievable expression of how much fun we were all having.

After a prolonged break, the team re-focused itself on the task ahead, the International Flag Catching Final. Finally figuring out the start for the final, the Piranhas put forth their best effort of the day and won the International Final in a time of 1:20 and change, maintaining a pre-flatwater influenced stroke rate of 78-82 strokes a minute down the entire course and topping out at 13.2 km/h. Results for these races were not obtained as the team had to leave the grounds relatively quickly as one of our paddlers had to be admitted to the hospital for a medical emergency. Thankfully, everything worked out and we were able to celebrate with a hearty meal where the ribs were moist and the buffet was plentiful.

The team's trip down to Iowa was both enjoyable and successful. The team's newer members were given their first taste of international competition and the team learned how to adapt on-the-fly to a completely different style of boats for the flag-catching races. Special thanks are in order to the following groups of people:

• Our sponsor, Simon River Sports, whose LIFA uniforms were among the most popular trading items of the day
• Our guest paddlers, Ed Solino and Gina Kim from Tempest, Rob Chang and Konrad Doerrbecker from the Imperial Dragons, Wayne Yap-Sam from the Hammerheads, and Jennifer Pawloski
• Our bruised and now raspy-voiced drummer and flag-catcher, Sue-Jane Sang from the UC Waterdragons
• Our new friends from Booz Allen Smoke on the Water
• The USDBF for being so accomodating to us in getting us a race against Philly
• Andrew Lai and Mark Daly, who arranged car rentals and hotel accomodations
• Delia Chan and Jaime Yamashita for foregoing their trip to Montreal with the GTDBC Crewsers to support their club team's development as a group

The Piranhas Dragon Boat Club will take its experiences from the USDBF Nationals and apply them to their final two races of the season at Summer Sensation in August and GWN in September.

SRS Piranhas: Top Row (L-R): Jeff Mesina, Steve Yang, Jason Au, Ling Tin, Sue-Jane Sang, Phing Chang, Rob Chang, Ed Solino, San Yong, Konrad Doerrbecker, Jennifer Pawloski, Char Higashi, Wayne Yap-Sam Bottom Row (L-R): Andrew Lai, Moshe Kim, Ilana Cohen, Stephanie Lim, Gina Kim, Aileen Ho, Delia Chan, Jaime Yamashita, Darian Cheng