The Dragon Divas

Hello from the Dragon Divas!

July 31, 2008

Phalen Awaken Dance We have been busy again these past two weeks and have been in two festivals. The Lake Phalen festival was July 13-14. The day was beautiful, but very windy. We had more than enough Divas for the racing and everyone got in at least one heat, which included two races.

The race distance was 300 meters and the team included 18 paddlers, one flag catcher and a drummer. Our flag catcher was a first timer, Laurie, who was fearless in throwing herself over the dragon head to snatch the flag out of the water to post our finish time. Our drummer was Nancy, who sat at the front of the boat facing the paddlers. She kept our cadence with the beat of her drum and directed our paddling strokes, all with a great smile on her face!

We came in 26th out of 26th but only one second behind #25… it was so close! The wind carried us into the start pontoon at the beginning of our second heat which cost a little time. We did not win the race, but apparently won their hearts, because we again received the Spirit Award this year!

Our second festival was in Grand Marais this past weekend and was very windy. We were on Hong Kong boats which are lighter, 500 pounds vs. the Taiwanese boat that we practice on weighing 1500 pounds. The drummer sits high on a chair on this boat, so when the wind hits and the boat sways, she is moving in a much bigger arc. Nancy was up for the test and stayed at her post.

Just getting on and off the boat was a test for most of us. The dock and boat were both free floating and were continuously pounded by waves. The racing distance is 500 meters for this festival and we raced through two heats. We held our lane, stayed upright and finished. At the start of our third and final race, a big wave took out our stern and put him in the lake. The water temperature was 47 degrees and the boat took on about eight inches of water. We took this as a sign that maybe the day should be done and so we called it a day.

There were 27 teams in this festival, some of which were very powerful and were paddling for international records, we unofficially came in 25th place. Nick Coleman of the Star Tribune took an interest in our team last weekend and spent a lot of time interviewing and hanging out with us. He wrote a wonderful article in last Tuesday’s paper that supported our cause and represented who we are very well. Thank you, Nick!

Thanks to the generous contributions of our sponsors, we are now proud owners of our own life jackets! We hope that these will stay with the team for generations. Our next dream is to purchase our own boat so that the Twin Cities can guarantee that many other women recovering from breast cancer can experience the healing powers of team spirit and join a team of support.

Respectfully posted by Mary Skrypek of the Dragon Divas