The Dragon Divas

September 4, 2009

Dragon Divas The Divas spent most of August on the road, going to festivals in Starbuck, Minn., Fort Dodge, Iowa, and Superior, Wisc. It was great to be out sharing our mission with others!

At the Starbuck Dragon Boat Festival on August 7 and 8, we were met with high winds and waves on Lake Minnewaska. This brought back memories of the North Shore Dragon Festival and Grand Marais for the paddlers that went to that event in 2008, especially when we watched two boats take on water and overturn in the first races. But, everyone felt a little better when we noticed that the wet paddlers were walking out of the lake in waist-deep water. That’s why we wear life jackets, right?

Dragon Divas tattoo The Divas competed well. We finished the festival and beat five mixed-gender teams. While the others may have had youth on their side, the Dragon Divas were able to reduce their time in the 500 meter races by a total of 10 seconds over three races. While we didn’t win any "hardware" in the races, we did win the Spirit Award!

In Fort Dodge, rain greeted the Divas in their early time Plaque trials, as well as three formidable opponents in the Breast Cancer Survivor division at the Badger Lake Dragon Boat Bash on August 14 and 15. Coming in as the defending gold medal winners from 2008, we had a reputation to uphold! After the time trials, we were seeded as the 2nd seed in our division, so raced Fighting Angels Abreast from Fort Dodge. After winning our two heats with them, we moved on to the champion bracket to race the Indy SurviveOars from Indianapolis. We gave it our all, but they were the better team on that Saturday, winning the gold. We took the silver medal.

It was a great two weekends of racing, and really tuned up the Divas to go to Superior on August 21 and 22 for the Lake Superior Dragon Boat Festival. Go Divas!