Squamish Dragon Boat Assn Makes a Splash in Victoria

By Cathie Greenlees
Published: Aug. 25, 2012

This past weekend, the Squamish Dragon Boat Association fielded both a ladies and mixeteam in the 18^th annual Victoria Dragon Boat Festival. They made quite the splash.

Eighty teams came together to compete from all over B.C., and as far away as Portland, Oregon, race a 500-meter water  course.

The hard work, and hours of practice, showed as Team Chawanda, our ladies only team, posted their best times ever for the 500 meter race with a 2:19.36 in their second race.  There stellar performance earned them a space in the top Platinum Championship final.

The Women’s final in the words of coach Carl Mendoza was “the best women’s race he’s ever seen!”  While Chawanda missed the bronze by .33/100 of a second, coming in fourth over all they were extremely proud of their performance. 

The split between first place posted by the Bridge City Team Velocity, from Portland, and 5^th place was 1.52 seconds!  Well fought by all teams! Squamish’s first ever mixed team put in a valiant effort as well.  Squamish Fire was comprised of 12 women, from Team Chawanda, 3 Squamish men and 7 friends who came up from Vancouver to fill the team out.

While they didn’t have an opportunity to practice together, they posted impressive times such as 2:07.21 that moved into the Platinum consolation round. They finished 10^th out of the field of sixty teams! 

 This was the fourth race this year that The Squamish Dragon Boat Association continues to grow, and would like to invite Squamish out to paddle with them!  Our goal for next year is to have two competitive teams, ladies and mixed teams, as well as a recreational team.

Dragon Boating is for every age and gender, Team Chawanda is made up of women from the age of 18 to 64!  We now have a few men who have discovered our sport and we really want to encourage more to come out and paddle with us!

For more information go to Squamish Dragon boat Association on Facebook or call 604.815.3506