EPA Dragons

Yesterday was the annual Independence Dragon Boat Regatta here in Philly. There were a good 65 teams this year competing. We entered 2 boats from EPA -- EPA Dragons I & II. It was a cloudy start, but ended up being a beautiful day. Much cooler than last year's close to 100 degree temperatures. Both our boats ended up racing in the same heat in the first round. We were up against NBC10 and another team. We totally smoked NBC10.

After the first heat, we were up against ourselves again in the semifinals for our class. Our other boat managed to win that heat (placing it in the major finals w/ a chance to medal) and our boat was neck and neck for 2nd. The judges seemed to go back and forth whether we were 2nd or not, but finally determined that we missed 2nd by less than .3 seconds (or something like that). That put us in the minor finals.

In the end, our boat came in 2nd in the minor finals and our other boat came in third, giving it a bronze medal.

As you can see in the video below, it's a total team effort. However, the race is a short 2.5 minutes. The rest of the day (I was there from 8AM to 4PM) was spent chilling out along the river watching the boats. Really was a great day for it.

Below are some pictures of other teams. B/c our 2 boats were either in the same heat or right after each other, I wasn't able to get any pictures of us. :(

Hope Afloats -- team of breast cancer survivors

Hydro Warriors -- Winners of the Mixed Finals

On their way back after the race

Here's a video of one of the races. I'm not quite sure what happened in this race (one of the boats might have hit a wave or lost alignment) but whatever it was, it slowed them down significantly.

As you can see, the day was a lot of fun. I didn't manage to get a group picture this year, but maybe someone will forward it around to the rest of us. If so, I'll post it.