The North Bay Dragons brought to life the dragon at Christie Lake Regatta and brought home some medals.
The North Bay Dragons, a women’s Dragon Boat Team who paddle out of the North Bay Canoe Club participated at the Christie Lake Regatta for the past three years. However, this is the first year, a full women’s team attended. The crew consisted of 23 paddlers, ranging in age, from 30 to 70 years old, led by Coach, Lorie Fairburn and Steersperson, Michael Bain.
The North Bay Dragons competed at Christie Lake Conservation Area in an Alkame Dragon Boat Services’ Regatta on the September 28 weekend.
After a summer of training on Trout Lake, The North Bay Dragons won medals in two of the toughest races of the day! The weekend success of the dragon boat team represents the hard work and training of everyone who attended.
The team raced in the 200m preliminary race and placed 2nd to rank them in the ‘A’ Division.
The 200m Championship Race had strong competition and during the race, a rival team was disqualified which meant the North Bay Dragons had to immediately, race again. The North Bay Dragons gave it their all, placing 3rd, to win a bronze medal.
The end of the day brought the 2k or 2000m race, a long, tough race. The North Bay Dragons ranked in the ‘C’ Division, which includes women-only and mixed crews. The 2k race consisted of 10 teams going out at 15-second intervals. This was by far the most adrenaline-kicking race of the day where paddlers bring all their power and ‘their heads in the boat’ or layperson's terms, to ‘keep their minds on paddling’! You can feel the intensity of the race as the coach and steersperson are yelling a chant of "hit, hit, hit," or 5 hard-strokes followed by "hit, hit, hit," then another 5 hard-strokes.
The North Bay Dragons showed their power by passing four boats and almost passing a 5th to come in 2nd with a time of 10.31.77. An amazing team effort, as they were only .009 seconds away from the 1st place team.
Final standings of the day; in the Women’s 200m Division, North Bay Dragons placed 4th out of 17 teams and in the combined men/women 2000m, North Bay Dragons placed 16th out of the 30 teams.
The North Bay Dragons are out of hiding, a team to contend with, and have woken up the dragon!
Registration information for next season, starting at the end of May 2025 can be found on the North Bay Canoe Club website: https://northbaycanoeclub.com/pages/mixed-recreational-dragon-boat.
