Last Sunday was the 2009 DFW Dragon Boat, Kite, and Lantern Festival on Lake Carolyn in Irving. Irving Fire Department has put together a Dragon Boat Racing Team for the festival 2 years now. Last year they were the Grand Champions of the festival (meaning they were the fastest of the 17 teams entered) and so the team went in this year even more serious and focused on keeping their title!
A dragon boat is a very long and narrow human-powered boat now used in the team paddling sport of dragon boat racing which originated in China over 2000 years ago. Each boat is 40 feet long and requires 22 people in a team—20 paddlers, one drummer, and one person to steer (essentially, the skipper). The goal is to paddle to the same beat of the drum and move in unison to achieve maximum speed. As you can imagine our Firefighters were slightly larger than what is typical for Dragon Boat Racers and all the other teams that were competing! The boys named their team "Hope We Float" last year joking that they hoped the boat would float and not sink once the boat was in the water! Because of their size Bob, the team Captain, decided to have all the guys weigh in at the beginning of the day so that he could best match the guys up and spread the weight out on the boat the best. (I told you they were serious about winning again!!!)
Gregg being weighed in
After being weighed in and a brief "strategy" meeting the guys were ready race! Their were 30 teams in the competition this year and each team got to race in 3 different heats with the best 4 teams getting to race against each other in a 4th heat. The course length for these races was 250 meters. All the teams were broken up into different categories and our team was one of 5 teams competing in the all male division. The teams raced 4 at a time and in the 1st 3 heats you raced against yourself trying to put up your best time so that you qualified for the final race.
The guys putting on their life jackets
Headed out to race
The son of one of the Firefighters was the Drummer Boy. (He didn't actually beat the drum during the races but more held on for dear life!!!)
IFD Fire Boat 8 entertaining the crowd between races
Look at the lead they have!
IFD had a GREAT day putting up times of 1:10, 1:12, and 1:07:25 in the first 3 races (beating their best time of 1:13:41 from last year!) They had the fastest time of the day and qualified for the Grand Champion Race!
In the Grand Champion Race "Hope We Float" finished the course in 1:08:21 a full 2 seconds ahead of the 2nd place team!!!
Celebrating VICTORY!!!
Chief Molina congratulating the guys!
IFD Dragon Boat team and their families
2009 Festival Grand Champions
We had so much fun being at the festival this year and watching all of the teams compete in the Dragon Boat Races! I especially enjoyed the time that was spent with so many other Firefighters and their families! The camaraderie among these guys is amazing and I am honored to be part of this family! I LOVE my Firefighter!!!
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