June 7-8 2008-No bike

For the past two months or so I have been paddling dragon boats three times a week while still trying to make time to ride my bike. I paddled with the Jammin' Salmon team in the Portland Rose Festival. We are a mixed team that was not really able to get many good races during practice all season long. So it was a bit tough to judge how we were going to do during the actual races. I thought we would wind up being maybe a division three or even a division two team. I would have never thought we would end up in division one with all "serious paddlers".These are just a couple warm up pictures from day one race one....which we took first place!

They can be intimidating looking at times!Captain talk time. Chucks caffeine.Heading down the ramp for the upcomng first place finish.

Admiral Bill speaks his wisdom.

Co Captain Jim and his pre race tips.

Here are a few more random images from day two of the races.

Mike checking out the upcoming races.

This is probably what Mike was looking at. Yeah, how the heck did this happen?

Derek getting ready to race.Don't you all wish Beverly wasn't so introverted and unhappy all the time?Janis and Brent.

These little guys were tiny and very yellow at the beginning of the season. Maybe they ate the little yellow ones? Hopefully not.Please don't throw rocks into the water....that was coming from his Dad and not the announcer. That has to be a first!These were just a couple happy looking dogs that were hanging out with their families down by the water.

This is our friend Jodi that Steph has trained in the ancient art of flag catching...she is catching on. She is on the team that tried to do the race sideways. Her mom is actually the tiller for that team. Too bad Admiral Bill didn't train her, maybe they wouldn't have tried to race into the other boat. All ended well though, they took first place in the womens division even after a rough start on Saturday.

I have video footage of one of the races, but it is too large of a file to be uploaded.

The season was a lot of fun...even though it ended with us racing against all of the year-round "professional" paddlers! Great job all!