Congratulations to the Phantoms crew for another strong showing at this year’s Arizona Dragon Boat Festival, held March 26-27, 2K22. Many thanks to the CODA and LA Harbor Dragons paddlers who teamed up w/ us to compete in this event, and special thanks to Connie Flesuras for drumming for us!
A huge congratulations to our Pink Phantoms paddlers who raced w/ the Central Coast SurviveOars crew, winning Gold Medals in the BCS Division. A generous grant from the Cancer League of Colorado helped make participation in this event possible for our BCS paddlers.
Results and Photos
As always, this year’s Arizona Festival was a very competitive event. Check out the full Race Results
After having all of their competitive events canceled for the past two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Phantom Dragons / Pink Phantoms crew finally have another race on their calendar. The crew is registered to race in the Arizona Dragon Boat Festival, to be held March 26-27, 2K22. In all likelihood, several of our Pink Phantoms paddlers will also participate as part of survivor crews in the BCS Division races and ceremony. Wish us luck! SaveSaveSaveSave
Additional information concerning this event can be found at the following link:
Dragon Boating Events Canceled this Summer due to COVID-19; Practices Uninterrupted
This season’s dragon boat events were all canceled again due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, that didn’t stop us from practicing, initially by holding “socially-distanced” training sessions in outrigger canoes. After we determined (via anonymous polling of our paddlers) that we could address COVID-19 concerns by requiring that everyone be fully vaccinated, we resumed our training in dragon boats. At the conclusion of the summer practice season, we moved back inside, holding dragon boat pool simulator practices.
Miscellaneous photos and video clips of our practices can be found at the following links:
Matt Norfleet was recently selected to the Team USA Senior A Open and Mixed crews that would have competed in the Dragon Boat World Championships in Hong Kong this past November, had the event not been canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Being named to a Team USA crew is an awesome achievement! Congratulations Matt!
Much Needed Maintenance on Dragon Boat Gunwales Completed
Our dragon boats gunwales were badly in need of repair. We decided to try a novel approach – encasing them in PVC pipe to protect the existing wood structure, and hopefully provide a more maintenance-free surface moving forward. More photos of the project can be seen here: Dragon Boat Gunwale Repair
No Dragon Boating this Summer due to COVID-19 / Paddlers Trained in OCs
This season’s dragon boat events were all canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and appropriate social-distancing making training in the close quarters of dragon boats inadvisable. Consequently, our summer training was restricted to one- and two-man Outrigger Canoes (OCs). An album at the following link includes miscellaneous photos and video clips taken during our practices: OC Practice Excerpts 2K20
On September 26, 2020, DRACO hosted the fourth annual dragon boat day on Lake Arbor for the Shining Stars Foundation kids and their families. Proper social-distancing was carefully observed, and the event proved to be a great success, and everyone had a wonderful time again this year.
DRACO Adapts Trailer to Haul Outrigger Canoes in Wake of COVID Outbreak
With the COVID-19 pandemic forcing the cancellation of this season’s dragon boat events, and appropriate social-distancing making training in the close quarters of dragon boats inadvisable, DRACO is gearing up to train in OCs (one and two-man outrigger canoes) this season. To facilitate these practices, Head Coach / Team Captain Michael Boyd (Captain Bligh!) acquired a Yakima Trailer, and converted it to haul four boats, along w/ an inflatable dock. Coupled with the capacity of his rooftop rack, a maximum of six boats can now be staged for safe practices.
Phantoms are 500-Meter “C” Division Silver Medalists at Rose Regatta!!!
Congratulations to the Phantom Dragons / Pink Phantoms, 500-Meter “C” Division Silver Medalists at the Rose Regatta held October 12-13, 2K19 in Henderson (Las Vegas). Pink Phantoms paddlers also participated in the special BCS races and ceremony.
Michael Boyd, Head Coach and Captain of Colorado’s Phantom Dragons / Pink Phantoms dragon boat crew, recently returned from the IDBF Dragon Boat World Championships in Thailand with a handful of gold medals. Boyd raced as a member of the Team USA Senior C Open crew, an elite group of 60+ year old athletes who emerged victorious in every heat they raced in, capturing gold at each distance category (2000-meters, 1000-meters, 500-meters and 200-meters). The crew also set a World Record for Senior C competitors at 1000-meters. The Senior C Mixed and Women’s crews were similarly dominating; the Mixed paddlers won four gold medals, and the Women captured three golds and a bronze.
Team USA Senior C Crews in the 2019 IDBF Dragon Boat World Championships
For dragon boaters, the IDBF Dragon Boat World Championships is the pinnacle event – the equivalent of what the Olympic games represent to more conventional sports. Winning in Thailand was the culmination of a very extensive and competitive tryout and training process. The Senior C Crews’ formal training calendar began with well-attended tryout camps in California (October, 2018) and Florida (January, 2019), followed by a week-long training camp in April for those who were selected to the team. The final two months included “Train & Race” camps in Ottawa (June, 2019) and Long Beach, California (July, 2019) before departing for Thailand in mid-August for several more days of training/acclimation prior to the races.
The stellar performance of the Team USA Senior C crews at the 2019 IDBF World Championships took the international dragon boating community by surprise, as the senior divisions have historically been dominated by crews from Canada. Congratulations to Michael Boyd and the rest of the Team USA Senior C paddlers – IDBF Dragon Boat World Champions!
A video following the 2019 USA Senior C National Dragon Boat paddlers in their quest for gold at the 2019 IDBF World Dragon Boat Championships in Pattaya Thailand is at this link:
