The morning started off with grey ominous sky hanging above Lake Merced,but that all ugly weather ended there when the sun peaked through forecasting a beautiful day ahead. So it was, a beautiful day to go along with a fantastic beautiful season start for BAD.
Every good mannered person out there knows that in life as customary andrespect, we always let our elders go first. This was no different at the race on Saturday for our masters’ crew who lead the first race of the day, going up against competitors such as Alameda Dragon Flyers, Dragon Max, Dragon Healers, Renegades and KP Dragons & Absolute. BADMasters rallied their strength, experiences,spirit and beat out the rest of the fields with Dragon Max nipping closely at their heels in theend. Our Masters’ team certainly set the tone for the rest of the day for us young whippersnappers on the team to bring home a win as well.
With the first win of the day still fresh on everyone’s minds, BAD2 took center stage next. Faced with fierce teams such as Dragon Warriors 2, Dragon Max 2, SFL and KP Dragons Blueberries. BAD2 poured out their hearts in the race that would carry them onto the next qualifying round with a third place finish.
To keep the team momentum going after BAD2’s race, BADonkadonk (BAD1) squared off with the likes of Stanford Terminal Velocity, DF Blue, Lightwave and Furious (RFX#2). With the fastest mixed division time of the day of 2:15:05, BADonkadonk would go onto the mixed semi with confidence.
Following BADonkadonk’s racing success, BAD Women were sent off with a good vibe onto the women’s’ semi round. Apparently BAD Women did not show enough “ugliness” and intimidating grunts to beat out the better team, DW who came in first in that heat. The Women rallied together and were determined to bring on the “ugly” at the women’s final, but the top three coveted spots slipped away from the women’s grasp, ending the race in fourth place.
If anyone can bring home the bacon in the gender race and avenge BAD Women, it would certainly be BAD Bromance (BAD Men). At last, chivalry lives! BAD Bromance muscled their ways to beat out Dragon Healers, Lowell HS, SFL/CAL, Ripple and Absolute/Renegades. BAD Bromance would go onto the men’s final to face off with DW, Ripple, Dragon Flyer, SFL/CAL and Lightwave/Stanford. With Ripple leading most of the way in the final, men-sandwiched by both DW and BAD Bromance, at the last 150 meters BAD poured on all their bromance for each other and powered passed Ripple with amazing ease. Now battling for first position against DW, the surge and the raw power that was coming off the boats were electrifying! With barely in a blink of an eye from first place, BAD Bromance paddled into second place with a finish time of 2:15:90.
As fate would have it, BADonkadonk and BAD2 would battle each other in the same heat in the mixed semi. Only one winner can emerge from this heat, BADonkadonk opened water and left the rest of the field to battle for second place for a spot in the Comp A championship final while BAD2 would go onto Comp C championship. With back to back racings between mixed and gender races, the teams gathered their energies with all their might and called up their reserved energies and went into battle mode for the last race of the day. Culminating up to the last race of the day, the air was charged with anxieties and excitements. BAD2 came away from their Comp C championship race in sixth place.
BADonkadonk has worked hard to reach the final and with the afternoon wind slowly picking up and the sun beating down on the team, Sid expertly guided the team to the start line. The intensity of all the faces on the boat and in the competitors faces were enough to crack a cement block. The familiar “Paddlers are you ready” were heard for the last time as the horn blasted off to send all the boats into its final race of the day. The power, strength and the frenzy surrounding all the paddlers out on the water was a sight to behold. BADonkadonk was not the first to come off the starting block, to make up for it Emmie, our drummer made a critical call of powering the boat back up to catch up to the leader. BADonkadonk heed its drummer’s call and gave her all we had. Flanked by DW and CAL Bears, Emmie made more critical calls and the boat surged beautifully as we shook DW off from lane 2 who was hot on our pursuit. After leaving our worthy adversary behind, BADonkadonk was in the pole position, but CAL Bears in lane 5 would not give up so easily. Back and forth both boats jostled for first place all the way to the end, but with Emmie’s commanding call for a finish, BADonkadonk dug in deeper than ever before and crossed the finish line….and yes, we beat out CAL Bears with 81/100 of a second.
A glorious finish to a beautiful day and this was just the first race of the season. We all deserve a pat on our backs and a round of applause. A promising start to our team and to the rest of the season ahead. Imagine the possibilities that we can achieve with a little bit of hard work and dedication we can all walk away with gold in our pockets. So, paddlers, are YOU ready?
T.S.
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A special thank you goes out to our Coaches and Captains. Without your dedications and guidance, the team would not have succeeded.
A HUGE thank you goes out to our food committee, equipment manager(s), and team helpers. We would be doomed and miserable without your silent and diligent help.
New team members/racers, the seasoned paddlers hope you have enjoyed your very first race and we are looking forward to more races with you!
The morning started off with grey ominous sky hanging above Lake Merced,but that all ugly weather ended there when the sun peaked through forecasting a beautiful day ahead. So it was, a beautiful day to go along with a fantastic beautiful season start for BAD.
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