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  John
By John Herrera
The Bay Area Dragons sent a crew of twenty-one paddlers to Montreal to compete in one of the biggest dragon boat festivals on the continent. After the dramatic world cup qualifying victory in Washington the week before, BAD was hoping to build on the big win and bring back some hardware from Quebec's jewel of a city. Perhaps suffering from a world cup qualifier victory hangover, or from a bout of some serious jet lag, BAD failed to place in the top twenty and would go home without any medals.
More responsible than the victory hangover or the jet lag, in the end it would be lane placement that would annihilate BAD's efforts. Montreal's world class dragon boat race course featured bleachers for several thousand spectators, a scoreboard that instantaneously posted times, and six evenly spaced lanes in which the dragon boats race in six crew heats. Unfortunately lane number six was extremely shallow, and right next to the edge of the shoreline. The shallow water and the waves that would bounce off the side of the shoreline and ricochet back into the lane six boat provided a severe handicap for all crews stuck with the misfortune of having to race in lane six; as a result, the vast majority of teams that raced in lane six would finish last. This would come back to haunt BAD in the end.
Fortunately, the Bay Area Dragons were not in lane six for their first race of the festival on Saturday. BAD would face some top competition in this race as we lined up in lane three against perennial favorites Big Fish, Magic Dragons, Boston Fusion and the Miracle Dragons. Racing from lane six, the Miracle Dragons would indeed need a miracle to keep up with BAD, and their miracle would be drowned in BAD's wake as BAD shot out of the start line like a rocket propelled grenade. Behind the efforts of Cecilia Pang, Dan Folk, Angie Toy, Tim Lee, Val Ogi, Martin Poon, and Wanda Fong, BAD would keep the power up and open water on Boston Fusion. Felicia Ordaz, Ken Chin, Ben Lam, Jai Dhar, and Kiran Daliwhal were magical as their powerful stroking would make the Magic Dragons disappear behind BAD.
 It would all boil down to the teams in lanes one, two, and three which featured Big Fish in lane one, Les Pics Bois de Montreal (many of the teams in Montreal speak French), and of course, BAD. With lanes four, five and six way out of the picture, BAD, behind the inspired paddling of Louise Chu, Gary and Kathy Phipps, Rich Altamirano, and Raymond Yu, would battle it out with everything they had in their jet lagged bodies. Unfortunately it wasn't quite enough as BAD would fall a few seats too short as we finished third behind Big Fish who finished first, and Les Pics Bois de Montreal in second.
"Wow! You guys kept up with Big Fish!" exclaimed an impressed spectator at the festival. Smiling from yet another successful finish, Steve Yan said, "This is our third race, in three weeks. We're very dialed in." A top three finish against stiff competition and the impending arrival of BAD power man Kurt Berger, whose flight had yet to touch down in Montreal, gave BAD a lot of confidence for race number two.
Everything was in its right place for race number two after Berger's arrival evened out the boat. This time BAD would be racing from lane two against some very beatable opponents, the most formidable of which was a college team from Ontario which call themselves, "Tap That!" Given BAD's recent boat tapping history, "Tap That" might have considered changing their name. Race two saw BAD achieve one of its best glides in a long time as each stroke was on time and very smooth. All went well for the second heat of the day as BAD took a decisive second place finish, beating out opponents Perfect Storm, Warriors (not DW), DBCB Drachenfurie, and the BMO Rising Dragons. Unfortunately, "Tap That" paddled their hearts out and took first ahead of BAD. With a second and third place finish during day one, BAD looked forward to wrapping up another top festival finish in the final heats on Sunday.
One would think that two top three finishes in one day would earn the team the right to race in a competitive lane during the final heats. Unfortunately for BAD, that would not be the case. In all of their infinite wisdom, the Montreal race organizers placed BAD in lane six for the final two heats, the heats that would determine who brings home the hardware on Sunday. Typically the outside lanes are reserved for teams that finished in the bottom of their qualifying heats, but at this particular race, even a second place finish in the final heat on Saturday couldn't keep BAD out of the dreaded lane six. BAD would have to make the most of being deep sixed into lane six.
BAD gave it everything we could, but the handicap of lane six exposed and magnified all of our weaknesses. Despite a heroic middle section of the first race on Sunday which saw BAD pull multiple seats on the leader in lane five, there just wasn't enough at the finish as the shortcomings of lane six would obliterate any hopes BAD would have of winning hardware. BAD would finish sixth in the 500 meter final. Overall BAD would finish 30th in the open mixed premier division. It was a respectable finish, especially given the fact that BAD finished ahead of Canadian dragon boat extraordinaire Jet Start who finished 31st (Jet Start would win gold medals because a 31st overall finish meant a first place finish in their heat. Welcome to the world of dragon boat hardware). Jet start, a far superior team than their placement would reflect was also affected by lane six as they had to race from that lane both times on Saturday which resulted in poor finishes and a lower heat than what they're accustomed to.
BAD would have one more chance for redemption in the 250 meter final. If a second and a third place finish the day before got BAD placed into lane six, then would our sixth place finish get BAD out of lane six? Nope. For the 250 meter race, BAD was once again put into lane six by our well organized friends from Montreal. Another lane six placement resulted in another heroic, but sixth place finish. Had BAD faired better with lane placement than the story might have been different, but as it stands, BAD enjoyed a weekend of good racing, good food, good camaraderie, and good friends.
-JH
FUN FACTS FROM MONTREAL
Since BAD didn't bring enough paddlers to field a full Men's or Women's team, we teamed up with two other teams (Living Root, from Boston; and Hellfish, from Ottawa) who were in the same predicament to form gender crews. The result was BAD LIVING HELL. The name was spawned by taking one key word from each team's name. BAD LIVING HELL women saw the majority of the success as they finished third in their final heat on Sunday.
The Montreal race marked the end of Alvin Wang's iron man streak of eleven straight years of never missing a race for BAD. A baby son and Paddle for Life commitments would keep Wang grounded in Foster City while the club he founded was paddling in Montreal. Yours truly now has the longest active iron man streak of four years without missing a single race. YEA!
BAD enjoyed all kinds of fine dining while in Montreal. Our friendly hosts Jetstart treated us to a fantastic Greek dinner on Saturday night. Sunday night featured tasty Caribbean cuisine. It was just as our fearless leader Steve Yan used to write on the evites: "FOOD = YUM!"
Photos by Raymond Yu
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