A big congratulations to all members of Lightwave for a spectacular effort at the 2011 San Francisco International Dragon Boat Festival.  What better way to close out the racing season than with some hardware, and gold hardware, at that!

Lightwave started off strong in the seeding heat with a second place finish, losing to the San Diego Dragon Boat team.  A lapse in overall timing contributed to a disappointing fifth place finish in the quarterfinals.  After a night’s rest, the team came back strong to take first place in the Recreational Division A semi-final.  Finally, with a long, slow stroke rate set in everyone’s mind, Lightwave pulled together for an amazing first place finish, just 0.44s ahead of Dragon Hearts Beat.

In the gender and specialty races, Lightwave Mens learned a new technique to try from their cooperation with the River City Dragons (Winnipeg, Canada); Team Moochy fostered an even stronger bond of friendship between the women of Lightwave and friendly rival DieselFish; and the Masters continued to show the junior paddlers how it’s done.

With an abundance of paddlers on the Lightwave race roster, some of the paddlers were given paddling time with other teams.  Nevertheless, they are still members of the medal-winning Lightwave family!  Thanks for the dedication and determination they show to Lightwave.

Races are over, but practices are not!  Keep coming to Sunday practices to keep up with your paddling or give steering or drumming a try.  And now is a good time to bring your friends along; we can always use a second boat next season!

Stay tuned for more practices and more social activities to come.  This post was made possible by the letters G, O, L, D, with additional support from the exclamation points,  !, !!, and !!!.