Joey Payeur
The paddlers sat in drenched silence; the flowers they had cast in the water surrounding them saturated by both the cloud burst descending upon them as well as the thoughts of the struggle against cancer that they and their loved ones have waged.
Amid the energy and excitement coursing through the Sorting Gap Marina on Saturday, the fifth-annual International Boundary Waters Dragon Boat Festival took time out for a tribute to cancer survivors with a special ceremony on the upper Rainy River that ended up with about 70 people becoming involved.
“This was the first time we had done it,” noted festival co-organizer Annely Armstrong-Thorstad, who is the coach of the local Boundary Waters Dragon Boat Team.
“I was really nervous about the weather as we headed out on the water, but the sun had come out so we went ahead,” she said.
“We get out there and it starts to pour,” Armstrong-Thorstad added. “But people told me after it was so fitting because it suited the mood.
“We got back to the dock and the sun came back out. It was perfect.”
Two dragon boats filled with those wanting to take part floated gracefully as they tossed the specially-given flowers into the water in symbolic deference, followed by a moment of silence with their paddles facing the sky out of respect.
Upon arriving back on shore, they disembarked from the boats and then, one by one, joined one of two rows of opposite-facing paddlers who held their paddles aloft in an arch of welcome for each person to pass through.
“We thought 50 flowers was more than enough to buy and we had to end up running to get more,” noted Armstrong-Thorstad.
“If we had had a third boat, we could have filled it, too.”
The festival was postponed from June 25 after an early-morning storm left the venue in tatters.
Having to delay the event led to the number of teams taking part dropping from eight to six, as some teams from out of town that were planning to come in June couldn’t rework their schedules.
But the crowd turnout was enough to buoy Armstrong-Thorstad’s spirits.
“It was better than we hoped, considering the weather was spotty and at this time of year, you’ve got people travelling and what-not,” she reasoned.
“It was the only date left in the season that we could get everyone together that we needed to have the festival.”
As for the races themselves, the Kemira Chemical Solutions Paper Dragons dethroned the two-time defending champion MNR “Smokey’s Bears” to earn the overall championship.
“The level of competition just keeps getting better around here,” enthused Armstrong-Thorstad.
Kemira earned a spot in the final by posting the two fastest times in the 250m heats (1:15.66 and 1:11.70) to have the best combined time after the preliminary rounds.
They got pushed in the final by the New Gold “Nuggets” before pulling away in the late stages to win by just under one-and-a-half seconds (1:15.05 to 1:16.38).
“Smokey’s Bears” never made the final, having to settle for third place after beating the OPSEU “Otters” in the bronze-medal race (1:19.07 to 1:21.98).
As for the fifth-place final, the Good Samaritan Society-International Falls “Good Samaritans” powered their way to victory over the New Gold “Miners” by almost six seconds (1:17.65 to 1:23.57).
That left the “Miners” to collect the “Tail of the Dragon” trophy for being last overall.
As for next year, organizers are looking at moving the festival to sometime in July.
They also have verbal commitments from five teams hailing from Winnipeg, Bemidji, Mn., and Superior, Wis. to attend next year’s festival, with a legitimate shot of doubling the number of teams participating.
“If we get that many, we’ll put them in different divisions so the more competitive teams are racing against each other and not against those recreational festival teams,” said Armstrong-Thorstad.
“We want all the teams here to have fun,” she stressed.
