Revised results and Sunday Semifinal grid

We discovered a math error in the spreadsheet used to combine times and rank teams late this evening.

We have re-calculated results. The revised grid is here. Revised results are here. 

We sincerely apologize for this error, and we'll see you all tomorrow. 

Saturday results + Sunday Semifinal grid

... are posted! Go get 'em: 

Festival: answers to questions we've received—UPDATED 16 Aug 5 PM

Air quality, parking, PFDs, site info, tent assignments … you’ve asked it, we’re answering. Will be updated as we go.

So far you've asked about: 

• Air quality
• Parking
• PFDs
• Manager's/leaders meeting
• Merchandise
• Waivers, rosters, registering
• tent assignments  
• festival site map
• volunteering—yes you can! 

Air quality—UPDATED

EDBFA has experience with smoke and air quality at festivals before.

Race and health officials will monitor air quality index. Based on that, we will make decisions regarding race interruptions.

Teams should watch Twitter and/or listen to the race announcer for updates.

If you’d like to keep an eye on air quality, you can visit this federal monitoring website.  

Parking

There is no parking at LBC. The parking lot is being used as part of the festival grounds. This shouldn’t surprise anyone—when was the last time you could park at a festival?

There is ample parking nearby. Please see the Travel, park, stay page. If you require handicapped parking and have a valid placard, limited stalls are available and will be given out first come first served by contacting us. If you are unable to secure a handicapped stall, we can shuttle you from your car in a golf cart.

PFDs

Under no circumstances are inflatable PFDs permissible. This decision was made by the EDBFA board in conjunction with our insurance providers. All paddlers must wear inherently buoyant (i.e., foam-filled) PFDs, and these must remain zipped and clipped during the entire race, from marshalling and back.

Managers' meeting—UPDATED

The team leader meeting is at 6:15 on Friday at the Information tent. See the festival schedule. We strongly recommend your steersperson and drummer attend as well, as much of what is covered is race-related. 

Merchandise and jersey pre-order—UPDATED

Jerseys will be on sale at festival. However, some sizes are almost gone from pre-sales. Don’t miss out; buy yours ahead of time.

If you have purchased a jersey through pre-order, bring your order number/confirmation to the merch tent to pick up your jersey. 

Additional merchandise is available for purchase. The merchandise tent will take debit, credit, and cash. The merchandise tent will be open on Friday evening for pickup and purchases.

Waivers, rosters, registration—ADDED

All teams must bring signed, hard copies of their team roster/waiver to register on Friday 4-6pm to get wristbands at info tent.

Steerspeople can register separately at info tent for wristbands, especially for you’re in multiple boats. 🛶🛶

Tent assignments and festival site map—ADDED

Due to some unforseen landscaping delays, we were forced to rearrange the site somewhat. So, we don’t have an updated site map to post.

​However, the site is extremely compact—unlike Louise McKinney which required a 1km hike to marshaling from Athlete’s Village.

It’s unlikely that we will be able to post tent assignments, but don’t worry—if you booked one, you’ll have one. When you come on Friday to register your team, our volunteers will tell you where your tent is.

Thursday afternoon: a big pile of dirt right where the merchandise tent is supposed to be. We wanted to put up a tent and call it a “sandbox” but ... liabilities.  

Any more questions? Ask them in the comments, or use the contact form. Please be patient; we may not get back to you directly because we’re up to our eyebrows, but we’ll answer your questions here so others can benefit too. 

And, we’d love more volunteers! 

If you have an hour or two to spare, we can use you on site Thursday evening, Friday all day, and of course during the festival. Email volunteers@edbfa.ca. 

Sedans can carry a remarkable number of PFDs and merchandise. 🌈🌟 

Molly is hard at work retrieving sticks from the course.  

Pedal power for the Sourdough win!

EDBFA’s pedal-powered entry into the Edmonton Sourdough Raft Race won a prize! 

Built by Roger Kehoe and powered by Flaming Dragons members Alex Jovanovic and Nikki van Dusen, the craft was awarded “most innovative raft” in the 59th annual race. 

Criteria for the category is based primarily on craft design, as well as the extras the crew may have created to make their design or theme better. Selection was made by Race Admiral prior to launch—and likely after Roger cobbled together a way to mount the dragon head on its bow! 

Roger fixing things so a head could be mounted. No harm came to the dragon head!

 Prize: $250 + Plaque

In addition to a plaque, stronger thigh muscles and bragging rights, the prize included $250 to donate to a charity of the winners choice.  

Edmonton Dragon Boat Festival Association is donating the prize monies to the Breast Cancer Foundation.

The cheque and plaque will be presented at the Edmonton Dragon Boat Festival at Telford Lake in Leduc following the Pink Ribbon Challenge Cup on Sunday.

Alex, not paddling.

Where we were when the rain started. and kept going. and going.

Before we got rained on. Alex is not paddling.

Our rescuers! A raft with shelter, and food, and a motor!

We tried to hire help but they couldn’t reach the pedals.

This is Max. We borrowed him from another crew to steer for a while. then he went back to his raft, which disintegrated. Should have stuck with us!

The winning entry!

Here's your 2018 Race Grid and divisions!

The 2018 race grid is posted, subject to any last minute changes. 

This year, 27 teams are registered in the festival: 

• 8 women's teams
• 19 mixed teams

As usual, Saturday races are timed heats, used to place teams into divisions for the semifinals on Sunday morning. 

Principles behind the grid and divisions

Based on the number of teams in the festival and feedback from previous years, EDBFA's Race Committee designed the race grid as follows: 

• 18 min between heats
• Only one women's team per timed Saturday heat
• At least 5 races between any individual team's races 
• Medal rounds will be distributed to both better reward top competitive teams and to encourage festival teams to return

What this means for the Sunday races

Women's teams—Mulan division

Mulan semifinals start the day as usual. Lane placement and heats are determined by Saturday cumulative times. 

CHANGE: Mulan finals have been moved to mid-afternoon to give the teams competing in the noon Pink Ribbon Challenge time to recuperate before the final.

Lower mixed divisions

Mi Lo division

The slowest 4 teams from Saturday will compete in the Mi Lo division. After semifinals to determine lane placement, teams will race in a 4-boat final for gold, silver, bronze and runners-up. 

CHANGE: Mi Lo finals will begin after the Pink Ribbon Ceremony, at 1:30 PM. Cheer on these beginner teams for their efforts! 

Edmonton division

Teams ranked 10 through 15 from Saturday will be placed in the Edmonton division. Two semifinal heats will determine the 3 fastest teams. These teams compete for medals in the final. The remaining 3 teams race in the division consolation final for 4th, 5th, and 6th. 

CHANGE: Edmonton consolation and medal finals run after the Mi Lo finals, beginning at 1:48 PM. 

Top mixed divisions—Aurora and Borealis

CHANGE: For the semifinals, Aurora and Borealis divisions will be combined, with the 9 fastest teams from Saturday competing for 3 spots in the highest-ranked Aurora division (3 fastest teams from semifinals) and 6 spots in Borealis division.

This means that the top 6 teams of the festival will take home medals, awarding you for your effort and skill. There will be one consolation round in Borealis division. 

These divisions' semifinals had to be combined otherwise the final race for the top division would be the same as the semifinal.  

Questions, concerns, feedback

You can comment or ask your questions on this post if you'd like. If you have official complaints, please contact the Race Committee via directors@edbfa.ca. 

We hope everyone has a great festival! 

—Race Committee

Dragon boat racing coming to Telford Lake | Leduc Rep

Read Lisa Berg's article about the festival. 

Jerseys—sneak peek!

Here’s a sneak peek of the EDBFA merchandise for sale at festival. You can pre-order your jersey through our online shop ... but you’ll have to wait till next weekend to buy your buff—ahem—“head/neck tube”!

We tried to take a decent shot of the merch but Molly got in every. darn. shot.   

Quantities are already getting low on some jersey sizes. Be sure to reserve yours today!  

From the 2018 Board to team managers

Dear Team Managers:

Welcome to the Edmonton Dragon Boat Festival Association Festival.  This year our festival will be held at Telford Lake, in Leduc Alberta (Leduc Boat Club 4801-44 Street, Leduc).  On behalf of the EDBFA Board of Directors, I would like to offer a warm welcome to you and your team. We are excited to have you with us and look forward to a fantastic Festival!

Friday night begins with the Blessing of the Boats Ceremony, and opening events, at 6pm.  The Novice races begin at 7pm where several teams will compete for medals, please come on out and cheer them on!  The evening is followed up with our paddling party at The Leduc Canadian Brewhouse (5404 Discovery Way, Leduc).  We will have our Kids Zone, located just past the athletesvillage, so our little “dragons” have fun events as well to participate in.

Saturday we begin races at 9am, and our festival opening ceremonies begin at noon. We certainly hope that you enjoy the cultural entertainment as well as a special presentation from the City of Leduc that we have planned. Saturday night we have booked the patio at Kosmos (5011-50 Ave, Leduc) and all paddlers are invited to wind down after a full day of racing (the patio is open at 9pm).

On Sunday we resume races at 9am and we are very proud to host a special ceremony at noon for our “Breast Friends” teams – a women’s race for breast cancer survivors followed by a ceremonial flower presentation.We encourage everyone to come be part of this significant and meaningful event. We will host all final races on Sunday and we have a special closing ceremony planned at 4 pm.

We are proud to host this event and we hope that you find our festival full of challenging races, and that you have a fun filled weekend meeting new teams as well!

Vicci Letourneau
President, EDBFA

Hey! Old people!

Now that we've got your attention, take note! 

Be sure to get your 50+ year-old butts into the special Grand Masters Dragons race on Saturday afternoon.

To participate, bring your photo ID to prove your "seasoned status" to the information tent by 2 PM on Saturday. 

Teams will be formed through random name selection.  

The Grand Masters Dragons race will run at 4 pm on Saturday at the conclusion of the qualifying heats. 

There’s GOLD to be had!

I do not own this clip. Nor do i take credit for it. I'm just a fan.

For teams: festival information

Preliminary festival information is available on our website. Check it out!