September 24, 2022

2022 San Diego Intl. Dragon Boat Race

In the final competition for the 2022 season, the AZ Gila Dragons captured the Mixed B-Division Gold at the San Diego International Dragon Boat Race! 
 
Having traveled back from Princeton NJ the weekend before for our 20th anniversary highlight trip, many Gila’s couldn’t make the San Diego race the very next weekend. We were still able to bring enough Gilas to enter the small (10-person) boat Mixed category on Saturday.
 
The conditions were windy and choppy that day, with some challenging gusts by late morning. Many teams’ boats were flipping over throughout the day (11 boats in all) due to the wind and rough water conditions. A huge shout-out goes to our San Diego festival steerer (Karen) who steered for us the entire day, and kept us calm and even-keeled in the boat!  Being a resilient bunch, the Gila’s made the best of it, adjusting the line-ups to compensate for the changing conditions.
 
We took home the Gold medal in Mixed B division, getting the 2nd best time across all boats, and across divisions A, B, C, D, E, and F in the Finals!  💪
 
Congrats to the San Diego Gila Crew, for finishing out the 2022 race season in grand style!  It was a great celebration of our 20th anniversary as a club!

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