BY TAMARA BELKOV
Sudbury Dragon Boat Festival will take place at Bell Park this Saturday with opening ceremonies being held Friday.
Dragon boating is a team experience from the time you rendezvous at the Canoe Club docks and help each other onboard until you haul the 600 lbs beast out of the water together at the end of the day. Recreational and competitive paddlers alike know no one paddles a dragon boat alone.
"You're going to get wet," Gail Campeau, team manager says as she invites me to strap on a yellow lifejacket and hoist a paddle with the recreational dragon boat team CIS Arms of Steel.
This will be Campeau's fifth year participating in the Sudbury Dragon Boat Festival.
She, like the other paddlers on team Arms of Steel, also works for Carriere Industrial Supply (CIS)in Lively.
Proud of both her team's record and her personal
accomplishment, Carriere points to CIS Arms of Steel's best
time of two minutes and 17 seconds. A time of two minutes and
20 seconds, or under, is considered a competitive time on the
Lake Ramsey course.
More than 90 teams will be racing this weekend on Lake Ramsey
during the 2006 Sudbury Dragon Boat Festival with names like
Leak'n Liabilities, the Castaways, Chilly Beach and Destination
Unknown a sense of humour and camaraderie goes along with some
serious competition.
This year's festival is raising money for the Multiple Sclerosis Foundation and the colourful boats can be seen from the beach in Bell Park or from along the boardwalk. Food venders will be on site and the day-long fun begins at 9 am.
