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Our team, Blazing Paddles had a great Long Beach Dragon Boat Festival this year! Our mixed team did wonderfully. We showed our team spirit and persevered to the end. We ended up placing second in the final race in our division on Sunday. We placed fourth in our second race on Saturday. Our women’s team (mostly moms and daughters) looked great and had three great races.

We had spirit from the very beginning to the very end at the tournament July 31-Aug. 1. We paddled hard and no one gave up, which made our team the strongest ever. This year our team really understood that technique was more important than speed in every stroke that we paddled. Everyone worked as a unit which made the boat surge forward. We brought our spirit, even if we lost. Losing didn’t matter. We were proud with whatever place we got, and we got awesome paddling times. It was great. The other big girls and I (all 14 years of age and all paddlers), built sand castles with the smaller children, which was a fun way to pass the time; and of course I got a lot of food to eat (since I love food!)

We always meet people from other teams and we were invited to race in the San Diego tournament in October.

My dad says there are two priorities for the team: Have fun and look good paddling. We
hope some of you will join us next year.

We had a spectacular festival this year, the 12th season for some of our team and the first for others. We all have great confidence that next year will be the best!

-- From Genevieve Davenport --

Photos courtesy of Michelle Sheehan. See additional photos in our Dragon Boat Festival 2010 photo gallery.