We felt we had a strong team, and we knew the competition would be tough, but after qualifying against Duncan Brothers Team #2, we were in the finals. The final competition was Duncan Brothers Team #1, the OKC Fire Department, and the Red Dirt Paddlers.
Our paddling technique lead to a great start and huge lead in the race, but the other 2 teams were coming on strong. The firemen pushed for a final surge, but we held them off beating them by 1 second! We finished in 1min 11seconds, with the Firemen at 1min 12 secs, and Duncan Brothers at 1min 14seconds. I will try to post the video later so you can see the race online.
Thanks to all the Red Dirt Paddlers that made the race such a success, and thanks to all the others paddlers, friends and family that came and cheered us on.
Thanks to Matt Woodson who had the initial idea that paddlers would make a strong Dragonboat team. Thanks to all the people at the Chesapeake Boat House who made the event possible. 
Red Dirt Dragon Team for this event was: Drummer, Cathy Friday. Paddlers: Terry DeMoe, Jeff Traywick, Matt Hignite, Lorn Vansteenberg, Rex Friday, Joanna DeMoe, James Lee, Jack Maguire, Pat Avant, Mike Cullen. Rudder man: Matt ?
This was a great event and we really enjoyed learning how to Dragonboat!
We plan on keeping the team together and competing in the next event in October. We would like to expand and get a 20 man team together, contact Terry DeMoe for more information on Dragonboating, lapaddler@msn.com James Lee has volunteered to send in an article about this event and Dragonboating for the next newsletter, so watch for his upcoming article about Red Dirt Dragonboating.
Terry and Joanna DeMoe
