Jarl participated in the Dragon Boat race this year with his Tai Chi class. The race was held at the 7th Annual Colorado Dragon Boat Festival. The race requires synchronized paddling from the team, and a drummer on each boat tries to help create that synchronicity. At the end of the course, there are 2 flags - one for each boat. Each team has a member climb up on the dragon's head and reach out for the flag. The first team to grab their flag wins the race. The people you see standing in the back of the boats helping to steer are not part of the team. (They work for the race itself.)
Jarl's race was at 9:48 am, so we got there before the festival itself had started. We parked at the football stadium
and took a shuttle to Sloan's Lake, which is just west of there. Here's the view of the Denver skyline and Invesco Field
from the parking lot.
Jarl's team was named "Mad Paddlers", and it includes Josh's parents. Here they are doing some Tai Chi to warm up before
the race. Jarl's at the back of the group.
Here are some of the boats. The cow boat was Mike's fave - in the pictures below, it contains the Raytheon team.
Here are the Mad Paddlers getting ready to board their boat.
Jarl is standing near the tent pole, wearing a dark green hat.
And they board the boat: To assist people in walking to the back, the team boards front to back and the people in the
front hold up a hand for teammates to grab on to as they pass by.
They back up:
And head to the starting line:
Here they are racing against State Farm:
Here they are after the race:
Here's an oddly cropped picture of Mike, because Jarl's sister made me promise I wouldn't post her picture on the
internet. Mike looks nice, and you can see how muddy it was. We've been getting an unusual amount of rain this summer.
