Bewl Water Charity Event 2009

Raging Dragons go camping!

Ok, so it wasn't a BDA event and there was literally nothing at stake, but Team Rage ventured into Kent, the 'Garden of England' and set up camp in the grounds of Bewl Water on a late Friday night to prepare for a weekend of Dragon Boat Racing.

The head scout, with the fastest car, was Martin… I followed 30mins later before more and more of the team arrived. We started to mark our territory and set up camp. Some people brought unfolding tents, purists brought real tents… Jimbo inflated his airbed and opened up his estate car! As camping sites go, this was not strictly made for camping… it was merely a patch of green next to a very well facilitated building with kitchen, toilets and showers.

As the tents started to pop up from the ground it was getting late and everyone was hungry. Cue pots of chilli and bolognaise along with rice, nachos, bread and whatever other food was available to eat immediately. And to give the camp a more authentic feel, we started a camp fire. Once everyone had had their fill of food and the fire smouldering it was time to retire to our 'castles'. One by one we all disappeared and gradually the noise of sleep was apparent around the campsite.

I was woken up around 7am by the running of little feet around my tent and the noise of stoves being started and breakfast being cooked. Sau, who couldn't sleep had made a start on cooking bacon, eggs, sausages and mushrooms… and although I don't usually eat breakfast, it was too good to turn down! Gradually the camp awoke and more and more breakfast was being served. Jenny provided bacon and egg muffins as well as porridge. We were remarkably well prepared and fed!

Once everyone had stopped eating and cleaned up, showered, washed and changed we headed down to help unload our boat which was again towed by Richie and Ronald (thanks again!).

The corporate and charity teams had already begun racing and Hawaii Five-O was CONSTANTLY on in the background! Not something I want to hear again any time soon!

We set up the Rage Team Camp for the Dragon Boat Racing and we were told our program. The races will be amongst the other BDA teams only, and we were merely exhibitioning dragon boat racing to the other teams to encourage more people into the sport. It was not what we expected and I was a bit disappointed as it was no different to attending a BDA event. However, we were here and we were going to compete.

First race was against Batchworth who we have not raced before and haven't seen since the first BDA race of the season in Liverpool back in May! They were a strong team and we lost by half a boat length after a bit of a dodgy start line call where we were still going backwards when the starter set us off.

Second race was OCUK (Outriggers Canoeing Club) who were an unknown quantity in Dragon Boating terms as we have not seen them before, but they had combined with Bristol and canoeists have always been strong paddlers. This emphasized when we narrowly lost to them even though we were probably ahead for most of the race. Our lack of stamina and a slightly longer '200m' race along with a 'sand bank' near the finish line didn't help though. With more training and a better finish we could have held them off.

The third race was against Batchworth again. However this time we put on a better show and we pipped them on the line by 0.02s. They disputed the result which was quite pointless as the final was based on the fastest times for qualification to the BDA crews final.

The fourth race was against our 'friendly' rivals, Typhoon, who chose to put forward a very weak team in a bid to save energy for the final or for BDA Caldecotte the next day? It didn't matter as we performed immaculately to post the second fastest time of the day behind OCUK by around 0.5s.

There were a lot of races and a lot of teams and so the organisers decided to end the time qualifications and send the BDA crews to the final. It was a 5 boat final with the usual suspects… Thames, TT, Batchworth, OCUK and Rage.

We were quite confident of our ability and was looking forward to a close race, but from the start there was nothing between the 5 teams… until just before half way there was a big move from Batchworth to cut across TT and they in turn were forced into our racing line and we both lost our dragon heads off our boat. We had to stop to prevent capsizing, but we reached clear water to finish the race in 4th.

This obviously led to a lot of disputing and there was no love lost between us and Batchworth. It was an exhibition race after all and it was a shame that two boats were damaged under such circumstances.

It was a low point to end the day, but we were still high in spirit and returned to camp to shower, clean up and start the BBQ for the evening. Jimbo's rotisserie was immense and an eye opener for all! Massive skewers of chicken and lamb cooking away whilst hungry people with forks instead of paddles hovered around waiting for the call to 'dig in'!

Whilst many of us were distracted by the rotating meat, the secondary BBQ by Jenny was producing cooked skewers of chicken by the dozen! Those who were quick were fed first! As fast as food could be cooked it was devoured! And in another corner there was Zen… cooking onions and vegetables like a pro. And further along the production line, there was sweet potato being steamed and mashed.

There was soo much food we eventually hit a wall and we didn't even make a small dent on the ribs! It was apparent what we would be eating for lunch the next day. As we all sat around the fire telling not so scary ghost stories people started to tire and went to bed. Wan arrived at this point with his son Thomas who had a skill for finding sticks and broken branches for burning. This ensured the fire was kept alive for longer than needed and everyone could hear the cracking of little twigs as 'mini Wan' went searching again and again. Eventually I had enough and went to bed…

And woke up in the morning to find a bin in front of my tent, while Martin had a stack of chairs outside his!?

The breakfast routine was in effect again, but so was the packing and dismantling of tents. After two 'long nights' it was time to pack up and focus on the races for the day. Unfortunately the weather was not as kind and there was quite a strong breeze. Also there were only 3 teams from the BDA crews present… Thames, Batchworth and Rage. It was going to be a bit pointless with racing each other all day so Thames and Rage put together 4 teams of 12: Thames, Rage, Titans and Amazons (Amazunes?).

We mixed with the charity and corporate teams and naturally we were convincing winners throughout. We even offered the charity/corporate teams a 3 second head start, although the starter couldn't count and gave them more like 7 seconds. But even as a 12 man crew against 16 man crews, the consistent training and better technique ensured we pulled through (was a close call though!).

There was another 'final' between Thames, Batchworth, Amazunes and Rage which was close all the way, but given the 'numbers' advantage we had, we really should have done a lot better. We don't really know who won the race, but it was clear we could have done better!

Overall Bewl Water was a great charity event, and camping out was the perfect team bonding exercise with so many newbies on the team. With each event BDA or charity, Rage grows in both experience and cohesion, then team is visibly becoming more like one unit - one big family.