DieselFish Rocks Boston Dragon Boat Festival - Team's Manifiest Destiny Achieved!

[AT A DIESELFISH COACH'S MEETING]

Coach Tiffany (CT): Racing your way in the Bay today takes everything you got. Taking a break from all your worries sure would help a lot.

Coach Birk (CB): Yes! We raced well at Lake Merced, but now, we’re exhausted!

CT: Wouldn’t you like to get away?

CB: Actually, a vacation would be lovely.

CT: Sometimes you want to go where nobody knows your name, and they’re always glad you came.

CB: Exactly! A trip to a distant city filled with anonymous hedonism and maybe some racing during the day! But where?

CT: You want to be where you can see our troubles are all the same. You want to be where nobody knows your name.

CB: Look, I already told you, there’s no race in Tijuana.

CT: Let’s go to the Boston Dragon Boat Festival!

CB: OK. Cheers!

DieselFish has become very bold. The team is racing more often, and in competitions farther from home. This season, DieselFish entered uncharted territory after it signed up for the Boston Dragon Boat Festival for the first time. The trip was well worth it. The team returned home reenergized after a weekend of hard-fought victories and wild nights on the town.

Most of the team arrived in Bean Town on Friday morning. Without missing a beat, we took a tour of the Sam Adams Brewery, where we learned about the beer-making process and sampled some of the company’s brews. The crew then headed off to the Pierce Boathouse on M.I.T.’s campus for a productive practice session. The day ended with a trip to the Sunset Grill & Tap for some much-needed fun.

On Saturday, DieselFish competed in the time trials portion of the festival. That morning, the sky opened up, and began drizzling. Despite reduced visibility and choppy water conditions, the team ran two back-to-back races fast enough to qualify for the highest level of competition. To celebrate, we headed to the Yankee Lobster Fish Market for chowder and lobster rolls. We ended the night in Chinatown, where our new friends, DBCB, generously hosted us to a traditional Chinese banquet.

The second day of the festival was even colder and wetter than the first. The Charles River is usually a picturesque sight, but when you’re getting hit by sheets of rain, it loses much of its charm. This less-than-ideal weather, however, seemed to inspire the crew, comprised mostly of sun-worshipping Californians. DieselFish grit its teeth, and paddled longer and stronger than ever. We ran some of the most exciting races in recent history that day. In fact, the last 100 meters of our championship race contained a finish so intense, the fabric of time and space seemed to distort. Every gasp of air, every stroke, every inch counted. We ultimately claimed the silver in Division A Minor, by the closest of margins - a mere tenth of a second! A victory so hard fought deserved a celebration just as epic, so the team went out for Italian food and drinks.

DieselFish’s first expedition to Boston succeeded on many levels. Our exhilarating but excruciating victory showed us that we have the grit and talent to compete well in any environment, and our uplifting nights out on town recharged our batteries. DieselFish rocked Boston – onwards to Fremont!

Hello Internet friends! Doesn’t dragon boat racing with DieselFish sound like fun? Go to http://dieselfish.org/ now to sign up for a free practice session!