The weather at this year’s Halloween Howl race was scary. A storm system swept through Lake Merritt on race day and battered the race course with three-quarters of an inch of rain and wind speeds that reached 25 miles per hour.
“It was wild out there! The rain was coming down hard and the wind was strong. Everyone got drenched,” said Marynka Rojas, DieselFish Dragon Boat Team’s coach. Bryan Lee, one of the team’s newest members was shocked by the intensity of the winds. “One of the tents blew away and landed on top of a building!” he stated.
Luckily, DieselFish was prepared. Many of the team’s veterans had experience racing in similar weather conditions. “The race at Treasure Island was like this every year, so we got used to it” recalled team member Sivagar Natarajan. Iris Fung agreed and noted that “whitecaps are exciting!”
This experience and sense of adventure helped DieselFish win a medal in the 1,000 meter race. “We kept calm and fought with everything we had,” said Coach Rojas.
“We got another medal! Our second in two months at Lake Merritt!” exclaimed Conely Chan. “It was worth getting wet!”
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