The Osoyoos Lake Paddling Club last month competed in Kamloops and this weekend they’ll be in Penticton. They host a flag race in Osoyoos on Sept. 22. (Richard McGuire file photo)

The Osoyoos Lake Paddling Club will be off to Penticton this weekend for the Penticton Dragon Boat Festival, before returning to prepare for their own event later this month.

Betty Steinbart, the board member who handles the team’s communications, said last week that about 26 members from the 50-member club were expected to compete in Penticton.

“It’s a two-day event,” she said. “It’s quite a big event. They have all kinds of teams, including from the Lower Mainland.”

If a few more Osoyoos members come, it could allow a second local team, she added.

The local event on Sept. 22 is the Osoyoos Dragon Boat Flag Race and is the first time the team has hosted such an event.

In addition to the six teams already confirmed, Steinbart said they are trying to get a couple of corporate teams from Osoyoos to join in.

The club is bringing a couple of boats from Penticton for any corporate teams. They’ll also provide a training session before the race and will provide them with a steer person.

“Whether or not we get those corporate teams, I don’t know yet, but we’re still in the process of trying to make that work,” she said.

The event, which takes place at Safari Beach Resort, will be preceded the night before, Friday, Sept. 21, with a Dragons Dinner barbecue buffet at the Walnut Beach Resort.

A flag race involves the boaters racing towards a flag on a stick at a buoy. One team member at the bow must grab the flag before the team paddles to the finish.

Steinbart said the team has been doing well this season under a new coach, Johnny Cheong, who is one of the two owners of Sunshine Valley Family Chiropractic, which they took over a year ago when Martha Collins retired.

Cheong was one of two coaches who brought the York Region Dragon Boat Club north of Toronto to success four years ago. He’s also competed internationally, representing Team Canada at the World Nations Dragon Boat Championships in Hungary in 2013, among other accomplishments.

Cheong had hoped to coach a junior team this year in Osoyoos, but not enough people registered. Ultimately, he ended up coaching the adults.

The team got off to a late start with the flooding, and they lost about 10 days of training when the wildfire smoke this summer became too intense.

“He has taught us a whole new technique and we all feel much stronger and ready to get out there and race,” said Steinbart.

She’s pleased with the performance of the team last month at a Kamloops dragon boat event on Aug. 11, even though there were no championships.

The team achieved a personal best, and it also ended up in the B division, based on the first couple of races that determine which of four divisions each of the 32 teams competes in.

The Osoyoos team competed in four 500-metre races in the one-day event before Cheong put them into a 1,500-metre endurance race.

“We had never done that before, so the team was like, ‘Really? Are you serious? I don’t think so,’” Steinbart said.

Of the 32 teams at the event, only seven went into the endurance race. Osoyoos came last, but at least they participated.

“It’s something we’ve never done before,” said Steinbart. “The coach is pushing us to limits we never thought about doing. So, it was a huge accomplishment for us and we all felt quite proud of ourselves that we had even done it.”

For information about the Osoyoos Lake Paddling Club and the upcoming Osoyoos Dragon Boat Race, visit: osoyoosdragonboat.weebly.com.

RICHARD McGUIRE

Osoyoos Times

Johnny Cheong (file photo)