Out With A Bang

Alkame Dragon Boat Festival in Christie Lake (Hamilton) – September 19th 2026

And so it came to pass that, just like last year, we’re back in Hamilton for the final event of the year. All the major events had concluded last week in Toronto, but the Christie Lake regatta is the actual last one and arguably one of the funnest.

28 teams came down to Hamilton today. We didn’t, as we’re kind of fed up with the long drive that early in the morning so we stayed overnight in the Hammer, just to delete the pre-race fuss and get a prime parking spot. Mission one: success.

Not all the usual Tribal team members were able to make it out to the boat for the day, so Tribal DBC would be comprised of Tribal Maui & Aloha, Wilcox Warriors and York Torque members, with the addition of a few former team members – who thought they were coming to just cheer us on but were subsequently commandeered by Sharon to either drum, paddle, or both. And we’ll get to that last part later on.

The weather today was quite decent – not hot, not cold, not rainy and not windy: not bad for the first fall weekend. There weren’t many vendors on-site though, and the one food vendor who was there did not know how to make a simple coffee, so that was a bit of a disappointment. It’s not that we were starved for nutrition because Eric had come out just to feed the team, BBQ and Tonkotsu in tow. For lack of available bodies though he had to drum and paddle a bit as well, but hey. You show up so you may end up in a boat, right? Comes with the territory – especially for a coach. Muhahaha. On the program for the day was a whole slew of different races: 200m regular, 200m back-it-up (paddling in reverse), 100m mystery race, figure-eights (paddle a figure 8 around bouys in the water) and of course a 2K. Everyone loves a good 2K.

Whilst the races progressed quite nicely, Tribal wasn’t able to secure any metal for the usual categories as there were a few quite fast teams on the water. Especially as the mystery race – almost a ‘hands-only’ event as each boat got 2x paddles that every paddler had to at least paddle once with – was more like an in-boat shower for the 22 people on board than an actual race, but it sure was fun nontheless.

The 2K race was a different story. Again there were fast teams ahead but Tribal came in with a respectable 4th place. However. Former members and visiting spectators Vanessa and Tommy were kindly asked to take a seat in the boat as the required male/female balance was out of whack as well as there were simply not enough bodies to fill the boat up with. Muhahahahaha. Time penalties were dished out to other teams for once, so guess what: they captured bronze. Metal on the last day of the last event of the season, on a 2 kilometer race which usually does not at all guarantee a medal chance. How poetic is that?! Mission two: success!

As you can see, the team was pretty darn euphoric with this result! What a great day this turned out to be, and what a fantastic season overall. From Welland to Montreal and everywhere in-between, 2026 was golden (and silver and bronze). So many race time improvements and a bunch of medals to boot. The Hammer came down and sealed a great year for Sharon and the team. Next year…will be full of surprises, and the in-between winter season will see some updates as well. Stick around and find out!

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