Best of Breed

I’m writing from the Las Vegas Airport, not my favorite place in the world, on my way back from the annual WIRA coaches meeting. We had a very productive meeting today getting our diverse association set up to ensure the high quality of the regatta continues into future years.

More fun even then that was the Head of the Dog regatta held yesterday. As mentioned in a prior post, this event has two themes– the racing, and the contest for the coveted Best of Breed trophy. While we wanted our athletes to put forth strong efforts on the racecourse we also challenged them to make the most of the opportunity to put their creativity to good use.

One of the women’s doubles dressed up as Peruvian Banditos (I think I got that right).

Another dressed up as trees, and got an honorable mention at the awards ceremony. This picture really doesn’t do justice to the amount of ivy on the boat.

The tour de force, however, came from our men’s four entry. These guys showed up at six AM, after several days of preparation, and spent two hours doing construction on the beach. The theme was Apocalypse Now, and most specifically creating a Vietnam-era Huey helicopter on the water.

The creation was substantial and encompassed all senses– aside from the visual, they also piped Ride of the Valkyries through the cox-box, and set off smoke with about 500 meters to go. It was a full-force effort and they were rewarded justly with the ever-epic Best of Breed.

Tradition has it that the winning boat takes the trophy home and has the responsibility to add to it some memory of their prize then return the next year to judge and award the prize. This one is going to look good in the trophy case.