I had my first dragonboat practice Sunday, 4:00-5:00pm on the Willamette (these are for the Portland, OR DB races during Rose Festival).

We always head upriver and eventually turn around and head downriver back to the dock. Often, the wind is blowing upriver, so paddling downriver is not always really easy.

We still had our prow pointed upriver and were teaching newbies how to do the stroke -- it is not canoeing and not kayaking, let me tell you -- when some of us happened to look back downriver. Above us were some clouds, white-ish and sun and blue sky. Behind us was a dark, dark grey, not a cloud, just the entire sky. We had to head straight into that to go back to the dock and home.

We turned around and it was sprinkling. Then, it started to HAIL! It had been a cold enough day to begin with, and the river was, too, but this was horrendous! I had hail sitting on my legs. My face was frozen. Usually, Oregon hail only lasts 2 minutes. This lasted more like 5 or 7.

We got back to the dock and the sun came out, but the boats were slippery with hail and it was lots of fun stepping from the curved front of our boat across two other boats to the dock. That was truly the closest I came to falling in. My foot slid on the second boat, yikes!

It hailed later for quite a while when I was home and warm and dry and I knew there were other DB teams out there. Hopefully, this weather will be OVER. I mean, we get rain on practices and it was a rainy mess on a few of our race heats last year. But this was the worst I have ever encountered!

If you want to see the boats I am talking about, check out the two photos from my album below. My first year on the team, I had a special PT for everyone who showed up at our team booth during the race weekend. That's why I have these in my AQ album. I might have to carve another one for this year.

http://www.atlasquest.com/gallery/viewphoto.html?gPhotoId=13305

http://www.atlasquest.com/gallery/viewphoto.html?gPhotoId=5890

KuKu