4-17-2012 Central Florida Dragon Boat Festival - Tavares, Florida on Lake Dora

The event, Dragon Boating.  The location, Tavares Florida on Lake Dora at Wooton Park.  The venue is suburb and it lends itself to being one of the best Dragon Boat Venues in Florida.  I'll even go out on a limb and say the South Eastern US.  Why, because it's so athlete and spectator friendly.  For the athlete's the village is set where all the paddlers are in pretty close location and that really lends itself to a great social atmosphere to say hello to fellow paddlers that relationships have been built over the years of paddling at different venues.  For the spectators there is plenty of room to set up chairs and day tents to make yourself comfortable to watch a full day a racing.

The event even has Asian themed entertainment if you like to take a break from watching the racing and catch some cultural music and dance under the big top tent.  There is also plenty of vendors to grab a tantalizing snack or lunch.  Wooton Park also has much to offer.  Ever time Shana and I return for this event they have added another amenity to the park.  As it stands now there is a water park and playground for kids, restaurants and bars very close by and an old steam engine that gives short rides if you would like to experience the days of steam driven rail cars. and


The clam before the storm and I actually mean that literally!  The waves later on in the day would be responsible for swamping a total of four boats and ending the event shy of naming a true winner as the B and A finals had to be cancelled.

Yeah, there are boats on Lake Dora and in my opinion they came way to close to the paddling course.  But everyone kept their heads on.

 Here is our tent before all of the TECO Tan Anou team arrived.  It was much, much better than last year!

A pic of the loading docks.  Some of the best I've seen at any venue.

Entrance into the Wooton Park.