Dragonboat Blog | The Dragonboating Resource

dragonboat talk for dragonboaters.

Winter can be a tough time of year when it comes to your health. Its cold out, gets dark quicker, and with all of the holidays and surrounding activities there just doesn’t seem to be the time to keep to a regular exercise routine. Many people hang up their paddles in winter, but if properly equipped, dragon paddling can still be enjoyed and risk minimized.

Cloth

Some paddlers take spare clothes in a waterproof pack. If they get wet, they go to land to change into dry clothes. Avoid clothes that are highly absorbent and slow drying. Cotton is poor, wool is better, but many synthetic materials absorb little water and are fast drying. Polyester or polypropylene clothing is popular because it is effective in moving moisture away from skin and into outer layers of clothing, where it can evaporate. It is fabricated into both thin materials and fleece-like piles. Dress in layers to allow for adjusting to variable weather. Waterproof shells are important as an outer layer to add protection from the cooling effect of wind and evaporation. Breathable shells allow water vapor to escape but keep wind and water out.   

Proper Footwear

Weather and condition appropriate closed-toe footwear should be worn. Neoprene socks and booties are great for cold water paddling.

Sun Protection

Sunglasses, sunscreen, and lip balm should be worn even on cold days when the sun is out. It’s amazing how exposure to the sun while out on the water can really have damaging effects on your body even when it isn’t that hot out. The lip balm will also help protect you from unnecessary discomfort caused by the wind.

Water and Snack

Even if you are only going to paddling for a short period of time it is essential to bring a full water bottle with you. It is quite common for paddlers to become dehydrated due to the combined effect that the sun and wind have on the body even during the winter periods. Also, you will be expending a lot of energy even if you don’t realize it so be sure to bring a snack so you don’t get light-headed from hunger.

Paddling is indeed great exercise, providing fantastic aerobic and cardiovascular effects as well as upper body strength. Enjoy paddling in winter!

The established International Federations for dragon boat sport are the International Dragon Boat Federation (IDBF) and its Continental Federations, the European Dragon Boat Federation (EDBF) and the Asian Dragon Boat Federation (ADBF).

IDBF is the international governing body for the team water sport of dragon boat racing. The IDBF was founded by representatives from Australia, China, Chinese Taipei, Great Britain, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, Norway, Philippines, Singapore and the USA.  

In Australia, due to the Southern Hemisphere seasons, the dragon boating season generally runs between late August to mid April. Around Australia, there are regular regattas held for dragon boat clubs to race each other, as well as annual competitions held for state representative crews to compete. Clubs who outperform others in their state also compete against other state’s top crews at the National Titles. The 2010 Australian National Titles will be held in Adelaide, South Australia.

The IDBF has organized World Nations Dragon Boat Racing Championships (WDBRC) for Representative National or Territorial teams every two years since 1995. In between world championship years, IDBF Club Crew World Championships (CCWC) is held for the world’s top club-based crews.

IDBF Championships

San Francisco’s Rainbow Koi Team- a wide ranging team consisting of many colors, encompasses of homosexuals, transgender and the straight alike. As it appears, the team is as unique as its name, harbouring still the same strong bond of a dragon boating team. The team was put together with Gay Asian Pacific Alliance along with the Asian Pacific Islander Queer Women and Transgender Community last 2004. Michael Ellis was its first coach, along with Jean Danao as its first captain.

Rainbow Koi became San Francisco’s Rainbow Koi dragon boat team last 2004 when they were discovered by a 10 year veteran coach Jeniffer Eng at their novice race at Lake Merced, San Francisco. On its second season, the team became a part of the Recreational Division. With it’s motto: “Fierce and Fabulous!” the team was able to bring home a silver medal in 2006 at the first out games in Montreal, Canada. They later snatched a gold medal at Kaiser Permanente San Francisco International Dragon Boat Festival in the Rec C Division.

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Best paddling technique for Dragon Boat from Kirby Mark

Kirby Mark who has been paddling for a few years made some compilation of guidelines and pointers to the dragon boat strokes to improve your technique. Lots of paddlers give thanks to Kirby Mark for assembling this useful information for them.

This comprehensive information has been based on the many aspects of Dragon Boat and Outrigger training and racing with documentation readily available for sports like canoeing, kayaking and for general fitness. This post is a bit focused on Outrigger Canoeing or Dragon Boating. The overall objective is to define the general training principles for similar sports that you can relate to a precise scheme to efficiently improve and enhance paddling performance.

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From the time of early China up to this present day, in remembrance of Qu Yuan, dragon boat races are still performed. Every fifth day of the fifth lunar month which is the anniversary of his death, people eat zong zi, and do several other activities.

There are a lot of things to see in Dragon Boat races and the most thrilling part of the festival is the crowd of people that are there to witness and participate in the event. Generally, Dragon Boats are brilliantly painted and decorated with some shades of Chinese old ancient tradition. It varies from 40 to 100 feet in length, including their heads which shaped-like a hearty dragons, while the firm end has a flaking tail. It has the capability to handle 80 powered rowers including drummer and a flag-catcher. Before the start of the festival, a dragon goes through a certain ritual called “brought to life”. This is done by painting the eyes in a sanctified ceremony. Races have no definite numbers of boats that wants to participate and compete, with the winner being the first team to grab a flag at the end of the course. Once a year, dragon races are held all over China, Macao, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and other countries around the globe.

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What happens at the 2008 Montreal Dragon Boat Regatta?
The Montreal International Dragon Boat Regatta is a 2 days event with approximately 150 teams participating. Each team should have at least 21 paddlers plus a cox and a couple of spare paddlers.
This is really a big event together with all the participants, spectators, vendors, staff and volunteers surrounding the area. The rankings on this sports event are from A to G Division depending on the numbers of teams participating. Each division was then divided into three categories namely the Premiere, Intermediate and Rookie.

This year competition was a bit watered down because most of the top teams were not in attendance as they were in Penang, Malaysia for the 2008 6th World Club Crew Championships and as a result some of the teams that were not usually belong in the A Division category was subsequently ranked as such in this regatta.

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