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dragonboat talk for dragonboaters.

Some paddlers have probably heard of the abbreviation IDBF Spec 202a when they look at purchasing a paddle, but don’t really know what it means. I’m going to give a brief summary of what IDBF stands for and who they are, so for any of the paddlers wondering what is this, then here it!

IDBF, stands for International Dragon Boat Federation.

History of IDBF: This is the International governing body of Dragon Boating that was originally formed in 1991. As Dragonboating had been around for over 2000 years where it began in China, there was no formal constitution that had guidelines in the modern era and as the sport was starting to take off in other countries, a body of members came together to set some guidelines. Hence IDBF was formed.

International Dragon Boat Racing competitions for non-national crews have been staged around the world since June 1976. When overseas crews were invited for the first time, to race in the traditional Hong Kong Festival Races it was from this event and date that the member associations of the IDBF accepted and record times.

From the example of the Hong Kong International Races, other international races quickly established themselves at ‘club level’ (notably in Singapore; Malaysia; Canada; New Zealand Australia and Sweden) and common Rules and Regulations for international races were developed. In the early 1980s the sport began to develop as a recognised sport and from the mid 1980s onwards, dragon boat associations, with formal constitutions and quite independent of any other sports governing bodies, were established at ´national level´ in Asia, Europe, North America, Australasia and Africa.

In the late 1980s ad hoc meetings were held and minutes recorded, between representatives of the established dragon boat associations and newly emerging crews, with regard to forming Continental and World Federations for the sport. As a result of these ongoing discussions the European Dragon Boat Federation (EDBF) was formed in 1990, followed by the IDBF in 1991 and the Asian Dragon Boat Federation (ADBF) in 1992. These three independent federations now act as the representative bodies for the sport; enact international rules and regulations and organise dragon boat championships for their member associations.

So next time you see the symbol below on your paddle, any dragonboat equipment and articles you will be proud to know that it’s approved by IDBF and can be used anywhere around the world.

IDBF Logo

Have you visited and seen Dragon Boat Net? It’s a site for Dragonboat Paddlers. It has updates of events and news about major events happening around the world. You can say it’s like a central hub to dragonboating.

“Dragon Boat Net links the worldwide dragon boat family. It provides Dragon Boat News and Reports, Insights to the Dragon Boat Sport, Dragon Boat Photo Galleries and great Dragon Boat Videos, a Dragon Boat Forum and even offers free Blogs and Websites to the Dragon Boat Community.”

There is some good information there, but the site seems too cluttered to get around and I believe that is probably the reason why I find it hard to find what I want. Never the less, the link is below:

Dragon Boat Net

Post event

After any Dragon Boat event there are certain tasks that need to be completed. It’s not something that one should do, it’s a must in order to finish off an event properly.

Some guidelines to consider:

• Make sure that all boats are dismantled and loaded back for transportation to the docks.
• All equipment that has been used on the day have been packed and transported back to base.
• All tents, tables, chairs have been all put away and dismantled
• All teams have vacated the site
• Invite cleaners to come out and collect all rubbish
• Final results have been tallied and safely transported back to base for data-entry and uploaded to the Internet for paddlers
• Lastly, you have thanked all staff and volunteer’s for their help on the day

This ends the series on how to run a Dragon Boat event in brief and gives you a run down on what one needs to consider when holding an event large or small.



Dragon boat event

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The day of the your event

Now that we have done all the ground work, it’s now for the real challenge. Running the event on the day!

Most event organisers start very early in the morning around 5am to just make sure everything runs smoothly and usually don’t finish up until around 7pm or 8pm when everyone has literately gone. So for starters be prepared for a very long day, and if you intend to do this on a regular basis, you will need to make sure that your systems are fine tuned to make each event run on time.

Most likely the Dragon boats would be delivered from another location and that is what most people attend to first. Usually a crew of 20-30 people will be enough to help unload the boats and have them setup on the water and ready to go to start the day.

The most important aspect first thing in the morning is making sure that the registration desk is open and can allow for team captains and newbies to register their details for the day if they haven’t already pre-registered. Furthermore the registration desk is a good way to provide more information as well if people are looking to get more information about the event on the day.

Once the boats are on the water, the next stage is to start testing the equipment. This is crucial as most times you may think it’s alright and nothing has been touched since setting them up the day before. Not the case! Make sure all the communications between the starter crew, the marshalling crew and scoring crew all are about to communicate. Furthermore the water crew need to be listening in also to provide any back up assistance on the water.

The rest of the day will consist of back to back events which would have been already laid out in a timetable of events and the key to keeping everything on time is to make sure there is strong communication between the teams and the marshalling crew. That way teams can be ready to go as soon the previous race is finished.

Tomorrow I will go into more details about closing an event.

Marketing your event

This is where the fun really begins! Marketing a dragon boat event can be quite rewarding as you get to really connect with the community and also help promote a wonderful cause or charity if your event is associated with one.

There are some places I recommend starting to promote your event:

• Through all the teams that are participating – ask them to also promote it at their workplace and with their peers and family
• Do a press release in the local paper
• Place advertisements in surrounding gyms
• Ask the local charity to promote it through their members
• Encourage shop owners and businesses participating at the event to promote the event in their store

Those are just some of the areas where you can promote and market your event. Ideally you want to allow for at least one month prior to the event of advertising and marketing. That way you can also capture new teams and potentially more sponsors who would be interested in an event like this.

Also you will also want to consider creating event-related print materials, such as brochures, registration packages, participant waivers, and signage. These are some of the marketing print material you will need to include when running an event.

Find Volunteers or pay for staff

Most events usually start off with Clubs hosting them and eventually they become so big that they need to hire staff and run it as a business, which most people have seen happen in the US and Europe.

The first place to start, if you were holding a local event is to get your own club involved, and most likely there would be a minimum of 25 people in your dragonboat club. Some events also can be run jointly with other dragonboat clubs if numbers are not enough and both would benefit from an increase of exposure in the community and also some fund raising money that usually comes out of running an event. If all else fails and your club members are not committed in helping then looking for volunteers in the local community is not too hard. Simply ask the council or the rotary club and offer them a free lunch or gift at the end of the event for simply helping out.

You will need at least 25 people to run a successful event and they can be allocated in numerous ways. This is how we have done it in the past:

• Marshalling: 3 people
• Starter: 2 people
• Timer keepers and Scorers: 6 people
• On-water crew: 2 people
• People to hold the boat at a Platoon: 6 people
• InfoDesk and Registration: 3 people
• Organiser: 1 person
• Extras for smaller tasks: 2 people

Now if you were to run an event with paid staff, there are going to be more financial costs involved and also that will add to the cost of registration from each club. Though I personally find this to be a more economical way as the idea of running an event through a registered business allows for the sport to grow. More and more event management companies are coming into Dragonboating and owing the equipment and then running them with the aim to make an event spectacular and rewarding for dragonboaters. Additionally there can be prize money for the winning teams and other incentives compared to running an event through a club and local community.

I will go into more details about running an event like Great White North in the coming months as a registered business.