Dragonboat Blog | The Dragonboating Resource

dragonboat talk for dragonboaters.

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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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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Arizona will be hosting it’s 6th Annual Dragon Boat Festival for 2009! The boats will be in the water but out in the dessert! A very exciting event.

For more information, visit: http://www.azdba.com/Festival/festival_index.htm

Dates: March 28/29, 2009
Venue: Tempe Town Lake

Teams who are interested in paddling at the 1st Putrajaya Dragon Boat Festival held in Malaysia should visit their website at: http://www.putrajayadragonboat.com to register

The festival is held between the 5th – 7th June 2009.
Venue is at the Man made lake of Putrajaya, Malaysia.