Dragonboat Blog | The Dragonboating Resource

dragonboat talk for dragonboaters.

Many competitive dragonboat paddlers keep a training log to record their training activities and race times. They record in their log the sessions about on-water training, pool, weight training and other aspects important to their success in Dragonboating.

It’s usually a little booklet like this one below:

You can also include body vitals, such as: body weight, body fat %, resting heart rate, girth measurements of waist, chest, legs and arms. These are usually recorded initally at the start of a training programme / season and not at each session. Then at the end of the season, a paddler can look back at their improvements, not just in race times, but in their overall body conditioning.

How to record your data?

A simple way to make sure your data is recorded accurately is to buy an exercise book with lines and draw some columns with headings (you can also type it into a computer on an excel spreadsheet and print it out as well, or even more advanced is to store it on a PDA, whichever way you choose just make sure you can access it easily after every training session). Here’s an example of what I do:

Also a crucial aspect is to be honest with what you do on the water and off the water. Write a brief summary of how you felt after the training session and make sure it’s dated.

Training logs will help you in the long term. If you have a bad racing year, you can look back at previous years logs and find out how hard you trained and felt in previous years. Good paddling years are usually a result of how well you have trained.

If you are like me and would prefer to keep everything electronic on the Internet, here’s a website called iLog that can keep track of your training sessions and results.

Good luck with your training and if you have any additional comments, please write them below.

This manufacturer of boats in Netherlands has designed a Dragon Boat combining kevlar-carbon and fibreglass, making it supposedly an extremely light boat. They say that the casco can be lifted by two people. I can only assume that is the hull. Furthermore they don’t say how much the boat weighs and they offer two types of construction:

1. “One piece” dragonboat 100% kevlar/carbon
2. “One piece” dragonboat 50% kevlar/fiberglass

The “real” difference seems to be in the price of around 500 pounds – which in Australian dollars is around $1,100! That’s a huge difference for the extra 50% of kevlar and fibreglass. Woah!

All Pel Kajak Centrum Dragon Boats are handmade with decks carved from mahogany wood and completely lacquered 4 times over to provide the water proofing a boat needs. Normally the steers oars are constructed out of wood, but this company also offers carbon fibre saying that it is lighter and stronger. Sure that is true, which is the same as a carbon fibre paddle, though it’s starting to becoming the most expensive dragonboat I’ve ever heard – and simply may be too light for my liking.

I wonder if this boat is worth the “low-price” they say it is at 5,750 pounds. Definitely will cost more than a BuK boat, which I still have to say in comparison sounds like a much better boat to paddle in.

The last thing I don’t like about the “look” of this boat is it’s dragon head – it just looks way over the top and not something I would be happy to sit behind whilst paddling..

Oh one last thing – they offer different colours: red, blue, yellow, black and white.

Gemini Dragon Boats are manufactured by a Polish company called Gemini Composites. Their experience is in manufacturing boats such as Yachts, motor boats and Dragon Boats out of composite materials. As you will see the Dragon Boats they manufacture are made out of a composite plastic materials and everything is moulded together, even the seats!

Their main advantage is “toughness”, where there are no screws or fixing points at the seats or on the hull. One problem I see is if any parts get damaged, e.g. seats or the hull or the side of the boat, then basically it means that one will have to send it back to the manufacturer for repairs. It would be easier to ask the manufacturer to send parts rather than shipping a whole boat back! Gemini also says that it’s lower maintenance, because there are no “wooden” parts involved, yes and no. One, if wood is protected properly it will last for years and it’s easier and cheaper to replace. Two, wooden seats will be more comfortable to sit on compared to plastic moulded material as there is potentially more chances that plastic will expand under heat.

Well, I’ll let you all decide whether or not this is a good Dragon Boat to use!