Dragonboat Blog | The Dragonboating Resource

dragonboat talk for dragonboaters.

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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Article written by Kel Watt and published as a tribute to Jon Taylor:

Jon Taylor

13th October 1952 – 17th December 2008

The problem with trying to recognise the remarkable and extraordinary contribution of Jon Taylor when he was in the room, was that he was a man who prided himself on his ordinariness and his achievements as being too humble to deserve much fanfare. His passing away from illness, and his final farewell in December, has given the Australian and international dragon boating community an opportunity to finally speak freely and without interruption about the tremendous debt we owe Jon, and about the tenacity and vision of a man
which has moulded our sport and community.

Jon Taylor spent most of the last two decades as a central figure in NSW and Australian dragon boating. When he stepped aside as President at the AusDBF April 2008 AGM, he left an organisation that had grown a sport from being obscure and novel, into one that oversaw a successful, vibrant sporting community all paddlers were proud to be part of. His final act as President was to announce the awarding of AusDBF’s first life memberships to three people who had been in the trenches with Jon for many difficult and testing years, as they rebuilt and rejuvenated the sport – AusDBF’s first President Trevor Huggard, Ray Leung from Sydney, and Les Williams from Canberra. A couple of days later as the 2008 Australian dragon boat championships came to a close, I recognised how hard it would be to fill his shoes, but that – thankfully – his work and efforts meant the Federation’s and sport’s future was one of endless positive possibilities. To acknowledge that, the new AusDBF board’s first official action was to be the awarding of life membership to Jon. The crowd cheered and applauded (lasting that little bit too long for Jon’s liking) and then anyone who had known Jon nodded their heads in agreement that it was a well-deserved honour.

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Timing Box
This is the first 3 rows, which includes your lead stroker. They all should be locked in to a desired pace and set the overall pace of the boat.

Engine Room
This is the middle of the boat. The paddlers here must have the determination and endurance to continue to apply the pressure up front.

Terminators
These are the last 3 rows of the DB, these rows must have strong front end grips to keep the pressure on the fast water passing by. (Water towards the back of the boat is very fast from all of the paddlers in front of you. It is very easy to paddle back here so it is very important that you push yourself to apply the pressure at all times.

Front end grip
This is when you’re over the head hand pushes forward. This applies pressure to the water against the paddle.

4-keys to your stroke

1. The Catch: When your paddle enters the water. (exhale breathing begins)
2. Compression: when your legs, abs, back pull you in a sitting up position
causing the paddle to be pulled toward your hip. (exhale finishes)
3. Exit: This is when you exit the paddle out of the water. (inhale begins)
4. Recovery: When you turn the waist bringing your paddle forward to begina new stroke finishing with the catch of new water. (exhale ends)