Dragon Boat Basics

A dragon boat is a canoe-like  human powered vessel with a crew of  10 or 20 paddlers, a drummer, and a steersperson. Paddlers sit side by side and paddle in unison to the cadence of the drummer to cross the finish line faster than their competition. It's a team sport in its purest form that encompasses the elements of power, speed, synchronization, and endurance.

The appeal of dragon boating is that the sport can accommodate a wide range of skill levels from novice to competitive.   It’s a low-impact, full-body workout for people of any experience level, not to mention that it's lots of fun! 

Dragon boat racing is a two thousand year old tradition!

Dragon boat racing has been a traditional watercraft activity for over 2000 years. The dragon boats originated in Southern China. The boats where typically made of teak wood and with an  asian-style dragon head attached to the bow and dragon tail on the stern  with scales along the side of the boat. 

In 278 BCE,  Qu Yuan, a great war-time poet, drowned himself in the the Mlou river as a protest against the political corruption of the day. Upon hearing the news, villagers rushed to the river to recover his body but were unsuccessful . To deter fish from eating his body, the villagers made Zhong-zi (rice dumplings) and threw them into the river.  To commemorate this sacrifice, each year on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month crews of paddlers reenact  effort to save Qu Yuan, The people began to organize dragon boat races in his memory.