Dragon Boating is one of the oldest water sports originating from China. Boats are powered by 20 paddlers (men, women or mixed), steered by the helm and the pace is set by the strokes (front two paddlers) but echoed to the boat via the drummer. Instead of repeating other websites I'd recommend having a look for more information about the sport from the European Dragon Boat Association's website: www.edbf.org/index.php the GB team website: http://www.gbdragonboat.com/ and finally for more details on the history: www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_boat is useful.
Just over a year ago I hadn't heard of Dragon Boating, it was through work that I was roped into it, ok I volunteered, to do a sponsored paddle with eight of my colleagues to raise money for Water Aid. The challenge was to paddle from Bath to Bristol with minimal training beforehand. What attracted me to this challenge was the idea of getting on the local canal and seeing my home area from a different perspective, while also doing some exercise!
The initial training sessions seemed hard as we had no idea what to expect or how to paddle but the team providing the use of a boat for the event and teaching us to paddle were excellent. This was the first time I had really experienced a team sport and it wasn't so much my colleagues that got me hooked but more the team that gave the training and support. This team were the Bristol Empire Dragons (BED) who race as TAO (meaning working together in Chinese) in the Premier National League. After doing the charity challenge the team asked me to join the team. I thought why not, I enjoyed the challenge and liked the idea of being part of a team. A month or so after joining the team we raced in the Henley Winter Series which involved a four monthly races taking ~33 minutes to paddle the 7.5km circular course. This was followed by tea, cake and a presentation of medals to the fastest team. The winter series was cold but the racing was full of adrenalin and so satisfying knowing that I'd worked hard in training and racing and felt proud of the team and the part I played within it.
As the season turned to summer we changed our training from long stamina sessions to shorter sprints in preparation for the ~3 minute sprints of the National League Races organised by the British Dragon Boat Association. These race days involved two semi final and one final of each of 100m, 200m and 500m, there was also a 'fun' race that didn't count towards the National League, such as a 1000m sprint! These days were longer but there were more winners (first, second and third for each final) and more teams from all over the country so it was great to meet lots of people interested in the same sport.
I have now completed one winter and one summer season of racing and hope to race for GB next year... let the hard work begin!
This is the GB Premier Mixed crew who took Gold in the 200 meters at the 10th European Nations Championship in Nottingham, England:
This is an interesting video made by the Men's GB Dragon Boat team:
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