Some folks go to great lengths to help charities.
Some ride dragons.
by Elle Andra-Warner
I have ridden a dragon on swift waters beside Lake
Superior … and it is exhausting. In my defense, I think the other 21 Thunder
Bay city team members in the dragon boat with me were tired, too.
Yes, dragons are the latest exotic species to “swim” the waters by and
in Lake Superior. But while these creatures are exotic indeed - hailing
from 2,400 years ago in China - they have been welcomed with celebrations
in the largest cities on the lake.
This summer you can expect to see dragons in Thunder Bay for the third
year and in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, for the second year. They may reach
Duluth, Minnesota-Superior, Wisconsin, next year.
Dragon boat racing has been called the world’s fastest growing watersport,
with cities and towns in 40 countries celebrating dragon boat racing festivals.
In the Lake Superior region, the money raised at the festivals goes to
charity. There are fees for registration of boats - often teams from area
businesses or agencies - and paddlers line up pledges for their efforts.
A fast and exciting sport, dragon boating counts style and rhythm as more
important than power.
PHOTO BY MICHAEL COCHRAN
Dragon’s heads and tails adorn the bow and stern of racing dragon boats,
with the scales of the dragon decorating the sides. But it’s people power
that propels the beast, like these paddlers in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario
(also top photo).
A dragon boat racing team, as practiced on Lake Superior, means a crew
of 22 - a person to steer, a drummer and 20 paddlers.
“With dragon boats, one of the nice things about it is that it’s easy to
do,” says Michael Cochran, one of the organizers for the dragon boat festival
perhaps next year at Barker’s Island in Superior.
“It might be hard to be the fastest team out there, but it’s easy to do.”
That’s a matter of opinion … as I’ll explain later.
The tradition of dragon boat racing is bittersweet.
 It
began as a special rite in China performed to ensure bountiful crops. It
was enriched by a legend about Chinese poet Qu Yuan (or Ch’u Yuan). The
popular political dissident, who lived in central China in 327-248 B.C.,
threw himself into the Mi Luo River when his homeland was invaded while
he was in exile. People raced out with boats to save him, but they arrived
too late.
To keep hungry fish away, boaters splashed with their paddles, beat drums
and threw zung-ze (steamed rice wrapped in reed leaves) into the
river to divert the fish and as a sacrifice to Qu Yuan’s spirit.
Not exactly a happy ending, but today the re-enactment of those vain rescue
attempts - traditionally on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese
lunar calendar (about the time of the summer solstice) - has become cause
for celebrations throughout the world.
It can also be a great team-building exercise, bringing together management
and staff of one business or agency in friendly competition against others.
PHOTO BY BILL HOWE
With the Roberta Bondar Pavilion as a backdrop, dragon boaters in
Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, put their backs into fund-raising. Dragon
invasions on Lake Superior started in the west at Thunder Bay, Ontario.
An international governing body in Hong Kong, the International Dragon
Boat Federation, develops racing rules that incorporate international standards
with the preservation and promotion of the cultural traditions of dragon
boat racing. The first IDBF World Dragon Boat Championships were 1995 in
China; the 2001 championships will be in August in Philadelphia.
A dragon boat in motion is a stunning sight. Propelled by 20 paddlers cutting
the water simultaneously to the beat of a drum, the slender boat glides
at speeds of more than 13 feet (4 metres) per second. The races are 500
metres.
As a paddler, it is exhilarating; as a spectator, it is mythical literature
come alive.
The multicolored boats, similar to the great canoes of First Nations people
of Canada’s Northwest Coast, hover around 40 feet as used on Lake Superior.
A spectacular carved dragon head guides the bow with a tail at the stern
and dragon scales patterned along the hull.
Paddlers sit in pairs facing forward. The person seated astern steers the
boat using a sweep oar. A drummer in the bow commands the crew’s strokes
by beating out the paddling rhythm.
The first three rows of paddlers, the “Pacers” or “Strokers,” set the stroke
rate for the team; the eight paddlers in rows 4 to 7 are “the Engine Room”
workhorses of the team; and the back six paddlers in rows 8 to 10 are “the
Rockets” around Lake Superior (“the Back Six” elsewhere), since they provide
the explosive power thrust in the last 100 metres of a race.
In the Lake Superior communities hosting dragon boat races, paddlers work
for team pride and charitable causes. Entry fees go toward different charities.
Internationally, some community festivals hire event marketing companies
that specialize in dragon boat racing. The Lake Superior festivals are
independently organized by community volunteers. Sponsoring groups rent
the dragon boats from suppliers or manufacturers.
How did dragon boat racing come to the canoe country of Lake Superior?
It started in cooperation, explains Shuan Boo, chair of the Recruitment
Teams for Thunder Bay’s festival.
In 1999, the Catholic Family Development Centre and the St. Joseph’s Foundation
were planning a dragon boat festival and discovered that the Canadian Mental
Health Association-Thunder Bay Branch had similar plans.
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‘What I like about dragon boating is the feel of cold
water on my hand and
the wind on your face. It is almost a spiritual thing.’
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“Rather than have competing festivals, the three nonprofit groups decided
to collaborate to give the community a summer event and to share equally
in any monies raised,” Shuan says. Thus a festival was born, one that last
year attracted 68 paddling teams and more than 20,000 spectators over two
days while raising some $75,000 toward charity.
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Sault Ste. Marie had similar success last year in its first official Dragon
Boat Race Festival held on St. Marys River. It’s considered one of the
most hazardous dragon boating venues in Canada, say organizers.
“It is a large river, 26 to 30 feet deep, with wind exposure and currents
up to six miles an hour,” says Jim Fitzpatrick, festival committee chairman.
“It can be rough.”
But 24 teams took the challenge and netted $18,000 for charity.
 In
Thunder Bay, a dragon boat link helped to spur the festival. Shuan Boo,
born and raised in Malaysia, grew up paddling in dragon boat race festivals.
“What I like about dragon boating is the feel of cold water on my hand
and the wind on your face. It is almost a spiritual thing.”
Dragon boating lets people of all ages participate. The oldest Thunder
Bay paddler last year was 76.
“In Thunder Bay, we saw all sizes and ages,” says Cochran of his experience
as a dragon boat racer. “Some were fit … and some looked like they’d just
rolled off the couch.”
Not that paddling isn’t strenuous, Cochran adds, but most people can participate.
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Let
me explain. When I received an e-mail recruiting city of Thunder Bay employees
for a dragon boat team - I qualified as a senior management employee with
Thunder Bay Police - I quickly volunteered.
