Story by Ann Treacy & photos by Jack Rendulich

“Paddle as one!”

Slipping into their 40-foot boat, the 20 women, once mostly strangers, hold in their heads the mantra that has taught them to pull together - in a boat and in life.

“Paddle as one!”

They’ve heard it over and over during practices as they prepared in 2006 for their second year competing in the annual dragon boat races in Superior, Wisconsin.

“Paddle as one!”

All totaled, they are a group of 65 women, 10 of whom have survived cancer. Together they have paddled dragons and have slain them.

Last year the Birkie Girls of Hayward, Wisconsin, formed one of 78 teams competing at the Lake Superior Dragon Boat Festival, organized by the Superior Rotary Club and Duluth’s Harbortown Rotary Club and presented by JAMAR. The teams hailed from Minnesota, Wisconsin and Ontario and paddled in the spectacular warmth of high summer to raise money for breast cancer research.

Now this team of 50-, 60- and 70-something-year-old Birkie Girls is again practicing to “Paddle as one!” in the event this August.

For first-time attendees at any dragon boat festival - and there are now four around Lake Superior - these family events can generate an atmosphere of carnival excitement, a stimulating mix of delicious smells, lively sounds and music and brilliant colors.

Last year at Barker’s Island, festival attendees enjoyed mini donuts, corn dogs, barbecue and other snacks. Folks interested in the beer garden, and those who like lemonade, were entertained by drum groups and singers. Spectators took hay rides from place to place or strolled between food vendors, team resting tents and the large craft fair.

Friday night’s ceremonies at Barker’s Island opened with a cannon blast. Then a bagpiper, himself a paddler, led the parade of athletes Friday and closed the races Saturday evening. Drums beat rhythmically on the water all day during Saturday’s races.

For those paddling in a dragon boat race, the hardest part isn’t sitting two abreast on 10 hard wooden-plank seats. It’s not training your eyes exclusively on the two pacers in front. It’s not even physically propelling a heavy 40-foot fiberglass-and-wood boat.

The hardest part is perfectly synchronizing 20 paddlers to heave 22 people forward in a boat that, loaded, weighs more than 2 tons.

According to Barbara Williamson, drummer for Birkie Girls, “There is no other sport where you’re trying to get 20 people to do the same thing at the same time in the same way. It does not look as hard as it is.”

Yet a team that nails it just right will paddle with the graceful coordination and military precision of Riverdance.

Fairlawn Mansion & Museum in Superior, Wisconsin, sets the background for a practice paddle before the dragon boat races on Barker’s Island.

Dragon boat racing began in China 2,500 years ago and remains part of annual Chinese water rituals. These celebrations honor the Asian water dragon deity. The ancient Chinese tradition of bright colors was reflected everywhere at Barker’s Island - from team costumes to the boats themselves, which customarily emphasize blue, red, white, black and yellow. It also commemorates the drowning death of Chinese poet Qu Yuan, who was minister of state during the Chou Dynasty (1050 to 256 B.C.) but was stripped of his office after protesting corruption in the government. He was much beloved, but drowned in a river, dejected and unhappy, after his firing. Fishermen raced out in their boats to find him and that scene is re-enacted in the form of dragon boat races.

Dragon boats are paddled, not rowed, which means that boat occupants face forward. There are 10 paddlers on the left, 10 on the right, a drummer in the bow facing them and either rhythmically beating a drum or calling race commands, and, finally, a steersperson standing or kneeling in the stern maneuvering the boat with a long steering oar. Four boats race per heat, so steering is vital. Collisions are rare, and a boat that veers out of its lane is docked time. The race course is a straight shot, making it unnecessary to turn around at race speed, which is fortunate. The boats are about as maneuverable as a half-ton truck with no power-steering fluid.

About the Boats Colorful garb and colorful boats make dragon boat events festive. Raising money for charities is the goal. Two teams at the Barker’s Island races raised the most money: Survivor Sistership ($18,700 & still coming in) and Jack’s Bar, called Jack’s Thirsty Dragon, ($11,400 and still coming in), both of Superior. Photo by Paul M. Walsh      Most modern dragon boats are made of fiberglass in Germany and Great White North Communications of Toronto, Ontario, is the distributor of German BuK boats in North America.      Aaron Soroka, director of business development for Great White, says that buying a dragon boat is like buying a car with the base price starting around $9,000 (U.S.). Add to that the price of accessories - the dragon’s head, tail and drum - and customization like “scale” painting.      “The heads and tails are valuable yet vulnerable,” says Mike Cochran of The Duluth’s Harbortown Rotary Club, which purchased a boat in 2003 through Great White, then donated it to the Duluth Boat Club. “That’s why the head, tail and drum are usually left off during practice sessions.”      In 2003, when the Harbortown Rotary bought the boat, the hull alone cost $8,820; the dragon’s head $548 and tail $250. The hull color and scale painting added $440, drum $320 and steering oar $160. Paddles run $30 to $40 each, or as much as $200 for lightweight paddles made of carbon fiber. Twenty-two life jackets at $45 each brought the Rotary Club’s purchase to a grand total of about $12,000, which, according to Aaron, is still roughly the price of a fully outfitted boat. Add to that the cost of storage and trailering, and it becomes clear why most teams choose to rent boats.      For the Superior race, there is the boat now owned by the Duluth Boat Club, one owned by the Superior Rotary Club and six are rented from the Lakehead Canoe Club in Thunder Bay, where they are also used for the races.

In 2006 the race at Barker’s Island was 450 meters, about the distance of a short par 5 golf hole. Paddling is both challenging and fun; racing against the clock makes those meters feel like miles.

The Birkie Girls, who occasionally call themselves “the old broads,” were founded by Trish Truver in the fall of 2001, shortly after the September 11 attacks.

New to Hayward and craving company, Trish pinned up fliers in coffee shops hoping to meet other women interested in being physically active. She met the first members with fliers still in hand. Every Tuesday, all year, 25 to 30 Birkie Girls (of the 65 on the current e-mail roster) meet to exercise from 10 a.m. until noon. They tackle a different activity weekly, everything from kayaking to cross-country skiing to mountain biking. Three years ago, they hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. By tradition, they also have lunch each Tuesday at Moose Lips Restaurant in Seeley.

At first, they met to hike on the Birkebeiner Ski Trail, hence their name. Although some of these women do ski the Birkebeiner race, they have introduced each other to new sports, like dragon boating, and have completed half of the Superior Hiking Trail, although Truver adds, “We do not camp.”

One member, now an avid snowshoer, had never even hiked in woods before retiring from her career and joining the group.

Some in the group are cancer survivors; all support each other through life changes, such as retirement or the loss of a husband.

These women all grew up long before Title IX gave more credit (and cash) to “girls” sports. For most, dragon boat racing is their first competitive team experience. The 2006 festival was the second time that they’ve fielded a dragon boat team, which, in addition to the 22 in the boat, includes two alternates ready to ride and a team manager. Dragon boat teams can be either all women or mixed gender, in which case there must be at least eight female paddlers.

After two heats, the Birkie Girls felt exhausted yet exhilarated. Just why do these women - average age of 62 and two who are 72 - do it?

“We’re Birkie Girls!” they answered in unison at a group practice, 1 of 12 practices that they meticulously attended before the race. To improve their paddling over the year before, the team hired Christine Hansen, a professional paddling coach.

“The Birkie Girls hired me to help them work as a team, but they are also very serious about having fun,” says Christine, who coaches from the drummer’s seat in the bow. One technique she uses is to photograph the paddlers to show where their eyes are focused. Ideally, everyone perfectly times strokes to the two pacers on the first bench, learning to “paddle as one.”

The boats weigh 600 pounds empty. Add 22 team members and then imagine trying to sprint. Paddle positions are assigned so that weight is balanced from side to side and front to back. Most people paddle better on one side than the other, so Christine assigns team members to the right or left depending on their natural preference. She drills on efficient paddle strokes, which for dragon boat racing is a short stroke to prevent clicking with the paddler in front or behind. Christine also trains the team in the dynamics of timing and to follow commands particular to dragon boating (see side story).

The first four or five strokes to get the boat up and moving are the hardest.

“Feel the catch of the boat,” Christine calls from the bow during practice one week before the race. “Pick up cadence, ride the plane. Paddle as one. Race pace!”

Christine teaches how to bury the blade, when to breathe in and out, how to sit tall and close to the gunwale (paddlers’ hips should touch the edge of the boat). She drafts a specific race strategy to maximize the strengths of a particular team.

The Lake Superior Dragon Boat Festival is an especially fun sporting event for children because the heats take place completely in view and happen quickly. There is a Saturday pancake breakfast. Youth activities are hosted by the Kiwanis Club and the main stage features dance groups, a magician and live music groups. In addition, Barker’s Island offers mini golf, a rope jungle gym and a ship to tour and is situated near the beautiful Osaugie Trail. If you drive to the event, don’t be fooled by the shuttle buses reported to run every 10 minutes to and from Mariner Mall Parking Lot. They actually ran every six to seven minutes. (Picture a day at the state fair, but without the parking problems.)

Megan Kress, program manager for the paddling center of the Duluth Boat Club, says that dragon boat racing is one of the fastest-growing sports today. Many communities have started their own festivals to raise funds through paddle power, but the Barker’s Island race continues to be one of the largest in North America, even larger than festivals held in metro areas such as Philadelphia and New York.

“Hands down, what makes our festival so big are the support and enthusiasm from the Twin Ports’ community,” Megan says. “That sense of community translates across dragon boaters, too. For instance, we had a volunteer steersperson travel all the way from Kenosha, Wisconsin, just to help us with our race-day needs.”

Megan has paddled with Canadian teams at other festivals and has felt like family there, too.

“It’s truly a sport that can bring people together who might not otherwise know each other.”

Dragon boat racing on Lake Superior began in 1999 in Thunder Bay, Ontario. That festival, like all dragon boat festivals around the lake, is intended to raise funds. The teams all pay for the privilege of paddling and then get pledges for their efforts to add more funds. Since it started, the Thunder Bay Dragon Boat Race Festival has raised $770,000 for charities and peaked with 100 teams in 2004.

Barbara Williamson walks off to the right after high-fiving with a supportive spectator (perhaps the relative of a team member). Birkie Girl Terri Rossman holds the paddle at left. Finding Dragons around the Lake June 9 Sault North Rotary Dragon Boat Festival Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario 705-946-7903, www.saultdragonboats.com July 20-21 Thunder Bay Dragon Boat Race Festival Thunder Bay, Ontario 807-768-4407, thunderbaydragonboat.com July 26-29 North Shore Dragon Boat Festival Grand Marais, Minnesota 218-387-2372, www.northshoredragonboat.com August 24-25 Lake Superior Dragon Boat Festival Superior, Wisconsin 866-336-1107, lakesuperiordragons.com

Meanwhile, the Superior festival has grown every year since its start six years ago, thanks, says Megan, to a venue that allows the best race view of almost anywhere.

Superior’s festival also has the unique feature of electronic timing, which Megan believes is a major reason why Superior attracts such competitive teams. A professional timing company shoots a narrow band camera along the finish line with a time clock attached to each frame. During a given heat, boats surge near the end and often finish within a fractional second of each other. In this year’s final race heat, the top three teams all finished within 2/10ths of a second.

“Any one visual viewing angle is very skewed. Judging the heat finishes without electronic timing is an illusion at best. This leaves no room for bias, which is important, as this year the level of competition went way up.”

The Birkie Girls aren’t as worried about competing as about doing their best. They placed 69th last year.

“Their skill level, form and timing were impeccable,” Megan said after the 2006 race. “Last year the Birkie Girls were good, this year they looked phenomenal. It was like watching a team that’s been together for many years.”

Typically, festival organizers designate a charity for which teams seek pledges. Last year’s team pledges of $62,162 went to the Duluth Clinic’s Breast Cancer and Health Program for use in three areas: digital mammography, patient education and clinical research. They will again be the designated charitable partner of this year’s race, hoping to fund a mobile mammography unit for underserved regions.

People come together for the cause and for the fun. Not all teams are serious about competing. Jane Casperson raced last year on the team “Friends of Pat,” organized by Kay Biga for her husband Pat Spott. “It was a gas,” Jane says.

What about practice? “It takes zero experience to have fun,” Jane adds. “We practiced one hour the night before and one the morning of the race.”

It was just enough practice for the group of friends to be able to pull in the right direction, and enough fun that Jane hopes to be asked again.

For the Superior festival, entrance fees raised $50,000 for programs run by the Superior Rotary and Harbortown Rotary clubs. The team entrance fee for the is $800, which gives a team access to the Rotary-owned dragon boats and two practice sessions.

Last year the Birkie Girls also joined the Duluth Boat Club to gain better access to the boats for a total of 12 practices. The team suffered a loss when Birkie Girl Kaye Johnson died unexpectedly. Kaye was a paddler in the 2005 Dragon Boat race. Her family and her husband, Bruce Johnson, sponsored the team for the 2006 festival.

Coach Christine Hansen was very pleased with the Birkie Girls’ performance, citing their excellent timing, consistency and precision. Although the 2006 field was much more competitive, and the Birkie Girls raced against teams that have been building and racing for five years, they placed third out of seven all-women teams.

They more than exceeded their two goals of working well as a team and having fun.

Drummer Barbara Williamson didn’t actually beat the drum during the race, but instead called out the cadence and strategy.

“I don’t have a great big voice, but everyone says I did that day! We’ll definitely be back next year. We feel great about the race, we were very focused. We paddled as one!”

Superior’s 2006 festival was the first dragon boat race attended by Duluth writer Ann Treacy. But definitely not the last, she vows.

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