SAN DIEGO─Nearly a dozen corporate teams, recruited from local San Diego companies participated in the third annual Dragon Boat Race, Saturday, Oct. 20, at Playa Pacifica in Mission Bay Park.
The event was cosponsored by the San Diego Alliance for Asian Pacific Islander Americans and the San Diego Dragon Boat Team. Among the teams racing the two 60 foot long dragon boats were students from UCSD, the Pan Pacific Law Enforcement Association, Qualcomm employees, Hewlett Packard, Life's Good, and researchers from the Scripps Research Institute, in addition to teams made up of friends and not affiliated to any organization.
"I think a lot of them are here as a kind of fun, teambuilding event," said Les Hopper, one of the event coordinators and also a coach for the San Diego Dragon Boat Team.
Hopper said that the key to being a good dragon boat competitor is team unity – it is the ultimate team sport. "You have joining paddlers, rows of people sitting side by side, and you don't have to be the biggest and strongest with big muscles, you just have to be the most in sync with the people around you. The teams that win are the teams that have perfect timing and perfect unity."
Hopper explained that the purpose for the Festival is to celebrate the Asian culture as well as the sport of dragon boat racing which is an ancient sport, one of the oldest in the world, and it's also the second biggest sport in the world after soccer.
"It's kind of like rugby and cricket," said Hopper, "and all those things everyone else in the world does, but no one in the United States knows about. But we've had a team in San Diego since 1983 and it's very, very successful. We train, starting in the winter, and train all through the spring, and then we race all summer long."
Judith Moore has been with the San Diego Dragon Boat Team for eight years. She said that for quite some time the San Diego team has been one of the premier dragon boat teams in the United States.
"It is a very, very competitive sport," she said. "We practice two to three times a week and travel all over the world. We won everything in the United States, Canada, and Asia. We were one of the top competitors in the world, and now we are just one of several. Our team just got back from Australia where they took five medals. They competed in five events and took five medals."
Moore said she originally came from outrigger canoeing and was invited over and got immediately hooked. She said outrigger canoeing has one, two, four or six people in a canoe, whereas dragon boats have 22 people sitting side by side, with a drummer and a steersman. The stroke is similar, but different.
"Today I'm helping load boats," said Moore. "I'm also drumming to help keep rhythm with the team and training people in the stroke. I do whatever is needed here."
Largest Sport in Asia
Dragon boat racing is the largest sport in Asia, and it's steeped in culture. It originated in China, and it has a beautiful history about a poet who drowned himself because he was distraught by politics, and the local people beat drums and flailed the water to protect his spirit and to stop the fish from eating him. And it turned into a sport.
Then 2,500 years later the races have boats with dragon heads and tails at the ends and equipped with drums. "The drummers here are kind of for fun in events like this," said Moore, "but in international events and elite events the drummer is actually the coach and they have head gear on just like a rowing team. They are actually yelling out instructions to the team during the race. So they are very motivational."
Hopper explained that the competition is an elimination race. Each time two teams come down and race and one team loses and one team wins. The winning team stays in the winners' bracket, and the losing team goes to what is called the second chance bracket, and they get to race again until they lose twice during the day. And as soon as a team has lost twice, it is out of the competition. So as long as a team keeps winning it keeps paddling and racing over and over. Ultimately everybody will get knocked out except one team and that's how it's decided who the champion will be.
Ivan, a Qualcomm employee, who just returned from a race amidst cheering and laughter, said he's from Taiwan where the sport is quite popular, but this is the first time he's participated in a dragon boat race. Asked how their team was doing, he laughed and said, "We just lost this one, but it's a lot of fun."
Nicola Tan who was lining up to go out with the HP (Hewlett Packard) young employee network team said that most of them are new at dragon boat racing, but they had already gone out twice that day, so everyone had gotten some practice. "And we're here mostly to have fun," she added. "It's a lot of fun. I like the entertainment, watching all the drummers and the dragons and there's lots of great food!"
The dragon boat race began in the morning with an "eye-dotting" ceremony performed by a Buddhist nun who "dotted" the dragons' eyes with red paint to wake the dragons up so that they would perform in a positive way. And when the races are finished, the eyes will be painted over black again so that they go "back to sleep" until the next race.
The boats are kept on Fiesta Island by the Boy Scout facility where they are available to all – athletes who race on an international level and represent the San Diego Dragon Boat Team around the world, as well as recreational paddlers who want to just come out for fun and to get a little exercise.
The Researchers from the Scripps Research Institute ultimately triumphed as the winning Dragon Boat team.
To learn more about the San Diego Alliance for APIA or the San Diego Dragon Boat Team go to: http://sdalliance.org and http://www.sddragonboat.com .
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