Anyone interested in a team sport that includes being out on our beautiful waters, is great exercise and will challenge and empower you? Then dragon boating may be exactly what you are looking for.
It’s a sport you can do at any age. Our team members age from 20s to 70s. We have doctors, teachers, artists, a retired fire chief, yoga instructor, nurses, young moms, grandparents all in one boat, working together to form a cohesive team.
The Sunshine Coast Dragon Boat Club (SCDBC) hosts a learn to paddle program through the month of May, which is a great way to give it a try. We normally have two competitive teams but since COVID, our numbers are down. We would love to see them increase. Our competitive team includes travel, as we compete in at least two regattas a season, usually in Nanaimo and Penticton. We also have a recreational group that is open to men and women.
For many of us, dragon boating is a very big part of our lives and has taken us to some fantastic places. Four of us have just returned from Arizona for a five-day clinic put on by Right Angle Performance, run by Kamini Jain, who is a world-class coach with clinics all over the world. Another member of our team attended a RAP clinic in Krabi, Thailand last winter. Many of our SCDBC breast cancer survivors travel every four years to compete in the International Breast Cancer Regatta. This year, they were in New Zealand. We also have a couple of women who travel weekly to Vancouver to train with high-level competitive Canadian teams. Before COVID, SCDBC members were registered to compete in Dublin, Ireland – something we hope to rearrange and attend in the near future.
In conclusion, dragon boating can be something you do and enjoy right here in our beautiful waters, but it can also take you to world-class competition, international breast cancer survivor races, training clinics and races in exotic places and friendships that will last a lifetime. For more information visit scdragonboatclub.com.
