Poor old Qu Yuan, an ancient Chinese statesman (475-421 BC), was something of a hard-luck case during his own lifetime. Yet he left a legacy that is celebrated throughout much of the world today as the fastest growing water sport on the planet—dragon boat racing.
Qu’s connection goes like this: He had been banished from his state of Chu by a corrupt king. Then he learned of the impending invasion of Chu by a neighbor state. This was too much for him so he tethered himself to a rock in a river to commit ritual suicide as a protest against the invasion. The good people of the kingdom rushed into the water in their fishing boats to try to save Qu, but it was to no avail. So, they beat drums and splashed water with their paddles to keep evil spirits from his body.
Ultimately Qu Yuan’s legacy in China ended up being commemorated century after century on an annual basis by boat races that take place on the anniversary of his death. The boats are traditionally long and narrow canoe-style vessels decorated with carved heads and tails of dragons, which are held to be the rulers of the rivers and seas.
The Comox Valley Dragonflies at practice. The Dragonflies are one of six teams in the Valley.
Photo by Boomer Jerritt
Eventually the dragon boats spread beyond the confines of China and the races have now annual events in some 40 countries. And, as many Comox Valley residents—at least those that ever find themselves near local waters—know, dragon boating is very much a facet of the local scene.
In British Columbia, dragon boating is part of the legacy of Vancouver’s Expo ‘86. At that event the Chinese delegation brought with them six teak dragon boats. From that grew the Canadian International Dragon Boat Festival, the first of its kind nationally, thanks to the efforts of David See Chai Lam and Milton Wong. This was the first dragon boat race/festival outside of Asia, created as a showcase of Vancouver’s growing cultural diversity and to promote racial harmony and cross cultural understanding.
A decade later Dr. Don McKenzie of the University of BC, in conjunction with physiotherapist and breast cancer survivor Dr. Susan Harris, formed the first breast cancer survivor dragon boat team in Vancouver. Their intention was to prove that upper body exercise has a large role in recovery from breast cancer and lymphedema because it can improve the range of motion, reverse muscle atrophy, stimulate the immune system and activate skeletal muscles. The only criteria for becoming a member of a breast cancer survivor team is having had a history of breast cancer.
Since that time dragon boating has grown immensely in popularity, with breast cancer survivor teams being a part of all festivals. In the Comox Valley the breast cancer survivor team, and the first dragon boat group on the local scene was Hope Afloat, which was formed in 2001 in conjunction with the Comox Recreation Commission.
In the case of Hope Afloat a group of women in a support group were discussing full-time return to work after having completed their cancer treatments. It was at that meeting the topic of dragon boat racing came up. As it stood, the nearest option for getting involved in the sport was in Nanaimo. This was hardly practical for women who were working. As it turned out, four local women were involved with the mid-Island team. They were contacted and the wheels were set in motion. Within a few months, thanks to the support of Valley businesses, service clubs and individual donations, enough funds were raised to purchase the Valley’s first dragon boat.
From that first purchase the concept of dragon boating took off in the Valley. Hope Afloat gifted their boat to the Comox Recreation Commission, which agreed to make it available to other groups who were interested in getting into the sport. The rest of the tale is, as they say, history.
There remains, however, says Christine Saunders, Comox Valley Dragonflies team manager, a widespread assumption that dragon boating is still confined to breast cancer survivors (though they remain integral to the sport). Many teams, like the Dragonflies, are strictly recreational.
The Dragonflies team (the oldest in the Valley after Hope Afloat) was formed in 2002. The Dragonflies compete in approximately four to five events through the racing season, and primarily compete as a mixed competitive team. However, they have also raced in a number of women’s festivals through the years. The Dragonflies are one of six teams in the Valley, including the original Hope Afloat team.
Going back to the beginning for the Dragonflies, and for Saunders, it all came about due to an ad placed by Comox Rec in which they asked if anybody was interested in a dragon boat, as the Hope Afloat boat was now available for other user groups.
“I phoned and then went to a meeting in January of 2002,” she says. “There were a good 40 people there and I became a member of the first team. We had a 6-16, which is the standard dragon boat worldwide.”
Part of her personal motivation, Saunders says, was that she felt she needed to get involved in some sort of a sport, mainly because she needed the exercise and wanted to do something that appealed to her. Since she was raised by the sea, she felt that something to do with the water would work for her.
“I’d never been particularly active in sports,” she says. “I like to say I’m a great spectator, and when my kids were growing up and playing baseball or soccer I was always out there to cheer them on. But, I wanted and needed something for me.”
Right from the beginning she found it to be a fine fit for her. It was a good group of people to be with and the sport demanded team solidarity in that all must pull together. People get tight with one another—figuratively and literally—in relatively short order.
“For us it’s basically recreational,” she says. “There is the competitive aspect and we have achieved a considerable degree of success, but essentially we go out to be on the water and to have fun. One of our biggest challenges is to get more men involved.”
A further misconception about dragon boating (the first being that it is confined to breast cancer survivors) that Saunders would like to set straight is that it is not exclusively a female endeavor, but decidedly calls for gender mixed teams and they are, she says, always trying to attract men to the sport.
Many men, Saunders adds, believe that dragon boating is strictly a female involvement, and at a certain level females must predominate. There are no exclusively male teams, but in any of the major competitions in which they have been involved, such as Victoria and Nanaimo, the biggest section is the mixed group. And, of the 20 people on a team, at least eight must be female.
As for the physical aspects of dragon boating, Saunders describes it as “a wonderful sport. It’s whole body exercise,” she says. “While it creates certain demands on the novice it doesn’t take long to adjust to the stresses of the sport.”
She notes that Fitness Excellence in the Valley offers dragon boat training and that it’s a good idea to take that sort of training, especially in the winter, before the season begins.
“Winter is definitely a good time to get started,” she advises, as competition season isn’t the best time to learn, so it can be a bit disappointing for the newcomer since the others on the team are more advanced.
Part of the allure, Saunders says, is the sense of solidarity that comes about from the experience. Everybody must be able to rely on everyone else in the boat. There is no hierarchy in that regard.
“The speed of the boat comes about from everybody paddling as one,” she says. “Everybody must hit the water with their paddles at exactly the same time.”
While the Dragonflies initially used the boat made available from Comox Rec they have, since 2007, had their own boat—a boat with a special legacy and of which the team members are very proud.
It came about when team member Monica Greenwood and her husband, Mel, donated the boat in memory of their son, Stephen, who had died in a car crash four years earlier. The boat is a BuK, which is built in Germany and is a crème-de-la-crème craft of the sort that has been used in many international competitions.
But, the Dragonflies boat is even more than that, Saunders says. The boat has been enhanced by the talents of local artist Robert Lundquist, who endeavored—after listening to the Greenwoods’ story of their son—to bring his spirit to life as represented by the boat. Appropriately, the boat is called Stephen’s Spirit.
Team solidarity is of course everything, and aside from having the boat that they cherish so greatly, the Dragonflies deck themselves out in T-shirts that follow the design of the boat.
“With our team we knew we needed a good blend of personalities, and that’s what we have,” Saunders says. “We have 20 people plus a drummer. Once we join up we make a definite commitment, but we know that we all have other things going on in our lives, and that has to be respected.”
During the season they practice twice a week for an hour and a quarter, and in the winter, come rain or come shine, or sleet and virtually everything but heavy winds, they practice once a week.
There is a definite process that must be learned and a participant’s skill can only improve with practice, she says. The paddlers in a dragon boat face forward (unlike aft-facing seated rowers) and use a specific type of paddle, which is not connected to the craft in any way. They paddle canoe-style with a very distinctive paddle type. The leading paddlers set the pace for the team and it’s essential that all paddlers be synchronized. Each paddler, Saunders says, should synchronize with the stroke or pacer on the opposite side of the boat. That is, if you paddle starboard side, you take your pace from the paddler on the port side. Meanwhile, the two pacers in the bow set the pace for the rest of the paddlers.
“We truly have to be a team,” Saunders says. “There are no star performers, just a group of people literally pulling together.”
Currently their team quotient is good, Saunders says. A number of new members have come out, which is good since five or six members left within the past year. And, as always, they are seeking more male participation. As far as age is concerned, there is no upper or lower limit, though participants should be physically mature due to the strength demands.
“Right now I believe we range in age from about 30 to 70 years,” she says.
This fastest growing of water sports on the globe is seconded only by outrigger paddling, which uses the same strokes, and the teams are often mutually supportive, says Saunders.
“The primary difference would be that outriggers are suited for long distances, whereas our greatest distance in competition is 500 metres,” she says. “CORA (Canadian Outrigger Canoe Association) held a competition in Comox Lake last year, and our team supported theirs in that competition.”
What appeals to Saunders and many others in the sport is that it’s not encumbered by regulations limiting the involvement of its members. As an example, she will shortly be going to Victoria to race with another team and she observes that the teams change from one race to the next. At the same time, competition, such as the BC Seniors Games (Comox Valley and Campbell River, September 15-18) and festivals like Nautical Days in Comox bring out the apex of team spirit.
For the Seniors Games, Saunders says, she’ll be on a mixed team, along with seven other members of the Dragonflies. She further notes that for competitions in other centres they do not, due to difficulty of transport, take their boat with them. Which, she admits, is too bad in one respect, but the logistics have to be respected.
“It all truly stirs the spirit,” she says. “I’m looking forward to Nautical Days and the Seniors Games in the early fall. We’ll be there and loving it.”
For more information on the Comox Valley Dragonflies visit www.cvdragonflies.ca.
For breast cancer survivors who would like to be connected with Hope Afloat, go to www.hopeafloatcanada.ca.