Updated Aug 12, 2008 - 7:31 pm
Dragon boats drum out participants in Seattle
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KIRO RADIO
Listen to this reportDragon boating, a traditional Chinese team sport, is gaining attention as various Seattle-area teams are taking to the waters. "The boat is about 40 feet long, twenty-two people in it, including a steering person and a drummer in the festival," says Charlene Wee, coach of one of the Seattle teams.
The boats cost about fifteen-thousand dollars. During festivals boats are often decorated with dragon ornaments and a person inside the boat beats a drum. "During race pieces we'll have someone up front called a drummer, or the caller. Basically their goal is to help synchronize the boat, to watch the other boats during the race, to figure out race strategy." Coach Albert Ting says the caller is the most important person in the boat.
Local teams treat the sport like any community organization, asking for volunteers who want to compete and have fun. The sport requires regular team practices to get the team working in unison. "Paddling with nineteen other people you have to hit the water at the same time, have as close to the same stroke style as possible, so that you can get the boat to surge forward every stroke and to glide during the recovery. And if you have twenty individual strong paddlers that can't blend together well, then the boat's a mess."
Member Zheng Wang even filmed a documentary on local team, Hot Sake, called My Eating Team has a Paddling Problem."
The team's unique story earned praise from the Buffalo Niagara Film Festival and the Tacoma Film Festival. All this attention prompts a quip from Charlene, as the centuries old sport is just gaining attention. "It's really spreading, and in fact it's a bit of a running joke that we have, because we kept saying, ‘Yes, it's the fastest growing team sport in the last couple hundred years, except it's been around for the last thousand years."
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