At the end of July, the NAC Dragon Boat team competed in the Long Beach Dragon Boat Festival. More than two dozen paddlers from our team competed in seven races throughout the day, against over 60 teams from across three states (CA, AZ, NV). Our team raced in seven heats for the Women’s, Mixed, and Masters divisions, and while none of those got us on the podium, we still made a strong showing: check out our alignment!
During our last race, another boat collided with us from behind and broke off our steering oar. The entire boat worked together to get us back to shore: our steer Jianmin recovered our oar and set the course, our coach Jeannette used her outrigging experience to assist from the front, and every paddler chipped in to correct the boat when needed. It was not the last race we hoped for, but we certainly ended the day with a bang and was the truest demonstration that Dragon Boating is a team sport!
Some additional thank yous: Race Captain Tom Wall has been attending the Long Beach festival since before the pandemic, and he was instrumental in managing the logistics and organizing our paddlers on race day (in addition to steering multiple races). Our coach Jeannette and team captain Skylar kept our paddling strong (we actually increased our heat times over the course of the day!) and our drummers Karen and Jin rallied us to the finish. A huge shoutout as well to Jianmin for steering boats on short notice and keeping calm during our last race. The entire team paddled with love in their hearts and on their sleeves, and we made it a joyful day.
