Dragon Boat Racing

 

Dragon boat racing is a popular sport in Portland. There are many teams that use dragon boats owned by DragonSports USA, which are moored in RiverPlace Marina year round.  Beautifully decorated Kaohsiung boats are brought to the Marina each spring for the annual Rose Festival dragon boat race. Below are some links to relevant websites, beginning with a 2017 Rose Festival video from Golden Dragon member Elaine Hill, whose husband filmed it. In that race, the Golden Dragons women’s team (closest to the camera) won first place. Flag catcher Linda Stacey caught the red flag. 

 

Golden Dragons PDX

 

DragonSports USA

 

Rose Festival Dragon Boat Race

Dragon Boat Racing, Portland, Oregon, June 9, 2012, by FlameWall44

Things don’t always go smoothly. As posted by The Oregonian, “Flag catcher Jackson Turner nearly slipped off the bow of a dragon boat while racing Sunday, June 11, 2017, at the Portland Rose Festival Dragon Boat Races. Turner was unharmed after being helped back onto the dragon head shaped bow by caller Jessie Jorissen. Video courtesy of Jessie Jorissen.”

Paddlesoffury posted in July, 2011, “Paddles of Fury (Portland, Oregon) dragon boat team in mid-race collision with Hot Sake (Seattle, WA) resulting in caller going overboard. Head cam footage.” You can see the waves from a power boat (itself not visible) on the far side of boat #2 that pushed it into the Paddles of Fury boat. (Kent, WA)

And Paddlesoffury writes again, in July, 2012: “Here’s the latest installment of the annual Paddles of Fury dragon boat crash videos. This one is from the 2012 Salem Worldbeat Dragon Boat Race, Division-1 Final. Generally, a non-contact sport – – but apparently not so for us. Soon we’ll need helmets.”

And more tiller (steerperson) collision nightmares! This one in the Pickering Dragon Boat Regatta on May 31st, 2014.

Posted by Bean Jelly.

A collision in the 500 M Ottawa Dragon Boat Race – posted in June, 2016 by Scott Wright.

Some dragon boat races, especially abroad, involve many dragon boats in a single race, which can result in multiple crashes. Here’s one in Bern in the BKW Armadacup in 2011. Posted by WordOnTheRoad.

Few dragon boat races are as unusual as the “drifting, nighttime” race in Foshan City, Guangdong Province, China. This was posted in May, 2017 by CCTV+.

Finally, there are few more competitive dragon boat races than those held in Stanley Bay, Hong Kong.

This video of the 2017 Stanley Bay Dragon Boat Race was posted by Drone and Phone.