Waves lapped at the sides of the Fighting Dragons’ boat as the team silently waited for drummer Emily Rivers to give them the start signal, their bodies tense with anticipation as they slipped their paddles into the Aurora Reservoir.
“We have alignment, attention, GO!” Rivers yelled from her seat at the prow.
The paddles began churning immediately. I was overwhelmed. I’d never paddled in a dragon boat before. I struggled to keep up with the strokes of the paddler in front of me –and not to hit her back with my paddle — as water soaked my face. Ahead, Rivers called the strokes, her voice echoing across the lake. After 40 strokes, the team stopped and let the boat drift to an eventual stop. Rivers checked her watch and smiled as she announced the time for our last 120-meter sprint — the Fighting Dragons had shaved one second off from an earlier practice.
“Thatap what I’m talking about!” shouted my rowing partner, team captain Mark Perez. He turned and beamed at the rest of the team as I struggled to catch my breath.
This is a routine Tuesday evening practice for the Fighting Dragons, one of the 52 teams preparing to compete at . The Fighting Dragons will compete against many local teams (who they know well), plus a few out of state teams.
The Dragon Boat Festival began in 2001 when a group of volunteers threw a party at Sloan’s Lake to celebrate Denver’s Asian communities. Attendance has grown exponentially, from 16,000 guests that first year to the 125,000 visitors festival organizers expect this year.
Besides watching the races, guests can also taste a variety of Asian foods, watch Asian-American bands and cultural groups perform, shop at the Marketplace and even get a health screening at the Wellness Village.
“This festival is important because it puts Denver on the map in terms of culture,” Perez said. “We try to share diversity with each other. We’ll hang out together after races — itap not like the Filipinos over there and the Vietnamese over here.”
For the Fighting Dragons, the races are the centerpiece of the festival. Perez, who has been paddling with the team for 15 years after joining for fun, is trying to lead his team to a victory in the 500-meter race for the third year in a row. Two years ago, the Fighting Dragons swept all three events — the 120-meter, 250-meter and 500-meter.
Thanks to extensive conditioning sessions the team began in March, and experience — half of the paddlers have been racing dragon boats since they were 13, the minimum age to compete on a team at the festival — thatap not an inconceivable goal.
At the Tuesday evening practice, the boat moved swiftly because the 20 paddlers moved together perfectly. That synchronization is the key to success, according to Lorraine Eloriago, a former captain of the Fighting Dragons and the chief timer of the races.
“The most important aspect of dragon boat racing is the team aspect,” she said. “This team is basically a family. They take care of each other and community comes from the heart, and thatap what makes them so strong.”
As for successful race techniques, Eloriago said every team has a “power stroke,” which will give the team a burst of speed when they need to overtake another team. Every team’s power stroke is different, and Rivers will call the cue word, a closely guarded secret, during the race when the Fighting Dragons need to put on some extra speed.
For newer teams, having fun on the lake is the goal this weekend at the races. Sharon Knight, one of the co-captains of Thrilla Flotilla, a team organized by Livingston Fellows, said the first race her boat paddled last year was nowhere near as good as their last.
“Paddling a dragon boat is very different from paddling crew, because there’s a very prescriptive stroke you use,” she said. “In some ways, it also teaches how to be a good team member. Some people want to go faster, some people want to go slower. The more you listen to each other, the better you’ll do.”
Listening is incredibly important to a great dragon boat race. In the few moments I was in sync with the rest of the Fighting Dragons, I could hear the satisfying pop of our paddles exiting the water at the same time. But for now, itap best to leave winning the race to the more experienced team members — I was just happy I didn’t fall into the lake during my brief stint as a dragon boat paddler.
