Paddlers come in all shapes and sizes
Teams from near and far compete in one of biggest regattas of its kind outside Asia
If you closed your eyes and tried to conjure up the image of dragon boater, a man with a build like that of Toshi Takahashi may not come to mind.
He may stand less than six feet, but the broad shouldered, muscular Takahashi likely outsizes the bulk of his competitors by a ratio of two to one.
But before jumping to the conclusion that Takahashi is likely to slay any competitor that he faces, there are two important things to keep in mind about dragon boating. First, there really is no average dragon boater since competitors come in all ages, builds and backgrounds. Second, in this sport, size is by no means a sure advantage.
Takahashi is the captain of the Dragon Zone Twisted Hips, a different type of team than many of those paddling in False Creek this weekend at the Rio Tinto Alcan Dragon Boat Festival — one of the biggest regattas of its kind outside Asia.
While many teams are slight in build and propel their vessels with swift, light strokes, the Hips sit a little lower in the water and have a slower start and ferocious finish — they’re “the catch-up kids,” as Takahashi called the team.
“We’re well-known for just catching up right at the end,” Takahashi said. “We’ve heard from other teams that we’ve raced in the past that now our name is synonymous with good, tough competition. Good racing. And we’re happy to bring it to them,” Takahashi said with a good-natured grin.
The Vancouver-based Twisted Hips has been racing for about six years and started as a cobbled-together collective of strays — newcomers to the sport who wanted to learn how to paddle.
The team is a welcoming bunch with just one key requirement for prospective paddlers.
“If you can do the work — if you can work hard, then you’re welcome on the team,” Takahashi said.
Work hard they do, given the boat’s come-from-behind paddling pace.
“A slow start is tougher. We have to battle really hard. We have to dig deep in order to catch up, especially when it comes down to the end. Then it’s all or nothing,” Takahashi said.
Ask most dragon boaters how they hope to place in a festival and you’ll get a complicated answer involving medals, divisions and sub-division, but it usually boils down to wanting to paddle the best they can or beat their previous year’s ranking.
“Essentially we just want to do the best we can. Wherever we end up, that’s fine with us. It’s all about the hard work,” Takahashi said.
Ask most dragon boaters what their team’s paddling pace is, and you’ll get a similarly complex answer. If you can follow the response, you’ll understand precisely the type of race the team runs, from the first few seconds through to the final push.
Leslie Wiles, who flew with more than a dozen of her teammates from Newcastle, Australia to compete in the festival, explained the paddling pace she has committed to memory:
“We do five long and strong at a 75 stroke rate a minute and then we go in and do 10 fast and furious at an 80 stroke rate a minute and then we drop back to a 75 stroke rate and we keep going at that rate throughout the race. Then, about 30 seconds from the finish, the sweep (steersperson) calls, ‘Take it home,’ and we beef it up to an 80 stroke rate.”
It’s a pretty intense sport under the best of conditions, but Wiles and the Newcastle Dragon Hunters are facing a few additional challenges here in Vancouver. Back home they tend to paddle without life jackets and start the race with their paddles out of the water.
Also, because members of Vancouver’s Grandragons have stepped up to round out the team’s 20 paddlers, one drummer and one steerer, the Dragon Hunters have had to make some changes to their usual pace.
It doesn’t sound like it has hurt their performance much, though.
“To be honest, the team beside us, who we beat, we looked across and said, ‘ They’re the age of all of our grandchildren,’” she said, laughing.
Past the age of 65, Wiles is a Great Grand Dragon by Australian rules. She started paddling in 2009 and had never even heard of the sport until after she lost one of her legs to an infection after knee replacement surgery.
“I couldn’t play any of the sports I normally did … so dragon boating was one I could do that got my heart rate up,” she said.
Since starting with the sport Wiles has trained with dragon boating clubs in cities around the world.
“I have found all around the world that (dragon boaters) are fantastic people,” she said.