Aquanauts Dragonboat Team

WHAT IS DRAGONBOATING?
(source: Wikipedia)

The history of dragonboat racing
The use of dragon boats for racing and dragons are believed by modern scholars to have originated in southern central China more than 2,500 years ago, along the banks of such iconic rivers as the Chang Jiang a.k.a. Yangtze (i.e. during the same era when the games of ancient Greece were being established at Olympia). During these ancient times violent clashes between the crew members of the competing boats involved throwing stones and striking each other with bamboo stalks. Originally, paddlers or even an entire team falling into the water could receive no assistance from the onlookers as their misfortune was considered to be the will of the Dragon Deity which could not be interfered with. Dragon boat racing as the basis for annual water rituals and festival celebrations, and for the traditional veneration of the Asian dragon water deity, has been practiced continuously since this period.

The dragon plays the most venerated role within the Chinese mythological tradition. For example, of the 12 animals of the Chinese Zodiac the only mythical creature is the dragon. Dragons are traditionally believed to be the rulers of rivers and seas and dominate the clouds and the rains of heaven. Unlike the dragons in European mythology which are considered to be evil and demonic, Asian dragons are regarded as wholesome and beneficent, and thus worthy of veneration, not slaying.

Dragonboating today
Modern dragon boat racing is organised at an international level by the International Dragon Boat Federation (IDBF), and divided into two categories:

sport racing, as practised by IDBF member organisations; and
festival racing, which are the more traditional and informal types of races, organised around the world, where racing rules vary from event to event.

A festival race is typically a sprint event of several hundred metres, with 500 metres being a standard distance in many international festival races. There are also some very long endurance events, such as the Three Gorges Dam Rally along the Yangtze River (or Chang Jiang) near Yichang, Hubei province, China, which covers up to 100 kilometres. In IDBF sport racing, the race distances are normally over 200m or 250m, 500m, 1000m and 2000m, with formal Rules of Racing.

Over the past 25 years, and especially since the formation of the IDBF and its Continental Federations for Asia and Europe, the sport of dragon boating has gradually spread beyond Asia to Europe, North America, Australia and Africa, becoming a popular international sport with a growing number of participants. Today, dragon boat racing (sport and festival) is among the fastest growing of team water sports, with tens of thousands of participants in various organisations and clubs in around 60 countries - most of which are IDBF members. The sport is recognised for the camaraderie, strength and endurance fostered amongst participants, and it has also become a very popular corporate and charitable sport.