By Scott Pohl, WKAR News
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkar/local-wkar-984238.mp3
Lansing, MI –
Dragon boat racing is coming to Lansing on Sunday.
What, exactly, IS a dragon boat?
WKAR's Scott Pohl has spent some time this week learning about the ancient Chinese sport of dragon boat racing, and its growing popularity in the U.S.
Let's start with some of the basics. Just like it sounds, dragon boats are decorated to look like dragons. They're 40 feet long and hold teams of 18 paddlers.
One of the organizers in Lansing is former police chief Mark Alley. He says there are other, crucial members of each team: a professional steersman, and a drummer.
"The best tactic," Alley says, "is to row every time you hear a beat of the drum, so the drummer is a very important part of the boat, because you have a long line of people, the drummer sets the pace, so to speak, for rowing, so it's important that the paddlers row at the same time, to be the most efficient use of horsepower, moving the boat down the river."
Ron Hau, president of the Iowa-based American Dragon Boat Association, says that for spectators, it can be fun to observe a good dragon boat team in action. "It's neat to see a well-tuned machine when they're in sync," he says, adding, though, that it can also be fun to watch a team that isn't so well tuned. All the blades being in different positions can be quite comical.
Hau explains that back in the 80's, a pair of dragon boats from China was brought in for a big float down the Mississippi River. Some Chinese paddlers were invited along, with the provision that the hosts send a dragon boat team to China. Later, two Chinese boats were donated to the association. They now have about a dozen boats for races like the one coming to Lansing.
Hau says that while it's fun to watch, there's a lot for the paddlers to like about dragon boat racing, too.
"There is no star quarterback or running back on a dragon boat team," Hau says. "You either work as a group and succeed together, or you don't quite pick up on those concepts and you, as a group, don't do so well. It's amazing what a group of 20 people can accomplish if they listen and work together and pull as a unit."
Hau says he once saw a team from Macau, China, row at an incredible pace of 96 beats per minute. "I haven't seen that much water come off of anything short of a hydro."
The national association provides dragon boats for races all over the country, and in many places, the sport has shown tremendous growth. There will be two boats in Lansing, with about a dozen teams. Some of those teams are still looking to fill out their allotment of 18 rowers, and experience isn't required.
Hau wouldn't be surprised if Lansing has more teams, and needs more boats, in the future. "Typically," he says, "the first year, it starts out anywhere between four and 10 to 12 teams, and from there, you end up with a four boat event with 20 to 30 teams. We've got one event down in Texas that's running over three days, on the order of 94 to 96 teams."
Mark Alley says in Lansing, the races will be held on a 300-meter course on the Grand River, through Adado Riverfront Park. Each race will last from a minute and a half to two minutes.
"We are going to have at least three divisions where people will compete in," Alley says, "and we'll have time trials at the beginning of the day on Sunday that will seed the different groups in divisions, so this is going to be competitive racing, and double elimination, so people will race, at a minimum, three times during the day."
The races will be staged on the east side of the river, at the same time the Michigan Mosaic Music Festival is going on across the river. To kick off the day of races on Sunday, there will be a ceremony at dusk on Saturday for the "awakening of the dragons". Offerings will be made to the river, the eyes of each dragon will be painted red, and fireworks will be set off to awaken the dragons from their slumber for the next day's races.
Mark Alley says he hopes dragon boat racing will become a Labor Day weekend fixture in Lansing.