Last year I gave you some background on the traditions of the Dragon Boat Festival.
This year, we've gone one better and can report from the inside, as a rower in a dragon boat team.
Getting it organised was easier said than done, our team were all foreigners, who are notoriously alcoholic and unreliable. Fortunately we had Rose to get it all together.
TECHNIQUE:
There are two types of dragon boat: one small and seek, the other large, cumbersome and colourful. The latter was the one we had. There are 22 people in a team with one person steering, one drumming and one to grab the flag.
First thing you need to do is get going. To do this you paddle quick, shallow and fast for twenty strokes or so. Then move into the long, deep, slow strokes, that take you to the finish. You pull with your back by leaning forward, not with your arms and in time with your team, dipping your oar as you hear the drum beat.TRAINING:
This began two weeks before the event. Down by the river the local government set up pontoons with all the boats moored alongside and a little marquee. We had about a dozen dates booked, but because of everyone's schedules, we never had a full compliment at any one session.
All sessions were scheduled for early morning (by Xpat standards) at ten, so there were many bleary eyes and weary limbs. We soldiered on as best we could.
Our usual hour training: pull the boat out, do a start and twenty strokes then rest for about five minutes. This would be repeated three or four times, then it was time to start heading back and go out for breakfast.
COMPETITION:
There was another team of foreigners sponsored by one of the local gyms. Their training began six weeks before the race and included running, rowing machine practice and getting started in the middle of the night (6am). These guys were seriously chasing the 300, 000 NTD in prize money.
Our team was sponsored by a local bar / bbq place and we were chasing the free beer at the end of the race.
Other teams chanted: Ji-yo, Ji-yo, Ji-yo (go, go, go)
We chanted: Pe-jo, Pe-jo, Pe-jo (beer, beer, beer)
Locals would stop and take pictures as we lackadaisically dragged our boat up and down the river.
LOVE RIVER:
The event took place on Love river, which didn't get its name because it is "Lovely". Not so much a river as a sewer, into which all the storm drains of the city expel their contents.
The fist week it wasn't so bad as the weather was hot and dry. Over the weekend though, the monsoon rains came and flushed out all the drains. It stank. It stank bad!
All manner of refuse was turning up. One story has it that a team in years past saw dead pig floating downstream. One wise guy thumped it with his paddle causing the bloated, gas filled corpse to explode and cover the team with the pig's grotesque contents. Nice.
RACE DAY:
We arrived early. Coffee-ed up and ready to go. We pegged out a spot in the shade next to some old dudes who thought we were the funniest thing in Taiwan since 1949.
Some of our listed rowers could make it so we had to round up some ringers to make up the numbers, some of whom, had never been in a boat before.
We lined up, ready to race and checked out the competition: the gym team, a foreigner team from the university and a group of geriatric Japanese. We were quietly confident of coming least fourth... in a race of four.
We pulled up to the starting blocks were the officials held us on long, hooked poles while a support craft floated around scooping up rubbish from the lanes. The banks for the river were full of onlookers. There was a brief discussion about the signals to start, which were all in Chinese. Wait for the gun and hit it. Easy.
Bang!
We were off, head down, short strokes 10, 20 then long and slow. Head down. Stay in time. We pulled out ahead of the Japanese... the rest is a bit of a blur.
Surprisingly we came third with a time of 3"55'. Even more surprising was that the Uni team beat the gym team. We were half way back to the pier by the time the geriatric Japanese grabbed the flag.
DRINKING:
Onto the most important part of the day: the cases of beer that our sponsors kindly delivered. That was it, more drinking and checking out the rest of the races... or so we thought.
We soon found out that, because we didn't come last, we were listed to race again at 7.00 pm. Tragic! The only thing to do was to keep drinking, so when we finished the beer, we headed for the pub where we spent most of the afternoon.
I wandered off down by the river to have a snooze and luckily woke in time for the next race.
SECOND RACE:
It was a different atmosphere at night. The neon lit up the banks of the river and all the boats had LED lights down the side. The water was inky black, a pleasant change from the usual poo-brown.
Once again we were lined up, paddles at the ready, the gun goes off and we make a dash.
There's shouting, something is wrong, we look around.
It took a few minutes for us to work out that the tiller man from another team had fallen in the drink, forfeiting their place and a restart was demanded. The guy who fell in the river, I'm sure made a full recovery but it would have been touch and go for a while.
So we turned around and started again. Once again, we came third which is pretty good out of a field of three. What was more impressive, was our time of 3"46'. After a full day's drinking we managed to shave 9 seconds off our time.
So there is the last tip for a dragon boat team... in your preparations, make sure you spend all day drinking before the event: increased stamina, raised blood sugar levels and anaesthesia.
What more do you need?
