March - Ribble Canoe Club

Page 20 November/December 2003
Enter the Dragon o
N
Dragon boat racing in Sweden
This place is amazing. During the summer
there is something going on practically every
weekend, which is in stark contrast to earlier
on in the year. So I suppose I shouldn’t have
been surprised when one evening, whilst
walking into town for a meal, Richard (one of
the guys from the Vattern trip), shouted down
from his balcony that he’s been trying to get
hold of me all day. It turned out that there was
to be a Dragon Boat Festival at the weekend
in Linkoping and that Gripen International
had entered a team and I’d been volunteered.
The lure of a free T-shirt, baseball cap and
beer was too much for me and weekend plans
were duly cancelled.
I’ve never been Dragon Boat racing. I’ve
watched it on Blue Peter but that’s about it. I
had visions of 20 to 30 boats all jostling for
clear water as they surge across Hong Kong
Harbour, drums beating, all the paddles in
perfect sync, the reality was very different but
still great fun. Linkoping is situated on the
Kinda Canal, which is more like a river with
locks. Not quite Hong Kong.
A strategy meeting was held on Thursday
before the great race. I was intrigued, so went
along to meet my fellow competitors. The
meeting basically covered logistics, where
and when to meet, time of first race, then the
meaty stuff of positioning, stroke rate and
balance. It was clear that only a few of the
guys had actually paddled a Dragon boat,
most hadn’t paddled in anything. Tales of
sunken boats, capsizes and swimmers left me
wondering what I’d got myself into. At least
they provided someone to steer, so with any
luck we shouldn’t crash.
The races consisted of heats in the morning,
all timed. The boats were then broken down
into pools, A for Pros, B for duffers and C for
Girls/Ladies. The best four from each pool
went through to a Final timed run.
The day of the race arrived. A light breeze,
not a cloud in the sky - perfect conditions for
something. I set off on my bike to meet the
rest of the crew. As I entered the park area I
had to get off and walk, it was 9:30 in the
morning and the place was a mass of people,
music and merriment. I got shot at by a group
of women all dressed in combats armed to the
teeth with water cannons. They were first up
and were marching toward the assembly point
in two rows. This was starting to look
ominous.
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