On Sunday, June 22th, 2014, a group of voice k journalists headed out to Central Island for the Toronto International Dragon Boat Festival to watch a dragon boat race. The drive was pretty long. When my family finally arrived at our destination, I wanted to jump out the car!
When my family got to the ferry dock, we had to wait in a long line for the ferry. My family rode on the top layer of the ferry. When I got there, I was amazed by the buzz if excitement in the crowd. There were so many people with paddles so I knew they must be paddlers competing in the race. There were lots of vendors with food and games, and the thumping of the dancers’ feet on the stage was amazingly loud.
I explored the island until I saw the Voice K group. We got split up in two teams. I interviewed a paddler named Tim Hudson who was competing for the P&G team.
“My dad and I used to always go rowing when I was your age and we did the same in Boy scouts too.” Hudson said. He told me that the important part about racing is that everyone has to be in sync. “You have to make sure you listen to the man in the back and everyone on the boat has to know his instructions.”
I also learned that in a race like this, you want start paddling very hard at the start, slow down in the middle, and then pick up at the end.
In order to prepare for a dragon boat race, you need a lot of different training. One of the most important ones is to train how to row. You can pull your paddle to your sides and work on your strokes. You also need lots of warm-ups and muscle trainings because paddling requires a lot of back exercises, shoulder exercises, and cardio exercises.
“How do you feel when you finished the race?” I asked.
”Relieved,” Tim said. “Because you get really exhausted in the race and it’s good to finish. And I feel even better when I win.”
Then I asked to see his hand and there were so many calluses on them!
Then I interviewed one of the organizers of the even ─ Kevin Lo. His favorite part of the dragon boat race is seeing all the teamwork effort. Lo told me that this was his fourth year being an organizer. “I first heard about this festival when I was a kid,” Lo told me when I asked him about his first experience.
After playing for several hours, it was time to head back home. I still remember the day I saw dragons on the river, and excited to see next year’s dragon boat race.
