North Shore Dragon Boat Festival Races
August 14, 2004
By Greg Fangel
My wife Liz and I signed up for the dragon boat races in
Grand Marais after being recruited by members of the North
Superior Ski and Run Club (NSSRC), who decided to have a dragon
boat team.
Dragon boat racing is very popular in Thunder Bay and Duluth.
Teams of 22 people are in each boat, one person beating a
drum to synchronize the paddling while one is steering. Everyone
else is paddling. The first 6 people in the boat are the rythem
section, the next 8 people are the engine or power section
and the last 6 are pulling up the rear. It's an incredible
upper body and abdominal workout. Paddlers reached as far
as they could towards the front with their paddle, plunged
it into the water and pulled backwards with a powerful stroke.
Sawbill Outfitters team (Photo: Greg
Fangel) |
The teams were flush with cross country skiers. Liz and I
were on the NSSRC team. In the winter, that means "North
Superior Ski and Run Club" from Grand Marais. For the
dragon boat race, it meant "Not So Shabby Rowing Club".
On our team were other skiers that you might know; Dick Swanson,
Nona Goertz, Jan Horak, Jim and Jane Shinners, Kim Carlsted-Gillis
(daughter of 81 year-old Roy) her husband Burt and drum beater
Betsy Bowen (mother of Phil Bowen, now working at Gear West).
Other teams had xc skiers including Birkie elite wave skier
Nancy Olson, Jonathon Rova, Buck Benson, Scott Beattie, Michael
Dietzman from Ely, Deb Sussex from Ely, and world adventurer
Lonnie Dupre. It was reported that Dietzman rode his bicycle
down from Ely on Friday before the practice session on the
boats.
We had 1 1/2 hours of paddling practice on Friday. Many of
us had limp limbs after all of that paddling. One of the Thunder
Bay paddlers helped us by being the steer person which is
one of the most important parts of the paddling team.
Saturday was race day. The race course was set up in the
Grand Marais harbor and it was basically a 1/2km sprint for
2-3 minutes of hard paddling to the finish line. Beautiful
60ºF weather with light winds greeted us in the Grand
Marais harbor. 15 teams, 5 from Thunder Bay and 10 from Minnesota
(mostly from Cook County) raced all day cheered on by hundreds
of spectators in the harbor. Interesting team names such as
"Les Ferocious Femmes", "Dragonae Medica",
"Women on Fire" and "Bodymind Dragons"
added to the fun.
Check it out for next year. This event promises to be a big
attraction, especially to silent sport, aerobic athletes.
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