This year’s Dragon Boat Festival in Foster City is on Sunday, June 8, 2014, from 9 am – 4 pm at the Lagoon, 650 Shell Blvd, Foster City, CA (see map below).
Dragon boat race on the lagoon. See drummer on the left & steersman in back.
It’s FREE and there will be several races, food, music, dancing by lions & dragons, and the opportunity for visitors to take a dragon boat ride or paddling lesson provided by the Bay Area Dragons Club. The race course is approximately 300 yards long and takes less than 3 minutes to cover. In this years race teams must have a minimum of 16 paddlers with a minimum of 8 females on mixed teams. See more details.
Dragon Boat Races & Festivals began in southern China where local villages have competed yearly for over 20 centuries as part of their religious traditions. Dragon boats are 44 foot long, narrow canoes powered by 20 paddlers, who are motivated by a drummer in front who cheers and beats out the pace, and are guided by a steersperson in back. The brightly colored boats are often decorated with a dragon’s head and tail and can go amazingly fast, certainly in International races.
Bay Area Dragons Club (a.k.a. BAD) top
The main host of the Foster City Dragon Boat Festival is the Bay Area Dragons Boat Racing Team, or BAD for short.
BAD is a member of the Pacific Dragon Boat Association (PDBA) and competes both locally and internationally in countries such as Germany, Rome and Malaysia. It one of the oldest and largest such clubs in northern California; in fact their president introduced Dragon Boat Racing to the SF Bay Area in 1996.
The sport accommodates a wide spectrum of skill levels ranging from novice to highly competitive. This has made modern dragon boat racing a good social outlet and team building activity as well as exercise, even for novices.
In addition to practicing and racing the club has several social events and gives FREE dragonboat lessons at 10:30 am every Saturday morning at Foster City Boat Park. Beginners are invited to come out, ask any questions and try the sport. Check lesson details and club details.
650 Shell Blvd, Foster City CA
