Dragon Boat Racing

What makes this sport even more special is the fact that this sport is the only sport, which has enough significance to be deigned eligible for qualifying as a national holiday. The basic purpose behind the continuity of this tradition decade after decade, year after year, is to commemorate the death of Ou Yuan.

The origin of Dragon boat races took place in China. The most important piece of equipment that is used in the course of practicing dragon boat racing is of course the Dragon boat itself. The structure of the dragon boat resembles that of a human powered boat that is quite long and pretty narrow. Besides being used as part of the dragon boat race, it is also used in the team paddling sport.

As a matter of fact, the sport of dragon boat racing has managed to gain such a huge extent of popularity over the years that formal events are exclusively held in the course of continuing with the tradition and culture of dragon boat racing. For this purpose, the dragon boats are also decorated and rigged with Chinese dragon heads and tails in order to give it a festive quality. Not only that but the Chinese dragon boat racing also requires the dragon boats to be carrying a large drum board. It is only during the course of the event that the decorative patterns on the dragon boats are actually used. On other instances, this decorative regalia is removed, nevertheless the presence of the drum remains intact, mainly for the purpose of training.

In accordance with the general scenario and its implications regarding a dragon boat, the standard crew for a dragon boat constitutes about 22 people. In this group of people, twenty people are meant to incorporate the role of paddlers while the remaining two assume the task of the drummer (or the caller at the bow that is in the direction of the paddlers) along with the duty of a steerer, which is also referred to as the tiller. This steerer or tiller stays at the posterior end of the boat. However when it comes to actual dragon boat racing tradtions, the crew number differs from what is mentioned above. In this case, the common crew number constitutes about just 18 paddlers in discordance with the 20 mentioned previously.

In addition to that, size of the dragon boat is also a major factor in determining the number of people who would be part of the crew. For instance, in the case of a small dragon boat, it would require a crew size as small as ten paddlers while when it comes to an unusually large dragon boat, the crew size could go as high as fifty paddlers, which is not inclusive of the drummer as well as the steerer (tiller), all of which are abiding by each and every dragon boat racing technique. Although the paddlers have the major role in the case of carrying out the dragon boat race, it does not mean that the drummer or the steerer have a less important part in the course of the continuity of the sport. As a matter of fact, the drummer (or callers as they would be called otherwise) are considered to be the heartbeat of the dragon boat, which signifies the vital role that they play in the course of the dragon boat racing sport.

All in all, every single player is important in the dragon boat sport and plays a vital part in the continuity of the popular game.