How to Get Involved:

If you’re interested in getting involved in dragon boating, we encourage you to start thinking ahead and planning for this year’s festival.

Getting a Team Together

You will need to recruit twenty five people to form your team. While that may sound like a lot, we find that most teams have no problem filling these slots once the word starts getting around. That’s twenty paddlers, a drummer, and two or three alternates. You can race with fewer paddlers if you can’t find enough, but 16 paddlers is the minimum. If you’re putting together a youth team, the paddlers must be between 12 and 18 years old. A team competing in the “mixed” division must have at least 8 female paddlers. In addition to the team members, many teams end up with a team “mom” or “dad” who doesn’t paddle but goes to practices and helps out with the team in different ways, for example, driving, keeping an eye on the team’s belongings while the team is out practicing, or providing snacks for the hungry paddlers.

Appoint a Team Captain

If you’re the one getting the team together, then maybe you’re the best person for this job. The captain is usually in charge of collecting money, scheduling practices, and being the liaison between the festival and the team.

Register and sign up for training

Registration is expected to open in March. Training sessions generally start in April. Each team is allowed three training sessions, included in the registration fee. Training slots tend to fill up in the weeks just before the festival, so it’s best to sign up early so you can get the best selection of times that are convenient for your team.

Go to training

The one hour training sessions are held at one of the two training sites:

The Anacostia Community Boat House on the Anacostia River by the Navy Yard in Southeast DC,
or
The DC Dragon boat Club at Gangplank Marina in DC SW Waterfront, on the Washington Channel.

The instructors will teach you everything you need to know to become proficient paddlers.