Dragon-boat races blend culture, fun

By Allison Schaefers
Advertiser Staff Writer

Colorful dragon boats bobbed in the water off Ala Moana Beach Park yesterday as people from all over the world gathered to take part in the 2,000-year-old Chinese racing tradition.

The flag-catcher for R&M Canada waves the winner's flag after beating Hawaiian Outrigger and AT*T Aloha during the 8th annual AT&T Hawai'i Dragon Boat Festival held at Ala Moana Beach Park. This year, 76 teams participated in the event, a celebration of Chinese culture. Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser

The dragon-boat festival is part of Chinese culture. Cities around the world participate in this ancient celebration, which is one of the largest Chinese festivals of the year.

The festival began as a fertility rite on southern China's river banks performed to ensure bountiful crops, but today is primarily a form of international entertainment and competition in which the "spirit of the dragon" is honored by teams coming together to achieve a common goal.

Although dragon-boat racing has been a Chinese tradition for thousands of years, it has only been a regular event in Hawai'i since 1996, said Jackie Ingamells, an AT&T employee and former Hong Kong resident who has watched dragon-boat races elsewhere.

"I've seen the event in Hong Kong and in New York, and I think ours is the best," Ingamells said. "We've got the tradewinds, the beautiful beach and ocean waters, the 'ohana and the aloha spirit."

Ingamells said this year's event is the largest ever. The event had 15 teams at its start and has grown to 76 teams this year. (The teams take turns using the same boats.) And she hopes it will continue to grow.

"It's an opportunity for us to really preserve the culture and pass it on to the next generation," she said.

Donna Inouye, a Chinese American from Hawai'i Kai, said she and her husband brought their children to the festival so that they could watch the races and learn more about Chinese culture.

"It's really important to keep the culture up or everything gets lost, even for my generation," Inouye said. "I didn't see my first dragon-boat race until about two years ago when I took the kids to try to introduce them to some of the culture."

Wendy Loh, a member of the board of directors for the Organization of Chinese-Americans, said that the dragon boat event has become so important to Chinese culture on O'ahu that the group planned its national convention around the date. Some 500 Chinese Americans are visiting O'ahu this week as part of the convention, Loh said.

There was plenty of culture to be had at the festival. It began Saturday with the blessing of three 37.5-foot boats, which are made in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, Honolulu's sister city. During the service, the eyes of the dragon's head on each boat are dotted with fresh paint. The blessing is supposed to infuse the boats and crewmembers with the strength of the dragon and the blessing of the Goddess of the Sea.

After the blessing, the games began. Teams came from Hawai'i, Washington, California, Arizona, Canada and Hong Kong. Crews were limited to 19 people and include a drummer, a steerperson, a flag catcher and 16 paddlers.

The drummer uses an ipu, an instrument used in the hula, to set the pace for the paddlers, whose propulsion depends on unified strokes. With oars in hand, paddlers propel the meticulously carved dragon boats toward the finish line, where a flag-catcher poised on the head of the dragon attempts to grab a floating flag to signal the end of the race.

Some flag-catchers, like Gary Cumberland of Phoenix, dressed for the occasion. Cumberland was wearing a grass skirt, coconut bra and a dragon hat when his team, the Gila Dragons, sailed into third place during their heat.

Others, like Tropic Lightning, a U.S. Army team named after the 25th Infantry Division (Light) motto, were more serious. On Saturday, the team tied the fastest time of the day: 2 minutes, 2 seconds — beating 10 other military teams.

The event looks effortless, but it's a total body workout, said Lt. Col. Patrick Rice, a member of Tropic Lightning.

The races are a test of physical endurance, as well as team unity and harmony, as the paddlers match their strokes to the drummer's beat.

Most paddlers usually achieve a stroke rate of 78 strokes per minute, said Maura Jordan, a spokeswoman for the event.

Manami Fujita, a member of a Hong Kong-based Japanese team, said the group practices at least once a week and a frequent rallying cry is "Gambare!," Japanese for "give it your best."

The group did just that, but the competition was fierce, and they weren't among the overall winners named yesterday at the event.

First place went to Pacific Reach from Vancouver, British Columbia, with a time of 1 minute, 56 seconds; second place went to G&G Dragons of Ontario, Canada, with a time of 1 minute, 59 seconds; and Killer Guppies, a Los Angeles group sailed into third with a time of 2 minutes, 14 seconds.

Reach Allison Schaefers at aschaefers@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-8110.