Kaiser Permanente San Francisco International Dragon Boat Frestival

This past weekend, on October 4 & 5, I participated in the 13th Annual Kaiser Permanente San Francisco International Dragon Boat Festival held at Treasure Island! It was a long and tiring weekend waking up at 6 in the morning and leaving at 4 in the afternoon on both days, but none the less a fun and eventful weekend filled with racing, watching cultural performances, eating, sleeping, and other fun activities! In this two day event, over 100 dragon boat teams and 3,000 dragon boat paddlers from across North America came out to Treasure Island to race the 500 and 300 meter course.

You're probably wondering, what is dragon boat? Dragon boat originated in China over 2,300 years ago and is now one of the fastest growing sports in the world. I have been dragon boating for almost four years now and this is a sport that really depends on teamwork. It is the key to succeeding in this sport. There are 20 paddlers in a boat, ten on each side, and each and every paddlers should be in time with the paddler in front, behind, and next to them, so if someone was watching from the side line it should look like one big paddle going in and out of the water at the exact same time. As I stated above, the race course is either 500 or 300 meters, and yes it sounds like a long course, but once your adrenaline starts pumping at the start line and once you start paddling you just have the urge to keep going until you reach the finish line. It doesn't even feel like 500 meters!

Other than racing or watching the races, there was many forms of entertainment. For those who wanted to sit and relax, cultural performances were being performed on stages which included Chinese Acrobatics, Lion Dancing, Filipino Folk Dace, Taiko Drumming, Hawaiian/Tahitian Dance and much more. For children, there was a children's area called "Dragon Land" were arts and crafts were made. Or, for everyone, there were a number of food vendors and community booths advertising and handing out free stuff!

Not to be stereotypical, but it's true and I do it too. When there is free stuff being handed out most of the people in line are Chinese people. Chinese are known for being cheap because we do any to get free stuff even if it means waiting in line for hours... if its free it doesn't matter what it is we get it! There were endless lines of Chinese people trying to get all the free stuff they could. And I am proud to say that I was one of them. Fourteen free pens, a free car visor, a free nalgene bottle, a free draw string bag, a free tote bag, I could go on and on, but that is what I did during my down time between races. It helped make time go by faster. :)

Over all, despite waking up at 6 in the morning, I had an eventful and cultural day. Usually, I don't pay attention the the Cultural performances, but this year, thinking about my Asian American Culture class, I actually watched a few performances and experienced the different kinds of Asian American Culture out there especially how the style of dance in each culture is expressed differently. I can't wait till next year!