Dragon-boating a big deal for Kent rowers<\/b><\/p>\n
Heide Tacheron, 46, says paddling a 42-foot boat across the waters of Lake Meridian is easy.<\/p>\n
All it takes is 20 paddlers with a little technique, a drummer and a tiller.<\/p>\n
Tacheron is a five-year member and current board treasurer of the Kent Dragon Boat Association, an organization committed to the international sport of dragon boating. The association celebrated its \u201cAwakening Ceremony\u201d Saturday, officially kicking off the dragon-boat season, which lasts from March through October each year.<\/p>\n
Inspired by a 2,000-year-old Chinese tradition, the sport is now one of the fastest-growing water sports around the world, Tacheron said, and it\u2019s thriving in Kent.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe club incorporated back in 2001,\u201d Tacheron said. \u201cIt started off with a pretty small group of people, and now it\u2019s grown to the point where it\u2019s averaging 75 members each season.\u201d<\/p>\n
The association now has three teams, including women\u2019s team \u201cLadies of the Lake,\u201d co-ed team \u201cDragin\u2019 Tails\u201d and youth team \u201cAkujiki Dragons.\u201d Each team practices once or twice weekly and competes against other Northwest teams more than five times each season.<\/p>\n
Dragon boating began in ancient China when a beloved Chinese poet fell out of the good graces of an emperor and threw himself into the river, according to the association\u2019s Web site, www.kentdragonboat.com. The poet\u2019s followers paddled out in their long boats to try and rescue him, splashing the water with their paddles and beating their drums to frighten the fish and \u201cwater dragons\u201d away from him.<\/p>\n
Tacheron says the sport has now grown to the level that it\u2019s in the process of being qualified as an Olympic sport, but for most local participants, it\u2019s just a great way to have fun and stay active. And anyone can do it, she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t have to be some great athlete to have fun and feel accomplished in this,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s an amazing sport because you can literally be anybody at any physical level, get into the boat and after a few practices get the technique down.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 42-foot-long dragon boat accommodates 10 pairs of people sitting side-by-side with a drummer at the bow and a tiller at the stern. The tiller keeps the boat on course, while the drummer acts as the team coach, calling out commands during practice and beating a drum during races to keep rhythm of the paddlers \u2014 about 60 strokes per minute.<\/p>\n
Tacheron said the keys to success are technique and teamwork.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s your technique, your ability to stay in time with everyone else that makes you a successful paddler,\u201d she said. \u201cThe camaraderie is great, and of course it\u2019s great exercise.\u201d<\/p>\n
Races are typically either 250 or 500 meters, she said, and the local association makes a habit of entering competitions around the Northwest. But it\u2019s not all about winning. Many dragon boaters join to recuperate from an injury or to overcome disease or disability. A blind man from Seattle was even a member of an association team until this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is also a huge cancer-survivor sport,\u201d Tacheron said. \u201cThere are many, many teams that are made up of only cancer survivors.\u201d<\/p>\n
She remembers a race she paddled against such a team and how inspiring it was to watch the group of breast-cancer survivors work together.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s such an amazing thing as a woman in my 40s to watch these women who have gone through what they\u2019ve gone through and not just be survivors but be such strong survivors,\u201d Tacheron said.<\/p>\n
She said it\u2019s also exciting to watch people of all ages succeed in the sport, such as former member Mary Huber, 77, who participated in the association for five years following a knee replacement.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think anybody can do it, because you can work hard at it, but you can also be very laid back,\u201d Huber said. \u201cIt\u2019s up to you how much you want to challenge yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s all-inclusive, Tacheron said, but it\u2019s not boring. She said once you go out on the boat and get the hang of paddling, you\u2019ll be hooked.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you get out there, the adrenaline gets going and it\u2019s so exciting,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s great camaraderie, of course great exercise and we get the best views of Lake Meridian.\u201d<\/p>\n
Community members are invited to try dragon boating for free. Tacheron said anyone can show up at practices, which take place at 6 p.m. Tuesdays or 8 a.m. Saturdays at Lake Meridian in Kent. Youths ages 14-18 can show up at 5:30 p.m. Thursdays.<\/p>\n
Those interested are welcome to participate three times before making a commitment to the association, which costs $100 per year and $25 per race.<\/p>\n
The association will partner with the Kent Lion\u2019s Club to host the Kent Cornucopia Dragon Boat Races July 12. Community members are invited to watch the event, which attracts up to 45 teams every year.<\/p>\n
For more information, visit www.kentdragonboat.com or e-mail info@kentdragonboat.com.<\/p>\n
Contact Daniel Mooney at 253-437-6012 or dmooney@reporternewspapers.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Heide Tacheron, 46, says paddling a 42-foot boat across the waters of Lake Meridian is easy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":19878,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-19877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19877"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19877\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19877"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=19877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}