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The Woodlands Dragon Boat Races

Nearly 100 teams are expected to gather along the shores of North Shore Park to compete in the Dragon Boat Challenge. The Annual Dragon Boat races are scheduled for late September each year. Dragon boats (also dragonboat) are human-powered via paddles and are traditionally made of teak wood in various designs and sizes. They belong to the family of Traditional Long Boats found throughout Asia, Africa and the Pacific Islands. These multi person boats are now used in the team paddling sport of dragon boat racing, which originated in China over 2000 years ago. While competition has taken place annually for more than 20 centuries as part of folk ritual, it emerged in modern times as an international sport in Hong Kong in 1976. For competition events, dragon boats are generally rigged with decorative Chinese dragon heads and tails. At other times the decorative regalia is usually removed, although the drum often remains aboard for training purposes.

The Dragon Boat races are held at North Shore Park on Lake Woodlands. Each of the more than 90 teams feature 20-30 members, 1 cadence drummer, 1 to catch and carry the flag with the remaining 18 members rowing the boat. Teams are required to have at leat 5 females and all members must be at least 18 years old. The Dragon Boat races are split into 6 individual races; 2 races each day Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. As many as 16 teams will compete in each race with prizes being awarded to first and second place teams in each bracket.

The first stage of each race will begin near the North Shore Park docks and Lake Woodlands Bridge, race to a point behind the stage at the pavilion, turn around, and then race back to the start/finish line. The boats are 40-feet long and weigh 1,800 pounds, the races will be timed. As most of the rowers are novice, the second run (each are timed individually) is sometimes faster than the first run. It has been surmised that this can be attributed to a learning curve but, it may simply be adrenaline or the excitement of nearing the finish line.

Following the Dragon Boat race events, the teams will be competing in additional events including dodgeball, moonwalk volleyball, and human foosball. The events are set to build and encourage teamwork while allowing adults to have fun and be kids again for a few hours.