Dragon Boat Club 

Townsville, North Queensland

We are a Dragon Boat Club based on the lovely Ross River in Townsville - North Queensland.

Thanks for checking out our website!!  

We are so proud to be a supporting club for Qld Sonic Dragons development in the North.  In fact, we are proud to say that one of the Blaze Dragons Coaches is the Sonics Coach for the Northern Region!! 

After only a very few short months of operation, Blaze Dragons were able to support two Junior paddlers to compete at the Queensland State Championships March 2020, held at Lake Kawana, Sunshine Coast.  With one established Junior from Townsville Spitfires and another brand new Junior from Mackay Stingers, the kids did North Queensland proud, bringing home a swag of medals.  Of course, it's not all about the 'bling'!  Our kids are being developed in a range of ways, both on and off the water!!

Of course, with kids, come adults!!!!  Mums and Dads jumped on to the boat and then started bringing friends down and so it went.  From little things, big things grow!!!  As in life, some people stay for a short time and some people stay for a lifetime.  Maybe this sport is for you and you don't know it!!!  Sooooooo........

Dragon Boat also has rich cultural origins, being deeply imbedded in China’s “Dragon” Culture. That's why when we race, each boat is dressed with an ornately carved dragon’s head at the bow and a tail at the stern. The boat is painted with scales and to complete the picture, the paddles symbolically represent the dragon’s claws.  The drum represents the beating of the dragon heart.

Originally Dragon Boat was used for religious purposes as a way to appease the rain gods. Later Dragon Boat celebrated the life of Qu Yuan, a great warrior poet, who committed suicide in the river Mi Lo, as a protest against political corruption of the day. To commemorate this sacrifice, the people began to organise dragon boat festivals in his memory.

The Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated every year on the 5th day of the 5th Moon (month) of the Chinese lunar calendar.

Modern-day Dragon Boat as a contemporary sport is a dynamic, exciting, burst of energetic WOW!  Not only can we fit up to 22 people in a boat, we really enjoy short, sharp races to get the heart racing and the blood pumping.  I'm going to say it's from nerves but honestly, there is nothing like the adrenaline of being completely motionless at the start of a race to bursting into mayhem for 200m or 500m!!  We do race for longer distances.  Mainly 2km or 1km....and for fun, there are 20km, 30km, 250km 'racing' if you are mad keen.  

As it's not a mainstream sport where you are competing against so many people to try to make your mark, opportunities to represent your State (Go Queenslander!) and Country are very much within your reach in a very short period of time.  While we love competition, our club also caters for the paddler who would like to paddle for the social aspect, to find some 'alone' time, to make friends, to try something different.  Did we say friends?  Oh, there are many friends to be made, here in Townsville and right across the world.  Anywhere you go, if you say you are a Dragon Boater, you will be welcomed with open arms.  Yep, your paddle DOES become an extra appendage when you travel hahaha.  What I think is quite funny, many of us now organise our holidays around paddling events!!!  From Vancouver to Italy, from Tassie to Spain, Serbia, Japan, Dubai to Russia....Dragon Boat talks to the soul.  We hope you love it as much as we do.  If you don't, it's cool.  We wish you luck with whatever you decide to do!!!

To see who is part of our awesome Committee, see the drop down as you hover over this page title!!

Cultural Background of the Sport

Dotting of the Eyes Procedure Manual

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