Dragon Boat Program

 

Announcements

The VCKC Dragon Flyers is a mixed crew recreational team with an extremely competitive spirit.

As we come to the end of another successful racing season, we will continue the regular practices every Tuesday and Thursday evening until the end of September. Starting in October we will transition to the Winter paddling practices on Thursday evenings only.

The VCKC Dragon Flyers will start looking at recruiting new paddlers for the 2027 racing season.

If you want to try dragon boating, please email the Dragonboat directors at: VCKC Dragon Boat and ask about attending a practice in October to try your hand at paddling, and learn more about the team.  There will also be a Learn to Paddle event coming in early spring.

Our team enjoys great camaraderie and fun together both on and off the water. We typically compete at 4-5 local Vancouver Island Dragon Boat Festival Race Events. All festivals we will be attending have been posted on the Dragon Boat Event Calendar.

Do you have Dragon Boat Steering experience? Or are you interested in learning? We're looking for you! Please contact us to learn more!


VCKC Members are reminded not to paddle in Colquitz Creek. It is off-limits year-round.  Paddlers, please try to avoid rafts of birds on the inlet as many of them are resting here on their migrations and when we paddle too close they fly away and waste valuable energy.

Program Overview

The sport of dragon boat racing has its origins in China over 1000 years ago. Over the past 20 years, it has become one of the world's most colourful and fastest growing team sports. Dragon boating is a fun, social and competitive team sport that involves a 48 foot, 300Kg boat, 20 paddlers, a drummer, and a stern racing at 250, 500 and sometimes 2000 meter courses. Dragon Boating (video)

The goal of the VCKC team is to compete in nearby dragon boat festivals, including the Gorge Super Sprints (May), Victoria Inner Harbour (June), Nanaimo Westwood Lake (July) and Gorge Vancouver Island Festival (July). There are many more opportunities to compete in and around BC.

The team practices and train twice per week during the race season then transition to once per week in the fall/winter season. Currently VCKC has one Mixed Recreational team. The VCKC team is open to any member of the Club.

The team is trained by a volunteer coaching staff and generally practice twice a week in the evenings.  A practice schedule is created each spring as the team begin to form.

Paddlers wishing to join the team can reach out by email to the Dragon Boat Director to see if there is room in the boat for a try-out paddle. New paddlers are able to use the equipment from the clubhouse. The first two sessions in the water are free but after that you must become a member of VCKC to continue with the team as well as contribute to the club. You may want to acquaint yourself with VCKC Policies & Procedures and also with the VCKC DragonBoat Program policies.


VCKC’s dragon boat program emphasizes sportsmanship, safety, good fellowship, protection of the environment, and community service.  In keeping with VCKC principles, costs are low, but members of the program should take part in community events such as the Gorge Canada Day Picnic and volunteer for annual Clubhouse and Gorge waterway cleanups. 

You can read about the background about the sport of dragon boating in Victoria and within VCKC in the following chronology: 

Instructional Resources

Related videos: Dragon Boating,  Dragonboat Technique & Victoria's Races

Useful links: West Coast Dragon Boat Society  | Dragon Boat Canada | IDBF Calendar



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