By Debbie Gardner
debbieg@thereminder.com
You might see them out on the water if you’re near the Connecticut River in the early evening. Long, wood and fiberglass boats filled with as many as 20 individuals, all striving to paddle together to move the big craft through the water.
If you’re close enough to hear, you might even catch the sound of the team’s drummer as he or she taps out a steady beat to help those hardworking paddlers stay in unison.
It’s Dragon Boat season, and on Tuesday and Thursday evenings from late April through October, there’s no other place the nearly 40 members of the Pioneer Valley Riverfront Club’s Springfield Dragon Rays would rather be.
A path to fitness for some, to healing and recovery for others, the weekly time on the water is a chance for camaraderie, for a bit of competition, and for an hour or two, to appreciate the transformative power of nature.
“It’s beautiful, we see the eagles and the herons, we hear the traffic, but it’s not that loud,” said Laurie Campbell, who has been a member of the Dragon Rays since the team formed in the summer of 2013. “It’s very serene.”
Bringing the boats to Springfield
The sport known as Dragon Boat racing originated in China more than 2,000 years ago. Today, millions of people around the world paddle these crafts for recreation and as a competition, making it one of the fastest growing team water sports in the world.
Creating a Dragon Boat team at the non-profit Pioneer Valley Riverfront Club (PVRC) was the brainchild of club President and Co-Founder Jonathan Moss. He said the idea to offer a local team was inspired by his mother’s experience with the sport in Florida.
“I’ve been a rower for 30 years, “ Moss told Prime. Twenty-five years ago my mother was at a race, watching me in Europe, and there was a Dragon Boat exhibition.”
Those Dragon Boats didn’t draw a lot of her attention at that event, “But a dozen years later she was a breast cancer survivor and was at a breast cancer survivors conference and came upon a booth where Dragon ladies were handing out info.”
Moss said the pictures in the pamphlet “connected her with my rowing years before, and knowing how important that [activity] was to my life, she showed up for [a] practice and loved every minute of it.
“Her team of survivors s been instrumental in her [recovery] journey and retirement, and were her support when my father passed away,” he added.
When the Club, which was founded by a group of like-minded rowers in 2007, moved in 2012 from its original home at the Longmeadow Yacht Club to its current space in the former Basset Boat building just off the North End Bridge, Moss said “The infrastructure allowed us to think of what was next in our vision. We began thinking about being a riverfront club.”
Among the ideas for expansion was the addition of a Dragon Boat. According to Campbell, initial funding to purchase boats came through Community Transforming Grant monies from the Center for Disease Control, distributed through a program called LiveWell Springfield. She added Moss and his wife, Katherine, wrote the grant application for the boats. Moss said another grant from the Baystate Rays of Hope Foundation allows the Riverfront Club to offer Dragon Rays team memberships to breast cancer survivors at no charge. Other team members do pay an annual membership fee, which gives them boat, equipment and training privileges during the water season, and access to the Club’s indoor rowing machines to keep in shape during the winter months.
Though the boats are primarily known for their association with the Dragon Rays team and its races, Moss said the boats are also used for other activities.
“The Dragon Boats have allowed us to bring groups of people together, whether it’s for team building, youth engagement [or] corporate retreat activities,” Moss said. “ It allows us to get people on the water to view the city from a different perspective, and to have a unique experience which has moved many people.”
He said regardless of how they came to be on the water – whether it’s a one-time experience or part of the club’s team, Dragon Boaters have a motto – “We’re all in the same boat together.”
The Springfield Dragon Rays
Campbell, an avid individual rower, said she joined Moss’s club in 2007. When he brought the Dragon Boats onboard five years ago, she decided to give the new sport a try.
“I enjoyed it because of the team aspect,” Campbell, who at 62 is now one of the older Dragon Rays team members. “It’s an easier learning curve than independent paddling, and we can incorporate more people on the river, up to 20 in the Dragon Boats.”
Each Dragon Boat team is comprised of paddlers, a drummer that helps everyone keep the pace, and a team member that steers from the stern, making sure the boat stays on course to chosen spot, or the finish line.
Kathy Daily, one of this year’s three team captains, said the current Dragon Rays complement is about 40 members, mostly women, with just two men, one part of a husband-wife team, who are also among the younger members. Paddlers range from 30 to 78 years of age.
“A large percentage are breast cancer survivors,” Daily said. “Our boats are about 50 percent breast cancer survivors, 50 percent supporters.”
The act of paddling the boat is “one of the best exercises to help with scar tissue” following breast cancer surgery, explained Becky Mason, who is also a team captain this year.
Campbell, who is an exercise physiologist at Baystate Medical Center, said she’s seen the transformative effect Dragon Boating can have on survivors firsthand.
“I’m still amazed at the progress our teammates make, going from post-surgery to the recreational athlete, it’s great,” she said.
The boats, Campbell explained, are set up so paddlers such as herself, who are “pretty fit” are seated towards the bow to help everyone “keep pace,” with the novices and post-surgery paddlers located in areas where they can take a break if necessary. Another group of strong paddlers is positioned in the stern.
This way, survivors and novices “feel the camaraderie,” Campbell said. “They feel relaxed.”
Jeff Teace, an original Dragon Boat member and one of the team’s first coaches, said paddling with the Rays is “a lot of fun, it’s a nice group of people. It’s nice to see them having fun with all the troubles [many] have been through.”
But it isn’t just the promise of exercise and camaraderie on the water that keeps these paddlers making the commitment to the twice-a-week practices. Mason said for some, like herself, it’s a love of being on the water. For others it’s the social aspect of the extra club activities.
“We’re not just a team on the water,” she said. “We go to wine tastings, movie nights, summer concerts.” The night Prime visited the boathouse, the Dragon Rays were hosting a dragon-themed baby shower – including an infant life vest – for the team’s youngest member. The team also travels together for races around New England, including Boston, Hartford, and Burlington
Curious? Come down to the club
Campbell sad the PVRC would be hosting several events in June designed to introduce water sports, including the Dragon Boats, to the public.
On June 3 and 11, a Saturday and Sunday morning respectively, the club would be hosting events in conjunction with national Learn to Row/Learn to Paddle Day.
“No prior experience is needed. It’s a free kind of ‘try the boat’ with instruction [event]. They can just come down,” she said.
On June 24 the Springfield Dragon Rays will host a Dragon Boat Festival from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the PRVC, which is located at 121 West St., food, vendors, activity for kids, and more. A highlight of the festival is the flower ceremony, involving Breast Cancer Survivors and Boats, paddles and practice time are provided for clubs interested in participating as a team-building event that day, and the entrance fee for the race is a fundraiser for the PVRC.
For more information about the June Learn to Row/Learn to Paddle Day events, the Dragon Boat Festival or the Springfield Dragon Rays, email info@pvrivrfront.org, call413-736-1322 or visit www.pvriverfront.org.
