Racing the Dragon

Sunday, May. 28, 2006 By AMANDA BOWER / SAN FRANCISCO
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Until she stepped into a dragon boat, Kathy Pollonais-Britt was most emphatically not a team player. The veteran marathon runner loved the solitude of pounding the pavement, not the egoism and pressure of team sports. "I'd never been a groupie," she says. But when her employer, the health-care company Kaiser Permanente, sponsored the San Francisco International Dragon Boat Festival last year, the social worker was intrigued. In dragon-boat racing, a 2,000-year-old Chinese sport traditionally held on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, paddlers race to a drummer's beat in a long, narrow boat decorated at bow and stern with a dragon's head and tail. Pollonais-Britt, 52, climbed aboard with 21 co-workers for what she thought would be a few practice sessions and one pleasant day on the water. Fast-forward nine months, and she is helping lead the Kaiser Permanente Dragon Healers' weekly training runs as the team prepares to race in at least three festivals this year. "Our first day back on the water this season was in February, with hail, rain, freezing cold," says Pollonais-Britt. "And 27 people showed up. It was amazing."

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That just one dragon-boat festival could turn a loner athlete into a committed groupie is no surprise to Jeff Campbell. He watched his first dragon-boat festival in Portland, Ore., in 1993 and left transformed. "[It] has this visceral feel that appeals to everyone," Campbell says. "The beat of the drums, the spray of the water from the crashing bow of the boat, and 20 people working as one to breathe life into the dragon."

Campbell, who had previously played golf and beach volleyball, eventually raced on the U.S. national team at two world championships. After leaving a career in corporate security, he decided to devote himself full time to organizing dragon-boat festivals. He is now one of a handful of dragon-boat diehards--race organizers, boat suppliers and equipment designers--who are trying to turn the ancient Chinese pastime into the next big thing in American team sports.

Ten years ago, the only way to see a dragon boat was to visit one of the handful of festivals organized primarily by Chinese-American cultural organizations in cities with large Asian-American populations, like New York City and San Francisco. The popularity of those events (the annual race held in Flushing, N.Y., attracted 50,000 spectators last year) spread their appeal to community groups looking for a fun summer fund-raising event. Last year, according to Campbell, more than 75 dragon-boat festivals were held in 31 states and 70 cities across the country, with participation up 20% over 2004, to 54,000 people.

Campbell saw a business opportunity in running the complicated logistics of an event that can involve more than 2,000 competitors and dozens of weeks of preparation. His fledgling company, USA Dragon Boating, organizes festivals for a fee. He will set up the racecourse and conduct paddling and coaching clinics before the event to make sure participants don't end up in the drink on race day. Local organizers, typically charitable or cultural groups, are responsible for land-based arrangements: tents, Porta Pottis, bringing in sponsorships, cultural activities, food services--anything that draws crowds and meets their needs. Some festivals attract more than 100 teams, each paying an entry fee of up to $2,500 for a corporate team of at least 20 paddlers.