Racing the Dragon

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Corporations are proving to be among the most enthusiastic dragon boaters in the country. Kaiser Permanente, which sees dragon boating as an exercise in team building, has shelled out almost $40,000 for two boats and enough paddles and life vests for two teams. One boat went to its longest-paddling team of employees, the KP Dragons, and the other is shared among Pollonais-Britt's Dragon Healers and other crews in the California Dragon Boat Association. Teams like the Wal-Mart Warriors, VeRizing Dragons and Starbucks Waverunners have also entered festivals around the country, in competition against schools, police and fire departments and, in what has become a global phenomenon in dragon boating, groups of breast-cancer survivors.

When those paddlers get serious, they come to Arin Chang, who makes high-end carbon-fiber paddles designed specifically for dragon boats. A former engineer for a mountain-bike company, Chang got involved with dragon boats in 1999 and quickly became an élite competitor, traveling to events in Europe, Australia and Canada. He soon realized that boaters were slowed by traditional wooden paddles, and he designed a lighter, stiffer version that he started selling in 2000 under the brand Burnwater.

"The beginning years were very tough, because people were used to spending $30 or $40 for a cheap wooden paddle," Chang says. But individual members of his own team bought and promoted the paddles, figuring they might invest just as much, about $200, in a carbon-fiber tennis racquet. The Foster City, Calif., company's sales got a boost in 2003 when the entire Australian national team ordered Burnwater paddles. Chang sells about 100 paddles a month, six times as many as he sold two years ago, and has competition from a handful of other companies making their own high-tech paddles. "The way I look at it, the more competition we have in the market, the better it is for growing the sport." Now there's a team player.