Race Registration for the 2009 Colorado Dragon Boat Festival Opens January 12th
On your mark, get set, register! It's time to register your team to compete in the 2009 Colorado Dragon Boat Races at Denver's Sloan's Lake Park July 25 - 26. Once again, this year's fast-paced dragon boat racing competition will feature additional divisions and two full days of racing with openings for mixed adult and youth race teams.
The Competitive division will be a 500-meter race using BuK-style (Hong Kong) boats and teams must have their own coxswains. The competition begins with seeding time trial races on Saturday, July 25, followed by elimination bracket races on Sunday, July 26 to determine the winners. The purchase of one of the BuK-style boats was generously underwritten by Miller Coors Brewing Company.
Additional divisions this year include Corporate, Intermediate (new), Novice and Youth (13 - 17 years). The Corporate and Intermediate divisions will compete both days in a BuK-style (Hong Kong) boat on the 250-meter course. Novice and Youth teams will race using colorful flag-catching (Taiwan) boats on the 250-meter course. New this year is the Intermediate Division, which is ideal for those teams that have a mix of novice paddlers and experienced paddlers, but do not necessarily qualify to race in the Corporate Division.
Two race locations will be used again this year to accommodate both 250-meter and 500-meter races. For detailed division descriptions, please visit
www.cdbf.org, click on Racing and then Racing Divisions.
For those who want to give dragon boat racing a try, practice sessions and special races will be offered.
If you're interested in racing as part of a team or as an individual, please email race@cdbf.org.
Join the Team!
For the team composition, adults must be at least 16-years-old, as of July 25, 2009. Each team will consist of a minimum of 21 people: 20 paddlers (which must include eight females for mixed division), and one drummer for the Competitive, Corporate, and Intermediate Divisions. Novice and Youth teams have 18 paddlers, a drummer, and a flag-catcher. A team may have 22 racers if their steersperson has been certified. Competitive teams must supply their own certified steersperson. It is highly recommended that each team has four substitutes or alternates in case any of the original racers are unable to compete. Youth Division racers must be 13 to 17 years of age by race day, and for the Adult Division, racers must be 16 years or older.
Registration opens up at 12:01 AM January 12, 2009. Deadline for race registration is
May 1, 2009. The entry fee is $800 for adult and $500 for youth. Teams can pay by check or credit card. For details on payment, policies, abbreviated or canceled races, or withdrawing from the competition, visit
www.cdbf.org.
More than Just a Race: Your Passport to Asia and the Pacific
More than just a race, the Colorado Dragon Boat Festival (CDBF) is a free family-friendly festival highlighting Colorado's rich Asian Pacific American heritage celebrating its 9 th year, July 25-26 at Sloan's Lake Park in northwest Denver. The two-day celebration provides a window to the Pan Asian world. This diverse festival is the
only one of its kind in the United States, and showcases an array of traditional and contemporary performing arts, cultural customs, cuisine and a marketplace of unique and hard-to-find arts, crafts and vendors.
The Colorado Dragon Boat Festival draws more than 100,000 attendees to the event over the weekend. If you or your company is interested in being a 2009 Colorado Dragon Boat Festival sponsor, please contact Creative Strategies Group at (303) 469-7500 for more information.
Founded in 2001 to celebrate Colorado's diverse Asian Pacific American (APA) communities, the Colorado Dragon Boat Festival (CBDF), a 501© 3 non-profit organization, has become the region's fastest growing, family-friendly summer festival. CDBF offers festival-goers the opportunity to explore APA culture through performances, educational programs, arts and crafts, shopping, dining and the exciting athletic competition of dragon boat racing. www.cdbf.org