RECENT STORIES

Come and hear the lights ( Ed Soulsby )
Police blotter: Boys set fire to bag of feces ( Wheat Ridge Police Department )
Survey opportunity for Wheat Ridge residents ( Kerry Ewald )
Congratulations Wheat Ridge 4A state champs! ( Office of the Mayor )
Don’t let foodborne illness spoil the holidays ( Kodi Bryant )

share a story | more postings »

YourHub.com \\ Wheat Ridge \\ Stories \\ Sports \\ General Sports

Dragon Boat Racing Registration Open!

e-mail to a friend | print this | link to this

Contributed by: Kelly Nelson on 3/18/2008

CATCH THE SUMMER OLYMPIC SPIRIT WITH DRAGON BOAT RACING
The 2008 Colorado Dragon Festival's Race Registration Now Open

Racers, prepare your paddles. It's time to register your team to compete in the 2008 Colorado Dragon Boat Races July 26 - 27. This year's fast-paced dragon boat racing competition will be bigger and better than ever with more divisions and two full days of racing with openings for adult and youth race teams.

The Colorado Dragon Boat Festival (CDBF) has been selected to host the 2008 American Dragon Boat Association (ADBA) Competitive Regional Races. Considered the Olympics of dragon boat racing for the region, racers from throughout the nation and across the globe will come to Colorado to compete for the ADBA title. National and international teams will participate in the competitive mixed division races on a 500-meter course. CDBF and the Colorado Dragon Boat Association will actively recruit local paddlers to form competitive teams and further establish dragon boat racing as part of Colorado's thriving recreational sports landscape. For more information, visit www.americandragonboat.com.

The ADBA Competitive Mixed division will be a 500-meter race in BuK-style (Hong Kong) boats and teams must have or arrange for their own coxswains. The competition begins with two seeding time trial races on Saturday, July 26, followed by at least two races on Sunday, July 27 to determine the winners. The purchase of one of the BuK-style boats was generously underwritten by Coors Brewing Company.

In addition to the ADBA Competitive Regional Races, divisions this year include Corporate Mixed, Novice Mixed and Youth Mixed for the 250-meter races. Corporate and community teams will have the opportunity to compete on both days in colorful Taiwanese-style boats to catch the winning flag and take home a medal.

Whether companies are looking for a unique way to generate awareness in the Denver community or organizing a team-building opportunity to get everyone rowing in the same direction, the new Corporate division races are a perfect fit. Anyone can try their hand at the sport with the Novice Mixed and the Youth Mixed (13-17 years old) divisions. The Novice Mixed and Youth Mixed division races will be a double-elimination bracket using flag-catching boats. The Corporate division will feature the flag-catching boats with a similar race format as the Competitive division.

Two race locations will be used 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, free clinics and practice sessions will be offered.

Prepare to Qualify
For the team composition, adults must be at least 18-years-old, as of July 26, 2008. Each team will consist of a minimum of 20 people: 18 paddlers (which must include eight females for mixed division), one drummer, and one flag catcher for the Corporate, Novice and Youth divisions. A team may have 21 racers if their steersperson is approved. Competitive teams must supply or arrange for their own steersperson and have two additional paddlers. It is highly recommended that each team has four substitutes or alternates in case any of the original racers are unable to compete.

Deadline for race registration is May 1, 2008. The entry fee is $800 for adult, $500 for youth and $250 for international teams. Participants 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
Celebrating its 8th year, the CDBF is a free family-friendly festival highlighting Colorado's rich Asian Pacific American heritage, July 26-27 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 8th Annual Colorado Dragon Boat Festival is presented in association with Coors Brewing Company, CH2M HILL, AARP, DaimlerChrysler, Kaiser Permanente, SCFD Tier III, State Farm®, 101.5 FM Martini Radio, 107.1 ONE FM, Comcast, FOX 31 NEWS and The Denver Post. Supporting Sponsors of the event are American Family Insurance, Colorado QuitLine, Gay & Lesbian Fund for Colorado, PEPSI BOTTLING GROUP and Westwood College. Corporate Contributors include Raytheon and Wells Fargo.

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

[Report this as objectionable content.]

SUBMIT COMMENT

Rate the above story

Talk Back : submit comments to the story

*Note: you need to log-in to add a comment or rating.

Thank you! Your comment has been updated.

CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

Kelly Nelson

Denver , CO

Kelly Nelson has posted 298 stories and 0 comments since joining on 4/30/2007. Kelly Nelson 's average story rating is 5.

view profile » view other postings from Kelly Nelson »

SAVE AND SHARE THIS STORY

STORY RSS FEEDS

All stories

All stories in Wheat Ridge

All stories by Kelly Nelson

WANT TO WRITE FOR YOURHUB.COM?

Want to see the stories you write and the photos you shoot featured in the YourHub.com Thursday print section available all over the Front Range and with home subscriptions of the Rocky Mountain News and The Denver Post? All you have to do is register, then post a story or column, start a blog or tell everyone what events are happening in town. We will print the best stories, columns, event listings, photos and blog entries in our print sections.

Loading Ad