As the San Jose State Dragon Boat team returns this fall after not racing for more than a year because of the coronavirus pandemic, some members say they wish the university would give the team more recognition.
Team captain Ryan Ngo said SJSU should highlight the team for the culture it’s created on campus as it's composed of 45 close-knit members who meet almost every weekend.
“I definitely do wish the university [gave] a little bit more attention [toward] our team,” Ngo said. “We've been very culturally responsible for a lot of stuff that happens on campus like we're a really big community of students.”
He said the team found ways to cultivate community with those who were interested in the dragon boating sport, even during the height of the pandemic last year.
“When the pandemic hit, our team [and the] community was very heavily hindered by the fact that we couldn't paddle anymore,” Ngo said. “We were stuck indoors [so] we had to find different things to do.”
Ngo said team members have done remote workout sessions and social gatherings just to keep the group together and keep the mindset that they’re “still family.”
SJSU’s Dragon Boat team was founded in 2016 and Ngo said it carries the thousand-year-old tradition of dragon boating that’s rooted in Chinese culture.
“It was based on one Chinese politician and poet,” Ngo said. “He was sentenced to drown in the ocean but people in his village really treasured this poet so they decided to start a tradition every year to throw some food right into this river in hopes that he would someday come back and visit the living.”
He said dragon boating is a little different in 2021 but the sport still carries that same rich history.
Ngo explained dragon boating is almost entirely a team-based sport.
There are 20 seats inside the boat with one person in the front and back. The person in the back steers the boat while the person in the front drums to create the rhythm for the rest of the team to follow so they can keep time with each other.
Ngo said dragon boating requires near-perfect coordination between team members which creates a sense of camaraderie rarely found in other sports.
“[We always do stuff] outside of practice like going to a movie or getting food off the boat too,” said team member Kevin Pham. “There's this closeness we have with each other.”
Even though the sport requires incredible core strength as the participants use their arms and shoulders, Ngo said the mental-pressure component is much more significant.
“It's more of a mental sport than anything because it requires a lot of teamwork and synergy, so you'd have to know your team members as well as how you guys work together as a team in order to perform well,” Ngo said.
Ngo said it can be easy to blame someone when they make a mistake on the water but as captain, he just tells them to take a deep breath and come back when they’re ready.
He said despite his openness to mistakes, the pressure of dragon boating can get to everyone because the stress levels are extremely high.
The 500-meter race can last two minutes for teams that move quickly, according to a May 10, 2019 LA Times article.
Competitive races have been on hold since the pandemic began in March 2020 but they do have a “for fun” race planned in November.
“Every time we're on a boat, odds are [that lineup] won't really happen again so when [you’re] on the water, you have to put everything [out there] because this is what we came for, this [is] what we practice for, all the pain was for this exact moment,” Pham said. “I think in my head, I don't want to disappoint these people and that just keeps me going.”
Despite their passion for dragon boating, team members say they rarely get noticed for their hard work.
“It'd be pretty cool to have more people come out to the practices,” said Gavin del Rosario, social chair of the dragon boat team. “Whenever I tell someone or a family member I dragon boat, [they ask], ‘what's that’ and I [have to explain it].”
Ngo said he had no idea what dragon boating was until he started in high school.
“I thought I was joining the Dragon Ball Club, like Dragon Ball Z and [then they said it was] dragon boat club,” Ngo said.
Because dragon boating is a lesser-known sport at SJSU, team members said they’re accustomed to only seeing friends and families at practices and races.
“I feel like in other sports you have stadiums [and] everyone's cheering,” Pham said. “[Dragon boating] is a spectator sport. It's pretty fun but people don't really come out to watch unless they [are] friends and family of people on the team.”
Internationally, dragon boating is run as a nonprofit organization known as the International Dragon Boat Federation.
“This sport is very heavily based on volunteering,” Ngo said. “There is very little funding when it comes to international races or international recognition.
The team requires annual payments to keep the club funded.
The SJSU Dragon Boat team opens practices every weekend at the Bair Island Aquatic Center in Redwood City, which members carpool to in order to participate.
