Summer is festival season in Ottawa, with multiple annual events running every weekend from June to September. The weekend closest to the summer solstice always brings back the Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival. The four-day event takes place at Mooney’s Bay Park and Beach.
The festival site offers entertainment for the whole family. In addition to boat racing, there are food trucks, information booths, artisan stalls, a children’s area and concerts in the evening. The festival attracts sizeable crowds since admission is free.
We spent a relaxing Saturday at the festival and cheered on the teams. The general atmosphere on site was good humoured and friendly. We observed the teams as they disembarked from their boats, and the camaraderie was palpable. We saw paddlers of different ages and levels of fitness. Teams had creative and colourful names printed on their t-shirts, which added to the festive atmosphere.
We noticed that quite a high proportion of the paddlers were women and older adults. From our observations, we mused that the sport appeared to foster an active lifestyle, while promoting participation and inclusivity. We were curious to find out more.
Dragon boating started about 2,400 years ago and the rituals surrounding it are deeply ingrained in Chinese culture. The Dragon Boat Festival is a national holiday in China. In 2009, the significance of the tradition was recognized by UNESCO who added the Chinese Dragon Boat Festival to the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
The Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival has been taking place since 1994. It is said to be the largest of its kind in North America. The festival is well established, it has many private and community sponsors and receives funding from all three levels of government.
Each sleek craft is forty-four feet in length with a dragon’s head at the prow and tail at the stern. A crew consists of twenty forward-facing paddlers, a drummer at the prow to call the stroke and a steersperson at the stern to keep the boat on course.
In addition to the competitive 500-metre races, there are also shorter recreational races for paddlers of different age groups and levels of ability. A large number of teams (up to 200, according to the Festival’s website) from government and corporate workplaces, clubs, and community groups set up tents on the beach where they congregate and relax between races.
Dragon boating has really taken off in western countries in recent years. Organizations see it as an excellent activity to promote wellness and team building. Just imagine the coordination required to get twenty paddlers synchronized, and you will see why the sport is good for enhancing team spirit. Dragon boat racing was a demonstration sport at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020 and it is expected to be soon recognized as an Olympic sport.
We wondered why is there a “Breast Cancer Paddlers Cup” at the Ottawa festival. We quickly found the link.
In a report published in CMAJ in 1998, Dr. Don McKenzie, an exercise physiology expert at the University of British Columbia, challenged the received wisdom according to which women who had breast cancer treatment should avoid upper body exercise because it could potentially trigger lymphedema, a condition that can further diminish their quality of life.
Dr. McKenzie, chief physician for the Canadian paddling team for many years, believed that the pursuit of strenuous upper body exercise through a paddle sport would instead reduce the likelihood of lymphedema ever developing. His research conducted in conjunction with a group of women paddlers who had had breast cancer showed that there were no new cases of lymphedema among them, contrary to the prevailing medical thinking of the day.
A finding that came out of research conducted in Canada in the 1990s, has gained acceptance around the world – quite an inspiring story! Dr. McKenzie received the Order of Canada in 2021 as a recognition for his pioneering work.
The short video below brings you a glimpse of the 2023 Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival. We feel privileged that this event opened our eyes and led us to understand the reasons why dragon boating is so popular. It is now time for us to put our own paddles in the water again!
Thanks for sharing this. Our daughter was doing an externship with the Canada Games Council in the summer of 2009 and volunteered at this festival while she was in Ottawa. She loved it.
Thank you for sharing some summer fun in our lovely capital city. My arms got tired just watching the dragon boat race. Have a wonderful summer you two…cheers
There were many volunteers on site, and they were very helpful and friendly.
You too, have a wonderful summer.
Thank you for sharing this post. Beautiful day for the races, very colorful.
Thank you for the background research info. Your travels are again transporting us.
Continued good travels…