Blog #1-Wayne: The Art of Dragon Boating

The topic that I have chosen to write about would be Dragon Boating. I'm interested in talking about Dragon Boating because I used to do it and it is a very interesting topic to talk about! Coming from experience what I know about Dragon Boating is that it is a water sport. This water sport consists of a Dragon Boat that is about 500 lbs and 20 paddlers on the boat including your steers person and the coach. I also know that it is a very difficult sport to take on because you're using mostly your core and upper body for this sport. I also know that it is very difficult to paddle because this is not your usual sport, it's a different type of sport, a water sport where you have to use a paddle to get the boat moving. Also that you have to be in sync with the rest of the paddlers in the boat for the boat to move swiftly. If you're not in sync with everyone in the boat then the boat will move very slowly and move into awkward positions, which is not good. This water sport has originated in Hong Kong. Dragon Boat Racing is one of the biggest highlights that a lot of Chinese people look forward to in Hong Kong. This is a very competitive water sport because people race for medals, trophies, and hardware for their teams. In San Francisco alone there is probably about more than 30 teams excluding Vancouver, Boston, and Macau. There are youth paddlers which are students in high school and under. There are also adult teams with elderly people that are 50 years old and up. At these races there are different types of races (i.e. masters, adults, and youths), masters races are for the elderly that are 50+ years old, adult races are for adults and elderly people as well, youth races are for the younger generations of kids. They also have a college cup too for college students, with all of this being said there comes a fee to Dragon Boating. Luckily for the youths they don't have to pay until they pass the age of 18, for college students they have to pay $50, and lastly the adults have to pay an outrageous price of $120. What I would like to know more about is why can't there be more than 20 people on the boat?

What would Dragon Boating be without using paddles?
Why can't little kids paddle in a Dragon Boat?
When did Dragon Boating come to California?

Academic Sources:
LexisNexis- Articles and Newspapers
GoogleScholar- Pdf's and Articles (if any)
Jstor- Journal Entries

My choices of sources:
Google- Plenty of information provided and more varieties to choose from
Wikipedia- History of my topic and a synopsis (etc.)