Who We Are

The Seattle Flying Dragons are folks who enjoy getting out on Lake Union to paddle.  For those unfamiliar with the sport, dragon boating is a boat of 20 paddlers, a drummer, and a steersperson paddling to cross the finish line faster than their competition. It's a team sport in its purest form that encompasses the elements of power, speed, synchronization, and endurance.

The appeal of dragon boating is that the sport can accommodate a wide spectrum of skill levels ranging from novice to competitive.   It’s also a low-impact, full body workout for people of any experience level.  Not to mention that it's lots of fun!  We can make a paddler out of anyone - it's all about time on the water. 

We paddle year around.  During the Spring and Summer months paddlers can choose to compete in a variety of dragon boat races and other events.  Have a look at our Calendar page to see what we're up to.

Spotlight on our sponsors:  The wonderful people at Kenmore Air have hosted our club for the last eight years, providing moorage for our three dragon boats on Lake Union.  We are so grateful to have Kenmore Air for our host and primary sponsor.  Thank you!

More Information about Dragon Boating and Useful Links

The Seattle Flying Dragons are part of an international federation of dragon boaters.  Here's a video introduction to the sport from the International Dragon Boat Federation.
William and Kate go Dragon Boating in Canada!
The most famous dragon boaters in the world, Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and his wife, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge showed their paddling skills when they took to the water in a two boat race, on July 4, 2011, during their tour of Canada.  It seems that William's boat won by a dragon's head!


Useful Links

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www.idbf.org
The International Dragon Boat Federation (IDBF). The IDBF is the world governing authority for dragon boating.
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www.usdbf.org
The mission of the USDBF is to promote the growth and development of dragon boating in the U.S. for fitness, recreation, and team building at all levels of competition.  The USDBF consists of four regional entities across the United States.
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www.pdbausa.org
Pacific Dragon Boat Association USA is a West Coast Dragon Boating resource, whose mission is to promote the sport of dragon boat racing and foster national and international dragon boat competition. They are part of the USDBF, representing the Western region of the United States.
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www.atlakeunionpark.org
A great site and calendar of what's happening at Seattle's Lake Union Park, including all Seattle Flying Dragon practices.  Lake Union Park hosts activities year-round and best of all, most activities are free and open to all ages.
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www.acsm.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=ACSM_Fit_Society_Page
The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) News & Publication Page.  ACSM is the largest sports medicine and exercise science organization in the world.  Their web site has a lot of educational information that is based on science and medicine, rather than fads or fallacy.
    

Latest News!

Sign Up Now for Barrel Racing on June 30!
Round em up. Head em out. Yee Haw!  THE ORIGINAL RIDES AGAIN!! The Seattle Dragon Boat Barrel Race is fixin' to saddle up and head 'em out once again in 2012.

Everyone is invited to join the Seattle Flying Dragons on Saturday, June 30th for a repeat of DRAGON BOAT BARREL RACING at Seattle's new Lake Union Park. You don’t need to organize a team…all teams will be formed on race day by drawing names from a cowboy hat.  The dragon boats will race around a triangular three buoy course in a cloverleaf pattern of turns – just exactly like in rodeo – except with buoys instead of barrels and no dirt or horses!

C'mon out!  Give it a try!  It doesn't get much better than this.

Sign up now on our Barrel Race page!

Other Club Events

Our first race of the season was a local one:  The Saint Martin’s University Dragon Boat Festival in Olympia on April 28.  The race drew  over 7000 spectators – and it was a first-time race for the Flying Dragons.  We placed first in our first heat of the day; a great way to start off a competition.   Here's a video of that first heat taken with a helmet cam worn by our tiller, Larry.
Overall, this was a wonderful venue, we had a blast, and even came away with some hardware!  We'll be making this race a regular event on our calendar.
Our next event was paddling in the Windermere Cup and Opening Day festivities on May 5 – Seattle’s traditional start of the boating season, and always a great kick-off to the dragon boating season for the Flying Dragons.
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It was a three dragon boat race to be first across the finish line! Crowds cheering. The band playing. What fun!
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Our drummer Matt's propeller beanie made quite the statement!
We have lots of other races and events coming up. And there are lots of photos on the Photos page too!
Check out our Calendar page to see what we’re up to.  And Flying Dragon Members, you can check out the new coordinated 2012 race schedule on the Race Calendar page under the Members tab.  You find detailed information and useful links about each event all in one location.
See you on the lake!