Brisbane River Dragons

Dragon Boating is actually one of the oldest sports in the world today, originating over 2000 years ago in the Southern provinces of China. The modern sport of Dragon Boating consists of a long canoe with twenty paddlers who sit ten long and two abreast, one drummer who sits at the front and keeps time, and a sweep, who stands at the back and steers. For the boat to move smoothly through the water, all team members need to be paddling in unison and take their timing from the front two paddlers who are called 'strokes', as they set the stroke rate.International standard race distances are 2000m, 1000m 500m and 200m sprints.