Sleek, narrow boats seating two rows of 20 paddlers line up side by side on the waters and under a sunny sky. As each team prepares, the countdown starts, the horn sounds, and the race is on. Dragon Boat is a water-based sport where teams paddle in sync to advance to the finish line first. Among the many MHS clubs that students have started, the Dragon Boat Club is one that is dedicated to this exhilarating sport.
Although the Dragon Boat Club is active under MHS, they practice under the Mountain View Dragon Boat Club who recruit people from MHS, club vice president Christina Phan said in a Zoom interview.
“Mountain View Dragon Boat Club hosts a bunch of other high schools such as Independence High School, Evergreen High School, and of course, Mountain View High School,” Phan said.
In a Zoom interview, club treasurer Meggie Nguyen described the Dragon Boat Club as a competitive paddling sport, where the members build a close-knit family, get in shape together, and compete against other schools. They also competed in other states and countries such as Canada, she added.
“Prior to COVID, we would meet every Sunday … at the high school, and we would carpool to Redwood City where there is BIAC (Bair Island Aquatic Center),” club publicist Vina Nguyen said in a Zoom interview. “This is where we practice, and we would just paddle for hours straight.”
Additionally, a COVID-free year would usually involve 3-4 competitions, with one being an international competition held at Long Beach, Meggie Nguyen said. Their other competitions are held at Lake Merritt in Oakland and at Lake Merced, Vina Nguyen added.
“Unfortunately, [due to] COVID, half of [the races were cancelled for 2020] and 2021, and we only race usually during the summer,” Phan said.
Vina Nguyen added that their competitions had hundreds of people, and due to COVID and the protocols put in place to prevent its spread, holding competitions was not possible.
“The way Dragon Boat works is that there [are] different divisions to separate teams: A being the highest and usually D or E being the lowest division,” Phan explained.
Over the past few years, the club won numerous awards: in 2017, they competed in the NCIDBF (Northern California International Dragon Boat Competition) where the Mountain View Gold Team placed 6th in the D division and the Mountain View Black Team placed 3rd the C division, Phan said.
“Our first team, Mountain View Gold, was comprised mainly of freshmen who had just started paddling for 1-2 months,” Phan wrote in an Instagram message. “Our second team, Mountain View Black, was… mainly veteran paddlers.”
Then, in Spring of 2018 they placed 2nd in the C division at the CDBA (California Dragon Boat Association) Youth race at Lake Merced and 6th in the A division at the Long Beach Dragon Boat Festival, Phan said.
“[The A division] is actually the highest division for us to compete in,” Phan added. “It was pretty impressive for us to be placed in A division for Long Beach.”
Lastly, they once again competed in the NCIDBF and CDBA Youth Races during the 2018-2019 school year and placed 2nd and 3rd respectively, Phan said. Unfortunately, they were not able to compete at Long Beach that year.
Currently, the team does online meetings with their members. “We have really low attendance, because we usually attract attention through our CLOG rushes,” Meggie Nguyen said. “But since it’s virtual, it’s… hard to get engagement.”
Instead of land or water practices, the team has been doing online workouts and then bonding together afterwards for the past few months, Phan said. Although they don’t know what the future holds for them, she hopes to recruit more members and continue with water practices after the pandemic, she added.
Finally, Vina Nguyen said that competitions were the best part of being in the club because of the people she met, the team support and spirit, and the excitement that competition days brought. Dragon Boat is a sport that everyone should be able to try out despite the majority of people not knowing much about it, she said.
“We might appear intimidating … but if you join, we’re like a family; we’ll accept you,” Meggie Nguyen said. “You don’t have to be athletic to join, but it’s a really fun sport and everyone is welcome.”
