Teamwork is What Tames the Dragon

June 19, 2011

Times-Leader

Matt Hughes

“Dragon boating is about teamwork,” Naomi Kaphan tells the team of novice rowers lined up at Nesbitt Park Saturday afternoon. “Winning the race is teamwork; don’t do your own thing.”

Kaphan, a coach from New York City-based Women in Canoe, matches rowers in order of relative size, with the smallest team members at the ends of the boat and larger ones in the middle, maintaining balance.

When the 20 paddlers – in this case from Guard Insurance — get out on the water, they aim to row in unison, syncing their movements with the steady rhythm of a drummer, or at least that’s the idea.

“Being in a kayak, you’re alone, or being in a canoe, that’s one thing,” said Susan Turcmanovich, of Scranton, a member of Pennsylvania American Water’s dragon boat team, “but to be in there with 21 people trying to stay together is a whole different thing.”

Today, six teams from area businesses, including The Times Leader, and teams from the city of Wilkes-Barre and Luzerne County will race the dragon boats.

Each team will race three times from the Market Street Bridge to the Veterans Memorial Bridge, with prizes awarded for the fastest overall time, best-dressed drummer and best team spirit.

The races will take place from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. today, but RiverFest organizers said that’s just a taste of things to come.

In September 2012, the Riverfront Parks Committee and River Common hope to host a separate dragon boat festival, complete with a dragon-boat regatta.

“Pittsburgh has a dragon boat festival, Philadelphia has a dragon boat festival, and now Wilkes-Barre will have a dragon boat festival too,” said John Maday, a member of the Riverfront Parks Committee Board of Directors and a RiverFest coordinator.

Maday said he brought the dragon boats to RiverFest this year as a preview, to create interest among local businesses in the hopes of gaining sponsorships for the event next year.

He said things Saturday were going as smoothly as they could for a first time, and even the practice runs drew plenty of spectators, with a small crowd watching the action from Nesbitt Park.

“This is the kind of stuff we need down here,” said Dennis Reading, of Laflin, as he watched his daughter paddle with the Guard Insurance team. “You’ve got to get people interested in the area, and this kind of thing is great for that.”

If dragon-boating is about teamwork, the area, it seems, has started paddling together

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