Chris Salzer and Patty Sikora watched from their Kent dragon boat as young children lined the shores of the Love River in Kaohsiung, Taiwan during a practice run. Then they heard the chant.
“Pad-dle, pad-dle, pad-dle,” the children yelled.
“They didn’t know much more English, but they knew paddle,” said Sikora, one of the 23 women and men who represented the Kent Dragon Boat Association in early June at the Kaohsiung International Dragon Boat Race.
The Kent dragon boaters return to the water Saturday, July 9 at Lake Meridian for the 11th annual Kent Cornucopia Days Dragon Boat Races. Forty-six teams from Washington, Oregon and British Columbia will compete starting at 8:30 a.m.
“It’s our biggest race ever,” said Sikora, the race director. “It’s the most teams we’ve had.”
With 22 people in each boat, more than 1,000 people will compete in the races that include divisions for coed or mixed teams, women, cancer survivors, mixed seniors older than 45 and youth teams ages 14-18.
The dragon boat races are part of the 40th annual Kent Cornucopia Days. The festival runs July 8-10 and will draw thousands of people downtown to check out the hundreds of vendors who fill city blocks with their arts, crafts, food and other items.
While the annual Lake Meridian races are a definite highlight for the Kent dragon boaters, their June 1-10 trip to Taiwan gave them a one-of-a-kind experience.
“It was awesome to be at an international venue like that,” said Salzer, the team leader in Taiwan. “And we were treated very well.”
The Kent team got the idea for the Taiwan trip through an acquaintance from another racing association. That led to working with the city of Seattle Sister Cities group because Kaohsiung is a sister city of Seattle. Kent members had to pay for airfare but Kaohsiung officials covered meals and housing and provided the dragon boat.
“Dragon boating originated in China,” Sikora said. “I’ve done it for 11 years so to experience it in the homeland was exciting. And the people were gracious and wonderful to us.”
Kaohsiung is a city of about 1.4 million, the second largest city in Taiwan. The dragon boat festival drew 121 teams, including boaters from Israel, New Zealand, China and Japan. Interpreters from local colleges were provided to each team.
“We even had interpreters on the dock to help us with the start command,” Sikora said.
Kent competed in the International Mixed division and placed second out of 14 teams. A team from Taiwan won the division.
“The racing aspect was inspiring to see all of the people watching,” Salzer said. “There are not a lot of spectators here. Their event was lined with people.”
The Kent visitors also had a chance in between races to visit museums, international markets and do a bit of hiking. Temperatures were near 100 degrees with 90 percent humidity.
“We were told we were like ambassadors from Seattle and the United States,” Sikora said. “They treated us like that. They even had a welcome lunch for us.”
There’s talk the Kent team might return next year to the dragon boat festival in Taiwan.
“And we are working on getting a Taiwan team here next year,” Salzer said.
For more information about the Kent Dragon Boat Association, go to www.kentdragonboat.com.
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