Taming dragons on Flathead Lake

Synchronicity: an apparently meaningful coincidence in time of two or more similar or identical events.

In team paddling sports like dragon boat racing, synchronicity is everything. The paddles must enter the water at the exact same time at the exact same angle to raise the boat high in the water. They must be removed from the water at the same time and angle to avoid drag. Then they must be snapped back to the beginning of the stroke, and the motion is repeated again and again for a length of 500 meters.

A good dragon boat crew looks like the drive train on a steam locomotive, the paddler the wheels and the paddle the piston rod, each repeating the same motion to move the boat through the water and the train down the line.

The art of dragon boating is what attracted Doug Schmitt to the fast-growing water sport when he attended a race in Kalispell last summer.

“I got jazzed about watching the race,” Schmitt said. “I had been paddling alone for a long time and I wanted to do a team thing.”

So he started asking around and eventually got in touch with Cindy Coats, the primary organizer behind the Kalispell-based Flathead Dragonflies, one of several dragon boat teams in the region. Schmitt began practicing with the Dragonflies in the spring as soon as the weather allowed them to get in the water. He paddled his first race with them in early July in Lethbridge, Alberta, where the Dragonflies took third place in their division.

They and other regional teams will be at the Flathead Cherry Festival in Polson on the afternoon of Sunday, July 21 to do an exposition on their sport.

A retired architect, Schmitt and his wife, Laurie, moved to Polson just over a year ago from San Francisco. He said dragon boating helped him to meet people and make friends after the move.

Schmitt, 63, is an avid kayaker, but he still considers himself a beginner in dragon boating. The team element is challenging in itself, but the stroke is much more complex than the one used by recreational canoers or kayakers.

It requires the paddler to reach out in front, arms straight and stiff, and drive the paddle blade into the water at a 45-degree angle. Then, using the legs and torso and keeping the arms straight, the paddler pulls and twists to wrench the paddle through the water. The paddler then removes the paddle and snaps back forward, watching the hands of the paddlers in the front of the boat to ensure synchronicity before repeating the motion.

“It’s almost like dancing with how complex the paddle stroke is,” Schmitt said. He also equated it with a golf swing in the way he makes little adjustments to increase efficiency and better technique.

The sport of dragon boating began in ancient China and has been quite popular throughout southeastern Asia for quite a while. The sport is relatively new to the rest of the world. It has taken off in Canada and Schmitt thinks it is poised to do so in the United States.

A typical dragon boat crew consists of 22 people, 20 of whom paddle, one drummer (who keeps cadence for the paddlers), and a helmsman. In competition, each team is given an identical boat and a professional helmsman to help level the playing field.

Like in other sports, the paddlers have different “positions” depending on where they sit in the boat. The front rows are called the pacesetters. They typically have the purest paddle strokes. The middle rows are referred to as the engine room. They tend to be the largest and strongest of the crew. The back rows, called the rockets, are adept at paddling in the choppy water churned up by the paddlers in front of them.

Races are generally 500 meters, and Schmitt said a good time is anything under 2:25. The Dragonflies finished between 2:35 and 2:42 in their four heats in Lethbridge.

Schmitt is the only member of the Flathead Dragonflies who lives in Polson—most live in Kalispell—so he usually has quite a drive to their weekly practices. They usually practice at the public boat launch in Somers, but they have had other outings including Lake McDonald in Glacier National Park and the Saddle Horn Club in Woods Bay, where they practiced last Saturday.

Schmitt said that even though Polson and other nearby places have teams, his plans are to stay with the Dragonflies as long as they will let him do so.

“I am loyal to these guys since they taught me how to do it,” Schmitt said. He also mentioned that they are the only area team he knows of that travels out of the state to compete. In addition to Lethbridge, they have plans to race in Seattle and Calgary, Alberta this summer before the big regional race in Kalispell in early September.

The majority of the Dragonflies are women.

“Typically women are better paddlers and pick up the choreography of the stroke a little faster than guys do,” said Schmitt.

He said the enthusiasm of his teammates is another thing that makes dragon boating fun for him.

Coats and her husband Doug are the principal organizers of the team. They organize the practices and deal with many of the logistical efforts. Cindy Coats serves as their drummer during competition. Doug Coats coaches the team when they practice.

“Doug is the driving force behind the team in terms of technique,” Schmitt said.

Another teammate, Lisa Duetsch, has one of the best stroke techniques and has helped Schmitt with his on a more individual level.

“In my experience, she’s the heart and soul of the team,” he said. “She’s inspirational.”

In Lethbridge, Schmitt learned about the benefit dragon boating has had for cancer patients, cancer survivors, and in raising money for research. About a decade ago, Schmitt said, researchers began prescribing paddling as a recovery and wellness activity for cancer patients. The tactic took off. Of the 65 teams that competed in Lethbridge, 16 were made up of cancer patients or survivors.

“Some you can tell [are sick]. Some look like the fittest athletes in the world,” Schmitt said. “I can’t imagine doing something like that.”

Much of the money that goes into dragon boating goes toward cancer research. Many of the teams that compete do so to raise funds for that cause. He said the Dragonflies saw an especially moving video in Lethbridge that highlighted the way dragon boating had touched cancer patients’ lives. Schmitt said some family friends who have had or are currently battling cancer are certainly extra motivation for him to stay involved in the sport.

“I hate to see people with productive lives who still have things they want to do, and their lives are cut short,” Schmitt said.

He said that his enthusiasm for the sport is based on three criteria.

“It’s a combination of team camaraderie, exercise, and support of cancer survivors, in no particular order,” he said.

His personal goal is to get a race on the south shore of Flathead Lake in the next couple years. The popularity of the sport in the region is already evident, and Schmitt said more teams are forming every year. He thinks the Polson area could support a race as soon as next summer.

Some area teams—Drinkers of the Lake from Polson, Triple Threat from Missoula, and Montana Athletic Club from Bigfork—will join the Dragonflies at the Flathead Cherry Festival.

“The Flathead Valley has a couple of teams, Missoula has a couple, and Bozeman, and we can draw the bigger cities in a couple years,” Schmitt said.

He hopes the exposition at the Cherry Festival will only help him in those efforts and generate more enthusiasm for the growing sport.