Donna James of Port Alberni had a lifelong fear of water after nearly drowning as a child. Today, she spends much of her time on a huge lake, paddling a dragon boat. 

Born and raised in Alberta, Donna says, “I first saw a dragon boat in Vancouver at the 1986 Expo, but it didn’t mean too much to me then. I had never really been interested in boats because of my horrible experience when I was little. My initial feeling on seeing what amounted to a sort of canoe with a dragon head and tail attached was that it might interest my son. It turned out he was very interested and he soon got involved in dragon boat teams in Vancouver.”

That’s how it was for a while, until Donna and her husband went to see their son paddle in a Dragon Boat Festival in Vancouver in 1997.  
“I was fascinated and saw immediately that it was very different from canoeing. I suddenly realized I had been bitten by the dragon and knew I had to try it.”

Donna’s initial request to Parks & Recreation in Port Alberni to start a Dragon Boat team received a resounding “No”: there was no boat available. 

Donna discovered a team in nearby Qualicum, formed by Breast Cancer Survivors – “Hope Afloat.” The team was invited to Port Alberni to give a demonstration.

This would whet Donna’s appetite even more. “I jumped into the boat and was all fired up,” she recalls. “It was my dream to have a dragon boat in Port Alberni.” But it would be another few years before her dream came true.

Donna happened to mention her dream to Rotary Club member Kenn Whiteman who suggested the Rotary might be willing to support her. Just before Christmas 1999, the Port Alberni Dragon Boat Society was formed, and Donna found several other interested people. Kenn Whiteman was instrumental in helping Donna with the fundraising through garage sales, car washes, bottle drives, a magic show, a Last Chance Diamond Mine and many private donations. 

“Just to remind us why we were doing this, and because we had no boat yet, we practised in a local church on kindergarten chairs,” says Donna. The fledgling group, called the Alberni Wave Riders, was determined to enter the Vancouver International Dragon Boat Festival in 2000 even though they still had no boat. Undaunted, they prepared by driving to Victoria twice, where they hired a coach and boat so they could really get the feel of the sport. 

With 180 teams participating in the Vancouver Festival, Donna’s novice team from Port Alberni came in second at the B Event.

By April 2001, the team had raised $22,000, and was able to have a boat made by Vincent Lowe, a boat builder in Vancouver. Their dragon boat was a traditional “6/16 boat,” meaning it had 20 paddlers, one steersperson and one drummer.

For those unfamiliar with dragon boating, 6/16 means six deep strokes followed by 16 fast strokes to get the boat to plane on the surface, skimming the water. Unlike a canoe, when moving, a dragon boat sits on top of, rather than in the water. Very stable, it cannot tip over and sink, owing to its unique construction. 
“I feel safe in the dragon boat, because of its inherent stability and because we are never too far from the shore,” says Donna, who paddles several times a week on nearby beautiful Sproat Lake.

Today, Port Alberni has three dragon boats, all 6/16 types, and they all belong to the West Coast Dragon Boat Society, from which all four Alberni teams rent the boats. Donna coaches and paddles with the Sunshine Dragons (a mixed seniors team) and the Paddle Pushers (women only), having received her Dragon Boat Coach training in Vancouver and Victoria. The two other Port Alberni teams are the Ladies of the Lake (women only) and the Alberni Wave Riders (mixed).

Traditionally, dragon boats were made of teak, but nowadays they are a mixture of wood and fibreglass and sometimes include other materials. The boat is 40 feet (12.2 metres) long and weighs 1,500 lbs (680 kg). 

“An advantage of this sport,” says Donna, 79, “is that any age can do this, including kids.”

The teams launch the boats on the first Sunday in April and paddle all summer taking part in many regattas on Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland, with a winding-up festival on the last Sunday of September. They have won many medals and ribbons over the last 10 years. 

An avid sportswoman, if not actually participating, Donna is volunteering, supporting others, and over the years she has been a volunteer for a number of sporting events, including the 2004 B.C. Winter Games hosted by Port Alberni. She was notably the first Lady President of the Alberni Valley Golf Club, a beautiful 18-hole course out at Cherry Creek. Being a “stunt girl” at the annual Alberni Forest Fest is also on Donna’s agenda; she masquerades as an Edwardian-era passenger on the steam train, which is frequently held up and robbed by the notorious, horse-riding Beaufort Gang.

Dragon boating is the fastest growing team sport and has become a passion for Donna. She also paddles in an outrigger canoe but, as she says, it is the noise and the hype of racing in the dragon boat that she loves most. “Dragon Boat Festivals are wonderful: teams hanging out, jostling each other, waiting for that adrenalin rush once we get in the boat.”

She has been prey to back pain from time to time, but is still addicted to activity, be it tai chi, line dancing, golf, curling, exercising at Curves, or just walking. She says all sports help with her back problems, especially paddling. 

Going back to its origins, there is a spiritual aspect to dragon boating, which has its roots in ancient folk rituals of competing villagers held over the past 2000 years in Southern China. Like the original Games of Olympia in Ancient Greece, it included aspects of religion, community, and ceremony, along with the competition.

Donna is emphatic. “Well, whatever the origins, maybe there is something spiritual about it because it’s my passion. The paddling keeps us young and fit. When some team members went to get flu shots, the nurse was very impressed with our muscle tone.” 

Testament to the health benefits of paddling, members of the Sunshine Dragons, several of whom have had hip and knee replacements as well as breast cancer surgery, were seen to climb swiftly and sprightly out of their boat onto the dock at picture-perfect Sproat Lake.

For more info, or to get involved, call 250-723-6865.

JANUARY 2012 SENIOR LIVING MAGAZINE VANCOUVER ISLAND