Asian Fortune Your source for all things Asian American
By Aurora de Peralta
Every year in the month of May, dragon boats race through the Potomac in celebration of the DC Dragon Boat Festival, sponsored by the Chinese Women’s League of Washington, D.C. Team members pound on drums to keep paddlers on beat, while crowds of spectators flood the river banks to cheer on the teams.
The DC Dragon Boat Festival, now in its thirteenth year, is a two-day festival featuring cultural exhibitions alongside dragon boat race events. This AAPI Heritage Month, the festival will take place from May 17-18 at the Thompsons Boat Center in Georgetown.
Filipino Young Professionals DC chairman Victor Ecarma first saw the DC Dragon Boat festival while driving past Georgetown one spring afternoon. The sight of dozens of dragon boats gliding through the Potomac piqued his interest, prompting him to respond to an e-mail from the National Association of Asian American Professionals in search of festival paddlers.
“On a whim I e-mailed [NAAAP] and just asked them if they had any spots left. And I ended up racing for them,” he said.
Then, in 2008, Ecarma started the dragon boat program for FYP-DC, w
hich races three co-ed boats at the festival: one competitive team, the Lapu Lapu Warriors, and two beginner-intermediate teams, the Rizal Revolutionaries and the Fighting Pacquiaos.
He currently serves as captain of the Lapu Lapu Warriors, which has gained a reputation for being a festival team that beats the dedicated, year-round club teams at the festival.
“We practice maybe three to four times before the festival,” Ecarma said. “We don’t practice year-round like the other club teams, but we’re beating them.”
Just last year, the Lapu Lapu Warriors won five out of six gold medals, and have consistently earned gold or silver medals in their division each year.
But for Ecarma, the main goal of dragon boat racing is to raise awareness for FYP-DC and its programs.
“Dragon boating creates awareness and opportunity for everyone to learn about FYP,” he said. “There’s nothing better than the visual of your boat racing down Georgetown and creating awareness for your organization.”
DC-based Carlo Veloso first paddled for the FYP Rizal Revolutionaries in 2010, hooking him on the sport of dragon boat racing.
“After that event, I wanted to learn more about racing and paddling,” he said. “Every year I feel like it’s a continuous learning process.
Now, he races year-round for the co-ed competitive club team Dead Presidents. The Dead
Presidents are the premier team for DC Dragon Boat Club, a nonprofit organization that offers dragon boat programs of all levels for its more than 120 members.
At stake for the Dead Presidents this year is qualification for the World Club Crew Championships. The team hopes to medal this year at the DC Dragon Boat Festival, which will add toward their points in the Eastern Region Dragon Boat Association of the United States Dragon Boat Federation. If they gain the most points in the region, then they will qualify for the 2016 International Dragon Boat Federation championship in Australia.
But while the World Club Crew Championships are a major goal for the Dead Presidents, Veloso said it’s important not to solely focus on the medal count.
“It’s more about having fun and the competition and camaraderie,” he said. “It celebrates the community. I encourage a lot of people to come out and give it a try. That’s how I got started, that’s how I got hooked into the sport.”
