{"id":3496,"date":"2009-08-03T05:07:00","date_gmt":"2009-08-03T05:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lbpost.com\/articles\/sports\/diverse-splendor-lb-dragon-boat-festival\/"},"modified":"2009-08-03T05:07:00","modified_gmt":"2009-08-03T05:07:00","slug":"diverse-splendor-lb-dragon-boat-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/diverse-splendor-lb-dragon-boat-festival","title":{"rendered":"Diverse Splendor: LB Dragon Boat Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"

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With all of Long Beach’s mainstream athletic successes\u2014high schools that churn out pro prospects as fast as the big leagues can keep up, a university that’s produced one of the world’s most famous sports superstars\u2014it can be easy for lesser-known events and competitions to slip through the cracks.  <\/span>The Long Beach Dragon Boat Festival, held over the weekend, for example. <\/span><\/p>\n

Not widely known among the city’s sports fan, it is<\/em> widely known among the international dragon boat racing community\u2014one of the largest festivals on the west coast, this year’s event drew dozens of teams.  <\/span>There were corporate competitors, high school teams, university boats, and international groups too, with Chinese media in tow.  <\/span>The event took over Mother’s Beach and Marine Stadium, as teams set up shade tents to relax in between races, creating a mini-city within the city\u2014the tent community was well-served by booths serving a number of different kinds of cuisines, as well as vendors selling clothing and racing supplies.  <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The races themselves\u2014there were 80 this year\u2014consist of a 200-meter sprint (though some are longer), with as many as eight boats on the water at once.  <\/span>Each boat has 18 paddlers, as well as a drummer beating time at the front (near the ornamental dragon’s head on each boat’s bow), and a sweep at the rear, who steers the boat straight.  <\/span>Each event is quick, with winners timing in at under a minute\u2014and, in the largest departure from American mainstream sports, there is no post-race celebration on the water.  <\/span>Teams cheer each other on as they come out onto the shore, and after the final race on Sunday finished, teams who had already raced formed a long human tunnel for the paddlers to run through, slapping hands and telling each other, “Great race.”<\/p>\n

For a moment it seemed like so many amateur sporting events, with sportsmanship and competitive desire welded into the framework of a memorable Summer weekend.  <\/span>Then, Chinese television reporters began to interview some of the competitors in their native language, as American paddlers went back to the awards tent to dance to a DJ’s mix of Kanye West’s “Homecoming” with a house beat pulsing beneath it.  <\/span>Chinese hip-hop, dancing, and martial arts demonstrations throughout the weekend further highlighted the cultural experience that sets the Dragon Boat Festival apart from Long Beach’s normal schedule of events.<\/p>\n

It’s important to support events like these\u2014with attention, with attendance, with money spent at the booths.  <\/span>Larger institutional support\u2014the medals for the ceremonies weren’t available because they were being held by Customs at the port\u2014will also help to ensure that this excellent, overloooked piece of Long Beach’s sports tapestry will remain intact.<\/p>\n

Walking to Marine Stadium and the dragon boat races from where I parked on the other side of the Colorado Lagoon, I passed a father teaching his daughter how to throw a softball, an all-gay volleyball scrimmage, a fiercely competitive cricket tilt, and a soccer practice.  <\/span>After that sojourn, and taking in the history and culture on display at the Dragon Boast Festival, a perfect August Sunday transformed from a welcome sledgehammer to the summer doldrums, into a lesson about how important competition is to Long Beach’s identity.  <\/span>Our sports are not just another pillar lifting the city from anonymity towards something higher\u2014they’re also a mirror, reflecting and amplifying the diversity that makes this city great in the first place.<\/p>\n

For more info on the event and the 2000-year plus history of dragon boat racing, as well as a complete list of each race’s winners, click here to visit the festival’s official website<\/a>.<\/o:p><\/em><\/p>\n

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Photos by Mike Guardabascio<\/o:p><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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The Long Beach Dragon Boat Festival, held over the weekend, highlights the rich cultural diversity that makes our local sports scene so unique.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-3496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3496\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3496"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=3496"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=3496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}