Manning River Dragon Boat Club is gearing up for its biggest weekend of the year, with crews travelling from as far as Dubbo and Sydney to race on the Manning River in Taree.
The event, which Vice President Wendy Orman says has been running for about 15 years, will be held on Saturday 8 and Sunday 9 August.
“It’s a long time and we do it every year and we try to make it a little bit different every year,” Ms Orman said.
Last year’s regatta was hit by flooding, forcing the club to relocate into the car park beside the Manning River Rowing Club.
“It was terrible. We had to have all that tents and everything was done in the car park next to the rowing crops,” Ms Orman said.
The weekend opens on Saturday morning with the Community Paddle, a free taste of dragon boating for locals with no experience required. Four teams, colour-coded pink, yellow, blue and green, are made up of half MRDBC paddlers and half community members recruited on the day.
“So if we work really hard, we can fill our boat and have 20 paddlers,” Ms Orman said.
Participants are fitted with a life jacket and paddle, given a quick briefing, and set loose over three 100-metre races, rotating through different lanes. Every paddler takes home a participation medal.
“They always have such a good time,” Ms Orman said.
The club hopes the taste of competition will encourage newcomers to sign up for its Learn to Paddle program, which runs four times a year and starts again the week after the regatta. The program is open to anyone aged 12 or older.
Saturday afternoon shifts to competitive club racing, with a 1km straight course race from the bridge to the rowing club decided on best time, followed by a new addition this year, the Dash for Cash, a 100 metre sprint for cash and a trophy.
“People like that because then they stack the boats full of as many men as they can and it involves money and a trophy, so they love that,” Ms Orman said.
Sunday brings the traditional 200 metre races, held in 20 seat boats across Mixed (with a minimum of two men), Opens (any gender) and Women’s divisions, as well as smaller 10 seat Opens and Mixed races.
Behind the scenes, the club is also using the weekend to test four trainee sweeps with the northern region’s sweep coordinator, giving them accreditation to steer boats at future regattas.
This year’s regatta has a new organiser at the helm in Philippa Smith.
“We always keep good files and, you know, you go on what you did last year and then just, you know, update it,” Ms Orman said.
Manning River Dragon Boat Club’s membership has grown well beyond its original 20 to 75 year old range. The club now counts three junior paddlers, aged 13 and 14, among its ranks, alongside paddlers well into their 80s.
“She’s on the committee, she does everything, she’s our most experienced paddler”, Ms Orman said of the club’s oldest paddler, Judy.
The club’s junior paddlers are already making a name for themselves at representative level, with all three currently in the running for a spot on the junior Auroras team.
“Now our three juniors are trialling for the junior Auroras team. That’s under 18s and under 16,” Ms Orman said.
Eleven club members, including the three juniors, are currently trialling for state and national representative teams, among them the senior Auroras, Australia’s top representative dragon boat side.
“We started out with just me trialling for Auroras. Then we had Helen, myself and Paul last year and now we have 11 people,” Ms Orman said.
Outside of racing, the club is a regular fixture at community events across the Manning Valley, volunteering at the Run Fest, taking part in the local triathlon, and hosting an annual Christmas paddle.
“It is a sport for everybody,” Ms Orman said.
Ms Orman, who has been paddling for about 20 years, said dragon boating currently features at the Olympics only as a demonstration sport.
“We’re hoping that we go from a demonstration sport to an actual Olympic sport, which would be wonderful,” Ms Orman said.
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