Bay Area Dragons - Dragonboat Racing
Categories: Local Flavor, Amateur Sports Teams, Sports Clubs
Foster City Blvd & Bountry DriveFoster City Boatpark
Foster City, CA 94404
- Good for Kids:
- No
3 reviews for Bay Area Dragons - Dragonboat Racing
For a team with a BAD name, they aren't really bad in terms of skill, behavior, or personality. BAD introduced dragon boating to the Bay Area. However, politics in play resulted in the formation of other teams. BAD has won numerous times in the past and continues to surprise the dragon boat community with their passion and commitment to grow the sport. BAD's founder is definitely the heart and soul of BAD, who led his team with a record of success.
If you want luxurious paddling, you can't beat the scenic views of the residential lagoons with calm waters and clean boats. BAD owns two boats and takes good care of them. They provide paddles, life jackets, and good lessons for free at the beginner practices open to the public every Saturday at 10:30am at the boat park.
However, beginners may struggle when transitioning to regular team practices because they have to adopt a sink or swim mentality when practicing with advanced paddlers since there isn't a third boat to nurture new paddlers. Eventually, they may feel frustrated going to practices without much direct, constructive feedback to reinforce good technique, isolate bad habits, and advance their paddling skills with primarily 1 coach for 2 boats. However, the staff is trying to leverage the team's resources, such as pod leaders, to supplement coaching and reduce variables with assigned seating.
If your goal is become a great and social paddler, you may want to check out other teams. Although BAD is defining criteria (e.g. fitness, attendance, perfomance trials) to determine crew placement and paddles their hardest with a lot of heart, the team is relatively old in its current state with 1 - 2 masters crews ranging from 40 - 65 years old. Therefore, BAD hardly socializes together as a team with the coaches on and off the water compared to other local teams. They even stretch out individually instead of as a a group for warm ups except at beginner practices. Plus, most of the team doesn't drink. This may be due to obligations to spouses and/or family unless you're part of the established cliques that have known each other for several years. However, this unity is also the strength of BAD to ensure the consistency of their top crews. With the recruitment of youth from high school at the other extreme, the top crews may evolve with this next generation of paddlers.
Please note that the young head coach and staff can vote you off the team without the courtesy of providing any reason should they perceive your unsolicited, unqualified, and/or constructive criticism to improve the team as negative feedback. Despite one's efforts to help organize paddle purchases, recruit, design collateral for their festival, paddle the boats from the docks, and provide suggestions, you can still be asked to leave without any notice or opportunity for redemption. Therefore, you may want to keep your opinions to yourself as a general rule for paddler etiquette on and off the water unless the board welcomes your input or permits appropriate times for feedback.
As a former BAD member, who has seen other teams implement the same drills from world class paddlers with different degrees of variation, depth, and context, mature and experienced coaches make a world of difference for qualifying for the world championships based solely on merit without political clout, lobbying, and substitutions from Canadian teams. Some consider BAD as the Republicans compared to other competitive and social crews, who belong to the California Dragon Boat Association (CDBA). Most teams think it's important to build a relationship with CDBA to voice their opinions and help each other in the dragon boat community. However, BAD owns their boats and has no financial reason to belong to CDBA. Therefore, there are some odd social dynamics and etiquette between BAD and the CDBA teams at times.
Check out the different teams to see if you fit in socially and your goals are aligned before you join. Any team that asks questions to ensure a good fit without any upfront requests for membership fees is worth considering. Unlike the CDBA teams, whose membership includes the 3 local race fees, you'll have to pay additional race fees and surcharges on BAD as incentives to sign up early. If you wait until the last minute, you might get a discount with better pricing if you're built for paddling. Finally, don't sign up during the fall unless you can sustain practices during the winter or else you'll lose your $95 investment in membership fees whether you got your money's worth or not. Since BAD usually closes membership at 100 people, it adopts somewhat of a Machiavellian mentality to fund the club. If you're interested in learning to dragon boat, check out for yourself how BAD this team really is.
People thought this was:
- Useful (5)
- Funny (1)
- Cool (1)
The team holds free Saturday morning practices at 10:30am at the Boat Park in Foster City, which is a nice way to give team-based canoeing a try. The coaches are friendly and it's a really fun way to get a good workout outside and on the water. Wear flip-flops or old shoes if you go.
A stunning disappointment. Though this venue delivered both boats and racing as promised, no actual dragons were present. A dismal 1 star.
People thought this was:
- Useful (1)
- Funny (2)