The Yorkton Canoe and Kayak club wants to see you on a dragon boat. Every Wednesday at 6:00 p.m., the club hosts an evening to get people to try out dragon boats, whether someone is experienced with a paddle or they have never been in a boat before, and everywhere in between.
Jessica Riley, head coach of the Yorkton Canoe and Kayak Club, says that the goal is to get people onto the boat and give them a better idea about what the dragon boat actually involves.
鈥淲e found that people don鈥檛 necessarily know what dragon boating is, so they want a chance to experience it before they go through the effort of finding or forming a team.鈥�
All of the equipment and coaching is provided for the $15 it takes for non-members to get on the boat, though Riley recommends a change of clothes because, given that you鈥檙e paddling on a lake, it鈥檚 only natural they you鈥檙e going to get wet. The evening鈥檚 team will learn all of the basic commands in the boat, and work as a team to paddle on York Lake. The more experienced paddlers tend to move towards the front, so that the beginners can observe and learn.
鈥淲e try to tailor it to whoever we have.鈥�
Dragon boats are also a good way to get people more comfortable on the water, Riley says.
鈥淚t is a wide boat, you are with other people. You won鈥檛 flip it unless it鈥檚 really horrible out and you do some really bad stuff. It鈥檚 a nice way to build your confidence a little bit. We take it slow, we鈥檙e not going to go out and do a ridiculous workout, we鈥檙e going to make sure that we are working for our new people as well and get them used to the idea. That鈥檚 the objective with all of our programming, it doesn鈥檛 matter if it鈥檚 dragon boating or anything else. It鈥檚 getting people introduced.鈥�
There need to be at least six people every night in order to take the boat out, and on the most recent evening there were ten 鈥� a full crew for the smaller boat that the club uses. The hope is that it becomes part of the club鈥檚 regular programming, so people know that on Wednesday evening it鈥檚 time to hit the water, Riley explains.
The main goal is to recruit people for the upcoming dragon boat races in the city, running September 16. The races have grown into their own event, separated from the developmental regatta hosted by the Yorkton Canoe and Kayak Club. That means this year鈥檚 event will have a beer garden and set up more adult-focused entertainment.
鈥淚t鈥檚 been positive so far, but we need people to get their entries in.鈥�
They also hope that having the drop-in nights will allow them to complete smaller teams, so if a team has only 8 people, for example, they can get some of the drop-in dragon boat fans to help complete it.
鈥淚f you have a team or a partial team, get the papers in and we can work with it.鈥�
Another goal for the club is to get people out on York Lake, which Riley believes is not nearly as well used as it should be.
鈥淢ost people in Yorkton don鈥檛 know that the lake exists. It鈥檚 10 minutes away and a lot of people been here their entire lives and have no idea that York Lake is here. The homeowners around it say it鈥檚 their best kept secret.鈥�
Riley hopes that people are inspired to get out to the lake and paddle, and go to racing in September.
鈥淵ou don鈥檛 need to go to Vancouver and you don鈥檛 need to go to Regina, we have dragon boating right here.鈥�
