Dragon Boat Racing Teams have Visually-impaired Paddlers
Monday, June 2nd, 2008
I spent the weekend in Portland, Oregon. The city has a growing number of dragon boat racing teams. Portland embraces its’ dragon boat racing. When I was in Singapore years ago, I remember being there during the Dragon Boat Racing International Finals. The day of the finals, Portland, Oregon’s team won first place.
While on the streetcars going here and there for the Portland Rose Festival this weekend, I read a free city paper that had an article on teams of Dragon Boat racers that will compete June 7 and 8 in the Rose festival Dragon Boat Races. The teams are: Sound Waves, Blind Ambition and Lethally Blind. There are teams with breast cancer survivors (Pink Phoenix), deafness (Silent Dragon), and developmentally and physically disabled (the Special dragons).
The blind captain of “Sound Waves”, Mark Francis, says it is a level playing field. They are not distracted by the visuals either. They can focus on the commands. “When we beat’em, we really beat ‘em!” He said. What a wonderful thing to be able to do!
You can read the full article on the Portland Tribune website.
All the best to you!
Lon
