Claire Tan, a Sea Dragon of 5 years, shares what it takes to be a better racing dragon boater. "All you need to do is to be fearless, be courageous, and shamelessly declare yourself an athlete."

When I first joined the CYSM Sea Dragons in April 2012, I thought dragon boat paddling was merely something that brought people together to mingle and to share food (very prominent in our team). In other words, a social activity.

Until early in this season, when Coach Joe asked “Do you think that you are an athlete?” I answered “No”. Then Coach Joe went on to explain what ‘athlete’ meant – a person who is proficient in a competitive sport, and who repetitively trains for this sport. Sounds like us. But at the time, I shied away from self-declaring myself as ‘athlete’ because I thought I was nowhere near athletic.

I have so much love for dragon boat since I first picked up the sport, but the notion of being a competitive paddler scared me. Especially after I looked around the paddlers in the other teams and realised how unfit and weak I was. I have never attended the National Championship. I never thought I was good enough.

Throughout the first four years of my paddling journey (including the two years in which I was a vice-captain/captain), I had never thought about taking a step further in dragon boating. Even when I was a captain of the club, I never encouraged our members to do anything beyond being a good and sociable club paddler. I think that explains why our club went through two very bad years in which our club sunk from being a top three team in Victoria, to being the least competitive team. Competitive paddlers left us for this reason. It was disheartening.

Little did I realise that the two bad years were indeed the period of cultivation of many committed members who brought into the club lots of positive energy, passion, and courage. We have Carlos and Cathy, our captains who spoke to each member personally and encouraged us to be fearless and ‘just try the State and National benchmarking’. Eric, our vice-captain who owns fancy gadgets to systematically trace our performance and makes our team such a cool team to be in. Chris P, who remained leader of the team (for too long) and continues to commit himself to the management of the club despite how burnt out he was. Benny, the longest-standing member in our club who was not disheartened by the club’s performance and continued to radiate to others his passion for the sport. Most important, Coach Joe, who is so protective of our club, and who tirelessly pushed us to be better paddlers and stayed with us no matter how badly we had performed in regattas. These people, among others, drove the club and are the reason why the club achieved this season, particularly in the Victorian and National Championships.

This season, the club made an appearance at the National Championship (after 5 years), and made a breakthrough in the club’s history. We have had 37 members who attended the National Championship, 14 of whom represented the Victorian State team (5 guys and 9 girls, including myself). Victoria triumphantly took home gold medals in all the premier race categories, and most importantly the club accomplished the goal that it had set – making a grand final. I will never forget the moment when it was announced that the CYSM Sea Dragons had made the Premier Open 10s 200m grand final. Many shed tears of joy and the team was in a never-before-seen emotional state. It was the most memorable moment of my 5 years’ journey in dragon boating and with the club. Incidentally, we placed fifth in Australia in this category.

This breakthrough is a reminder to all of us who share the passion for dragon boating: we all want to be a better racing dragon boater, why not we let others know about that and prove to others that we are. All you need to do is to be fearless, be courageous, and shamelessly declare yourself an athlete. 

We, the CYSM Sea Dragons, are a bunch of happy athletes.

Claire Tan
CYSM Sea Dragon and Victorian State Team member 2017