A THAGOONA mum and her three daughters have found happiness rowing to the beat of a drum on a dragon boat.
The sport of dragon boat racing is new to the family, who became involved last year when mum Monique McKay and her eldest daughter Johanna attended a ‘try it out’ event at the Ipswich Dragon Boat Club.
“Xanthe and Kendra saw us enjoying it and a few weeks later joined the team too,” Monique said.
“Regatta season is from August and we started paddling just before that so skipped a few competitive races, then jumped in a little late in the season and started then.
“The kids just really enjoyed the thrill of beating people and the competitive side of it.”
Xanthe, Kendra and Johanna work with the Queensland Sonic Dragons, a development crew that coaches juniors, training and racing them at different locations within Queensland.
“Sonic don’t have a specific location, they move around between clubs and grab the juniors and do specific juniors training,” she said.
“[Her daughters] started doing training on the Saturday with [Sonic] and then again on the Sunday with the Ipswich club.
“It was between these two clubs that we were told they’re good enough to compete at a state level.”
Her daughters tried out for the Queensland Dragon Boat state team and were accepted.
“I’m not in the competitive side of racing like they are,” she said.
“I’m just a mum and I like it that way because I get to see them race when we go to competition whereas normally it’s a quick chat between races.”
DRAGON BOATS
THERE is a drummer and a sweep who, alongside pairs of rowers, move a dragon boat through the water.
The boats are long and range in size from 11.5 metres to 27.4 metres.
“The sweep is the steerer and has a very long oar, also called the sweep paddle or sweep blade, they’re the ones who are shouting at us all the encouragement, along with our drummer, to get us to the end of our races,” Monique said.
“Kendra, my youngest, she’s in the drummer position and she does get very sore, it’s a full body workout and you grip onto the drum with your legs to stay on there.
“The drummer also sits with one hand grabbing onto the backrest while one hand is drumming, just to keep them on the boat while they’re racing.”
The position of rowers makes a difference too.
“The first two paddlers are the ones who set the pace of the boat and the drummer beats to the rate that those two paddlers are paddling,” she explained.
“The idea of it, besides the fact it looks really cool, is that when you are further down the boat, if you’ve got 22 people in your boat, the ones at the back can’t see the paddlers in the front, so you are always looking forward to keep the same rate, the same pace as the ones in front.
“And so the drummer, because they’re sitting higher, they lift their hand up at the same rate as the first paddlers and then they’re beating.
“It’s really loud so the people at the back of the boat hear the sound and can also look forward to see the hand lifting.”
Monique also competes but at a local level with the Ipswich Dragon Boat Club.
Her girls competed in the state championships in March and won gold for their division.
Kendra, Xanthe and Johanna currently hold state champion status in the Junior Small Boat division,
Their next big competition is in August at Lake Kawana.
