Paddle call
MANILA, Philippines – The conga line weaving through a cluster of banquet tables surprised no one during the awarding night of this year’s Boracay Dragon Boat Festival. It certainly wasn’t unusual for the rollicking white women in punch-out pink, twirling their feather boas and rendering their hips pinball widgets, two grinding against a shirtless rower with a croc tooth necklace swinging upon every Chippendale’s-inspired gyration. Not fire-wielder-turned-fiery-dragon-lady Rachel Lobangco and her paddling posse of animal print-clad cougars, mounting the stage and flapping their skirts to the sangria-apt beats the band had ignited the crowd with.
And it didn’t matter to anyone that with all this taking place, medals from the festival’s two race days (May 1 and 2) hadn’t even been given out yet.
Wetter ‘N’ Wilder
What was unexpected, however, was a first day of competition soaked by sporadic rain showers — a couple of dragon boats capsizing at the outset of the 500-meter races. Yet spirits refused to sink as teams dispatched six pairs of paddlers instead of the standard nine. As for the boats’ water retention, that was nothing a little pail ‘n’ bail couldn’t fix, each team’s steerer keeping its crew on course and drummer thrashing out a harder call to arms. “Despite the weather conditions, I think (the competition) was still very successful,” says Nenette Graf, president of the Boracay Island Paddlers Association (BIPA), which, for its third year as organizer of the island’s biggest international sporting event, brought 45 Men’s, Women’s, and Mixed Dragon Boat teams together; over 1,000 rowers from Australia, Germany, Singapore, Hong Kong, the United States and the Philippines. “Yesterday, we almost cancelled the race ‘cause of the big waves. But today (May 2), God gave us one day to have a really nice race. Everybody’s happy — even if a few defending champions weren’t able to come this year.”
The Wann Sea Dragons from Germany, last year’s star-cloaked champs in the 500-meter Men’s Open, was one of the international teams that pointed their paddles at the wet towel that is the global economic crisis for its absence. Still, new teams were welcomed this time around, including two from Boracay’s own shores — the Boracay All Stars and the feisty motherload (apparently, 40 is the new “party!” age) that is the Boracay Bumshells.
This year, Filipinos seemed to have an aqua alliance going as the Singapore Paddles Club was the only international team that turned a top medal out (500-meter Women’s Open). While the lady cops of the Philippine National Police (PNP) team enforced the law of hard training by snagging the 300-meter Women’s Open, the Camarines Sur Rowing Team and Tribu Camarines Sur were like water missiles blowing the competition away in both 500 and 300-meter Mixed and Men’s races.
But more than the rivalry on the sea, it was the revelry on land that resounded Nenette Graf’s hollering of “Partying is part of the Boracay experience!” during the festival’s opening ceremony. While the competition had its world-renowned paddlers (CamSur), the entire paddling community was proficient in celebration — from the Hong Kong Fair Dinkum team’s ability to shake their rumps by the shore to the naughty water works of the University of the Philippines, goading a few single, white females to bounce around in their joviality circles; a lot of chanting and slippery body familiarity involved. Even BIPA’s first ladies Gigi Piit, Candy Perez de Tagle, and Tootsie Ronnholm knew the action didn’t end on the water, raising their spiked Sprites towards the end of the final race.
Seven years after Jeff Gadinez dragged two elongated boats upon the sands of Boracay, the sport of dragon boat racing has always flowed effortlessly with the high spirits of the island. With the tenacious beat of pure camaraderie, it’s what makes all the conga lines, arm flailing, and tabletop carousing possible. In Boracay, more than any other island paradise, the partying is as intense as the paddling.
* * *
The Boracay International Dragon Boat Festival 2009 will be held on April 22-24, 2010. For more information, e-mail boracayislandpaddlers@yahoo.com or visit www.boracaydragonboat.ph.
