The LA Thunder Dragons is a semi-competitive dragon boat racing team that was founded by Carl and Cheng Hung over 10 years ago. The team is comprised of men and women from all walks of life ranging in age from 16 to 50+.

https://www.facebook.com/LAThunderDragons

In 2003, a group of friends came together primarily for a one-off charity event. At the London Lions China Town event Typhoon Tigers had our first taste of success and it spurred us on to our collective team spirit enjoying the adrenalin rush of racing. The team continued to enter further charity events.

Following the cancellation of the final charity race of 2005, and so as not to lose weeks of training, the Club entered into the British Dragonboat Racing Association National League. This was an awakening to the team who at that point, were top of the charity rankings… but not so on the National League.

With this whole new world opened to us, we built a core squad that paddled and trained together for the next two years. The Club, inspired to compete successfully on the national front, dedicated themselves to a training regime that focused not only on the technical and endurance aspects of the sport but also on the collective team work.

In 2007 the Club was rewarded for their efforts (months of winter training) and crowned the Standard National League Champions, with guaranteed promotion to the Premier League for 2008 along with being the first crew to receive the impressive new BDA perpetual trophy (Most Improved Team Award) sponsored by Three River Serpents.

Having reached Premier League entry, the Club’s paddling interests were not purely focussed on competing successfully nationally. The Club created a second team to follow in their footsteps and maintain a presence in London’s charity dragonboat community. Hurricane Tigers was dedicated to competing in up to six charity events each year.

Sponsorship from SeeWoo during these four years significantly contributed to our Club’s continued growth and phenomenal success.

Our second team, Hurricane Tigers also outgrew the charity circuit in two years and entered the BDA National League as a Standard League crew. In 2010, Typhoon Dragonboat Club also entered a Scratch Crew alongside the Premier and Standard crews at a London BDA event.

http://www.typhoon-dbc.com/

The First Dragon Boat Team in Arizona

In 2001, a diverse group of friends and families, with no dragon boating experience, was invited to compete in the Taipei International Dragon Boat Festival as part of the Phoenix Sister Cities Program.  In 2002, a new group of paddlers made a repeat appearance.  The paddlers instantly fell in love with the sport and in the fall of 2002, the Gila Dragons was formed as Arizona’s first dragon boating club.

The team started off by sitting on the sides of pools and at Tempe Town Lake paddling on milk crates for practice, eventually moving onto real dragon boats generously donated by the City of Taipei, and then onto racing boats that were purchased by the AZDBA.  With a love for fun and fierce competition, the team has traveled to and competed in places such as Arizona, Long Beach, San Francisco, Hawaii, Laughlin, Las Vegas, Houston, and Portland.  We look forward to future festivals and to helping grow the sport of dragon boating in Arizona!

https://www.facebook.com/giladragons

https://twitter.com/giladragons

http://giladragons.org