2011 Long Beach Dragon Boat Festival

One of our very close friends were coming to town to compete in the Dragon Boat Festival and had invited us along to see what Dragon Boat paddling was all about. When we arrived to Marine Stadium in Long Beach we were amazed at the hundreds of people there. There were people from as far as China and Taiwan competing as well as Division I collegiate teams and Team USA competitors. Everyone was packed onto the beach area just adjacent to the stadium and packed tightly to each other making a tent-city of sorts that they each used as home base for the weekend. The people that participated came from all walks of life, from young college kids to moms raising awareness about breast cancer. It was like organized chaos as we watched teams prep for their races and bring their teams to the loading dock at the appropriate times to race. The race our friend Eddie was in was number 48 and a lot of the photos focus on their race which they came from behind and finished second in. This event was a fun experience to see all the people come together and the boats with team of 20 paddlers, a drummer race their way to the finish line, we look forward to seeing their race when it comes back next year too.

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