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After being stymied by the pandemic, the Regina Dragon Boat Festival is picking itself up again.
It was a warm, sunny and mostly windless afternoon at Wascana Park on Saturday — in other words, a perfect day for rowing.
The two-day event, which began Friday, featured races from 15 teams.
“Right now (the sport) has shrunk because of COVID, but I think the people who do it really enjoy it so I think it deserves to start growing again from where it is now to really double the size or triple the size,” said rower Dave Wessel.
“It’s fun to do and it’s not expensive.”
Wessel is part of the Amnesty Rocks the Boat team that competed in four races Saturday afternoon.
Wessel himself has been dragon boating for about 12 years.
The standard dragon boat has 20 paddlers.
“The main thing is to be together,” Wessel said. “Everybody has to paddle in sync so it’s really about teamwork. And it doesn’t matter how big or small you are, there’s a place for you on the boat.”
Spectators could be found all around Wascana. When not busy watching the action, fans could find some shade at the beer gardens or maybe take their kid to the bouncy castle that was set up as part of the event’s children’s festival.
Festival president Barry Eisenzimmer had hoped for more teams to be competing this year, but overall he considers this year’s event a success.
“It’s been hot,” he chuckled. “We’ve been without rain, without wind and anytime you have that combination you’ve got a great weekend.”
Eisenzimmer himself was an avid rower before taking the role of president. He said the pandemic has stunted the popularity of the festival.
“We’ve got about 15 teams this year which is good to have, but it’s not where we want to be,” he said.
“We grew from last year by four (teams) so that’s a good sign. Hopefully, we can do a little bit more next year and kind of keep growing from there and get back up to that kind of in that 50-60 mark where we’d like to be.”
Eisenzimmer said that free rowing classes and steering classes might be a way to draw in more interest.
He found it encouraging to see the diversity of this year’s participants.
“What we do have is we have a lot of people from different cultures, different backgrounds, different abilities — whether it be age or physical abilities. Some are a little bit older than others and that’s a challenge in itself, just kind of getting in and out of the boat,” Eisenzimmer explained. “(And some) blind people as well.”