Dragon Boats To Dominate Bay Area Waterfront Saturday And Sunday

TREASURE ISLAND (KPIX) — Dragons, or at least dragon boats will take over the waterfront off Treasure Island on Saturday and Sunday, September 20th and 21st for one of the biggest waterfront events of the year.

While there is plenty of pageantry, this is a team sport.

Linda Cheu, Director of the California Dragon Boat Festival wrote, "The Festival includes paddlers that are high school students, seniors, cancer survivors, competitive athletes, and teams from corporation, hospitals, museums, and community groups; all are attracted to this over 2,000 year old Chinese cultural tradition."

Last year over 40,000 people attended and the event is likely to beat that number this weekend.

KPIX 5's Ryan Takeo will be master of ceremonies.

Many novice teams will compete including Visa, Bank of America and the California Academy of Sciences.

Other corporate teams are returning including Google, Wells Fargo, KPMG, AT&T, and PG&E, hospitals such as Kaiser Permanente, Sutter Health's Palo Alto Medical Foundation, San Francisco General, St.Mary's Medical Center, and Chinese Hospital, plus many community and union groups.

Twenty paddlers fill each colorful boat, along with a drummer and navigator combining speed, power, and coordination to cross teh finish line first.

The event is free.
FULL EVENT DETAILS: http://www.sfdragonboat.com/