By Xiaojie Ouyang | The Oregonian/OregonLive

The annual dragon boat races have been going for 25 years now and this past weekend, June 7-8, the tradition continued strong in downtown Portland.

More than 80 different teams competed on the Willamette River near Tom McCall Waterfront Park. The competition was broken down into three different divisions: Mixed, women and high school.

The eight Taiwan-style dragon boats that teams, consisting of 23 people, rowed in were provided through the Portland-Kaohsiung Sister City Association.

By Jamie Hale | The Oregonian/OregonLive

Portland’s dragon boat races attract people of all stripes. There are the trained athletes, the casual exercisers, the stay-at-home parents, the business professionals, the senior citizens, the teenagers and, of course, the deaf and the blind.

Lack of hearing or sight doesn’t mean squat in the dragon boat community. It’s a sport that requires steering and direction from the tiller of the boat – something the blind boats need a hand with – but the rest of the crew needs little help when it comes to racing.

By Pink Phoenix Outreach Team

Pink Phoenix, the United States’ first dragon boat team comprised of only breast cancer survivors, invites survivors to its annual Start o’ the Season Kickoff & Open House for Prospective Members on Saturday, January 25, 2014 from 9:00 am to 11:00 am.

This welcoming group promotes fitness through dragon boating and participates in regional breast cancer awareness and outreach activities. Newcomers will learn about the fastest growing team water sport in the world and meet team members who range in age from 29 – 94. Pink Phoenix practices from the downtown RiverPlace Marina, but members come from as far away as Banks, Canby, Scappoose and Ridgefield to paddle and enjoy their recreational sport.

By Becca Stanek, The Oregonian

2013 Portland Rose Festival dragon boat races

Red paddles and rainbow boats added a splash of color Saturday morning to the Willamette River for the 25th anniversary of the Rose Festival’s Dragon Boat Races.

Sixty-nine teams and hundreds of spectators gathered at the Tom McCall Waterfront Park to compete and cheer each other on throughout the daylong event. Teams of 20, ranging from high school students to corporate representatives and groups of breast cancer survivors, paddled across the river in heats of four boats.

The excitement at this year’s event was about more than the races though.

By Pink Phoenix Outreach Team

Pink Phoenix, America’s first dragon boat team comprised wholly of breast cancer survivors, invites survivors to its annual Team Meeting & Open House for Prospective Members on Saturday, February 2, 2013 from 9:00 am to noon.

Visitors will learn about an exciting water sport and meet Pink Phoenix team members who range in age from 33 – 93. Entering their 16th season, this welcoming group promotes fitness through dragon boating and participates in breast cancer awareness and outreach activities.

The Pinks, as they are known in the paddling community because of their distinctive pink life vests, compete in three Portland races annually. Travel is not required, but the team often sends a crew to dragon boat festivals in California, Washington and British Columbia. Newcomers are welcome as the team balances their competitive spirit with the growth and development of new paddlers.

Registration for the Open House begins at 9:00 am in the Auditorium (Building 2) on the Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center campus, 1040 NW 22nd, Portland OR. Free parking is available in Parking Structure 2 on Marshall Street.

Dragon Boat Race at 2012 Portland Rose Festival
Archive: Google Photos Album – 2012 Race Weekend

By Rebecca Woolington | The Oregonian/OregonLive

At Saturday’s Rose Festival Dragon Boat Race, the high-schoolers lined up first. They were pumped. And they let everyone know it.

Members of the Wilson High School Amazon Dragon Boat team turned up tunes on a boombox. They danced, jumped and slapped each other high fives as they waited to kick off the day’s first race.

Meanwhile, their competitors chest-bumped and chanted cheers. But the competition didn’t phase Wilson. They arrived with handprints painted on their faces.

“It adds more intensity — it gets us into it,” said 17-year-old Wilson junior Carmen Alzaga after the race, showing off the large, green handprint that encompassed most of the left side of her face. Her team came in third during the first race of the weekend-long competition.

By Torsten Kjellstrand, The Oregonian

After too many months of paddling in the cold and rain, members of Pink Phoenix enjoy a warmer workout on the Willamette River last Wednesday in Portland. On this night, Deb Amar (right) and Susan Dean (left) pull hard with their teammates while tiller Jan Walker (background) keeps the boat headed in the right direction. Formed in Portland in 1996, Pink Phoenix was the first U.S. dragon boat team made entirely of women breast cancer survivors. Some members are decades from the initial diagnosis, while others are still in the middle of treatment. The team is preparing for their first event of the year, the Portland Rose Festival Dragon Boat Race on June 11th and 12th. The 2011 Rose Festival will kick off with the Fireworks Spectacular at Tom McCall Waterfront Park on May 27th, including a free concert by the Curtis Salgado band.