The TraiNing

The International Dragon Boat Federation (IDBF) holds World Championships in the late summer of every odd-numbered year. Coaches are selected the year before and those coaches test and then select paddlers from club crew teams all over the United States. Those selected assemble in a series of training camps in the months before worlds to prepare to race together. The PDBA trains so hard and so often to prepare our individual members to succeed in national time trials leading to selection for Team USA.

Racing

Club Crew Teams

Ad-Hoc Travel Teams

The History

About Dragonboat Racing

In 2026 our biggest race will be as one of the American teams invited to take part in the IDBF World Club Crew Championships which will begin August 29th in Hualien, Taiwan. We will also take part in a variety of other races much closer to home.

Owing to the fact that the PDBA has never failed to win berths at the IDBF Club Crew Championships in even-numbered years, and individual paddlers are often selected by Team USA coaches for Team USA - our members go on some amazing trips for our races. Along with regional races within driving range of Philly we’ve also raced in.

Pattaya, Thailand
Sydney, Australia
Kunming, China
Shanghai, China
Hong Kong, China
Berlin, Germany
Toronto, Canada
Welland, Canada
Vancouver, Canada
Poznan, Poland
Szeged, Hungary
Prague, Czech Republic
Ravenna, Italy
Rome, Italy
Tampa, Florida
Sarasota, Florida

And like I said - Hualien, Taiwan in 2026!

Three Types of Teams

The Best Away Games Ever

You can’t switch individual players in and out of a game when the game is a boat race. There is only room for twenty in a dragonboat race but more than twenty attend our practices. One of the challenging tasks for any dragonboat coach is deciding which of their paddlers should be selected for any given race. We solve that by holding individual time trails in single seat outrigger canoes on the D&R canal near New Hope, PA.. AKA “The Green Hell”. We take turns on a measured course with no waves. It’s just you, your paddle, your training, and a distant finish line with your coach holding a stopwatch.

Team USA

Dragonboat regattas are held all over the country. There are too many for any one club crew to compete in. Sometimes members of several different club crew teams who don’t practice together will assemble to compete in races that their home teams are passing on. These ad-hoc teams usually race under made-up names. PDBA members occasionally throw together teams for this kind of race, but come up with some other name when we do.

Selection for Races

That’s your home team and coach, the people you practice with all the time. This is by far the most common. The PDBA is a club crew team.

That varies from team to team. You can learn all about the PDBA practices here.