Paddling for passion

There are very few independently organized international sporting events in the country that can claim to be the biggest of their kind. It is even more rare to have one organized entirely by women from a single community. But for the past 10 years, that has been the story of the Boracay International Dragon Boat Festival (BIDBF), which this year attracted a record number of foreign teams. All of this has been the fruit of the hard work of four sun-kissed ladies from the island: Nenette Graf, Gigi Piit, Candy Perez de Tagle and Tootsie Ronnholm of the Boracay Island Paddlers Association or BIPA.

All in all, out of the 21 club teams that participated, 10 flew in from other countries. Two came all the way from the United States, one came from China, two from Hong Kong, four from Singapore, and one from Dubai in the Middle East. The biggest reason for the growth is that, traditionally, members of foreign teams have such a great time in Boracay that they form their own teams and return the following year. Five Boracay teams defended their territory, along with three teams from Metro Manila, two from Cebu and one from Dumaguete.

“Through the years, the Boracay dragon boat races have gained a name for themselves to be the event to attend among the dragon boat community worldwide,” explains Piit. “Hence, the Boracay races are the most well-attended by foreign teams in the Philippines making it the biggest annual international sports event in the country. Many events in different parts of the Philippines have tried to make their event international, but foreign teams do not participate. It is only in Boracay where they participate with increasing number of paddlers each time.”

In fact, one delegation arrived with 103 members, and just subdivided themselves into teams when they were in Boracay, with a few joining other teams for the fun of it. Two hundred meters of beachfront were completely filled by close to a thousand participants for this year’s race, with the celebration starting even before formalities began. The opening ceremony itself was attended by local government officials, with a native fire dance performed by celebrity and Boracay resident Rachel Lobangco. The event opened with the traditional awakening of the dragons ceremony, which is also meant to attract prosperity and good fortune.

“It’s really been for the love of the sport,” says Candy Perez de Tagle, also owner of Nami Resort. “Every year, we worry about how the event will go, if everyone will come, but we’re always relieved that the attraction of the sport and the island, and the hospitality of Filipinos always brings everyone back. Also, we’re the only event wherein you can watch while you’re in the surf. So even when it’s really hot, we have thousands of people watching from the shore and the water.”

The absence of professional teams like Philippine Army (which was sweeping the world championships in Australia at the same time BIPA had its event), evened the playing field. Six different teams won championships over the 250-meter and 500-meter races held in different categories, a testament to the parity of the competition. Boracay Dragon Force’s various teams and the Boracay Sea Dragons shared top honors with the Singapore Barbarians’ A team and the BGC Stormy Dragons. Teams competed in men’s, women’s and mixed events for both distances, with special races for the foreign teams. But at the end of the day, the festival was all about showcasing Boracay and the warmth of the Filipino people. Each year, more and more sponsors like the Philippine Sports Commission, Skyjet Airlines, Coca-Cola, Powerade, Jack Daniels, 2GO weigh in when they see how the collective effort of the community of Boracay bears such spectacular fruit. The event was also covered by the ABS-CBN News Channel’s “Hardball.”

The impressive accomplishment of bringing together foreign and local teams, technical officials, sponsors, food and accommodations, flights in and out of the island, a great opening program and awarding ceremony is magnified when you realize that the four ladies behind the event are not what you would consider professional event organizers. They each have their own businesses and establishments to manage, are pillars of tourism on the island, and also care for the environment in Boracay. BIPA is very active in cleaning up the coastline and increasing awareness of the potential damage careless visitors may have on the island’s ecosystem. It makes you wonder how they found the time and energy to put together the biggest dragon boat event in the country.

“We’ve been paddling for a long time,” Candy adds. “Although it’s tiring, it’s also very fulfilling to do something for the sport and the community and bring all these people together. Some of them are so excited, we already have teams registering for next year, and we haven’t even set the date yet!”

BIPA is hoping that, for the coming years, they can grow their team and pull in more sponsors to eventually have their own boats. The sport is growing throughout the Visayas, and the only thing preventing it from having a large grassroots base is competition and practice boats that may be used year-round. Dragon boat events have already been held in Bohol, Cebu and Iloilo, but as of now, the mother of them all is in Boracay, which aims to become the springboard for bigger dragon boat events for the Visayas region. And that will be a reality when the boats come.