About Us: the Olympia Dragon Boat Club
"Our mission is to foster a vibrant and inclusive community through the exhilarating sport of dragon boating, honoring its rich traditions while promoting connection, fitness, and personal growth both on and off the water."
"You're going out? In THIS weather?" We get a few questions when we explain that we're out in the boat all year round - rain or shine.
The classic Olympia slogan "it's the water," might just be the reason, as we are able to enjoy year-round practices here in Olympia's Swantown Marina. Our waterfront home affords us safe paddling conditions throughout the year.
Despite these favorable conditions, dragon boating hasn't always been available to our community. It's only thanks to a lot of hard work and dedication from our members and supporters that our club has come into being!
How it started:
In the early 2000’s the Washington Dragon Boat Association opened a small division in Olympia. Then, in 2014, the WDBA closed up shop. This left the people in Olympia without any opportunity to paddle.
A club from Seattle (our friends at SAKE) stepped up and offered to provide support for a few years! Thanks to their support, the Olympia dragon boat community was able to stay active through 2019.
In January 2020 the Olympia Dragon Boat Club struck out on our own, with just 13 founding members. As you can imagine, the timing wasn't ideal for recruiting new members in those first years, but it slowly began to grow.
How it's going:
After some slow and steady years, our little club took on a big challenge in 2024 and brought the Olympia Dragon Boat Festival back to town. A resounding success, the first year created a lot of enthusiasm, and we immediately began to plan for 2025.
Today, we welcome new members to join us on the exciting journey of growing and cultivating new skills with us. We still go out on the water every week and are always happy to have new paddlers join us.
As we continue to grow, we hope to expand our club to offer targeted practices for different goals and develop some competitive teams to take part in regional races. Paddles up!
The Olympia Dragon Boat Club is an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, established in January 2020. Everything that the Olympia Dragon Boat Club does is a result of the time and dedication of our incredible club members.
Our board of directors is comprised of five elected volunteers from within our membership, all of whom bring unique backgrounds and experiences to the mix. You can learn more about each of our current board members by visiting the "ODBC Board" page.
