Dragon Divas in New Zealand

by Jacquelyn, Member

“The Dragon Divas are racing where? New Zealand? Sign me up!” 

It was the fall of 2020, and after that dumpster fire of a year – a global pandemic + breast cancer, I wanted to find something that would help me rehab my body and spirit. 

As I came out of treatment, I struggled with a frozen shoulder and challenging physical and emotional changes brought on by chemo, immunotherapy, hormone therapy, and surgery. I thought preparing for a race that would take place on the other side of the world was the perfect way to get back on my feet. I signed up for the trip to New Zealand before I’d ever been in a boat. 

Joseph Campbell said we all want, “to feel the rapture of being alive.” And that’s what happens in a dragon boat with a team of survivors. That’s what happens when you travel to one of the most beautiful places on earth.

My teammates and I felt fully alive at so many points on the trip to New Zealand: While taking in the spectacular beauty of places including Milford Sound, hiking on glaciers, seeing the glow worms, swimming with dolphins, witnessing a Mauri ceremony, and laughing and crying while swinging from one mountain peak to another on the largest swing in the world. 

We met survivors from all over and even though we were there to compete, we embraced each other as kindred spirits. We gathered – thousands of us from 21 different countries – to honor those of us who had fallen to the disease and those among us who battled metastatic breast cancer. 

And after years of paddling and preparing, we finally sat at the starting line on Lake Karapiro. We were ready. Our coach, Michael, had taught us to trust ourselves. To trust each other. To trust the team. 

And as the buzzer sounded and our boat surged through the waves, we became the saying we wore on our jerseys: One Heart. One Beat. One Boat.