‘Dotting the eyes’ of our dragons.

This tradition recalls the origins of dragon boat paddling as a ceremonial event in China.

Many modern teams acknowledge these traditions especially within the breast cancer survivor dragon boat family of teams.

Paddlers for Life Windermere also chose this moment to acknowledge the support of family members and friends

Barbara and Sandra beautifully decorated the boats, drums and dragon heads of our boats. Unfortunately high winds and lake water levels prevented us from paddling but we celebrated this ceremony with shared food in a ‘Jacobs Join’.

Liz and Barbara related the story and told of the traditions around this event.

Relatives of Eunice, a much loved supporter paddler of Paddlers for :Life Windermere, painted the dragon eyes.

Rice was thrown on the waters, ‘hell money’ was burnt and the waters beaten with paddles.

Then we all enjoyed a wonderful shared meal as a ‘Thank You!” to supporters.

Also present were family members of another fellow paddler, Heather. Her generous bequest has bought light weight paddles for the use of paddlers at our regular paddling sessions.