When you come into the Oregon Convention Center and get close to the registration booth, you may notice a large, colorful boat hanging from the ceiling.  This is a dragon boat, and it is part of a group of boats Portland received several years ago from its sister city in Taiwan, Kaohsiung.  Portland is the only city in the United States that holds races with this decorative style of dragon boat; most races use a smaller, faster, and lighter style of boat.   The Portland race is held during Rose Festival in early June, and has 92 teams with rosters of about 22 people on each team – 20 paddlers, one caller, and one tiller.  Teams are mostly from Portland, but come from Washington, California, and Canada.

I’ve paddled for five years on a women’s team, the Oregon Women Lawyers Dragonflies; and it’s a lot of fun.  Check out the Wikipedia entry at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_boat for more general information, and http://www.pksca.com/ for the Portland Kaohsiung sister city association.