Dragon's Breath Crew- About Us

Mission Statement

"To raise awareness and to enable supporters, family and friends to share this journey of living with cancer through exercise and team participation."

About Us

The Dragon's Breath Dragon Boat Racing Crew was founded by Addie Gushue in 2003. Addie's vision was for cancer survivors, their families, and supporters to be able to come together for both dragon boating and cancer awareness. Dragon boating has been shown to be of tremendous therapeutic value for survivors of breast cancer and there are many survivor teams. Our crew is different in that we welcome survivors of any form of cancer together with all family, friends and supporters who wish to join us on this journey. This team is the first of it's kind in Ontario.

We are a motley collection of people of all ages, backgrounds and abilities who have come together through dragon boating.

2006 Canadian Cancer Society Statistics:

  • 153,000 new Cancer cases were diagnosed with 70,400 deaths of which 25,900 were in Ontario.
  • 2,944 Canadians are currently diagnosed with Cancer each week.
  • Of the 74,700 women diagnosed, an estimated 33,400 will die from Cancer.
  • Of the 78,400 men diagnosed, an estimated 37,000 will die from Cancer.
  • There are currently 29 different forms of Cancer.

Our focus is to raise awareness of:

  • The Thrill of Dragon Boating.
  • The therapeutic and physical value of dragon boating.
  • The emotional journey that cancer survivors and their supporters take.
  • The fact that there *is* life after cancer as embodied by several of our team members.

We practice year round and there's NO EXPERIENCE REQUIRED! We'll teach you all you need to know and you'll have fun being a part of this tremendous team.

Dragon Boat Racing

The dragon is the most venerated of the Chinese zodiac deities and symbolizes control over the water.

Dragon boats are approximately twelve metres long, decorated in multi-colours with scaly bodies, elaborate tails, and ferocious-looking dragon heads.

Each crew consists of twenty paddlers, one drummer and one steerer. Teams race along a straight course ranging from 250 to 1,000 metres. Top speed only comes with a well-timed stroke of the blade hitting the water as horizontally as possible, with a quick short pull-back driven by a torso rotation. The goal is to generate enough speed to cause the boat to rise high and smooth above the water by a cresting wave from beneath the bow.