Help Cal Dragonboat Compete in Arizona in Spring 2026!

History & Overview

Founded in 1998, Cal Dragon Boat is a competitive student-run dragon boat team at UC Berkeley that regularly participates in regional, national, and international races. We are a diverse group of hardworking students studying various concentrations, ranging from medicine and engineering to rhetoric and architecture. We strive to make dragon boating more accessible to the students of UC Berkeley and recruit student-athletes twice a year. We are extremely proud to be one of the top college teams in the United States. Dragon boating is a water sport in which a canoe-shaped boat of up to twenty people paddle together in a synchronized rhythm to make the boat move, emulating a soaring dragon. Usually, races are 200, 500, or 2000 meters in length. Dragon boating is traditionally observed during the Chinese Duan Wu festival. However, it is now a much more common year-round activity and is one of the fastest-growing sports throughout the world!

Our Current Team & Upcoming Races
Every semester, we participate in 1-2 races, competing against teams across the state, country and world! For example, in Fall 2024, we placed 1st in A Division at the College Cup Dragon Boat Race. In Spring 2025 we placed 2nd in the Tempe Arizona Dragon Boat Festival’s Collegiate Division and 2nd at the Baby Long Beach Dragon Boat Festival A Division 500m and 200m races. This summer, 6 of our paddlers qualified for Team USA, representing the United States and competing in the World Dragon Boat Racing Championships (WDBRC) in Germany!

This semester (Fall 2025), we have races at the North California Dragon Boat Festival (NCIDBF) in Foster City and College Cup at Lake Merced, San Francisco. With 52 active paddlers on our roster, we are excited to continue training hard and cultivating our community!

One boat, one team, one family!

Why we're fundraising

We are fundraising to cover travel expenses (flights and lodging) for our annual out-of-state dragon boat races, particularly the Tempe Arizona Dragon Boat Festival in March 2026! We’ve been competing in the Tempe festival the past several years, and it is one of our key races. However, our paddlers currently pay out of pocket for travel and lodging, which can be quite expensive, since the race is out of state. We hope that this fundraiser can help alleviate the financial burden, making race-attendance more accessible for all paddlers. By starting our fundraising efforts several months before the race, we aim to get a clearer picture of our finances to inform and support our paddlers by the time the race comes around in the spring.

Our overall travel expenses: $3000 total

• $1000 for team Airbnb
• $2000 for flight reimbursements (20 paddlers x $100).

Our current fundraising goal: $1000 for team Airbnb

Even if we don't reach our full goal, every dollar raised will still go back to covering paddlers’ travel fees, prioritizing reimbursements for paddlers with the most financial need! All estimates are rough only, and actual expenditures may vary. 

Thank you for your consideration and support!

Connect with us:

Website: https://caldragonboat.studentorg.berkeley.edu/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/caldragonboat/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@CalDragonboat

Email: caldragonboat@gmail.com