Inner Dragons Unleashed! Us at The First Jakarta Dragon Boat Festival

Just for the record, we didn’t get any trophies. But here’s what we took from the seemingly random experience: a day filled with laughter and lessons of team work.

The sun was still low in the sky at the waterfront of Baywalk Pluit, Jakarta. We were excited and anxious. The day had come for us to compete in the First Jakarta Dragon Boat Festival for Jakarta Paddle Club’s 3 year anniversary.

35 teams were competing in the race and judging from what we had seen during the preliminary training sessions, we were definitely one of the most unexperienced ones. But hey, that was exactly what we were after: the experience.

With life jackets on, matching outfits and all, we stepped from the dock into a beautifully decorated boat and sat in pairs at both sides while our designated drummer would be in charge of keeping our rhythm and pace at the front end.

The race started soon after and it was quite epic. Everyone including us paddled to the beat of the drum with all their might in order to get the boats across the finish line. And when ours eventually did, it was truly a glorious moment.

For us, the race was truly an exercise of team work in which we learned that coordination was important in moving forward as a group. By paddling together, we learned a valuable lesson in designing tomorrow together.

You can find out more about Jakarta Paddle Club here: fb.com/jakartapaddleclub