PADANG DRAGON BOAT TEAM

The DB Team that keeps their boat in a drain.
Padang (meaning field) is the capital and largest scenic city of West Sumatra, Indonesia. It's mostly used by tourists as an access point to the surfing sites of the Mentawai islands.
I had the opportunity of visiting this city in 2006 and being hosted by their then Dragon Boat Managers, Mr and Mrs Netti. They are several teams in Padang City and when they compete overseas, the best paddlers will be selected from these various teams. Only one third of the paddlers filmed in this 2006 video were selected to take part in the previous Penang International Dragon Boat Race 2006(which they went on to win). They even had a SEA Games sculler on their team then.
The thing I would really like to highlight here is, the superb mindset and spirit of these Indonesian Dragon Boat paddlers. Compared to most of us, their lifestyle is almost spartan. Most of them have to walk five to ten kilometers a day just to get to the training site(and to save on bus expenses). Their boat is kept in a drain and due to it's worn-out condition was leaking. After every session, they would have to bail out the water. Their timing for training has to be very specific since it's easier for them to keep the boat back into the drain when the tide is up. The water that they train in is also not very clean and I even saw feces floating every where.
The Manager informed me that since they did not have enough money to buy any supplements, they would just advise the paddlers to eat a lot of rice and sambal(spicy condiment). Chicken is considered a luxury. Mrs.Netti mentioned to me that if they had enough funds and overseas exposure(and a videocam), they would definitely improve. Once in a while, they would take the their paddlers to different locations in Padang to paddle just to break the monotony. They would do this by towing the DB on a makeshift trolley with all the paddlers sitting on top of boat.
I understand that they had to charter a cheap ferry to get to the Penang 2006 DB races(their funds were not sufficient to get them to Penang by flight). Upon reaching Penang, most of them set up tents by the beach(to save on hotel stay). This to me is the true spirit of a Dragon Boat athlete. They never complain and are happy just to compete and always give their all. I have heard many local paddlers always ask their Team Manager's what's in it for them if they were to paddle for them or where will they be sponsored to travel to! And these local guys are not even 50% as good as these Padang paddlers. I hope this story helps us appreciate life more and be thankful for what we have.

Please turn down the volume for this DB video clip since the background noise is a little nosiy (there was a motobike race being held at that time). By the way, this is a different Padang Team then that which competed in the recent Penang CCWC 2008 races.