ADAPTIVE FUSION DRAGON BOAT CLUB
Join Us to Paddle in Long Beach!
We’re an inclusive team of Blind, Deaf, physically challenged, support paddlers and crew.
Our team includes blind, deaf, amputees and those with mental challenges. Whatever your impairment, we will support and supply what you need to enjoy a fun time on the water! Paddle, PFD (life jacket, which is required), and preliminary training before you get into the boat. Our practices include land warmup and exercises before loading into the dragon boats.
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As a Para club, we all work together to meet the needs of each paddler. We have members who interpret for the deaf, and many of our support members are learning ASL (American Sign Launguage). Support paddlers also help guide the blind, and help physically challenged and amputees with their crutches, prosthetics and boat loading support.
Practice includes drills to improve your skills.
Our team members are very diverse with varied skills, ambitions and goals. Some enjoy the exercise, sunshine and hanging out with awesome people on the water. Others are high performance athletes who desire to compete, which requires a higher level of training.
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Our practices cover drills and training that the coaches have designed specifically for our team, with the goal of continued improvement. We usually enter Dragon Boat Festivals with both competitive and community (recreational) crews. If there is a Para division, we enter that as well. Our competitive crew will travel nationally and internationally each year.
Level up training for racing and competition
Our coaches have trained Team USA hopefuls and selected team members for the first Paradragons division for the World Championships in Thailand, 2023. Technique, individual instruction and land training were the focus as they brought paddlers from across the country together to blend as one crew.
The one-on-one water training often happens in one man or two man outrigger canoes. This gives the coach the opportunity to break down specific stroke technique, while the paddler can experience their individual feel of their effort and practice the feedback to improve their stroke. Coaches will also use video to analyze and share with paddlers, and provide monthly workout routines that each member can do on their own.
Meet us at Mother's Beach!
We gather on the grass by the sidewalk next to the beach. Pay parking in the lot begins at 8am and can be paid at the kiosk nearby or use the App. Disabled Parking is free with placard or license plate and spaces are available at the far south end of the parking lot, accessible to our meeting location. Additional free parking is available on the Northeast side of Appian Way (next to the parking lot), and in the Long Beach Sea Base Aquatics parking lot South of the 2nd Street Bridge.