Club Name:	Three River Serpents Dragon Boat Club
Club Website:	http://www.threeriverserpents.co.uk/

About Our Club:

3RS was one of the first clubs in the country to be formed (originally known as the Tyne & Wear Dragon Boat Association). Three Rivers represent the Tyne, Wear and Tees, which was the original catchment area for the club. With a grant from the Tyne & Wear council they had at least three boats built in Hebburn by Hawthorn Leslie's apprentices. The first boat the club had was the Andrew Leslie and is still operational on Windermere in the Lake District. Two of the other boats are at the Amathus Club on Merseyside. The club has a history of traveling abroad, with visits including Vancouver, China, Penang, Totonto, South Africa, Hong Kong, Japan and India. In 1992 we were asked by the BDA to represent GB in China. Juijang had never allowed Western people in before and the BDA wanted a crew who could act as ambassadors for the country. Dragon Boat racing first featured competitively in the UK in September 1980 at the Hong Kong in London Chinese festival. Races held on the River Thames were won by the Richmond Canoe Club in both the Men's and Women's classes. In 1981 racing featured in the World Canoe and Kayak Racing Championships, held at the National Water Sports Centre, Nottingham. The formation of the DBRC (Dragon Boat Racing Club of Great Britain) in June 1985, was the first serious attempt to organise the sport on a national scale in the British Isles. Using the three Hong Kong wooden boats imported for the London festival in 1980, the DBRC raced fairly regularly during 1986/87 and, with the support of the HKTA, built the first fibre-glass dragon boat in the country. In 1986 and early 1987 specialist Dragon Boat groups were formed in Sheffield, Liverpool and Tyneside (although none of them had dragon boats at this stage). In July 1987, following an initiative by the DBRC, these groups came together to form the British Dragon Boat Association - the BDA, which was formally constituted as the governing body for the sport of Dragon Boat racing in the UK. Dragon Boat racing made its debut on the BBC TV's 'Blue Peter' programme, in May 1986 when a dragon boat was raced from London to Nottingham via the canal system by a crew of soldiers in aid of charity. The crew paddled 180 miles (including 180 portages for canal locks) in 9 days and raised over ?4000 for Sport Aid en-route. Clive Hole (a founder member of 3RS and still our our racing helm today) sometimes can be seen wearing a green 'Duncan Dares' T-shirt!

Sport Network:

Dragon Boat Racing