A team of 20 people paddled a 40-foot long boat with the head of a dragon on the calm waters of Lake Wheeler Saturday morning.

Calling themselves “The Arbornauts ,” they were one of six teams participating in the Carolina Clash, a dragon boat event bringing together paddlers of all ages to raise awareness and money for the Pretty in Pink foundation.

The event was organized by the newly formed Raleigh Dragon Boat Club. Simone Mevs , a physician’s assistant working in the Raleigh area, started the club. Mevs became a dragon boat fanatic in Florida where she studied and she remembers how she fell in love with dragon boating when one of her classmates convinced her to come to one of the dragon boating practices in Miami.

“I came to one practice and fell in love with it,” Mevs said. “I came to a second practice and was invited by the team to come out to a community race.  After my first race experience, I was totally sold. It hit home with my competitive nature, with my love for the outdoors, with my desire to be active and athletic and just meet with really nice people.”

When Mevs moved to Raleigh, it was not long before she started bringing together a group of paddlers to form a club.

“I [wanted] to be able to bring [dragon boating] to the area that I’m living in, not only for my own selfish reasons, but also because I couldn’t understand why such a developed city wouldn’t have exposure to dragon boating or why someone hadn’t brought it here already,” Mevs said. “So I figured that if there’s going to be a dragon boat team here, it looks like I’m going to have to do this myself.”

Through her own efforts and the work of the International Dragon Boat Federation, dragon boat racing, originally a Chinese sport, continues to be a showcase for the positive aspects of globalization, camaraderie and competition.

According to Mevs, the Carolina Clash was aimed to be an event of positivity.  With more than 120 people coming early that Saturday morning with coolers of drinks and snacks, the Carolina Clash attracted a diverse group. People of all ages, backgrounds and walks of life competed together to support women struggling through breast cancer – an issue that resonates with many paddlers all over the world.

“There is a strong trend in the world of dragon boating to support breast cancer survivors and the reason for that is that about 15 years ago, in 1996, a gentleman by the name of Dr. Don McKenzie started a team in Vancouver and their team name is ‘A Breast in a Boat,'” Mevs said.  ”They were the first breast cancer survivor dragon boat team. The reason why they started that team was that at that time women who had gone through breast cancer treatment were told that they couldn’t participate in any sport that involved repetitive upper-body motion… because the fear was that they would develop lymphodema, which can be a debilitating condition where your extremities get very swollen.”

According to Mevs, there is no body of evidence to support that claim and due to that lack of evidence, Dr. McKenzie sought to dispel that myth as he put 25 women together on a team. 

“They were the first [lymphodema] experiments in women after radiation treatment for breast cancer,” Mevs said.

The result of these “experiments” found that exercise does not increase chances of lymphodema and also ingrained breast cancer awareness and working with breast cancer survivors into the culture of dragon boat racing. 

However, Mevs hopes that paddlers got more out of the Carolina Clash than just a good feeling of having contributed to charity. 

“I think that those who participated got a really good taste of what dragon boating is all about and how fun racing can be,” Mevs said.

For Mark Weathington, the assistant director and curator of collections of the N.C. State Arboretum, the message of Carolina Clash rang true.  On Saturday, he was one the 20 people paddling on the “Arbornauts” team.

“I gave it a shot and I loved it,” Weathington said. “It’s a lot of fun.  It’s a team sport but you can still do it if you’re a little older.  I’m not as fast as I used to be.  It’s a good work out.”

The Raleigh Dragon Boat Club is still growing and is welcome to have more participants from N.C. State.  However, joining may be a little intimidating for some students.

Jack Tai, a sophomore in statistics, admits although some students at the University may be interested, he is too lazy.

“I watched it on T.V. in Hong Kong when I was little and it looks pretty intense,” Tai said.  “I’m too lazy.  Maybe people more interested in fitness would be interested.”

In the meantime, Mevs and the other Raleigh Dragon Boat Members will continue paddling.

“We will always have an arena here for recreational paddling and for people who are interested in the sport and want to do this for the other benefits that it imparts: a means of exercise, a way to experience outdoor activity, social interaction,” Mevs said.