The Bay Area Dragon Boat Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and our primary focus is dragon boat paddling and racing. Our racing team is known as the Bay Area Dragons (a.k.a. BAD). We have some of the most experienced dragon boat paddlers in Northern California. Formed in 1996, the Bay Area Dragon Boat Foundation provides coaching, steering, and general support for our members and local teams. Our organization is run by 100% volunteers. BAD is a member of the Pacific Dragon Boat Association (PDBA) and we have competed internationally representing the United States.
Help keep the club going by donating. Your contributions is 100% tax deductable.
BAD has its own boats and we practice all year. In addition to competing in the local races in San Francisco, Foster City, Redwood Shores, Oakland, and Fremont, we travel to races in other US cities, Canada, and internationally. BAD has participated in races in Long Beach, Phoenix, Portland, New York City, Vancouver, Montreal, and other North American destinations. In 2000, BAD took its racing crew to Germany and we represented the United States in the World Club Crew Championships in 2002 in Rome, Italy and in 2008 in Penang, Malaysia.
BAD members organize social events beyond paddling – BBQs, dinner parties, ballroom dancing, clubbing, kayak trips, bowling, broom ball, indoor rock-climbing, laser tag, and much more. You name it, we have done it!
BAD has a great winning record - our Mixed, Men’s, and Women’s teams are all multiple trophy winners in local and road trip races.
BAD Goals
Promote the 2,400 year-old sport of Dragon Boat Racing.
Race around the world and be great ambassadors for the Bay Area.
Have fun
Win races
BAD was featured on Bay Area Backroads in 2003.
BAD is the founder of the Paddle For Life charity dragon boat event to help fight against cancer.
Alvin Wang, BAD's President, moved to the SF Bay Area in February of 1995. By November, he was missing his favorite sport. There was no Dragon Boat racing in the Bay Area so he talked to a new friend David and they formed the Northern California Dragon Boat races. A key part of forming a festival is coaching new teams. The coaches should be paddlers so BAD was formed.
Alvin talked about dragon boat racing to everyone he met. He recruited people that had never paddled before - "It will be a blast. You'll have fun. I guarantee it." To kick things off, he scheduled a 3 week tour in June of 1996 - Portland, Hawaii, and Vancouver.
The first race for BAD was to go to Portland. Only 3 paddlers committed to go - Alvin, David, and Brian (Alvin's brother). For some reason, everyone else wanted to go to Hawaii or Vancouver. They went to Portland anyways and attempted to recruit paddlers in Portland to form a team to race. They were able to convince a number of people from Portland to paddle with BAD, but as expected, they finished last in every heat.
The next week, Alvin managed to convince 8 paddlers to go to Hawaii to race. They had never stepped in a dragon boat before and were teamed with the Sheriff's department. Have you ever seen a 300 pound drummer? After getting eliminated after only one heat, BAD was off to a rough start, but they were left with more time for jet skiing and beach watching so it wasn't that disappointing.
The next week, 12 paddlers from SF went to Vancouver. They joined with 10 paddlers from Alvin's old club in Calgary. This was the first of many journeys to Vancouver by BAD. They lost again but managed to defeat a few teams - not many but a few - okay, very few. Not bad considering the majority of the team had never set foot in a dragon boat before the race.
The next week, the boats arrived in the Bay Area. They were rented from a company in Redondo Beach. All the paddles were made of foam and they shattered regularly. One of the boats had a broken spine; however, the reality was that dragon boat racing had arrived in the SF Bay Area.
The first dragon boat race of the current era was held in Foster City on July 4, 1996. Around 8 teams took to the water after only 3 weeks of practice. BAD won, but more importantly, dragon boat racing in the Bay Area was taking off.
Determined to create more interest in the Bay Area, BAD borrowed an outrigger triple trailer and took the boats to Oakland in July for a demo race with 6 teams. BAD was coaching and steering all the teams.
In August, the team went down to Redondo - their first road race with a full team. Yeah!!! They came in second.
In September, the team went to Portland for the Dragonsports race. There was only half a team so BAD teamed up with a local crew for a mixed race. It was pouring rain BAD managed to finish in the pack. BAD ended up winning a good sportsmanship award.
In October, the first Northern California Dragon Boat Championships were held. Thanks to a relentless email campaign, there were teams from NYC, Calgary, Vancouver, Portland, and Toronto. Luckily the local outrigger teams provided some strong local representation.
Since BAD had to steer all the local crews and help run the race, BAD didn't have anywhere near their strongest team. They did manage to win the novice category by barely beating Oracle.
Lots of miles for a first year team. The Legend of BAD is born - traveling and having fun!
Dragon Boat racing is a team paddling sport involving typically 20 paddlers (10 along each side), a steersperson and a drummer, racing in a long boat against several others. Dragon boating emphasizes working together with teammates to persevere and synchronize every paddle stroke to fight for the finish line. The sport originated in China, and dates back over 2000 years. In recent years it has become one of the fastest growing international sports, as exhibited by an increasing number of race festivals being held in the US, Canada, Australia, Africa, Europe and throughout Asia. Paddlers of any skill level can enjoy the sport and develop their technique in order to eventually compete on a local, national or even international level.
The Bay Area Dragon Boat Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and our primary focus is dragon boat paddling and racing. Our racing team is known as the Bay Area Dragons (a.k.a. BAD). We have some of the most experienced dragon boat paddlers in Northern California. Formed in 1996, the Bay Area Dragon Boat Foundation provides coaching, steering, and general support for our members and local teams. Our organization is run by 100% volunteers. BAD is a member of the 
Alvin Wang, BAD's President, moved to the SF Bay Area in February of 1995. By November, he was missing his favorite sport. There was no Dragon Boat racing in the Bay Area so he talked to a new friend David and they formed the Northern California Dragon Boat races. A key part of forming a festival is coaching new teams. The coaches should be paddlers so BAD was formed.