Paddling Her Heart Out
Gail Alexander and Her Passion for Dragon Boats
“It is a way to connect and sync up with not only ourselves… but with the world. We can step onto the boat and find that quiet space.” — Gail Alexander
Gail Alexander leaps out of bed at 4:30 a.m., her heart somehow already racing with excitement. After a quick meditation and coffee, followed by yoga and an erg workout, she’s fully energized and focused.
It’s race day — a day for which she and the Ridgefield Dragon Boat team have been preparing for the past four months.
Arriving at the waterfront, Alexander’s eyes fix on the magnificent sight of their Kaohsiung boat — a 40-foot long, 1,640-pound dragon boat, it’s prow carved into an intricate dragon’s head symbolizing power and grace. Originally from Kaohsiung, China. Alexander and her team have painstakingly readied it for today’s competition. Surrounding her are teammates ranging in age from 15 to 77 and hailing from seven different countries. They aren’t just a racing team. They are friends united by passion.
After a meticulous pre-race check, all 22 teammates climb into the boat. They find their positions with practiced ease and paddle out to find their lane.
“Paddlers prepare to start!” the announcer calls. At the sound of the horn, they surge forward, paddles slicing through the water in unison.
“This is it,” Alexander thinks as she looks around at the determined, smiling faces around her and sprawling river ahead. “This is what it’s all about.”
Alexander is the project director, team captain, helm, and a passionate paddler of the Ridgefield Dragon Boat club. As the founder of Ridgefield Kayak and dedicated board member of Friends of Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, she has devoted much of her life to preserving natural resources and fostering community around the beauty of nature. While she has always been drawn to water, over the past eight years, it is the dragon boats — and the vibrant community she’s helped rally around them — that have truly captured her heart.
My introduction to Alexander came through a friend of my sister who attends her summer Thursday night community paddles. Intrigued by this unfamiliar sport, I quickly saw why Alexander is known for her passion.
My introduction to Alexander came through a friend of my sister, who has attended several of the community paddles Alexander organizes every summer Thursday night. Captivated by the mere mention of dragon boats, which I’d only ever vaguely heard of (and had no idea were a thing anywhere in the United States), I knew I needed to meet her. True to expectation, Alexander is one of the most passionate people I’ve ever met.
“It’s a fabulous way to connect to each other,” she says when I ask her what draws her to dragon boats. “And a wonderful way to experience community in the context of wildlife and a river.”
I’m always curious how people stumble upon unique passions like dragon boating. One of the most important lessons I’ve learned from profiling 21 passionate people is the importance of exposure when finding a passion — it is through the willingness to try new things and be open to new experiences that help us find the things that truly light us up.
The first time that dragon boats came into her consciousness, Alexander was at a meeting with a planning committee for Big Paddle, the event she and other volunteers started to celebrate National Trails Day and the 32-mile water trail they successfully got recognized by the City of Ridgefield 13 years ago.
“Somebody at the round table said, ‘Oh, we need to have a dragon boat,’” Alexander recalls. So she called the nearby Portland, Oregon Dragon Boat team, who offered an even better idea: “Portland is looking for homes for some of their first-generation Kaohsiung boats. Do you want them?”
At the time, kayaking was Alexander’s primary water sport — she knew next to nothing about dragon boating. But her love for all water-related activities and passion for fostering community through nature-centric activities were already deeply ingrained. It didn’t take much convincing; she was all in.
“We left the next day and came back with two Kaohsiung boats,” she says. This was in 2016. It took about two years for the first leg of the vision to come together, which included gathering dozens of volunteers to restore the two 40-foot boats in an old shop — no small undertaking.
“We’d start anywhere between eight and ten in the morning and typically work sometimes up to 3:00 or 4:00 in the afternoon,” she says. They sanded, chipped, applied fiberglass and resin, and finally, painted the boats with vibrant colors. “We became really knowledgeable when laying out the work and stationing ourselves.”
“It was an amazing activity that kept us together,” she says, beaming. “We had purpose.”
But the boats were only the first piece of the puzzle. “Nobody had come forward to help us with that last piece of the vision, which was to actually put that community program and the team together,” she says. So Alexander took on the job.
Two years later, the boats were ready for their first race. Then, the pandemic hit, forcing the boats back into storage. The delay was significant. But Alexander’s passion never waned.
“For me, the passion was: Can we complete the vision? We’ve got the boats. We’ve restored them with the help of many, many volunteers. We’ve made it through a pandemic. Let’s create this opportunity.”
And by any measure, the project has been a resounding success. Last summer, they launched their community dragon boat program and, within just three weeks, had assembled a fully formed team. The team entered four boats in their first official race season and even won a gold medal in one of their divisions.
“That was so much fun,” she recalls. She can’t wait for the next season — their first race is the Portland Rose Festival race coming up on June 8th and 9th. 45 teams are registered for this race (I’m just amazed when she tells me this — I had no idea dragon boating is as big as it is!).
It’s clear that one of the things that excites Alexander about dragon boating is that it’s a perfect setting for people to bond around nature.
“For lots of people on the boat, it is a restorative time,” she says. “It is a way to connect and sync up with not only ourselves… but with the world.”
“As a dragon boat team,” she continues, “What’s so important is that we’re synced up. It’s a really incredible feeling to be on a dragon boat with a team that can kinesthetically connect not just with the water, but with each other.”
“Like group flow!” I add, unable to resist linking her experience with a psychological concept I find fascinating. Group flow describes when everyone in a group is working together toward a singular purpose with speed, creativity, and precision. It’s one of the most magical feelings on earth.
“Yeah. Sounds like that.” She agrees, smiling.
One of the things she loves most about dragon boating? That moment when she sees the spark she feels light up in others.
“One of my favorite parts is Thursday nights with the community program because you get to see these new people arrive and you get to interact with them,” she says. She tells me about one such evening last year when a 15-year-old boy, Charlie, arrived with his mother.
“It was a busy full Thursday… like 50 people going out on the two boats,” she recalls. “I’ll always remember his mother saying, ‘Charlie’s going to paddle with you tonight.’ I looked at her and said, ‘Are you going to be on the boat paddling?’ She said no and just helped me understand that this was something that her son really wanted to do.”
Since then, Charlie has become an integral part of their team, even learning to helm — a role critical for safety and leadership on the water.
“It’s just amazing to see this young person so passionate about it,” she says. “He’s so present, so engaged. It’s incredible.”
There really is something so special about helping someone else cultivate their own passion.
“I think the other thing I really appreciate is when people just share a little bit with you… like how much it means to be on the boat in the water,” she says. “They’re a caregiver for a partner with dementia… or they’re a partner to someone in chemo. You know, the stories just go on. But I think that comradery that happens… the sharing, the support for each other… you know what you were talking about with group flow? I get that.”
Always curious about how our passions transform us, I ask, “How have dragon boats changed you?”
“It’s been this gathering of the energy throughout the years… to see it come together with opportunities for people, connection, purpose, and just that collective spirit of people… it’s been so thrilling,” she says.
Pausing, she adds, “But how has it changed me? It just really reinforces for me that when we really believe in a vision and collectively bring people together… we can create opportunity for people. For each other.
“And for me, the river is very healing, very nurturing,” she adds. “I think what I experience so often is other teammates experiencing that as well.”
Takeaways
Here is one big thing I learned this week about passion, one exercise you can do to stoke your own inner fire, and one aspect of Alexander’s intense enthusiasm that rubbed off on me — and that I now want to learn more about, too!
One Lesson: The Power of Shared Passions as an Antidote to Loneliness
The story of Alexander and her dragon boat team demonstrates how shared passions can forge and deepen community ties. Throughout the year, whether in race season or during their off-season boat maintenance, the team’s collective enthusiasm for dragon boating keeps them bonded. Whether they’re training, welcoming newcomers, or restoring the boats, their shared purpose and passion consistently brings them together. It’s a reminder of just how much our passions can unite us, providing an antidote to loneliness, building lasting friendships, and building vibrant communities.
One Exercise: Helping to Ignite the Spark in Others
There's a profound joy in helping others discover their passions. Not only does it inspire and ignite their enthusiasm, but it also fuels our own passion in return. If you've found something that truly fires you up, don't keep it to yourself. Share it with others! Whether it's through informal conversations, organizing community events, volunteering your time, or teaching others online, there are countless ways to share your passion with others. Who knows — you might just light up the spark in others and change the course of their life.
One Curiosity: Dragon Boat Sightings
Every person I interview gets me curious about their passion. I wondered: is dragon boat racing a thing outside of the Ridgefield, Washington area? Apparently, pretty popular! There are nearly 50 million participants (!) in China and Hong Kong where the sport originated, and another nearly 400,000 — and growing — in Europe and the Americas. From now on, I’ll be on the lookout for dragon boats whenever I’m near water.