Cape Town Paddlesnappers Dragon Boat Club

NOTE: always follow the sweeps commands for what you should be doing in the boat at any given time and always follow the strokes in executing the commands. Do not do anything to upset the balance of the boat (such as swapping sides or standing up) without obtaining permission from the sweep first.

Push off left/right: Push the boat away from whatever is on the called side of the boat.
Watch your paddles left/right: The boat is approaching an obstruction on the called side.
Hard up against the side: Make sure you are sitting with your hip pressed against the gunwale.
Under starter's orders: Leaning forward, paddle horizontal on the back of the paddler in front of you.
Ready / Paddlers, are you ready: Snap forward and twist, paddle just above the water, top arm high and straight. Attention: Blade buried in the water, ready for the first stroke, top arm high and straight.
Stop / Stop the boat: Stop never means just stop paddling; it means stop the boat. This could be an emergency, so don’t just put your paddles in the water - stopping requires backwards strokes. The sweep may call for these, but shouldn’t have to - ‘stop the boat’ means exactly what it says.
Slow the boat: Put about half the blade in the water to take some run off the boat.
Paddles out: Take your paddles out of the water and let the boat run.
Easy: Stop paddling. This command usually follows a call of “on the next stroke” and is called on the last stroke the sweep wants you to paddle.
Backstrokes / Ready to back paddle / Back paddling:Paddle the boat backwards.
Draw strokes left/right: Lean out to the side called and pull perpendicular to the boat.
Lean out left/right: Lean out to the side called to balance the draw strokes on the other side.
Push strokes left/right: Push out perpendicular to the boat.
Brace the boat: Rest the shaft of your paddle on the gunwale and the blade flat on the water to give the boat extra stability.

NOTE: the sweep may qualify any of the paddling commands (forwards, backwards or draw) by calling for a set number of strokes, so listen up!