Paddles churn up the water as the drummer pounds a steady rhythm. The sun shifts directly overhead but their beat doesn't falter. A dragon boat team is navigating Sha Tin's Shing Mun River, preparing for the first Lamma International Dragon Boat Festival next Sunday.
The team, from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) Dragon Boat Club, is one of a handful of university teams taking part in the event.
The races will be held at picturesque Tai Wan To Beach on the Yung Shue Wan side of Lamma Island.
Team captain Wan Kwok-leung got hooked on the physically demanding sport three years ago when he was a first-year mechanical engineering student.
'Not many sports need such a high level of teamwork and team spirit,' said the 21-year-old.
'It's not like other sports, such as basketball, where you have team 'heroes'. In dragon boating, we all need each other and everyone is just as important. We are in the battle together.'
Dragon boat racing originated in China and involves a standard crew of 20 to 22 paddlers in a very long, narrow boat. A drummer sits at the bow, facing the paddlers. Taller paddlers sit in the middle, says Wan, because the boat is the widest in the middle.
