The oldest member of the Baltimore Dragon Boat Club has one piece of advice for people who want to compete as paddlers in 500-meter races at the age of 80: "Don't stop."
Ado Valge, a retired engineer from Bowie, was on hand Sunday morning, as 10 dragon boat teams — more than 200 people including fans — converged on Baltimore for the seventh-annual Baltimore Dragon Boat Club Challenge.
Each team raced multiple times, plying the Inner Harbor waters in front of the Under Armour headquarters in boats shaped like extra-long canoes with bearded dragon heads at the prow. In the front, a drummer pounded out the stroke to 20 paddlers, while a person standing in the back steered through the channel.
One team sported tie-dye; another bright, breast-cancer pink. Serious boats wore black.
Saturday's rains had stirred up the channel, forcing teams to contend with a strong current and choppy waters.
To the outside observer, youth may have helped propel the Pennsylvania Dragon Boat Club to its sub-three-minute times in early races Sunday morning — everyone on the team appeared uniformly young and fit.
But Valge's advice is a key part of the competition, said Henry Chow, 27, who founded the Pennsylvania team in 2011 with little experience and barely enough people to crew a boat.
"A lot of this is mental," he said.
Dragon-boating traces its roots to southern China more than 2,000 years ago. Modern competitions date to 1976, when the Hong Kong tourist association started a festival, according to the International Dragon Boat Federation.
Since then, the sport has grown, with some 50 million participants in China and more than 300,000 in Europe, according to the organization. In the U.S. and Canada, there are about 90,000 participants.
Baltimore's club started in 2008, when three veterans of biennial dragon boat races organized by Catholic Charities founded a group to paddle year-round. Since then, membership has grown from 12 people to 100, with people starting in their teens. The club has sent teams to races as far afield as Puerto Rico, Canada and Florida.
"If you enjoy the team-building aspect of sports, this is the ultimate team sport," said Susan Troupe, 60, of Towson, a co-founder.
Valge joined the club four years ago, sucked in after his wife, a breast cancer survivor, started participating. Now the couple often attends several practices a week.
"I can't speak for anyone else, but for me, it's been a godsend … [in] exercise and companionship," he said.
The sport tests the core, working out the arms and back. It has attracted a strong subset of members united by experiences of breast cancer — like Valge's wife, Marion, 77 — for whom the exercise targets an area often damaged during treatment.
The club has open practices several times a week, where it hones technique and paddling in unison — important to maintaining power on the water.
"You don't necessarily have to have a certain athletic ability," said John Pezzulla, 50, of Parkton, one of the club's co-founders. "What you'll find is you may have a team that's very athletic and strong, but unless they have the technique down, that's really also the key."
Sunday's competition is the club's main fundraiser.
Race director Ada Ma, 38, of Essex said she was hoping to raise a few thousand dollars, even though rescheduling due to Saturday's heavy rains meant fewer teams. (As host of the event, Baltimore fielded only a rookie boat.)
"Anything above zero is good," she said.
Valge on Sunday downplayed his status as the club's senior member.
"Sure, I'm proud of it, but it's no big deal," he said. "Age is not a significant factor in this club."
"You don't have to be all muscle to win," Ma said. "It's about teamwork."