It was a picturesque late June evening in New Hope. White clouds drifted across a blue sky, and a light breeze carried laughter along the river. While diners relaxed at nearby restaurants, members of Relentless, New Hope’s first dragon boat team, were getting to work. From a motorboat running beside two 41-foot dragon boats, head coach Bill Heffernan called across the Delaware River. “Racers ready! Attention! Go!”

Forty paddlers plunged their blades into the water. The boats surged toward the New Hope-Lambertville Toll Bridge, their crews working to transform individual movements into one smooth, collective stroke, known as “the glide.” This elusive sensation of oneness requires immense concentration and work. “You can feel it,” says Heather Sullivan, president of the New Hope-based Relentless Dragon Boat Association. “When everyone is in sync, the boat is just booming, but it’s quiet. It’s gliding along perfectly.”

Finding the Rhythm

That synchronization is central to dragon boating, a sport with roots dating back more than 2,000 years to ancient China. Locally, Relentless was founded in 2009 and has grown to about 180 members across seven competitive and community-level teams. Each boat holds 20 paddlers, a drummer, and a steersperson, with paddlers facing forward and using single-bladed paddles.

In dragon boating, no one succeeds by powering ahead alone. When even a few paddlers lose the rhythm, the difference is immediate—the boat may rock or surge. But when 20 paddles enter and leave the water together, the movement becomes smooth, powerful, and almost meditative. “If you’re trying to power it all by yourself, you’re actually working against the rest of the team,” Sullivan says. “Everybody has to be in sync.”

Beginners first learn the team’s stroke, practicing how to enter and exit the water together. The phrase paddlers use is simple: “In together, out together.”

Only after they begin finding the rhythm does the group add power. Once the timing develops, paddlers refine their technique, learning to place the blade deeply in the water and draw strength from the center rather than relying on their arms. “You don’t want to arm it in a race,” Heffernan says.

A Life on the Water

Heffernan’s wisdom is hard-won. His life has revolved around paddle sports, from whitewater racing to outrigger canoeing. He has competed internationally and serves as a Team USA steersman.

However, when members of the brand-new New Hope team first approached him at a Philadelphia race and asked him to coach, Heffernan initially turned them down. “They pestered me and pestered me,” he says.

He eventually agreed, and now he coaches from a motorboat traveling beside the dragon boats. His practices include short, demanding intervals with little rest. As races get closer, the workouts become more intense.

Despite its rigor, Relentless is not only for elite athletes. Members range from their 20s into their 70s, and participants can approach the sport at the level that works for them. Hefferman insists that new paddlers do not need experience or exceptional strength, only the ability to swim. “There aren’t too many sports that you can really do at every age,” Heffernan says.

A Sport for Everyone

For Sullivan, that accessibility is part of what makes the organization special. She and her husband, John, moved from New Hampshire in 2011 and found it difficult to make friends. When someone suggested dragon boating, Sullivan tried it and fell in love immediately. Her husband joined soon after. “That is literally how we met all of our friends here,” she says.

Practices often lead to shared dinners, while race weekends can become group vacations. The result is an organization that is built just as much on friendship as it is on competition. “We say we’re family,” Sullivan says.

Kerry Toole joined Relentless in 2020 while pregnant with her daughter, who has since become a kind of team mascot. Relentless, she says, “has truly helped shape who I am today.”

That sense of belonging is central to longtime dragon boaters such as Denise Bollenbacher, who says the team’s support extends well beyond the water. “We genuinely lift each other up and cheer one another on,” she says.

Built on Resilience

For many members, dragon boating offers both physical challenge and emotional grounding. Chris Amery values the mental focus of the sport and that magical feeling of a boat coming alive when paddlers find their rhythm.

Judith Buday, a breast cancer survivor, says dragon boating has given her strength, confidence, and gratitude. On the water, distractions disappear beneath the sound of paddles, the rhythm of the boat, and the shared effort of teammates working toward a common goal. “It’s where I feel most present, most grateful, and most alive,” she says.

Jill Reising also found the team during a vulnerable period. For her, the sport became “a community, a source of strength, and a place where I rediscovered joy.”

One of Reising’s most meaningful experiences came when she competed at the Club Crew World Championships and represented the United States alongside her Relentless teammates. “As a little girl, I dreamed of competing in the Olympics to represent the USA,” she says. “I never imagined that at 61 years old, I would experience something that felt every bit as meaningful by representing my country in club crew dragon boating and doing it as part of the Relentless family.”

When asked what it takes to compete in a dragon boat race, Reising smiles and looks down. “Read the word on my shirt,” she replies. For her, being relentless means more than racing. It means showing up through difficulties and lifting up teammates. Relentless, she says, is not simply a team name but a mindset rooted in resilience, friendship, and adventure.

Nailing the Glide

Back at practice, the sun begins its descent toward the river, and the dragon boaters show clear signs of fatigue. Paddlers wipe their brows and take short, fast breaths between strokes. But Heffernan has one more request. He directs them toward the bridge and stands tall in the motorboat. “Racers ready!” he shouts. Twenty teammates in each boat prepare to make one movement. “Attention! Go!” The paddles enter the water together, and, instantaneously, 40 individual athletes are perfectly in sync, gliding forward as one team.

The team has become a familiar part of the New Hope riverfront, where visitors often stop to watch and cheer. “These people love us,” Heffernan says. “They want to hear us call. It’s amazing.”

Beyond competition, Relentless offers beginner clinics, corporate team-building events, and fundraisers. For additional information, visit relentlessdragonboat.com.

Lela Casey has been writing professionally for over 15 years. She and her family live in Doylestown.

Photograph by Jennifer Janikic Photography