Turning athletes into GOLD!
Dragon Boat Canada Steering Certification Program
The Safe Steering course is held in-person in Pickering, Ontario and includes both an in-class and on-water portion.
Alkame Dragon Boat Services, lead by Scott Murray, is pleased to work with Dragon Boat Canada to offer coaching, officiating and steering certification courses. We believe that establishing a strong base of intellectual infrastructure will enhance dragon boat racing's ability to experience healthy grassroots development. We are proud to be a part of the foundation of sport development.
Dragon Boat Canada has developed a customized course delivery program that emphasizes skill development, real-life scenarios, practical application and maximum peer and instructor interaction.
Certification Program Features
- Low instructor:participant ratio
- In-Class theory and scenario applications
- Highly skilled and knowledgeable facilitator
Primary Facilitator
Scott Murray
Scott is the current President of Dragon Boat Canada, the Senior A National Team Coach, the Owner/Operator of Alkame Dragon Boat Services, and the Head Coach for the Pickering Dragon Boat Club. Scott has coached, organized and paddled with crews that have competed Nationally & Internationally with great success for over 20 years.
His passion for sport is the emphasis for participation in this program. Scott has a desire to see broad-based growth and development of dragon boat racing through properly-trained coaches, grassroots and youth development programs.
Safe Steering
The Safe Steering certification program (formally Steering Accreditation), has been updated to meet the needs of the sport in 2025. This course is designed for anyone who would like to work towards becoming full certified and accredited by Dragon Boat Canada. Safe Steering is a course that will provide basic instruction to all participants; those with prior experience can become approved for certification on the spot, while those will little to no experience will be required to complete additional practices and/or races to become approved for certification.
This is a one-day, in-person course that requires you to both paddle and steer a dragon boat. To gain insurance through BFL or to become Level 1 Coach certified, you must be Safe Steering certified. To gain full certification, you must:
- Complete all aspects of the in-person course, and complete any outstanding practices and/or races to receive your approval for certification
- Obtain Basic Level C, First Aid/CPR (any provider)
- Obtain a Pleasure Craft Operators License. Go to MyBoatCard.com and enter the promo code DRAGON60 to receive the discounted DBC rate.
- Complete Safe Sport. Go to Safe Sport to complete the free online training.
Although there are no prerequisites for this course, we highly encourage you to attend this course once you have gained some experience steering a boat.
Upcoming Courses
Saturday, May 10th, 2025
9:00am - 1:00pm
$175.00 + HST
Alkame’s Outdoor Training Centre
591 Liverpool Road, Pickering, L1W 1R1
**Please note: These courses will sell out. Scott will not be providing any certification courses during the on-water season. We encourage you to register early.