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 is pleased to work with Dragon Boat Canada to offer 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

Brad Bridger

Brad is the current Senior C National Team Coach, a primary coach for CSDC, and a life- long paddler. Brad has coached, organized and paddled with crews that have competed Nationally & Internationally with great success for over a decade.

His passion for sport is the emphasis for participation in this program. Brad 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, June 6th, 2026 (TBD)
9:00am - 4:00pm
$195.00 + HST
In-Class at Alkame Paddle Zone, 1050 Brock Road, Unit 20/21, Pickering
Practical at Alkame’s Outdoor Training Centre, 591 Liverpool Road, Pickering

Coming soon

Saturday, August 8th (TBD)
9:00am - 4:00pm
$195.00 + HST
In-Class at Alkame Paddle Zone, 1050 Brock Road, Unit 20/21, Pickering
Practical at Alkame’s Outdoor Training Centre, 591 Liverpool Road, Pickering