By Susan Okula
Clear your mind. Go fast. Find your passion.
That’s what ADBC member Shirl Nevas would tell you about why she likes to get in a dragon boat.
Shirl, a four-year veteran of the club, spends her weekdays working in Washington, D.C. as the creative director of the United States Mint, a position she’s held since 1998. Her work hours are filled with schedules and deadlines in advertising and visual communication. She works 11-hour days and has enough projects going at work at any one time to make anyone’s head spin. Shirl leaves work early on Tuesdays and Thursdays to be sure she doesn’t miss the boat! For practice, that is.
As she grabs her paddle and life vest and strolls onto the dock of the Pier 4 marina in Eastport, her focus starts to shift to the water and the physical effort of finding that perfect stroke.
“The first time I got on the boat, I fell in love with dragon boating,” says Shirl. “It’s so calming. I don’t even think about work. When you’re on the water, you focus on putting that paddle into the water correctly. You don’t think about anything else. It’s almost a Zen kind of thing.”
Shirl majored in fine arts–expressionism painting and studio drawing–in college. She decided early on to go into graphic design, and worked in advertising and marketing before joining the Mint.
She paddles in memory of her aunt and two cousins who lost their lives to breast cancer, and to honor two other cousins who are currently in treatment. And she is quite aware of the courage of ABDC members who have either fought breast cancer in the past or are in treatment for it now. “They are so strong,” Shirl says. “They are fighters.”
Shirl was not involved in any team sports until she took up dragon boating. “This is the first sport I’ve ever done. In all of my life until dragon boating, I was never athletic.”
You wouldn’t know that now. Shirl is an enthusiastic racer. “I like the thrill of the sport. I like to go fast, I like to race. I like to hear the water lapping against the boat and feel the wind in my hair; it’s so exhilarating!” she says.
Head Coach Peter Van de Castle has noticed that. Shirl is often one of the strokes, sitting in the front seat of the boat with a partner, setting the pace for the 18 paddlers behind them. “When I’m in the front seat, I put pressure on myself,” she says. “I work on timing. I have to focus, I have to concentrate. It feels great to want to win!
“I’m going to go to every practice that I can – I’ve never had a passion before, but I’ve found it with dragon boating!”
