Dragon boat racing is now also a popular recreational sport.

"I'm really enjoying it. It's my first festival. It's my first dragon boat race, and it's been an incredible experience," John Micale, a member of the Boston 1 Team, said.

"Part of the reason I'm enjoying it is because of the diversity, cultural diversity of participating. The more we can bring people together from different backgrounds, different countries, the better place this world will be."

Hilary Nicholson, 34, of Team Tango, representing Tango Therapeutics, said this is the first year that her team is participating in the race.

"We've never done it before, so it's been a really fun experience, just learning how to do it, learning all the differences," she said.

"I think I was intimidated doing this as a first-timer, and everyone has just been so incredibly welcoming, incredibly supportive. Even if you've never done it and you are brand new, come give it a try."

Peter Murphy, 26, another Team Tango member, said a big challenge is trying to get everyone in sync.

"It's been really fun to see that kind of progression," he said. "I've been sort of like an observer. … It's been really cool to learn about."

Along the Charles River where Harvard University is located, students also expressed their interest in dragon boat racing at their "home river".

"Well, we're super tired. We finished our third race, but really happy to be here," Kassandra Diaz, a 26-year-old Japanese literature graduate student, of the Harvard dragon team, said. The competition started at 7 am and concluded at 5 pm, with heavy rain in the morning.

"The weather cleared up! Most of us are locals, so to be able to get on the Charles where we've been doing our practices and actually compete with a lot of our fellow teams has been really amazing," she said.

"There are 20 paddlers in a boat, as opposed to your regular three to six people in a canoe, so you really have to communicate with each other a lot of times without words. Your body and being able to feel the boat move together as a team and can make all the difference in a race. So that's a really appealing part of it for us."