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 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
Nikola Radovanovic
Nikola Radovanovic steered Team Canada Premier Open & Premier Mixed to 7 medals at the 2025 IDBF World Championship in Brandenburg, Germany. He is also the 2k helmsman for the Canadian and World Champion Club, NDRC.
As a high-performance coach for over a decade, Nikola loves teaching any skill from first principles — developing intuitive models and innovative drills to prime strong connections and compound learning. That’s exactly what he has done for the skill of steering a dragon boat — and it awaits you in this course.
This an intensive, all-day course that includes an in-class and two (extended) on-water components, separated by a lunch break in between. It is recommended but not required that candidates come to this course with some prior knowledge and experience, as that will provide the best opportunity to pass the final competency assessment. All candidates should come prepared to both steer and paddle during this course, so being equipped with paddle-appropriate gear (for the weather) and adequate nutrition is essential.
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, October 10th, 2026
9:00am - 4:00pm
$275.00 + 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
**Please note: This courses will sell out. We encourage you to register early.