Dragon Boat Canada Accreditation Program
Safe Steering
Facilitator: Nikola Radovanovic
Accessor: Harmony Hsieh
Saturday, May 16th, 2026
9:00am - 6:00pm
Cost: $275.00 + HST
*Please note: This course requires a minimum requirement of participants in order to operate. If we do not meet those requirements, you will be offered an alternative time/date in a future course.
About the Instructor:
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 defending 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.
About the course:
Nikola will provide a complete base of knowledge and skill for new steerspeople, and re-orient a much deeper intuition at the helm for those with steering experience.
The DBC Safe Steering Accreditation typically features no on-water training, rather only a “drive-test” to evaluate existing skills. This course goes much further as Nikola has developed a progressive steer-training program across 6 hours of in-boat instruction. Class size is intentionally capped lower to maximize practice time for each candidate.
Successful candidates will receive Safe Steering Accreditation from Dragon Boat Canada upon full completion of all requirements as follows:
1. Course attendance & successful assessment of steering competency, resulting in a "Pass" from the Facilitator
2. Valid certification in Standard First Aid & CPR/AED Level C (from any First Aid provider, online courses not accepted).
3. Pleasure Craft Operators License (Go to MyBoatCard and enter the code “DRAGON60” to receive the DBC rate). 4. Safe Sport Training (Go to SafeSport to complete the free online course).
These requirements do not need to be completed before taking the course but are needed for accreditation. Once completed, please send the corresponding documents to Dragon Boat Canada ([email protected]).
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.
