Dragon Boat West

In Vancouver, we use divisions such as "Comp", "Rec", "Junior". But I've noticed that there are some places (Mostly those east of BC) who use terms like "Masters", "Open" etc. so I was just wondering what these terms refer to.

Also, if theres any other terminology that DB'ers use, this might be a good chance for our more knowledgeable counterparts to bestow a little more knowledge upon the rest of us.

"Open" is a traditional term used for a competition that is open to any competitor (i.e. no restriction by membership in a specific group). This usually means an open tournament/division attracts the best competitors. In the context of east coast db races, it is the same as our "comp" divisions.

Can't help you with Masters.

Masters means "40 years of age and over"

Masters and Open (as well as Mens, Womens & Juniors) are actual divisions devised by IDBF for their races.. They're pretty self-explanatory with Mens and Womens Division for teams comprised completely of men and women, Masters for paddlers ages 40+. Open is then the free-for-all for anyone that can pick up a paddle.

Out East, I believe (I could be wrong) that their divisions are actually Corporate and Community where Corporate are for teams that are sponsored by Corporate sponsors and Community is for teams that are put together from the community. It's just a different way of cutting a pie, I guess.

There is no such thing as a "Men's" division in the IDBF.  I believe it is called the Open division and is open to any paddler with the majority of the paddlers being men.  

Almost always comprised of men but I can think of a few women that I would use instead of a man.  That is probably why I am not a coach (okay there could be other reasons also  :D )

I'm not certain either, but I remember in Long Beach "Open" was mostly all Men... we didn't have enough guys, so ended up racing our regular Mixed crew... I guess it's "open" for interpretation  -sorry for the crappy pun *groan*

There was a discussion a few months ago about the Platinum A finals in Kelowna 2005, and I've always wondered what "wash riding" means.

when the boat moves through water, it stirs up a current that roughly looks like this :

B
O
A
T            
!!|     \   <-wash,
!!||       \
!!|||         \      
^ wake

when the boat is on top of wash, it gets propelled, therefore, moves faster, this is to my understanding, most likely wrong though  :roll:

i don't quite understand.  :doh:

------\-------------
- ------\-----------  
--------- \----------
----------Boat <- imagine this boat leading, and water splitting after it
----------/---------
------Boat  <- this boat is on top of the wash, thus carried forward by it
--------/-----------
-------/--------------
----- / < the wash

------- < - water,
/ <- water stirred up by the boat

haha..   nicely done.    :lol:

Pretty much right, but that terminology came from the Toronto Island Festival and is becoming less and less meaningful as the years go by.  Also, "Corporate" teams starting racing in the "Community" division in order to save money, since it was cheaper.  They would just strip the Corporate sponsor off the team name in order to get the reduced rate.

In terms of competitiveness, there isn't really a difference anymore.  Many "community" teams are better than "corporate" teams.  Where you get your money from isn't the deciding factor.

We don't have "rec" divisions out east, but you can pretty much tell who is competitive and who isn't after the first round.  Some regattas like to shelter the local teams by creating "out of town" divisions to keep the "pro's" away from their local crews.

As for "Open", that generally means mostly men, as others have stated.  Few "open" teams will ever race with women on board except as drummers or if they're short of guys.  Some races though, like Montreal, actually have it stated in the rules that a Men's team (not Open) must be comprised entirely of male paddlers.