Dragon Boat West

 
 What an absolute gong show this festival was...Hopefully we learn from all the mistakes that were made.The only thing that made up for it was the setting of the lake

 Poor Roli...how many times can a team be hit in one festival ? LoL .Comp semi final lane 3 loses it sending lane 2 into Roli who loses it tries to regain and ends up getting hit again and crosses over 6 lanes and tries to recover and finishes the race and wins w/ open water ...then in the final they are in lane 3 only to be hit again by lane 2 ( was that Sudden Impact ? name would make sense now if it was,lol) , not once but twice after 2 re-starts and then almost a 3rd time by lane 2 and they clanged paddles .After the second collision lane 2 changed steerspeople and this is when the 3rd collision almost happened again but in the end Roli wins comp by 4 seconds .Not sure who placed second and third ...

 I had to laugh as the announcer got confused and thought the second to last race was the final and was calling the race saying the the A final teams were neck and neck and DWW was pulling away when in fact they were all standing on the shore waiting to load .Then Roli wins it only to be told that they accidentally gave away there medals to another division mistakenly ....that was too funny !!

 Another good moment was in the semi ,after Roli was involved in the collision, the festival wanted to rerace the race but forgot to tell Roli and ran the race w/o them...oops,lol. Roli still had the faster time even after colliding in the first original race so they allowed Roli to advance .

 Roli set the fastest time of the event by far w/ a 2.05 and  no one else was even close to nearing that mark...way to go.And good job keeping it all together under the pressure of the collisions  !

 A note for Harrision  : ......widen the lanes next yr please  !!!!!  Oh and the paddler party was more of a funeral home...where did they find the music ? ...OMG ! Get a DJ next time please !


 Now will someone please give back my GOLD MEDAL....lol ..and don't scratch it !! j/k


 

Paddleboy you hit the nail right on the head man! I thought after what happened last year that they would have learned how important it was to keep things running smoothly but obviously they didn't. Last year things ran over an hour late. At first I believe they said it would be fine for teams to borrow paddlers from other teams because when they started running late last year teams starting losing paddlers as they had other commitments to attend to. Last year it was supposed to end just after 4pm I believe but we were all there past 5pm. Sound familiar to anyone who was there yesterday?? So because initially the rule of the day was OK to borrow a paddler or two one team did and of course another team protested and the final was re-raced and well you probably know the rest of the story. However this year the rules were stated clearly that no borrowing of paddlers was allowed except for steerspeople and drummers. This year however the races ended up running close to 2 hours late by the time all was said and done. Holy crap! From what I heard part of the reason was because supposedly a women's team whose name escapes me apparently registered as a "mixed" team and were all upset when they were seated in the mixed semi finals instead of the women's semi finals. That took them over an hour to decide what to do and then reseed everyone accordingly. Also what's with some boats whose numbers did not match the lane they were in. Now I am not talking about starting in say lane 3 and finishing off in lane 4 or 2. Afterall I know how tight the lanes were and yes they should be wider FFS! But I am talking about a boat with #4 who raced in lane 1. Does that sound they should be there? I don't know anything about which lane was better or faster but could it be that that team figured that out and chose to purposely go there? I don't know but I would strongly reconsider doing Harrison a 3rd straight year myself. And of course CONGRATS to Roli. You're starting to get the tweaking done at about the right time I think.

I must admit, it was a bit crazy out in Harrison and after all those events you can't do anything but laugh a bit and then REALLY let it go... People got race experience, and no one got seriously hurt (even though they were some minor injuries) and that's the most important thing, in my opinion...

Personally, I'd like to give Harrison and it's organizers a bit of a break...they tried their best to make everyone happy (which never happens), but many teams out there were not being rational (i.e., teams that wanted to be added to a higher division with a time that was 5 to 10 slower than the top teams was IMO ridiculous and a futile argument). Yes yes yes...the boats weren't even, the lanes were too small, it took a real long time...blah blah blah... However, please tell me which festivals in their first 1 to 2 years didn't have any problems and I'll give you a donut!

This is Harrison's 2nd year in running, and I think they just need to work out the problems. I'd suggest that they ask for some help from people (i.e., Greg Lamb, Brad, Howie, Leah Nagano, Jackie Webber, Andrea Dhillon, etc.) that really have DIRECT experience running the bigger festivals that have been in operation for over 7 years (likely to have figured out most of the problems or to have at considered the potential problems).

It was a great venue, the weather was awesome, the water was clean (I think), the medals looked sweet, and big screen was a great idea (can you purchase that for a home???)!!!

One more thing people...this is Dragon Boating (whether regional, national, and worlds) and not life or death... People have to learn to relax and have some respect to the organizers, your teammates, to other teams, and most importantly to the sport of Dragon Boating! You turn your competitive spirit "ON" when you line-up and turn it "OFF" when you're not racing...

If you learn this, you'll survive longer in this sport...lose it and you're not going to enjoy what this sport has to offer.

It's over...on to the next venue!

Well....not sure what to say about the day... but I now know if I'm ever looking for someone to organise a drag queen contest I know who to call.. and if I'm ever looking for a dragon boat organising committee, I know who NOT to call.

Well ... let's be fair - all the comments are well deserved and bang on - and for that I know when I type this that I speak for all of the race committee (yes by all the posts I was part of said committee  :blasted:  ) we apologize!

We also know that you have to learn by your mistakes and go forward.  Obviously the lanes were to small, we need a  better computer program that works with our race grid, and we need an experienced officiating crew, an outdoor paddler's party is in the work for next year. 

I've learned a long time ago that if you're truly sorry you apologize and you don't follow it with excuses.

Sorry everyone!  It's a bruise to our ego but we'll set it up - promise.

Hope everyone liked the Big Screen!  I'm in the process of trying to fit it through my front door.  After that I think I'll go into a corner and cry softly to myself.   :oops:   

Thanks Digger for the apology.... I hope my previous comment wasn't too harsh.... but when the races run up to two hours late and a significant portion of your team has to leave before the final, some even before the semi, the taste in one's mouth over a festival is a little sour.... not to mention the effects on my two kids who had to bake in the sun for a couple of hours longer than I wanted (they had a blast but were just beat last night)....

It's amazing how teams enter an event knowing from past experiences that things can go wrong and when they quite often do, the praise turns from 'this is going to be great' to 'can't these people get it right!'  In all fairness, this is only the second year that Harrison has held this event.  As someone that gets to practice on this lake, we were extremely fortunate with the water - we've seen calm waters turn to raging whitecaps all within one practice, also the weather co-operated fully, last year it rained.  The regatta also doubled in size which probably caused a few unforeseen problems, maybe it should have been a 2 day event with seeding the first and semis & finals the second.  There are a lot of what-ifs.  But, the teams that participated should not let some mishaps (and I've been in a lot of regattas that have had them - not caused by our teams from the Valley) prevent them from being part of a fun and extremely social sport.  Why not concentrate on the positive - the venue was great, I've never seen (in 6 yrs) the big screen at the events, the complimentary fruit baskets, where teams could 'refresh' in the lake playing ball, frisbee etc.  The comments I overheard were extremely positive and people were looking forward to another year.  Yes, things do happen, but get over it and look at the big picture - Harrison could become the event to be at - have patience and give the 'newbies' some team support.

I agree that it was a beautiful spot, followed by our..ahem..gold medal..hehe! Anyhow, I was at last year's as well and the biggest thing I noticed was that amazing big screen!!! Wow, that was awesome! We were able to cool off in the freezing lake and watch the races on the screen at the same time, very cool! I too was frustrated by the afternoon running so long, but I was told it was because of the women's team switching from mixed to women's div. also. Personally, if you register as a mixed, and fail to mention anything prior to the races starting, then suck it up and deal with it. No need to punish everyone for their mistakes! Things happen, races run late, it's all part of the day. Kudos to the organizers for all their hard work in TRYING to keep it running on time! My biggest complaint would have been the start official. In our 2nd or 3rd race, the guy spent at least 5 min. trying to set us up...he kept sending us past the start line, and pulling us back, over and over! It was SO frustrating! Next time..we need an experienced start official to help keep things running smoothly. And to keep those stupid old people on the jet ski from riding up and down the course, even after being told many times to get off..their excuse? They live there and they wanted to watch and they had a right to be there!!! Geez! Somebody aim their boat at them!!! Haha! All in all, we DID have a great time! There are problems at every regatta, and this regatta's major problem of running late was caused by another team, so let's all give them some slack! Good job Harrison!! :lol:

well....hot day, great location, great drag queen entertainment, big screen just rocks!.....delays, restarts, and reraces happen...it's all a part of dragonboating...constructive critism is always needed...but attacks are unwarranted (therefore had to alter the original subject title)....just suck it up and realize that these volunteers and organizers spend hours and hours of their time to do a service to our community.....from behalf of my team who fell victim to the delays, rerace, etc....my team had a blast and our sincere thanks go the Digger and squad for making this a great festival....we'll be back next year!

This is our second year at Harisson and While I am still not totally forgiving of last years "borrowing Paddlers" Fiasco we came back to try our luck again!
IMHO I think it was going pretty smoothly until the afternoon .A hour delay was brutal and the committee should have told the womens team that misregistered TFB and continue with the grid. Lanes were tight but we were involved in some AWESOME races and despite the trickier water conditions in the afternoon I think most teams will agree the heats were mostly pretty even. Its a second year festival and I think the race comittee did a pretty good job but I agree with the coach of lttle people that maybe getting some of water's edge staff involved would be a good idea. There were a LOT more pluses than negatives! The volunteers who prevailed despite 40 dsegree heat and blazing relentless sunshine setting up the venue on Friday (Arrrgh Pirates and Chilliwack teams About!) and the dock and marshalling staff who were friendly and cheerful. An Amazing location even with those fun rollers on the water and CLEAN water to swim in between races.
The race was not perfect but like all new regattas going through growing pains A pity the much anticipated Survivor race was cancelled as well.
I was soooooo busy running around and racing and coaching I did not fire a single race shot but the BIIIIIGGG A$$$$$ sceen made up for it! (ALcan organizers take note!).
Now to start preparing for Victoria!......

This was definately a "gong show", but if anything, it made things "interesting" to say the least.  We basically got to experience EVERYTHING all in one festival!  :D  The crashing, the re-starts...all while being in 10 hours of blistering heat.  All in all, our team has a blast and I just wanted to thank all the organizers for putting on a good show!  

Though there was a little craziness, there was still great sportsmanship, and the organizers tried their best to tend to the needs of all teams.  Not bad for a 2nd showing.  As long as they learned from this experience, I look forward to an amazing 3rd.  :D

Thanks again Digger and all other organizers/volunteers!  

PS:  Anyone have the race grid times?

Do you know which division got your medals? What's the difference?

Wow, positive feedback - that's what it's all about.  Yes we can learn from mistakes, but if we never make any, how do we know that what we're doing is right?  Someone once told me that 'if you get 100% it doesn't show how much you know, it just shows that you know as much as you are required to', so in order to learn more, let's concentrate on positive, not negative - I'm sure the Harrison Committee are open to all suggestions as they are a really awesome committee, facing a huge amount of responsibility - above all - the safety of all paddlers.
When you think about it, we are a league of our own - dragon boating has been around for more years than many other sports.  As a medal/ribbon event it's not that old, let's not get too carried away with our own agenda - sometimes it needs to be put into perspective.  I wonder what the original paddlers would have to say about how we handle things now!  And as an addition, I would like to thank  all the steerspeople and callers for a great job - it's not an enviable position given the different water conditions (mostly weather dependent), and having to control 20 paddlers - not a position I would volunteer for, and yes, they are experienced but different factors do come into play -  just for the record I would like to extend my thanks and respect to all those that are willing to take on the stress that as a paddler I don't need to think about - I trust them explicitly.  Thanks Harrison and all those involved that made it an absolutely awesome experience - clashes and all - we all need to know that we can come out of it and still be part of the Dragon Boat community and most of all...friends!

Nicely put, Helan!!! :D

After reading all the posts - this demonstrates to me once again, why Dragon Boaters are in a league of their own when it comes to sportmanship and support. I have no problem with the phrase "gong-show" ... hell I might have said it a couple of times to myself during the afternoon!

Feedback - both good or bad is a useful tool.  That's why I like to come to Dragon Boat West - I know I'll get the straight facts.  I know talking last night after everything was packed up (try putting everything away after 5 races (we had to do that re-race)! 

I promise to all dragon boater's out there ... It will be a lot better next year.  We're still learning, but for one I have a voice and I've read your posts. Plus I saw tons of things we need to do to improve this regatta.  Some I've already mentioned in my earlier post. 

Now to partically answer one question - results. As my team was racing in the finals I don't know the results for the Rec A or Rec B - should know by Monday or Tuesday.

For the Competitive Finals -

1. Roli Canada - Gold
2. VO2 Max - Silver ?
3. Sudden Impact - Bronze

I will have all the times and results posted ASAP.

Again thanks for the comments - I don't get offended easily. Now if I could only get that Gong bell to stop ringing in my ears!!!  :argh: 

Hi
 
I volunteered to be the starter for the Harrison DB Festival, which turned out to be a 12-hour day and am an experienced paddler also.  The starts would have been alot quicker if all these conditions had been met:

1.  The chase boats should be putting you in your lanes, not me who was on shore this year.  If your steersperson is experienced then you could put yourself in the right lanes.

2.  Each time I asked if every team can hear me and they always say yes, but when I tell them to move up, some listen and a few hold back, so the stragglers have to catch up and then the rest have drifted over the start line.  The teams were warned the race will start without them if they don't move up. 

3.   The other way, when I tell them to hold and they are still drifting over the start line, we have to start all over again.   

4.   The water gets pretty choppy out there and if we can't get a race out quickly, you have to back everybody down and do it again.

5.   There should have been a pre-start line of bouys so everybody could have been together and move to the start line at the same time.   

Don't take anything to heart - it wasn't dependent on one person to make things run smoothly  - Everyone needs to realize that there is a tremendous amount of responsiblity and pressure involved, and that there is a group of people that take the brunt of it to make the starts go as planned. These involve not only those on the shore and the chase boat, but also the steerspeople, callers and paddlers.  I know we do as we are directed (spoken from inside the boat) but water and weather conditions play a huge role.  We need to count on everyone to ensure safety on the water and if you need to stop a race and restart, we should be thanking you for looking out for us.
Good job, and thanks for volunteering - we can all learn from stepping in someone else's shoes.

(almost) everyone's an adult here, lets keep the feedback constructive, I think we can agree that the harrison organizers certainly gave an excellent effort in their second running of this event and tried hard to make it enjoyable for all, and I'm sure based on what I've seen from diggerpig that whatever we as paddlers can give them will serve to make the event better for next year. 

I will agree the stoppage of racing in the middle of the day was silly, and while i applaud the efforts of the organizers for trying to accommodate that team which registered incorrectly, I would agree with everyone that said the answer should be, "sorry ladies, you're racing as a mixed team".  (I am actually against female-only teams being able to race in mixed divisions as I think its hypocritical and throws the whole gender equity movement competely in the other direction, but we'll leave that debate for another thread).  Given the heat and the already packed schedule for the day, and the rather unpredictable weather conditions that exist in that part of the fraser valley, keeping the festival moving should be Priority #2 (second only to participant safety)

Another suggestion I would make is that while this Mizz-Drag-On-Boat contest was definitely entertaining, I think it should be incorporated into the paddlers party or awards-ceremonies... its a lot of fun, and enough so that some more teams may actually stick around until the end.

I think that as long as this festival stays a one-day four-race event (and please don't change that), the extra race (survivor this year) should be scrapped... even if the event hadn't run late, its just too much in one day...  EG. Seavancouver last year was very comparable, and they had to save the obstacle course for the second day.

Also will echo the need for wider lanes, and pre-start line markers.  And mid course markers would be nice too, especially for the steerspeople.  I felt bad for our steers, by the time the comp final ran, the sun was deep in the west and reflectino off the water was killer, and there's no way that any of them could have seem the final markers clearly... mid course markers would be very helpful (if there were some, my appologies, I just didn't notice any)

Overall however, I had an amazing time at the festival!

Kudos:
I want to thank and congratulate the organizing crew and all the volunteers, especially those working the docks and the course! they did a great job and i know i saw the same faces on the dock everytime i went down, they were in that heat just as long if not longer than all of us, kudos to them all! 

Serious respect to every team in the comp final who went out, raced hard, and then stuck around to congratulate and greet every other team as they came off the water!  That's what I love about dragon boating and you guys and gals are mega classy, it was an honor to be in that race.

Also on that note have to thank another team who started that paddle arch... I believe it was the Chilliwack Thunder Strikers (they were in bright yellow jerseys).  There is no bigger lift after a long day and a hard race to come off the water and have a team that wasn't even in that race coming over to high five you and cheer you on... you guys are awesome!

Congrats to two teams who really stepped up in this festival:  My old crew V02 who kicked some serious butt and took silver in comp, who predicted that??? mega proud of them!  Also have to show respect for what Ready-Jet-Go accomplished, I don't recall their results at Alcan, but they definitely stepped up into a tough group of comp teams.

Whoever came up with that big screen TV with grid and live feeds, THAT WAS FREAKING AWESOME!  Alcan take note, that is something seriously lacking with your festival and easily remedied.

Good job harrison! I look forward to seeing what you come up with next year!

Thanks, Digger Pig, and all the rest of the volunteers, for the incredible amounto of time you put into this "gong show"!!! I didn't think it was a gong show..had a great time!  :D Can't wait to see how next year turns out! But don't forget to bring back the big screen and Wayne!!! :D

without much repeating of what have been said here... im sure we all felt the same. im definitely going back to harrison next year!@ much appreciate of all the efforts thrown in from those who help out in the festivals... great ppl !

the big screen is WICKED! If only the races shown on screen is available on a DVD, I would pick one up in a heart beat! (for a reasonable price of course..could be a 50/50 profit for charity as well? - just a thought).  Im sure some teams can just tape themselves from shore but i think the festival has pretty good equipment and steady hands. It's always nice to see myself from shore...and learn from mistakes,

YES. Alcan: I really enjoy the TV like most ppl do. I would love to see one next year!

They CAN be bought on DVD. If you want them, IM me and I can hook you up with the camera man! :D

 Rightarm ...personally I don't care about the medal and this festival was only practice and it turned out to be the best practice I could have asked for .I think I had more happen in this small event than any other race I have been in and thats alot of them .

 It prepared the team for anything basically that can be thrown at them and thats what made it great .They now can move on to a much bigger event in 2 weeks and know we can pretty much survive whatever comes our way

 The medal comment was a joke !! .... I know we did well , I don't need another medal to show me that . What I commented on was what I thought were funny events that happened during the festival and they were ........thats why it was a " gong" show . I don't think there was any other team that had so many things happen or go wrong for them but we all had a good laugh about it ........its not a big deal...its a very small festival and its going through growing pains .

 Thx harrison for the best practice we could have asked for  :mrgreen:

 As for your comment about womens teams racing in mixed ...I'm all for it .There are womens teams out there that get tired of dominating that 1 division and they want to be pushed hard to get better and I think its great they want to race a tougher division.........I say bring it on ! There is 1 womens team out there that could pretty much put away all of the rec teams and probably most of the comp C teams and they get tired of having no real competition so let the ladies race...its their only chance to get even stronger

Wow..when did a festival with around 50 teams become small?? Am I missing something?? lol  :lol:

,, Give Wayne Price an email , he was the camera guy for the day, and has all the races on hard drive. He did say that he could put them on DVD for around $20.00
So email Wayne at [email protected]

Yes 50 is small......the big ones are over 175 teams and in some cases well over 200 . See most of the teams I race for travel and race big venues throughout N.America ...this is small in comparison

lol..I suppose I paddle a sheltered life!! lol  :D I consider small to be Cultus Lake Women's..only 12 teams!!! I consider our large festivals to be Kelowna, Nanaimo, Harrison and FCW..oh well..maybe when I grow up..a girl could only dream of large events..haha :lol:

 To give you an idea of big .Here's our next event in 2 weeks .Some local teams that qualified are racing there

 FCRCC ,Pacific Reach ,Roli ,Laoyam , Kai Ikaika ,San Diego and others will be representing the west

 www.2006ccwc.com

 this is a big event ...just go to the teams page and check out how many countries are entered and in what divisions ...this is what most hardcore paddlers hope to be a part of 1 day

I suppose some teams like to advance up to the start line slowly. However, one thing I did notice at Harrison : despite passing the "can you hear me" test, as the teams got closer to start line alignment and the frequency of correcting calls went up (either by you, the starter, and by various teams' steerspersons), it became difficult to hear your calls. I havn't notice this effect happening at other races and I'm not sure why/how this happened at Harrison. Perhaps its the wind or close proximity of the lanes... So for next year, perhaps Harrison should look at getting a louder megaphone for the starter.   And don't throw away the old megaphone - give it to the chase boat callers, cause they could have really used one! :)

Overall, I think it was pretty well run festival. When not bogged down by the various before mentioned delays, it was just great. And just like everyone else, I think the giant LED screen was super idea and something Alcan can learn from. They should seriously consider getting one of these bad boys set up for the spectators with a camera mid-course so that everyone can see what the heck is going on! ;)

re: gong show comment - thanks for clearing that up, i withdraw my comment... i forget that gong show has humourous conotations to it as opposed to meaning something that was a failure  (generally these days when i hear someone say "it was a total gong show" it isn't a good thing)

re: womens only in mixed - again don't want to get into that debate here, but i agree some women's teams are stronger than a lot of mixed teams.  that's not my issue.  my issue is that if there are to be a minimum number of female paddlers in the boat on mixed teams then there should be a minimum number of male paddlers as well.  to me this extends to all co-ed sports, not just paddling, but this is our context.  If the women on those strong teams want more competition and aren't finding it in the women's divisions, then they can join mixed teams. No one would stand for an all male team (regardless of how good or bad they are) jumping into mixed divisions, would they?  "FCRCC mens" could probably make the same statement you just made about their competition, couldn't they?  anyways enough of that, if anyone else wants to comment on this, lets move it to another thread.

sweet! that was the first thought i had when i saw them having a live feed.

thanks!

First off - Richard you did an awesome job - so if anyone (I don't think thats that case anymore) has a problem PM me as any negative comments seems unfair and unjust as he's volunteered two years in a row to come out and give us his time, sweat, and effort. 

Second - I am making a list of all the comment and will definitely be submitting a list to for our post-regatta meeting when we break down the entire event and try and improve. 

Finally - please, please, please keep in mind that the dock crews and I think this applies to the bulk of small to medium size regatta, work their ass off on the docks and for consistency they stay there the entire day.  The dock crew consisted of all my personal friends and co-workers.  I also had my 12 year old son (second year he's come out - wants to Dragon Boat soooo bad.  He'll be someone to watch for FCRCC!) working on the docks.  Despite some serious sun burn today the people i talked to said that for the most part, the had a lot of fun an all the teams were friendly and great to deal with.  They also said that they enjoyed the experience and thats despite almost 12 hours in the sun (they started at 07:30 hrs).  Some ... and I stress some teams frustrated with the day seem to voice their anger to wards the volunteers (dock crew)!?!  Next time please come up to the dragon boat committee and yell at us - not them.

I wasn't going to put in the final paragraph because I didn't want to deflect any blame off of us (dragon boat committee). Make no mistake - it was a gong show is some areas and great in others.  As I've posted earlier we will fix it! 

I do appreciate all the posts!  Really thanks for being understanding.  I've already talked with "Coach of little people" and we've already got working on next year to improve. 

Now does anyone have a crane I can borrow?  I've got this Big Ass TV stuck in my doorway!  :wall:

I take back my previous comments about the starter..ya, we had one bad delay at the start..but that's llife, i suppose! Thanks for spending 12 hours in the blistering heat for us! I apologize for offending you, Richard! :)

that really bothers me that some people would have been taking out their frustration on the dock volunteers... we see this all too often at the festivals, its not right.

Hey everyone, I'm actually glad to see that there are people on both sides of the argument b/c this is the best way to learn! You look at all the comments (positive and constructive), decide which ones are valid vs just plain complaining or ridiculous, learn from them, and prepare for it next time this might occur.

I'll admit that I also referred to some of the races as a "Gong show" to imply that you're never going to be sure what is going to happen, so do you best to prepare. After seeing some of the collisions, I tried to prepare my team for either a collision or going off course and that's the best you can do...for the rest, you do your best to adapt to the situation and still be competitive! Again, as long as no one was seriously hurt, it was a great experience (collisions, disputes, heat, freshwater, boats, lanes) and all in one festival...great bang for the buck!!!

Hands down to Diggerpig and the FVDBF for admitting that they made a mistake or two b/c many other festivals that I've been to have just left a sour taste in people's mouths...it's over and let's all move on! Stop being angry and acknowledge that everyone did their best at the moment of the situation.

Regarding the gi-normous screen, I think that you should keep it in your backyard and invite us all over for a big party...or a movie...or a big game of X-Box's NHL 2006!

The big screen was great... it would have been even better if it also had been used to communicate with the paddlers.... Notifications of what races were marshalling, what teams wre up next to marshall, or even what teams were required for a re-race would have been great uses of the screen and may have helped speed things up... or at least alleviate some of the stress...

Hey Keen Man, even though the screen was awesome, it would be difficult to place up all that information on one screen, but I completely agree with your idea. Maybe a rotating list every 5 minutes?

One of the festivals I was at had a PA system every 50 - 100 feet to alert paddlers of upcoming races, present races, and past races.

Another festival had a tent of voluteers at the entrance/exit of the paddlers village to check that only paddlers entered and for information for teams. This worked well b/c then the main marshallers tent wasn't swamped with questions, disputes, or just angry people.

Hey Digger Pig!
The Volunteers did an awesome job, I was scrambling for the nearest shade when I wasn't racing and felt bad for the volunteers on the docks.
Except for the delay, the festival went smoothly and on schedule in the morning,
The only thing I would bring up would be to shorten the Mizz dragon boat as it was a bit long (but enjoyable unless you were wearing a size 12 polyster dress with a wig  and full make up on,.,,,,) and just have 2 or 3 go on a  a time.
And the beer hall was a suprising bust! The heat didn't help and the lack of a DJ was the kiss of death. Too bad you guys can't convince them to have an open tent one......After all aren'tDBers responsible drinking adults.....
Great work once again and looking forward to next year.

oops  :shock:

I agree with almost everything said here, good and bad.  The festival side was great (big screen, and team baskets....listen up Alcan!), the racing needed a few things improved.  Maybe the race course should be pushed out to deeper water, so wave chop and lane bias would be diminished.  All in all, I enjoyed myself.  Promise to turn down the heat next year and I'm sure to return.

Scaly Justice has a great time at the festival - the video screen was great, as was the complimentary flat of water and fruit basket. 

The volunteers did a great job. Thanks to the organizers! 

We had no problems hearing the race marshall from shore (but did get frustrated when we had to back it up from the start line for each race - but that wind was stronger than we've seen at Alcan).

The narrow lanes got your adrenaline pumping because you constantly heard the teams next to you throughout the race!  It made it tough to hear your own calls in the boat - but that made the races that much more exciting.

The only glitch we saw was the delay in the afternoon races and not knowing when our race was actually running (so we had to check back often) (and the video screen people not knowing either, and dropping the live feed because they couldn't run commentary).

Some tents / awnings over the marshalling area would be awesome!

We must have had Barney for our second seeding race - we had an awesome race, but only improved our time over our (lousy) first race time by 4 seconds.

Here are the results of the Rec B Final and a finish line photo.

(http://img488.imageshack.us/img488/1308/img3883smallej2.jpg)

(http://img77.imageshack.us/img77/4313/img3876zoompu1.jpg)

Harrison feedback

First off great venue/location.  Too bad bout the Mosquitos tho.

Cramming in 4 races, survival + gaypride day was perhaps optimistic.
If you want to keep the extra stuff around, consider a 3 race format.

Alternatively, think up some creative ideas to attract more teams.  You're not far off from holding a Victoria size event which would be very commendable and a benefit to westcoast racing (ie we do need more larger sized events)

Race Direction:
I don't mind asking to maybe take extra care in your start line/finish line setups and landmarking's.
Consistent lane assignments
Water officials taking care to line boats up in their lanes.
Chase boats out there for all races

The big screen tv, well there's nothing more to say about that except don't lose it.

Having a break in the middle of the day was awesome.  Really.  But don't let it get away and run off schedule.

I was going to leave this one alone but come on people, yes the festival was a bit harry at times but the best way to proceed is with constructive criticism and not bashing the festival organizers and volunteers as they did try to do their best.  I'm surprised at some of the comments here.  It's a beautiful venue and I saw smiles on many that day, sure it ran a little long (actually too long) but things to learn from and improve on for next year.  After visiting both Vernon and Harrison this year I'm just thankfull the parties involved put these festivals together for all of us to enjoy.  It's so nice to paddle in clean water and boy what a view.  Hey did you see the Red Bull girls????

Vernon had Red Bull Girls?!? Ok where did I put that list ...  :lol:

 Rec A consolation apparantly got the comp A gold medals.... :shock: Take very good care of them while you hold onto them for me and remember ....don't scratch them please ...lol . j/k

 If you can't get the medals back I'll gladly take a red bull girl in exchange  :pray:

Here are my thoughts ... very similar to what was posted before. 

1. Lane bias like Kelowna - possibly unavoidable, but lane 6 was definitely very fast
2. Changing rules - race grid changed to add womens team into mixed division and final grid lane assignments changed
3. Boats not going into pre-assigned lanes - Need chase boats to get boats in proper lanes
4. Start and finish angles seemed different
5. Took too long to line up boats - extra set of starter buoys will help
6. No checking for wristbands - maybe not necessary for fun festival
7. Delays - Are 4 races too much for 50 teams?  Without delay, it may be possible.
8. Boat conditions - Try and make it as fair as possible.  If Barney is used, it should be in lane 6.
9. Dock setup - Only one dock, so it takes a long time to load and unload boats.  The dock can't support too much weight, so all boats were fully unloaded before next race's teams were able to get on.
10. Collisions - Try for wider lanes.  In the case of Roli collisions, maybe every team was intentionally trying to collide with intent of injury, perhaps being paid out by some Eastern DB teams.  What a conspiracy that would be.  Or maybe they just wanted to hit paddleboy.  :D I did hear that the final race was re-run a few times when Roli was hit twice on the left side.

Other than that, the good things were it was a nice venue, volunteers were friendly, and the big screen TV worked well. And of course, it's great that the organizers listen to the paddlers for feedback.

 You mean they really were aiming for me ?  :shock:  If at first you don't succeed try and try again..hehe.

 It kind of reminded me of outrigger oc6 racing and at one point I actually grabbed their boat as they hit us and physically  tried to push it off ,like i would in a oc6 race ,and yelled for everyone stay on it and keep paddling but then they called the race  :?...haha ...it was a blast ! I'm bringing my oc6 blade next time .Big waves & collisons  = big  fun  :shifty:

As well as not checking for wristbands, I saw no signs that they were checking mixed teams for the requisite number of female paddlers....

Hopefully no teams exploited this apparent weakness in the system to their advantage.....

So, my first time on and I am reporting our Harrison Regatta placement..The Hypnautix placed 3rd in the Woman's Competitive...yeah...that's us..and I'm the Coach...wooo hoo...lots of great teams :lol:

they called for female quantity check everytime my team was in marshalling so maybe you just weren't paying attention

Hey Alpha.......Fun Festival..........Sorry, its a BAAAAAAD memory I will one day get over.



A team mentioned to me there was a team with 13 guys on the team. Apparantly they just by-passed marshalling and went and joined their team on the docks as they were loading. Accidental miscount? Hopefully.....Could have also been one of the Mizz Dragonboat contestants who went too far!

Just like the ring of that better!  Plus my hand is cramping from all the notes I've taken.  When is Victoria!  Just Kidding I know  8)

I know that they asked our team once or twice at marshalling if everyone had their wristbands, but there was no obvious check. Who knows, they may have just been really observant and we didn't notice the checks, or it was forgotton when they were trying to play catch up in the afternoon. :D

a couple of those boats were the older ones with an extra seat, so its entirely possible they had 13 guys in the boat and still had 8 (or even 9) females.

I know the dock crew was keeping an eye on the number of women and men paddling.  I also know that some guys sparing would come down to the dock to give encouragement to the team - ours did, but did not come into the boat.  That may have caused some of this confusion.

Next year i hope the commitee decides to put into place a pre-start line on the water. That way they can have alignment before they approach the start line and 500 metre's is truly 500 metre's ( the race course was apparently GPS'd to exactly 500m but with the drift that was happening while the boats got aligned im sure that there was some discrepancy with the race lenght between the different heats)

Considering what happened last year, I would have thought that the Fraser Valley Committee would be checking for wrist bands and the number of females on the boat.  The Committee appeared to be too relaxed this year.

As this is the 2nd annual festival, I'm sure that the Committee will get their act together for next year.  Overall, I did have fun as I'm sure the rest of the teams that attended did also. 

... ummm ... not to be seen as foaming-at-the-mouth impatient or anything, but ...

Are we going to see the full results, sometime?

And that would be as in "soon", I wishfully am hoping??!!!   :D

Thx!

D

 i emailed the results to Admin at DBW. Hopefully they can get them posted

This is what I was sent ... The rest to follow (either posted on FVDBC site or by Admin from DBW via Ian)

Competitive Final
1. Roli Canada - 2:10.80
2. VO2 MAX - 2:14.07
3. Sudden Impact - 2.16.90
4. Strathcona's Dangerous When Wet - 2.17.47
5. Readi Jet Go - 2.17.84
6. Fresh off the Dragon Boat - 2.19.10

Competitive Consolation
1. Sword Fish - 2.21.00
2. Synergy Soulmarines - 2.21.20
3. Just Dragon Along - 2.22.76
4. Alpha Dragons - 2.23.76

Rec A Finals 
1. Elephant & Castle - 2.28.10
2. Chilliwack Thunderstrokers - 2.28.56
3. TD Lightning - 2.28.63
4. Team Vortex - 2.29.06
5. Synergy Speeders - 2.36.20

Rec A Consolation
1. Spirt of a Renegade - 2.31.04
2. Splashtest Dragons - 2.31.40
3. Phat Phish Racing - 2.32.44
4. Pirates - 2.34.17

Rec B Finlas
1. Scaly Justice - 2.31.47
2. Oardeal - 2.31.57
3. Concord Pacific Flying Dragons Too - 2.33.33
4. Synergy Young Gunz - 2.33.67
5. Lotus N'Sync - 2.36.00

Rec B Consolation
1. Delta Flying Dragons - 2.45.82
2. Dogwood Nothin' Dragons - 2.47.06
3. Mackenzie Mussels - 2.49.46
4. Chilliwack Engine - 2.53.26

Womens Competitive Final
1. Chilliwack Water Warriors - 2.27.59
2. Dragon Ladies - 2.28.05
3. Sunshine Dragons - 2.36.49
4. Canadian Construction Women - 2.41.67
5. Cultus Lake Dragonfliers - 2.45.27

Womens Rec Final
1. Kelowna Pacemakers - 2.35.44
2. Deep Cove Catch 22 - 2.37.50
3. Abreast in a Boat - 2.44.05
4. Saints Preserve Us - 2.45.98
5. Fort Langley Women on Water - 2.46.51

Womens Rec Consolation
1. Kindred Spirits - 2.46.44
2. Fort Langley Fliers - 2.62.00
3. Fort Langley Rec Team - 2.74.43

Those are the Finals as sent to me. 

Thanks for sending us the results, Ian. I've passed the files on to another admin who will upload them later on today.

In the meantime, I've updated the rankings / standings page with results from Richmond, Harrison and Vernon! :)

I don't know if this is a stupid question or not..but where is Spirit Abreast in the final results?

2006 Harrison final results (http://members.shaw.ca/dragonboatwest/results/2006/2006%20Harrison%20Results.pdf) in PDF format.

All orders for the DVD should be in by  this Friday,  4th August , thanks

Hey Nanette .... it was a great day wasn't it?? Our team, the Saints Preserve Us, came in 4th.  It was so hot that day .. we were surprised we even placed in the top 10.
I really liked that huge video screen that captured all the footage of the races .. that was a real bonus to the location.
cheers,
A Saint  8)

Harrison was HOT....Tons of fun.. and I loved the screen too..Nice to see up close and use as a tool for coaching as well..I used it to show my team members what we do  in relation to other teams and so on..  Great job on your placement..We are going to be in Kelowna this September and my team is so looking forward to it..we have some house boats rented..same price as the hotel..bonus..Let it Ride....Nanette