Dragon Boat West

took a bit of a swim today just east of the Cambie bridge.  water was cooly refreshing and i didn't climb out covered in condoms and needles.  :lol:   yay for spring!

:mynig:  HAHAHAHAHA !!!!!!!! OMG......I thought when you said you were going to do 1000 meter pieces you meant paddling....I didn't know you were plannin on swimmin it ..lol.....Hmmmm, actually swimming is supposed to be a good form of training  :shock:  .........where hell was I with the camera !!! LoL . See what happens when I let you out of my sight ......I think you should invest in a self-bailer pump  ! lol

it was right next to him when it happened, i gotta say it was brave of him to actually go under the boat! when in false creek territory i prefer to keep my head above water and just swim around to get to the other side

colossus: good thing you didn't dump by DZ  :lol:  i think that would have been a fair bit worse

pshh  paddling is for wimps.  real men SWIM in false creek.  :roll: :lol:

colossus you trying to take title of huli king away from me?!  j/k
right arm, we had the cuties on our boat screaming his name... must have distracted him.  always look good in front of cute audiences... that's all i have to say...  :lol:

 so its been like 24 hrs almost now.........any new growth's to report ?  :mrgreen:

 You didn't ,by any chance ,do a taste test while you were in there did you ? just wondering where the coliform count is now  :shock:

well, i do look a little bit more like my avatar photo now..  bit more glossy shine to my skin.  and when i went for a run, i somehow managed to end up in australia after 20minutes.  thought that was pretty cool, until i discovered i could cover the entire great wall of china in 30 seconds.  i wonder i'll be able to paddle faster now?  hahaha

you also seem to be delusional, as always, :rofl:

Hey Colossus, as long as you're swimming around in the creek, can you take a look by the dock to see if you can grab the C-Lion iako (green tape) that fell in the water?

don't make me pull out some calgary moments  :lol: :lol: :lol:

w/e, I have no shame,

speaking of swimming in the water, I heard FC's going to start promoting flatwater by throwing free open house and lessons on weekend afternoons,

anyone joining?

ugh.  are you serious?  that seriously sucks.  the tide was super low tonight, we should have shoved a giant magnet on a pole down to fish around for it.

if its not too late in the day (ie i can leave by 1pm), i'll go.  i need to get back into the K1s, and Lauren told me i should get into a C1 so i learn not to huli in a lowly oc1. haha

hoooray to double posting, and ah...good' ol' jaded Lauren,

hmmm...don't forget your knee pad, and soap, lots and lots of soap, to wash all the salt away,

might as well start buying Vaseline in bulk, multipurpose and all, since you're skin will start drying up in all that salt,,

The open house and afternoon stuff sounds like the new junior flatwater program. There's also most likely going to be novice adult flatwater if there's enough demand. Details will be posted soon. Stay tuned for shameless FCRCC promotion.

Come on Luke, don't scare everyone away with your soap stories! Hey, I went out in a C1 for 5 minutes and didn't huli. Piece of cake. And it had a styrofoam block to kneel on, what could be more comfortable?   :wink:

By the way, Lauren fished out the green iako but now it seems one of the yellow ones has gone missing.  :(

:lol: not even going there  :lol:

what?!  people need to really take care of the equipment. 

 sad isn't it .............if they owned their own oc1's they would be extremely careful but since they don't and its someone else's they get dropped ,banged into things ,run into things and then they don't report it until its your time to go out and you paddle into the creek only to realize its filling w/ water .Just like whoever damaged the new huki oc2 and did not say anything ...........nice job guys

 There should be a sign up sheet to take boats out and for new boats only those w/ experience can use them

 I'm just lucky I own my own oc1 ......

or maybe people who aren't stupid

being facetious of course, but I don't come with the "experience" some may refer to when this subject comes up a lot, and yet I have never caused damage to any of the boats I've used because I'm careful.  I've certainly had the pleasure of using quite a few oc1's that were damaged, so I can appreciate how ****ty that is.  i think it goes without saying that people will always respect things more when they have to purchase it themselves

the problem with the experience factor is, at what point is it no longer "new" and the "non-experienced" are able to use it?  And who polices that, will they have someone doing loading & assembly testing?

I think if people just own up to it, the problem goes away (or at least you're not hte one stuck with the damaged boat).  I actually wonder how many current fcrcc membership know what to do when something on the boat gets damaged?  I'm sure there are probably signs up, though honestly i've never seen them; the only reason I know is because during my orientation session I pointed out to the instructor that the rudder was basically **** and later we found the stick wasn't attached properly, so he told me what happens with damaged boats.  had that not been the case, i probably wouldn't know either.  And a lot of times there isn't anyone around for people to ask.

these equipment aren't cheap.  although i agree the lack of instructions on what to do. basically if people used their common sense they would head to the FCRCC office and ask.  or have the courtesy of at least slipping a note there or email that one of the boats are damaged.  it's inconsiderate people that ruin it for all of us.

in terms of caring for the boats... people really should go through an orientation on what to do.  like don't take apart the boat until you are sure the boat is secure on the docks.  i saw a few people who nearly kicked over a few of the iako off the docks. 

if you can't carry an OC1 ask someone to help... it's better than dropping it on the ground.  there are times when i am so tired from paddling that i can't even carry an OC1 to the sheds... no shame in asking for help.  and for the guys... please help the ladies!

last but not least everyone should take the huli drill! or watch how colossus does it.  he's quick getting out of the water!   :D

In the case of the Huki OC2, I'm pretty sure the boat was reported as damaged as soon as the damage was noticed. The problem is that the club doesn't have an effective process to communicate the status of damaged or missing equipment to club members (which is just part of the club's overall communications issues). Another aspect of the problem is that a lot of people don't know how to report damaged boats. I'm not entirely sure I know what they are myself, but I think they are:

1. If at Alder Bay and the damaged boat is an OC (or any small boat), put the boat on the "repair rack". I believe the repair rack is the one right next to Lauren's work area in the OC boat shed.

2. Send an email to [email protected]. You can also just tell Lauren if you see him.

You'll hopefully see a new "FAQ" page appearing on fcrcc.com in the near future with answers to these sorts of questions if the slacker communications rep ever gets around to publishing it.

By the way, I like the idea of sign-out sheets. If anyone wants to take the initiative to get them set up, please feel free to volunteer.  :)

if that happens, and its not on a tuesday and thursday evenings again, i'm all for it.  otherwise, i'll be jumping over to BCKC to learn over there.

 its nice to see other paddlers following your original plunge......seems more and more fcrcc men and women are taking to the water these last few days,lol . 1st you ,then 1 of the girls in the time trials and now you know who went for it last nite..........its an awesome team..........all supporting one another,lol .Can't wait till tomorrow morning ...who will it be ???