Dragon Boat West

Hi all!

Well the weather worked out satisfactorily for the most part.  :shock:  There were no serious accidents in my opinion and no serious injuries that I am aware of.  :)  So now comes the time to ask what did you guys and gals like about the festival as far as the racing side of things is concerned? Please understand that the people involved in putting the races together will be reading this most likely so I would make a request from you all to keep it clean and in a constructive manner. Every year we request feedback and there seems to be some fairly good comments given. That is what I wish to see here, feedback or comments to make your racing experience a pleasant one. Please understand that comments about what other teams did in any particular heat is not what I am asking about. I am asking about anything to do with respect to racing and perhaps even the race grid, the on water officials and starter, and anything else you feel that should be mentioned.

Congratulations to all teams this past weekend. It was a pleasure to see you all out there doing what you guys do best!  :D

--

BernMan..
Do you know of an email address that I send some concerns? I'm not sure it would be constructive for anyone to air them in public.

BTW  I like the new location of the Beer Garden... Those of us who finish competing early have only to stand on a chair to watch the finals.

I think the festival was great! Everyone I know had a good time. The only thing we would gripe about was the fact that there was only one in/out for the paddlers village so people were messing with the fences. There was a ton of security there (which was great) so it seems like there would have been enough people to cover a second entrance to the tents.

Other than that, GREAT DAY!

I second the 2nd entrance idea.

The seeding procedure was interesting and i think it all worked out well.

One more thing i was impressed about was after breaking my paddle in warm how fast it was to get me a special delivery paddle of the needed size on the water.

Oh that was me doing that "special delivery" and am glad that I was able to accomodate. Afterall you are the paying customer!  8))

Hi Olde One.

You are always welcome to send me your private concerns to my email [email protected]. I will make sure that the race organizers/powers that be get them promptly.

Cheers!

Free Spectator Admission - good
Fewer Teams - bad
More Divisions - seemed to work out without killing paddlers
More Photographers & Videographers - good, but they are probably not breaking even
Beer Garden by Timing Tent - good
Festival Grounds - good, more spread out, family friendly
Portopotties - good, plenty around, no huge line-ups
Free water - bad, there wasn't any, but there was power drinks available

Fewer sponsors and fewer freebies this year :(

As for the racing, always good. Weather co-operated for the most part and the water officials were good. Only one leaky boat (they replugged it) and seat damage? The volunteers did a heck of a job.

Only problem is False Creek. The recent dredging and the new nature island with its two mini-bays seems to creating some strange cross current around the half-way mark . Of course, it is not as crazy as the Inner Harbour in Victoria. 

The Racer's Village was in a much, much, much more convenient location compared to last year. Especially without the bottlenecking! Very nice.

The way the tents were laid out was convenient as well. Lots of open spaces for people to pass each other, rather than the tight squeeze of last year. Some teams brought their own tents again, which was fine; it didn't bug me as much as they did last year (people got greedy with public space). This year was more comfortable.

A very well-run festival, great work to the organizers and racers alike, despite the fact that the Bandaid song got stuck in my head until this morning. (still recovering from the trauma)  :x

Send your questions, comments, and concerns to Leah at [email protected].  If she can't address them, she will forward them to the folks that can.

Yes that always works too but having another person who is actually out on the water for 9+ hours for 2 solid days might not be a bad thing either. Of course the Race Director will get all comments that are sent my way straight to him since he is who puts all of us officials out on the water together. We plan to discuss the weekend's events in a couple of weeks so its not a bad either to let us hear them from you before hand.

Which lead to the best quote I heard all weekend..."It's not poo, it's a Clif bar!"

you gotta do what you gotta do when you're out there already.   at least we know those Clif Bars are good for one thing... butt boat plugs!

Good
Security improved a lot this year.  I was thoroughly checked for my wristband everytime I entered the village.

Bad
Those vicious lil grannies that are not ashamed of cutting lines or grabbing free swag off your hands!

Dragon Warriors had a great time this weekend !  Thanks to all of the organizers, volunteers and fellow competitors for some great racing.  We only came up with one mixed crew this year so we didn't race Open or Womens so we were thankful to have squeaked the last spot in GnG which was the highlight of the weekend for us.

Highs:

Guts N Glory - this really makes the Vancouver race unique
Great race overall as always
Better security
Quick switch of the cliff bar boat when notified

Lows:

Announcing - often just refers to teams by boat lane number which is less informative/interesting for fans and those interested in the races

Marshalling - It seemed at some points we were marshalling in excess of an hour early.  I understand it from a race ops perspective but lots of dead time in the marshall area.  Perhaps penalizing the the few lame crews a bit might be a better trade off ?  Maybe the teams would have more time for the festival, to spectate and support the vendors?

Not too clear as to how folks qualified for the visiting team cup... but not a biggie.

Thanks for a great weekend !

Hans

BIG & sincere thank you to all the race organizers & volunteers for making the Space Dragons' first time competing in Alcan so memorable & fun!  Truly a blast, & awesome racing alongside so many new faces and tough competitors!

Experiencing the Guts & Glory race that we've heard so much about was every bit as enjoyable as we had hoped.  Now that we've experienced it we can't help but hope that other tournaments follow-suit & include a G&G fully-equipped w/ turns!  If so, can't wait to start including efforts @ Pemberton-esque hairpins into our standard practice routine  :shock:.

Also a shout-out to the starting line official (sorry, didn't catch her name) - always a tough job everywhere, but our entire crew absolutely loved her ability to balance firm control with notable grace, etiquette, and sense of humor.  Awesome stuff.

Also appreciated the variety & quality of food vendors (those burgers were F'ing delicious after a weekend of racing) ... and the beer garden afterwards, of course.

Regarding the visiting team championship, noticed that many of the crews chose to not participate.  Bummer - can't speak for others, but perhaps can be addressed by moving this race to Saturday afternoon, schedule/time permitting of course.  May help alleviate concerns about burnout prior to Final races.  

Good times!  Thanks once again!
Wade
 

I'm actually happy someone has mentioned the visiting teams race.  My team, Sudden Impact found ourselves schedule in a race we really knew nothing about ( was this advertised??) and quite honestly don't know if we quite fit the bill (as most of us are from Chilliwack, Abbotsford, Langley and few from Vancouver).  Ultimately the reason we elected not to race was because of timing.  Our youth raced two heats before the Visiting teams race was scheduled.  Some of us have kids who were racing. We just really wanted to support our group of talented and hardworking keeners.  It was disappointing not to race those visiting teams as they were definitely worthy adversaries on the water.  I think having it on Saturday before the Womens G & G makes lots more sense.

I agree that it would be better if the visiting team race was moved to Saturday afternoon. That way teams are going into their final races with equal numbers of races, rather than have the visiting teams log an extra race prior to the finals. For most teams throwing in this extra race shouldn't really affect them, but it does bring in that possibility.
Overall the races were great this year. We were especially impressed with how close to the scheduled timeline everything ran on Sunday. We had several paddlers flying home on Sunday and we were concerned that if things ran late we wouldn't be able to participate in the G & G. Since everything was running pretty close to right on time, we didn't have any problems! Thanks! Great job!