Dragon Boat West

Can anyone please confirm when the race grid for Kelowna will be posted? Their website says Monday but I haven't found anything online yet.

Also, I've heard rumours that there is to be a 1000m race this year. Details please?

Thanks!

It's been sent out. There are 1000m races scheduled

wow
Only 57 teams ?? Where is everyone ?

Any chance someone could upload the grid here? Thanks!

Here's the race grid, but you might have to wait a minute before downloading it because I didn't have anywhere else do upload it =P

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=XBABNZ85

Teams are opting for other good festivals in September

• Penticton 25 mixed teams, 39 Women's teams, total 64 teams
• Portland 44 mixed teams, 23 women's teams, total 67 teams
• San Francisco 66 mixed teams last year

Penticton seems to have great competition for women's teams. I heard people raving about the Portland venue, it will probably continue to grow. San Fran has lots of competiton so it's a draw.

Kelowna is also much more expensive, which was a deciding factor for my women's team.

Early registration for Portland is $650US, Penticton is $900, and Kelowna is $1199. Portland goes up to $750US for late reg, and Penticton goes up to $1035. However, Kelowna goes up to $1599 for mid-registation, then after August 2nd, it's $1899 so it's not really an option for a lot of teams if they decide on a festival last-minute.

Penticton was amazing, and we're pondering Portland next year. It's just too bad they're on the same weekend. Penticton went from 40-someodd teams last year to more than 60 this year and the competition was fierce for us. Fantastic festival!

Crikey mate! That's expensive! Glad I turned to the life of outrigger racing, cost approx $20-25 per paddler to race and that includes your apres meal and door prizes.

 Oh please sis.....you only turned to outrigger because you aren't fast !!!! lol  ....you do have nice technique though ; )  looks good in pictures !

I have to agree with Merlin, Kelowna is much too expensive now.   Had we known they were going to bring in D2's we would not have entered.  Where did they get all these old D2's ? Probably at some garage sale ?  Why not bring in the old teak boats we used to race in back in the 90's.

Sorry to sort of change the subject here, but I've gotta ask what is a D2 boat? We've been on Buks, Geminis, 6-16s, Dynasties... but never heard of a D2... what does that compare to? From the sound of it, it doesn't compare very well... hahaha...

The D2 was the second generation 6/16,  the boat is heavy and never really caught on. They look very much like the Millenium boats.

The grid may be light on quantity but there's still plenty of quality.

Predictions for Platinum:

1. DH Magnum
2. DH Ultimate
3. Navy
4. Waverunners
5. RGL

I do believe D2 boat's are knock-offs of 6/16's, and are not made or endorsed by Vincent Lo.  They were used in Kelowna several years back, as well as at White Rock. 

EDBRC will also be in the mix

I predict EDBRC Mixed to contend for at least the 4th spot, they did pretty well last year as Abraxis.

Not looking forward to the D2s...

As of this moment, late registration stated on the online payment page is $2126.88 for mixed/womens lol
The market always dictate prices. The more expensive it gets, the less teams entered each year, the less competition there will be. It's up to KDBFS to notice that and correct the situation before the festival goes downhill.

As rb mentioned, there's lots of good festivals near the end of the season. The more variety for paddlers the better. Festivals are businesses too, and like any business you have to stay competitive to survive...which in this case, a more affordable fees.

Forecast for saturday is rain  :(

Don't forget about the Phish. They should be in the mix.

Also look out for the Topmade Bouys, we are a combo of FCRCC HP paddlers, and outrigger paddlers as well as a few from Jericho. Let's see how we blend together though.  We haven't practiced together, and don't know how we will handle the D2s. 

Hi everyone,

Starbucks Waverunners are not attending Kelowna this year.  I just wanted to make sure there is no confusion with us and the Kelowna Festival registered Waverunner team.

Kai

Based on all the updates, re: Waverunners, EDBRC  & Topmade Fusion, I'm changing my predictions:

===== deleted ====== updated below

Damn ringers!

^ LOL, damn ringers indeed!  :D
a dark horse for sure haha

I believe the waverunners is actually calgary waverunners if i'm not mistaken.

New Version 3 race grid available.  Check with your team managers for final versions.

Version 3 Kelowna Race Grid (http://members.shaw.ca/dragonboatwest/grid/2010/Kelowna2010Grid_v3.pdf)

It looks like they're doing advancements based on time not placement so seeding doesn't really matter.

Do you mean Topmade Buoys instead of Topmade Fusion?

Yep... 3rd 4th times a charm.

1. DH Magnum
2. DH Ultimate
3. EDBRC
4. Navy
5. RGL

Are they doing advancements based on time? If so they could put similar teams against each other in the seeding heats to make the Saturday races closer. What's the point of putting Magnum and Partners Paddling for Patients in the same heat if you don't need to.

they are on time, but the wind and waves can skew things.  I remember Navy having a really slow 2nd heat last year because of winds

That's another reason to group similar teams when time is used for advancements. If you spread the top 10 teams across the 10 heats then conditions can change. Put the top teams in the same heats. You don't have to put 1, 2, 3, 4 together but don't put 1 against 40 either. Mix it up, be creative. Put all the corporate teams together, all the local teams together, the island teams, 1 vs 4 vs 8 vs 12, or random, or whatever. Since time is used it doesn't matter who you race.

I agree.  It makes the preliminary races more fun and probably fairer for the racers, as well it should generate closer races which is more fun for the spectators.

If they are going to go to the trouble of seeding (it appears they have), and use time for advancements, then they should have teams who are seeded closely together race together.

They should then also use time for advancements from the morning prelim's.  That way if a team outperformed it's seeding in the morning (based on time) they would have a chance to prove it was valid in the afternoon by now racing against teams they had a similar time in the morning as.

I see that they are kind of doing this for the second race, the 1st place teams race each other, the 2nd place teams race each other etc.  Those should be good races.

It looks like the first heat is to classify the teams.  There is some ranking but Kelowna bound teams are famous for picking up paddlers so the existing "rankings" are not necessarily valid. 

Look at Topmade Buoys, based on comments on this site, yet they do not appear to be highly ranked on the race grid (never raced so how can you rank a team like that).  The afternoon races should be good and Sunday is when the real fun begins.

I think you are a mistaken with Navy as they made the Platinum semis so your comment is a bit unusual as Platinum is the top division.  They came up short in the semis as they were the slowest 3rd (Crew Yahoo was faster).  Seems like they did not have a good race on Sunday morning and that cost them not the "wind" on Saturday.

What with all the speculations of teams picking up paddlers or not picking up paddlers, this weekend is bound to be fun (save for the dreary weather).

Good luck to all teams! See you all out in Kelowna!

I was just kidding about the Topmade Bouys, there is no ringer team. I just wanted have a little fun and put a little scare into Magnum. 

If Magnum doesn't run away with Gold at this event it would be their own undoing.  I am challenging them to have a better start and really pull away from the field and dominate from the gun and though the whole race. I want to see open water in every race.  Make the other teams race for second Magnum, because they know you are going to win.  I think it is time to step up one more notch, show everyone the world class team you are, in Kelowna and San Fran.  The best of the world will be challenging you next year.

I am so glad your team stayed together and decided to take on the challenge of getting better and working to dominate every race and representing Canada as a west coast team.  I am proud honored to have race with you in Open, and think your work ethic is second to none.  You deserve every Gold metal you get. Great Job!

I wish everyone great racing in Kelowna. Sorry for rambling about Magnum.  It is just nice to see their progression. 

Cheers!

Rob, I'll speak only for myself, but challenge accepted. :) Thanks for the support and seeing FCRCC guys on Topmade Buoy definitely would have made me happier and more eager to race hard! (As if I don't have enough reasons to race hard.)

haha thanks for the kind words Rob. we're only trying to follow the example of the domination set by false creek. we can only hope to be as good!  msn(u)

A big contratulation to Magnum and Ultimate and Navy for coming in 1,2 & 3 in the Platinum A Finals.

1 - Dragon Hearts Magnum - 2:05.84
2 - Dragon Hearts Ultimate - 2:07.07
3 - Navy Dragon Anchors   - 2:10.24
4 - EDBRC                       - 2:11.24
5 - Blu By U                     - 2:12:24

Quite the weekend it had been! I'd like to applaud Ultimate, Navie, EDBRC, and Blu By U for the hard final race! The event went really well and smoothly from my perspective and hadn't heard any major issues, but that could be just me too busy tuning things out for the races. :P I'd like to shout out to the Dragon Hearts for having an awesome weekend, fielding five strong teams and even topped out the entire competition field with a 1-2 punch. The usual rain was here, but it's gladly a fair bit less stormy than of the past and there was even some sunshine at the end. :D

Gotta admit, the drive back wasn't the the most pleasant drive this year. Seeing cars on their roofs within five minutes of each other was quite unsettling... I hope everyone's okay and had a safe drive!

Jade Gold Final

www.youtube.com/watch?v=JD_Do_e1_Dg

Congrats to all teams that came out! Good racing you all!

So glad the thunderstorms didnt happen! trip home was nightmare-ish, saw 4 flipped cars out of 5-6 cars damaged. and more than 5 cars with flat tires because of huge potholes in the tunnel going back..

thanks for the vid!

anyone else has pics and videos?  :D