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Dragon Boat Canada


IDBF


Canoe Kayak Canada

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[coach_of_little_people]

Well, in my opinion, there should be no problem recruiting "paddlers" from other disciplines.

One of the biggest problems with the paddling sports today is that many individuals believe that they discipline is that much better and/or different than the next and the association with each other is wrong/embarassing. In actuality, paddling is paddling...the fundamentals are the same, but the boat is different...I think that people need to realize that!

As well, if other paddlers decide to train in other boats in order to improve themselves and/or possibly their team, why is this wrong and why should people be against this?  This would mean that if you're a DB paddler you can't touch a marathon, oc, fw kayak, high-kneel boat...that's just silly!

[paddling geek]

I was just talking to my good friend whoms on the torontos men B crew about this topic a few weeks ago..  

I have no problem with having other dbers join your crew to paddle for out of town teams and or for alcan for that matter if your a few paddlers short.. If your crew doesn't wanna go and you do .. why not join a crew thats going to.. And its a great way to meet other dbers.

BUT not to have .. say 22 people on your roster and then bring in 3 or 4 outrigger paddlers to join your crew and have them replace 3 or 4 paddlers just so you can win.. And they don't even paddle dragon boats

That isn't fair to the crew, and most of all the paddlers whom have been at all the practices all season long to sit out at a festival.  That happened to me back in 2002 at alcan. (before I joined Roli)..  I paid 200 bucks for the season just to sit off and get a medal in comp.. wtf.. Anyways

As well, if other paddlers decide to train in other boats in order to improve themselves and/or possibly their team, why is this wrong and why should people be against this?  This would mean that if you're a DB paddler you can't touch a marathon, oc, fw kayak, high-kneel boat...that's just silly!

Which is true but at the same time, if you look at all of canada's high top crews FCRCC, GTDBC [Toronto] and Montreal they mostly train not in dragon boats but in solo outriggers to fw kayaks then when its about a month before a festival they all start paddling as team again in dragon boats. Instead of training as a team for longer periods of time..  

I'm sure everyone heard about this by now.. GTDBC Mens A crew is filled up with 18 fw kayakers and 2 true dbers.. Now thats unfair to the B crew thats all dbers.  I don't have a problem with crews/a paddler doing outrigger or fw kayaking as another sport and building up your own streght but not as of way to train then get into a db and then race..

[paddling geek]

dont forget about showing up to every DB practice (well 95%) and paddling on both sides..

[Photog]

GTDBC Mens A crew is filled up with 18 fw kayakers and 2 true dbers

I'm confused, if there is only 2 true db'ers, how do these 2 ppl get their db practice? on other teams throughout the season

[paddling geek]

the b crew is filled up with 30 or so people.. from what i understand and most of them show up to practice and some dont all the time..

[coach_of_little_people]

What's wrong with training individually and then coming together to train as a team in a DB? As long as one of the team's goals is to be competitive in DB, this is the only way to do this...

"The strength of a team starts with the strength of each individual..."

How would you know that you're pulling your own weight on the boat without paddling in a small boat? This is what time-trials are for...

I know that I'm going to be slammed for this, but the biggest problem with DB teams that do not do time-trials is...the personal EGO!  People think that they are stronger than they might be...if you're that good and that fast, you should do awesome in a time-trial. Why not prove it...

Small boats teach you so many things...
(1) the obvious...how to paddle!
(2) how your body motion contributes or inhibits the boat's speed...
(3) balance...
(4) force application...
(5) water time...
(6) etc etc etc...

Once again I say, "paddling is paddling..." Why is there separation between the disciplines when the fundamentals are the same???

[Ken]

I agree that paddling is paddling no matter what kind of boat you are in.  a "true" paddler can get into any craft and make it move.  

My team started as a db club and it has become a paddling club.  we race in db's, oc-1, oc-2, and oc-6 races to keep thing interesting all year long.  as the team acquires more and more equipment it offers the opportunity for paddlers to get practice time in whenever they can.

years ago when db was much less developed here in sf an outrigger paddler on your db crew was considered a ringer.  that was only because most db'ers were novice paddlers and any experience that you could get on your crew made a big difference.

now, funny enough, as paddlers that started in db enter the outrigger arena they get to race novice for 2 years.  they are considered ringers for the novice outrigger crews becuase they have 1-4 or 5 years db'ing.

now we aren't the fastest team around so perhaps this isn't a recipe for complete speed domination, but we have a good time and we are fairly competitive.

ken\