Well now that 2005 is finally upon us, I thought I'd start off the season with some updates/rumors for this year...
FCRCC Men's will be coached by Olympic-level paddler Kamini Jain.
Some teams have/will go to the wayside. These include Pacific Reach Echo, Team M-Power and Team United. VCKC Storm is rumored to be folding as well. Are there any other teams that are fading into history and if so what is the reason? If you're really brave and like the idea of looking over your shoulders at festivals.... Who SHOULD be packing it in?
Roli and Acme will be merging to form... "Rack Me"? They will be working this year towards qualifying for the World Club Crew Championships along with Pacific Reach, Team Specialty Subaru, and the ever favorite Gorging Dragons. It would be a pretty safe bet that the Koi Dragonauts are also setting their goals for the WCC's.
Speaking of Subaru, they have picked up a number of new paddlers who did their own version of a Curtis Joseph to bolster their roster. It may have been the rumor that the dealership would be giving out cars to each paddler if they win the Club Crews. Apparently it's in their contracts...

We'll have to see if this was a smart move or if it will provide a spark to those teams that lost their paddlers to Subaru. I expect bad blood between Subaru and FODB from their little run-in at last year's Alcan to brew some more this year. Yeah... I'm a trouble-maker...
Still no word on that racing league that was mentioned at the end of last season. But there is a new festival (thank you to StraightLine for showing me the benefits of reading) in the SeaVancouver Festival. It should be interesting to see how that turns out.
Roli will field their strongest team to go down to San Francisco to win the first open-mixed gold medal for a Canadian team in 10 years. Their strategy? They won't race in the Men's, Women's, Seniors, Visiting division that are designed to tire out the visiting teams.
Finally.. they've interred the Gemini's and are now used as flowerbeds around FCRCC and DragonZone... yeah right, we all wish...