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Dragon Boat Canada


IDBF


Canoe Kayak Canada

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[DBWTim]

Is anyone else having a hell of a time registering their teams on the ADBF website. After the problems that they had last year, I would've thought that they would've corrected these issues and made it more user friendly.

It looks like registration online only allows you to be charged with the full Regular Registration price of $2100 rather than the early bird fee of $1750. Funny thing is that the registration for the SeaVancouver Festival is the Early Bird price of $300. Also, there is no option for DragonZone teams in the registration so the ADBF Regatta is only listed at $250...I've tried registering my team and when I finally hit submit, I get a "Error Occurred While Processing Request" page.

and... Why are last year's races on the registration? Is it possible that someone discovered time travel and didn't inform the rest of the world?

Seriously though.. for a supposedly world class event... the registration system is sorely lacking in many departments.

[Angus]

Seriously though.. for a supposedly world class event...

Let see, Alcan charges one of the largest entry fees in North America for a DB race, yet, the fairness of the races is such a crock.  The pool A semis that I was in last year started with boats that were ahead, AND moving!

You want to be a world class event? Get organized, and do everything possible to ensure the fairness of the races. Otherwise, nobody will take you seriously! I still can't believe that their organizers are getting paid!  For the amount of money that I'm paying, I expect a lot more!

It's no wonder that the Toronto festival is now the national championships.

[zephyrantes]

Let see, Alcan charges one of the largest entry fees in North America for a DB race, yet, the fairness of the races is such a crock.  The pool A semis that I was in last year started with boats that were ahead, AND moving!

AMEN!  I'm with you on that one!

[p00py p00py]

i'm surprised no one mentioned the gemini's yet      

[Angus]

oh no, not the Geminis again!


"I love my Gemini, I love my Gemini, I love my Gemini, I love my Gemini"

[Guido]

PLEASE STOP.......Don't get me started......I swear......STOP NOW....or you'll awaken the angry dragon.  Get back on topic....unless.....this is for bashing ADBF.....I want to be the first in line.

[DBWTim]

PLEASE STOP.......Don't get me started......I swear......STOP NOW....or you'll awaken the angry dragon.  Get back on topic....unless.....this is for bashing ADBF.....I want to be the first in line.

Well.. they won't improve the event unless they hear about what people think is wrong with it... and I'm pretty sure that some people from ADBF read this forum, so I have no qualms about you voicing your "opinion", Guido. Just no name calling, K?

[Mike W.]

I heard those "great" Gemini's are $9,000 each landed cost. Let's see, $2,100 fee per team, that means every 4.28  team entry would pay for a new boat EACH YEAR. And we have some 180 entries each year, plus sponsorships? Where does all the money go????

I'd say bring back the 6-16's even if they might cost a bit more than the Gemini's. At least we would be supporting our own economy

[StraightLine]

Speaking of money, does anyone know if the Kelowna DBF or Water's Edge paid to use lifejackets and paddles from ADBF/DragonZone for last year's festival?  And if they did pay, where did the money go?

I saw a lot of broken paddles on the beach at KDBF not to mention a few wrecked lifejackets.  Replacing this equipment had better not be coming out of my team's DZ fees.

I'll save my rant about DZ fees and where that money is going for another topic.

StraightLine.

[False Creek]

"I'd say bring back the 6-16's even if they might cost a bit more than the Gemini's. At least we would be supporting our own economy."

I agree. The 6-16's are better all-around boats and have served us well in the past so many years.

The only people seem to be complaining about the 6-16's all the time are Greg, Brad and a few race committee members. I guess they were sitting around one day, having nothing to do, and decided to spend some money to justify our high entry fee; so they bought us Gemini's       Thanks a lot  

[meowzers]

Cramp’ness
Slippery Seats
Lack of leg room – seems like a boat built by and for midgets
A Tremendous need of adaptation to the odd things under the seat of the paddlers in front of you

My 2 ‘nOobness’ cents:
Reason why they brought in the Geminis is because we were getting too good in the 6 16s – why else would there be a sudden change in the configuration of the boat? Change is inevitable. You can’t really depend on leg drive any more so what do you do? Lean a bit more? Stroke a bit faster? Have more power ups? Coaches will have to think of new strategies. What to do? Moaning and bitching won’t make them go away – suck it up their most likely staying but I do agree with chaos they would look pretty spiffy if they were used as flowerbeds around FCRCC and DragonZone.
Take it as a challenge – an adaptation to the new lego tubs at DZ and FCRCC

[zephyrantes]

I HATE last year's (and probably gonna be this year's too) seeding and qualifying rules.  

As for the Geminis, I'll agree with the current thoughts of the 6-16s vs the Geminis, but once I got used to the Geminis, I didn't mind them at all.  But yeah, I really gotta wonder what went through the minds of the people who decided to bring the Gemini's over to Vancouver.   Must be too much exposure to the False Creek "water"..

[Steamrollers Moaner]

I heard those "great" Gemini's are $9,000 each landed cost. Let's see, $2,100 fee per team, that means every 4.28  team entry would pay for a new boat EACH YEAR. And we have some 180 entries each year, plus sponsorships? Where does all the money go????

Not trying to ruin the ranting party here...  but we have to think BIG picture.  Does one know how much it cost to run one of these events?  Water permits fee, licensing, rental fees for the stage and the parking lot for the racer’s village, advertising expenses…. Sure $2,100 x 155 some odd teams does sound a lot, but it doesn’t cover all the costs!  Why do you think ADBF is always looking for volunteers???

Anyway… rant on  

[adbf]

"The only people seem to be complaining about the 6-16's all the time are Greg, Brad and a few race committee members. I guess they were sitting around one day, having nothing to do, and decided to spend some money to justify our high entry fee; so they bought us Gemini's       Thanks a lot  

After reading this I just had to reply as I know several on the race committee.  You have very little knowledge of what went on in regards to the Geminis and the purchase of them yet you feel compelled to slam people.  So here are some facts that you need to know:

a.  There were individuals who inspected and recommended the boat to us who were over in Poland for the Nation's Cup the year before.  These people are very highly regarded and have been involved in designing DBs before.
b.  All boats have a lifespan.  Many of the 6/16s were past their prime.  The race committee heard this loud and clear for the last few years.
c.  There were restrictions (monetary) placed on the purchase of boats that limited what was available.
d.  There were bids presented from other makers.  Part of this required when the boats would be available, how many, etc.  The committee received quotes from Gemini, BuK, Foundation 2000.  6/16 indicated that they could not produce that many boats.
e.  The difference in the price of boats ranged from $2,000 per boat to $10,000 per boat when compared to a Gemini.  I believe some people complain about fees so figure out what you would pay with different boats.
f.  The decision was not unanimous to go with the Gemini.  Some wanted the BuK.
g.  Etc etc etc

I could go on but I think you get it (or maybe you don't, not sure of the intelligence level of some   ).  So "False Creek" slam people all you want but I think you need to step up the plate and volunteer your time and expertise (cause clearly you must have some since you can slam everyone else) to make the festival better.  I believe the race director position and most of the race committee positions are open, don't be scared go for it so we can slam you  

If you don't like them, come up with some ideas to improve them.  I can think of a few and I have passed them on to people who have a say in what to do with them. I believe others have come up with some ideas also (flower pots I think are not an option quite yet).

[Imposter]

So, Mr. ADBF claims that the only reason FCRCC/ADBF bought the gemini crap boats was that they were cheap.  Very insightful.  Doesn't matter that they were seriously defective, had 11 useless rows & would likely thouroughly p***-off most of their db members/stakeholders.  Where was the consultation with the membership prior to this purchase (which was using paddlers money)???

Mr. ADBF / FCRCC's due diligence was to have an elite paddler who rarely (never?) actually practices in a dragon boat to go take a quick look at a gemini while he was participating at the world championships in Poland...even though that race was not using this type of 11 row gemini, and this paddler was hardly representative of the typical db paddler.

Mr. ADBF claims that he got quotes from 6-16 rip-off Foundation 2000 (to the thrill I'm sure of our own local dboat builder...), BuK (the mercedes of dboats in price & quality) & gemini (obviously the kia of dboats).  No SRS? No Plastek?  There were other compromise choices available out there...

Yes, dragon boats do have a life span and now we are stuck with a defective, worthless piece of crap boat for the next 10+ yrs...  Was any consideration given to go back to the various clubs for more money to get a boat that would actually accomodate paddlers???  Was any thought given to wait another year using 6-16s so that the timing of the new boat delivery was not an issue???  Was any thought given to send actual dragonboaters to go look at the product, vs some guy who does surf ski / OC1, kayak ... pretty much anything but dragonboat???  

Imagine how great it would be if the correct decision had been made.  It made me sad when I was in Montreal last fall and saw over 20 1-2 yr old BuKs and SRS boats all lined up at the docks, while in Vancouver we have waterlogged 6-16s & defective geminis.  What's wrong with this picture?  As someone else asked, where has all the paddler's money gone over the past several years???  

Truly one of the worst decisions ever made...