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Dragon Boat Canada


IDBF


Canoe Kayak Canada

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[StraightLine]

In my team's second race for the Alcan regatta (Saturday PM), the festival organizers issued bright orange safety vests to all first year steerspeople.  The offered explaination was that the vests were to help identify to the water officals all novice steerspeople.

As a steersperson myself, I haven't quite decided if this is a good idea or a not-so good idea.  Right now, I am leaning towards it being a good idea, especially after watching some of the novice steerspeople manuevering their boats in and out of the docks.

On the negative side, I would have to wonder if the increased scruitiny is going to cause already nervous steerpeople to be on the edge while steering a race.

Any thoughts?

StraightLine.

[rightarm]

i don't have a lot of knowledge about this, but i seem to recall reading somewhere that steerspeople now have to be accredited?   if that is the case, if they achieve this accreditation, that implies they are ready and qualified to be on the water, so what woudl the need be to identify them?  
Also i think that having the vest is pointless, the race officials should know already who has a novice steersperson based on their roster, it shouldn't have to be made visible for them to figure it out. and besides, what will that do in a race situation? nothing... all it will help for is docking and lining up for starts, which again, the officials can determine who the newbies are simply by looking at their clipboard. (if they're well organized that is)
and i agree, i think it makes the already nervous novice steersperson have just a little more pressure put on their shoulders.

[Angus]

I noticed that the water officals pay extra attention to the boats with newbie steerspeople. Perhaps they're just keeping an eye on them in case they panic and lose control and need some extra coaching to ensure the safety of the lives on board.

[nakano]

i don't have a lot of knowledge about this, but i seem to recall reading somewhere that steerspeople now have to be accredited?   if that is the case, if they achieve this accreditation, that implies they are ready and qualified to be on the water, so what woudl the need be to identify them?  
Also i think that having the vest is pointless, the race officials should know already who has a novice steersperson based on their roster, it shouldn't have to be made visible for them to figure it out. and besides, what will that do in a race situation? nothing... all it will help for is docking and lining up for starts, which again, the officials can determine who the newbies are simply by looking at their clipboard. (if they're well organized that is)
and i agree, i think it makes the already nervous novice steersperson have just a little more pressure put on their shoulders.

Yes they have to be accredited, but anyone can be accredited with going foward, back, side to side, and do figure 8's.  However there are some intangibles you cannot teach, and you just have to learn on the fly.  That is why it is required also that steers people should participate in as many races as possible.  Hence regattas.  

Well, having a vest would help on water officals, keep an extra eye on them.  They wouldn't have to pay that much attention to a seasoned steersperson.

[ConfusedAsian]

I don't know how other new steers people feel but I feel more nervous being single out of the other steers people.  

[BernMan]

Hi all.

I think that if you are a new steers person that has passed the basic practical steering tests doesn't necessarily mean that you are all that proficient in a race scenario. Steering tests are not done in actual race scenarios. And when I helped certify steerers for Alcan in the past the best I could do was get up to 4 teams at once to line up and do a mock race start. These were teams that were in their mandatory practices so I asked them all to try it out and all agreed it was a good thing to do. In those mocks I made sure they all lined up evenly and even pretended they overshot the start line and all that goes on typically in a race start scenario. However when you have 6 or more other boats in teh same heat as you and you are smack in the middle of them all yes sure you may be a bit nervous. I know I was but if you feel confident in knowing that others are going to watch you and direct you to keep it in a straight line should only make you more confident. Maybe I should remind you that if you recently acquired a new drivers licence in the past 4 or 5 years you should know that you are supposed to display the N so that other drivers on the road are aware of your newly established driving status. That should allow other drivers to know that you may not feel comfortable to go over the speed limit or that you may take a little longer to do a lane change but what that did do was ask the other drivers on the road to please be patient with you. Did that offend any of you? I would like to think not even though it is the law in BC. So with DB steering what that should do is let others know, including race officials and other steerspeople out there that maybe there might be a small glitch and to please cut you some slack. It allows me as a race official to perhaps give you a few more extra warnings to go left or go right before forcing you to hold your boat. That is how I see the vest working to help you. How many of you have been involved in DB collisions only to get so upset with the other teams and then you found out that they had a new steerer and basically made a small error that caused them to lose control? I know I was in a very competitive semi in Kelowna a couple of years back and took it out on the steers person. Later I found it wasn't even her fault. It doesn't really matter who's fault it really is but sometimes things just happen. So the way I see it is perhaps having that vest should make you feel a tad more confident if anything. If you haven't heard me yell behind you to "go left!" or "go right" then you probably don't know that I am only trying to make sure that your team appreciates what you are doing at the back of the boat in making them finish in a nice straight course. How many of you actually prefer to steer versus paddling? A lot of teams have difficulty in finding a capable steers person these days.

FYI I have done every seat and every position on a DB over the past 14 years. True that steering is probably tougher that stroking if you haven't ever done either before but even as a stroke you hope that the rest of the team follows you and can keep up with you and respects what you are doing up there. So the same respect is owed to a steersperson.

Sorry for this long winded post but I think all of us in DB land should learn to appreciate all that the race organizers are trying to do in making the racing as fair as possible and to make it run as smooth as possible.

I have been reading the posts on this website less than a year and a lot of you have some very good points to say. Keep that up! I think you already know that some very important people who run the races read your posts and I am sure they appreciate them too. Some even post their own comments (Ms Race Registrar!) and that only shows you that she respects what you all have to say. If we don't make comments then how are the officials supposed to know what your concerns are. Anyway I may be going off topic so I will stop here.

Congrats to all who raced this past weekend. Let the real important races begin in less than 2 weeks!

Cheers!

[Rossifumi]

Those vests are a great idea.

You have to have spent time as a water official to appreciate the vests.  It helps you know right away who to watch for.  Otherwise you're forever on the radio asking who's who.

So many out of control boats this weekend!  Sunday was insane

[ConfusedAsian]

Those vests are a great idea.

You have to have spent time as a water official to appreciate the vests.  It helps you know right away who to watch for.  Otherwise you're forever on the radio asking who's who.

So many out of control boats this weekend!  Sunday was insane

Hey I only got out of control once in heat 2 on sunday   . I guess it was good the refs were spending time telling me where to go, but at the same time made me a little more nervous. But looking from the water ref point of view it's good to have those vest, so they can tell who to concentrate on helping.

[Jing_Du]

If there were buoys to mark each of the lanes, then steering errors and crashing could be prevented.  (Give the ferries their own lane.)

Will there be bouys for the festival races ?

[Steamrollers Moaner]

If there were buoys to mark each of the lanes, then steering errors and crashing could be prevented.  (Give the ferries their own lane.)

Dude... seriously... have you paddled on the creek before?  Are you paddling on any teams in vancouver currently?  Have you paddled in a Gemini before?  Have you steered a 6-16 or a Gemini before?  Better question yet... have you steered a dragonboat before???  

Buoys are only used to mark the beginning, middle and the end of the race course.  They were clear enough for the steers person to follow.  I doubt lining up buoys all the way down the race course will PREVENT steering errors and crashes.  

I believe the Aquabuses do have their own lane.  Majority of the time as I observed during the weekend, they were travelling along the south side of the creek.  As for why the particular Aquabus went into the race course for Saturday AM - A Final... That you'll have to question the operator of that particular Aquabus.

[Secret Weapon]

I don't believe there will be marked buoy lanes if so this will be the first year.  Not a bad idea though, would solve some steering issues.  As for the False Creek Ferry...

[Colossus]

meh.  i wear bright red storm-pants to practices anyways; a bright orange vest won't kill me.

[Alcan Registrar]

hey BernMan,

I've actually only been on here ONCE before and that was about two years ago. And this is the first time i've ever posted anything - don't really have much time this close to festival weekend as i'm sure all you readers can understand. however, i was told last night that someone on here may 'sound' like me. i haven't read enough to find out who this person is, but feel free to send me a PM to let me know - i'd be interested in what they have to say!

Leah Nagano
Race Registrar
2005 Alcan Dragon Boat Festival

[The Legend Killer]

I was also told that the vests signified which steerspeople have not steered a Gemini ever, and those who weren't too confident with the boats.  The kids steering on my two junior teams are newbies at the helm, but didn't have to wear the vest.  But the steersman on the Laoyam Eagles team was wearing one, and was involved in a 3 boat collision Sunday morning.  I was suprised to a top-notch crew like Laoyam directly involved with a collision.  I guess they don't have Geminis in Pemberton...

[gunghaggis]

Anything that will make the "sport" safer for everybody is a "good" thing.

Collisions are dangerous and people can get hurt.  The more aware people are, the safer everything will be for everybody else.  Imagine that steering a dragon boat is like driving a bus.  You need a special licence to do that.

Steering is an art that is learned by experience.  I agree with Bernman that there are limits to the ADBF steering creditation which only really tests that a person has control over a boat going backwards, forwards, sideways, figure 8 and race start.  All are simulations for a race situation.  But the dragon boat community has to start somewhere.  

I have steered Comp, Rec and novice teams.  I have steered teak, 6-16, Millenium, BuK, Gemini and Taiwanese boats.  While coaching, I always try to give teams a simulation of a close "paddle clashing" race with another team, and a simulation of a "going off course" incident.  All have happened to me while racing, and the better prepared you are, the better you handle the unexpected challenges.  Ask your coach to include this in your training.

I was on the ADBF race committee 3 years ago when we looked at what other festivals and countries were doing for steering acreditation, and steering training.  It is very challenging to develop a comprehensive and official organizing body for dragon boating in BC.  There have been various attempts over the years to get a Vancouver area or BC DBA going.  Other sports even have coaching associations, that help set the standards and training for proper coaches.

Every coach should know how to steer and be competent at steering.  You can't expect somebody who can't steer to teach somebody how, and yet there are many people who do.

My teams have been hit by inexperienced steerspeople (see the picture where Gung Haggis team got t-boned in Portland, by LARD with a steers from Pink Phoenix not used to the power of a non-breast cancer team).   I have also trained steers people who have gone off-course during races (Damn - but they did fine in practice) - but we all have to start somewhere.  

Vests are a good idea, period.

Speaking of steering... check out the Taiwanese Dragon Boat Race that will feature a "slalom" course + "barrel race."  Good steerspeople will be in demand!