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Dragon Boat Canada


IDBF


Canoe Kayak Canada

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[Rossifumi]

My main issue, (I think someone touched on it earlier) is the distance between the Racer's Village and the festival.  I understand that they wanted to have all the things for the visitors a little closer to the finish line...but having to run from the Village, through the crowds and stands, to the docks was a bit much.

I also heard that the sponsors wanted Racer's Village where it was so that all the paddler's would have to go through the Marketplace before and after each race, encouraging impulse buying.

If that's true, that's an excellant idea.

[Photog]

My main issue, (I think someone touched on it earlier) is the distance between the Racer's Village and the festival.  I understand that they wanted to have all the things for the visitors a little closer to the finish line...but having to run from the Village, through the crowds and stands, to the docks was a bit much.

I also heard that the sponsors wanted Racer's Village where it was so that all the paddler's would have to go through the Marketplace before and after each race, encouraging impulse buying.

If that's true, that's an excellant idea.

i dunno. i don't know of any paddlers who carry their wallets with them on the way to and from a race. though it does force paddlers to be exposed to the vendors, thus encouraging them to go back if they see something they like.

[gunghaggis]

Why is the Racer's Village so far from the docks?

I had talked with co-race director Larry Chu at the ADBF regatta, and I think he had said the plan was to move the docks over to the North East corner, and cut a hole in the railing to accomodate a rampway.  Logistics probably prevented this from happening.  This will be a plan for future races anyways...

Otherwise - Why not have the Racers Village on the parking lot south of Dragon Zone?  Then all the racers can camp out in the tents all day, and only come out for their races.  Afterall, this is a festival, and it is exciting to see the teams walking through the "fairgrounds."  

Remember - this is a FESTIVAL first!  The Canadian International Dragon Boat Festival Society was founded on the notion that a festival with dragon boat races would be a good way to promote multiculturalism in Vancouver - not to develop Olympic quality paddling teams to send to Beijing in 2008, or to promote breast cancer awareness.

Has it succeeded?  You bet!  People and other communities started copying the Dragon Boat Festival format in Vancouver.  Toronto started in 1989, and soon all across North America, dragon boat festivals were popping up everywhere.  Not for the benefit of racers - but for promoting multiculturalism in their communities.


Saturday Seeding Races

As a Rec D team, I think it is impractical to think that Rec C, D & E teams should pay $2000 to enter a festival where they have NO CHANCE of winning on Saturday and are basically expected to finish last or second to last.  Witness the drop in teams from 180+ to 163 this year.  With more teams coming in for this coming week's Breast Cancer DB Festival - there should have been even MORE teams for ADBF.

As a former Comp Division racer, the most fun I had was when we still had Competitive, Recreation and Novice Divisions.  Previously all comp teams raced against each other Saturday and Sunday, jockeying for position in Comp A or B.  All the races were close and we got to practice race tactics instead of being expected to win each and everyone of our Saturday races.

If the race committee is worried that teams will try to enter in lower divisions - then repechage races will re-direct teams to the proper division level.  Otherwise it is ridiculously too easy for a Rec A level team to have a collision, or mishap, and end up in a lower division - witness Team Masala this year getting bumped down to C division because of a time penalty in their Saturday Race.

I say - bring back the Comp, Rec and Novice Divisions.  Everybody is being pre-seeded anyways... all to prevent the top Comp Teams from racing each other and knocking themselves out.  This is not fair to the other 135 non-comp teams.

[Rossifumi]

Regarding that last comment, I don't think many teams place much weight on winning actual seed races on Saturday, just for the sake of winning.  It's all about ending up as far up the standings as you can make it, and being in the fight for the win in the championship final.

Keep in mind also, that as far as Sat's seed races, even really fast, top rec teams don't stand a chance winning a race where you have guys like FCRCC mixed or Success mixed in either.

It sounds like a good idea to immediately divide comp, rec and novice teams, but there are real benefits to the current format.

- It gives up & coming teams their fair crack at earning a berth into the 'competitive' division.  (it's just a name, but it feels good!)  Try telling Ruckus or Swordfish they would have had to stay in the Rec division this year.

- It's good for rec & entry level teams to be racing top teams.  Yeah, that means they might get smoked.  The point is they get to race them on the water, they get to see how good teams get.  Like a lot of people I know, it inspires them to reach higher ground.

- It goes a long way to blending the Dboat community.  Hey, we're all on the water, racing each other.  Community's small enough as it is here in the West, I don't think we need to segregate comp and rec teams entirely.

[turtle_turtle]

I know I know....bitch bitch bitch....what can I say......maybe Turtle Turtle should write all my scripts.....

hahaha, maybe I should  

[Shaggin' Dragons]

 On the downside :

 - No "Oh My"  girls anywhere to be found

dude, you obviously missed out on the beer garden.....  

[BernMan]

You said the following:
(BTW B-man: you sure light up when a camera's in range, don'cha? See Roli G&G shot in Lethal's mesgs. Focus, boyo, focus!! Like yer bud B, 2 seats back ... wotta take-no-prisoners stare that is!!!   )
So you obviously know who I am. Who the heck are you is the real question now! LOL And yes my buddy "B" is all about the seriousness. Trust me I know!  

[BernMan]

....and Vancouver....a bigger venue....can't have proper OFFICIALS BOATS.  If in the guts and glory race....there'd been a collision....you think those rinky dinky boats that these officals were using would have been able to rescue anyone?....ha....they weren't even equipped with ladders to rescue people out of the water.

Guido, Guido, Guido! I can't believe I am going to say this but heck what the hell!

What do you think those Army boats were all about? Did you notice there were 3 of them? And they were big enough to transport at least 10 bodies each I think. The point I am making here is that perhaps you are right. Perhaps the boat I was riding in (the same ones you've used in the past) may not have done the job in the event of such a disaster but the Army dudes were there just for that reason. And thankfully they were never needed. Out of their 3 boats on the water one of them even had a first aid responder with all the typical gear that first aiders use.

So I think safety was definitely thought of and I would like to think that everyone out there felt that they were in good hands should the need ever arise in such an event. In my 14 years of DB racing I have yet to see an incident where other boats were called to the scene to assist. PHEW!

[Paddle Bunny]

If in the guts and glory race....there'd been a collision....you think those rinky dinky boats that these officals were using would have been able to rescue anyone?....ha....they weren't even equipped with ladders to rescue people out of the water. Ask the General Manager of this festival if she's ever paddled in a dragon boat and if she's ever been concerned about the safety of a paddler. She's the one that has taken on the responsibility of providing these safety boats for these races....did anyone notice that inflatable that was sitting behind the marshalling section all weekend?....notice how dilapidated it was?....and THAT was suppose to be an OFFICIALS BOAT......

Guido, I think you're not aware of everything involved this year on the Race side of things. I understand that it must have been difficult while you were one of the race officials in previous years, to hold your tongue when you saw problems, but now that the nice lady General Manager has let you go and you are no longer involved, I don't think you have the full story.
I don't think you should be so critical, when it wasn't perfect in the past, either. As someone else pointed out, the Army stepped up in a big way to address the only real concern, and that was safety. I understand that it was the lady General Manager who arranged to have a professional rescue team on site. Try to be more positive.
 Everyone involved this year, from the administrators, the Race Officials, the volunteer organizer, to the volunteers, deserves a lot of praise for their hard, unseen, work to make your days of racing, a success.

On a different subject, how else is Alcan going to keep account of sales and collect their percentage to recoup some of their outlay for the festival cost, than use Dragon Dollars? It is a cheap simple system that works well.  
Guido, you're right, the festival does not make money, and something IS needed to provide proper equipment and services. Dragon Dollars work well. Too bad if a few drunks are miffed that they can't spend their last 3 dollars on a beer after last call, for most people there was not a problem.

I thought the officiating was fair, without bullying, and didn't hinder the race schedule, either.

Can't wait until next year!

[Rossifumi]

very well thought out and reasoned.  You should post here more often.

[Photog]

very well thought out and reasoned.  You should post here more often.

she has the advantage of being in the know. at least i figured the dragon dollars right.  

[LARDCore]

teamLARD has been coming from los angeles for about 6 years to participate in alcan.  we love this tournament because of the beautiful city of vancouver and the competition we find at these races (not to mention the favorable exchange rate).   the competition at alcan is always so good - we like to come up, get whipped and get motivated for our yearly races in san francisco and long beach (we like to give the excuse that we drink too much saturday evening to do well on sunday  ).  those freakin' frcc teams are sick.

the tournament ran well.  ony a few gripes - first, the team tents were too small.  seemed like we used our tent as a storage locker and loitered outside of it because we couldn't fit under it - perhaps the tents could be bigger next year?

as for the actual races, our men's team was in the consolation final where there was a delay due to the start bouys.  i didn't understand why they allowed the men's final to sneak in before us and run their race first while we baked in the sun.  perhaps someone can explain this one to me?

another issue was w/ the finishing buoys.  they were nowhere near the finish line - not even close.  my team was fortunate enough to win the Rec A final (from lane 9, none the less!) but the buoys were so crooked, i thought we finished 3rd.  it wasn't until we got back to the docks did we figure out our placing.  it would help in the future if the buoys could be more in line w/ the actual finish line - it would help out both the participants and the spectators.  it would also allow the boats to stop sooner so as not slam into the sea wall.

i understand that the dragon dollars are a necessary evil, but it would be great if we could get a refund on unused dragon dollars - nothing like getting back to the states and having canadian money and dragon dollars in your pocket.  perhaps next year, the beer gardens could be the only place that accepts money & credit cards????  the place is enclosed, so fraudulent acitivity could easily be avoided.  nothing like having to stand in 3 lines for a beer (the dragon dollar line, the ticket line, and the beer line).

but overall, the tournament was fantastic.  it's a good bet LARD will be back next year to get worked again....

thank you all for your hospitality.

"uht"

[tiny tina]

on the note about dragon dollars...yes indeed they are eveeeel!!!
although i understand their intensions, but it's esp. unfair for outta towns ppl.
they come and usually buy a bunch of D-dollars cuz as LARDcore says about the line-ups, it's the easiest way to do it. but wut do u do with the remining worthless pieces of fake money after the festival?!?!?! it's like a trap i tell u!!!!

maybe collect them as memobilias???!?!?!?!!? lol
i think since they have this sys, they may as well allow the currency to be used the yr after. this way people will get their money's worth. (or at least ppl would think so. but most of the time these lil' papers will just be misplaced)

on the other hand...i guess ppl mite start to make fake-fake money....um.....

    dat's just sad........but whoever would consider doing that..really needs a life!    

by the way
i think it was someone from LARD that spotted me when i was being a doh-doh when purchasing some muchies.....whoever it wasTHANX ALOTTTTTTTTTT....!!!