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Dragon Boat Canada


IDBF


Canoe Kayak Canada

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[richard]

Hi
 
I volunteered to be the starter for the Harrison DB Festival, which turned out to be a 12-hour day and am an experienced paddler also.  The starts would have been alot quicker if all these conditions had been met:

1.  The chase boats should be putting you in your lanes, not me who was on shore this year.  If your steersperson is experienced then you could put yourself in the right lanes.

2.  Each time I asked if every team can hear me and they always say yes, but when I tell them to move up, some listen and a few hold back, so the stragglers have to catch up and then the rest have drifted over the start line.  The teams were warned the race will start without them if they don't move up. 

3.   The other way, when I tell them to hold and they are still drifting over the start line, we have to start all over again.   

4.   The water gets pretty choppy out there and if we can't get a race out quickly, you have to back everybody down and do it again.

5.   There should have been a pre-start line of bouys so everybody could have been together and move to the start line at the same time.   

[helan]

Don't take anything to heart - it wasn't dependent on one person to make things run smoothly  - Everyone needs to realize that there is a tremendous amount of responsiblity and pressure involved, and that there is a group of people that take the brunt of it to make the starts go as planned. These involve not only those on the shore and the chase boat, but also the steerspeople, callers and paddlers.  I know we do as we are directed (spoken from inside the boat) but water and weather conditions play a huge role.  We need to count on everyone to ensure safety on the water and if you need to stop a race and restart, we should be thanking you for looking out for us.
Good job, and thanks for volunteering - we can all learn from stepping in someone else's shoes.

[rightarm]

(almost) everyone's an adult here, lets keep the feedback constructive, I think we can agree that the harrison organizers certainly gave an excellent effort in their second running of this event and tried hard to make it enjoyable for all, and I'm sure based on what I've seen from diggerpig that whatever we as paddlers can give them will serve to make the event better for next year. 

I will agree the stoppage of racing in the middle of the day was silly, and while i applaud the efforts of the organizers for trying to accommodate that team which registered incorrectly, I would agree with everyone that said the answer should be, "sorry ladies, you're racing as a mixed team".  (I am actually against female-only teams being able to race in mixed divisions as I think its hypocritical and throws the whole gender equity movement competely in the other direction, but we'll leave that debate for another thread).  Given the heat and the already packed schedule for the day, and the rather unpredictable weather conditions that exist in that part of the fraser valley, keeping the festival moving should be Priority #2 (second only to participant safety)

Another suggestion I would make is that while this Mizz-Drag-On-Boat contest was definitely entertaining, I think it should be incorporated into the paddlers party or awards-ceremonies... its a lot of fun, and enough so that some more teams may actually stick around until the end.

I think that as long as this festival stays a one-day four-race event (and please don't change that), the extra race (survivor this year) should be scrapped... even if the event hadn't run late, its just too much in one day...  EG. Seavancouver last year was very comparable, and they had to save the obstacle course for the second day.

Also will echo the need for wider lanes, and pre-start line markers.  And mid course markers would be nice too, especially for the steerspeople.  I felt bad for our steers, by the time the comp final ran, the sun was deep in the west and reflectino off the water was killer, and there's no way that any of them could have seem the final markers clearly... mid course markers would be very helpful (if there were some, my appologies, I just didn't notice any)

Overall however, I had an amazing time at the festival!

Kudos:
I want to thank and congratulate the organizing crew and all the volunteers, especially those working the docks and the course! they did a great job and i know i saw the same faces on the dock everytime i went down, they were in that heat just as long if not longer than all of us, kudos to them all! 

Serious respect to every team in the comp final who went out, raced hard, and then stuck around to congratulate and greet every other team as they came off the water!  That's what I love about dragon boating and you guys and gals are mega classy, it was an honor to be in that race.

Also on that note have to thank another team who started that paddle arch... I believe it was the Chilliwack Thunder Strikers (they were in bright yellow jerseys).  There is no bigger lift after a long day and a hard race to come off the water and have a team that wasn't even in that race coming over to high five you and cheer you on... you guys are awesome!

Congrats to two teams who really stepped up in this festival:  My old crew V02 who kicked some serious butt and took silver in comp, who predicted that??? mega proud of them!  Also have to show respect for what Ready-Jet-Go accomplished, I don't recall their results at Alcan, but they definitely stepped up into a tough group of comp teams.

Whoever came up with that big screen TV with grid and live feeds, THAT WAS FREAKING AWESOME!  Alcan take note, that is something seriously lacking with your festival and easily remedied.

Good job harrison! I look forward to seeing what you come up with next year!

[kryssee]

Thanks, Digger Pig, and all the rest of the volunteers, for the incredible amounto of time you put into this "gong show"!!! I didn't think it was a gong show..had a great time!  Can't wait to see how next year turns out! But don't forget to bring back the big screen and Wayne!!!

[domo]

without much repeating of what have been said here... im sure we all felt the same. im definitely going back to harrison next year!@ much appreciate of all the efforts thrown in from those who help out in the festivals... great ppl !

the big screen is WICKED! If only the races shown on screen is available on a DVD, I would pick one up in a heart beat! (for a reasonable price of course..could be a 50/50 profit for charity as well? - just a thought).  Im sure some teams can just tape themselves from shore but i think the festival has pretty good equipment and steady hands. It's always nice to see myself from shore...and learn from mistakes,

YES. Alcan: I really enjoy the TV like most ppl do. I would love to see one next year!

[kryssee]

They CAN be bought on DVD. If you want them, IM me and I can hook you up with the camera man!

[paddleboy]

 Rightarm ...personally I don't care about the medal and this festival was only practice and it turned out to be the best practice I could have asked for .I think I had more happen in this small event than any other race I have been in and thats alot of them .

 It prepared the team for anything basically that can be thrown at them and thats what made it great .They now can move on to a much bigger event in 2 weeks and know we can pretty much survive whatever comes our way

 The medal comment was a joke !! .... I know we did well , I don't need another medal to show me that . What I commented on was what I thought were funny events that happened during the festival and they were ........thats why it was a " gong" show . I don't think there was any other team that had so many things happen or go wrong for them but we all had a good laugh about it ........its not a big deal...its a very small festival and its going through growing pains .

 Thx harrison for the best practice we could have asked for 

 As for your comment about womens teams racing in mixed ...I'm all for it .There are womens teams out there that get tired of dominating that 1 division and they want to be pushed hard to get better and I think its great they want to race a tougher division.........I say bring it on ! There is 1 womens team out there that could pretty much put away all of the rec teams and probably most of the comp C teams and they get tired of having no real competition so let the ladies race...its their only chance to get even stronger

[kryssee]

.its not a big deal...its a very small festival and its going through growing pains .

Wow..when did a festival with around 50 teams become small?? Am I missing something?? lol 

[ian]

If only the races shown on screen is available on a DVD, I would pick one up in a heart beat!

,, Give Wayne Price an email , he was the camera guy for the day, and has all the races on hard drive. He did say that he could put them on DVD for around $20.00
So email Wayne at [email protected]

[paddleboy]

Yes 50 is small......the big ones are over 175 teams and in some cases well over 200 . See most of the teams I race for travel and race big venues throughout N.America ...this is small in comparison

[kryssee]

lol..I suppose I paddle a sheltered life!! lol  I consider small to be Cultus Lake Women's..only 12 teams!!! I consider our large festivals to be Kelowna, Nanaimo, Harrison and FCW..oh well..maybe when I grow up..a girl could only dream of large events..haha

[paddleboy]

 To give you an idea of big .Here's our next event in 2 weeks .Some local teams that qualified are racing there

 FCRCC ,Pacific Reach ,Roli ,Laoyam , Kai Ikaika ,San Diego and others will be representing the west

 www.2006ccwc.com

 this is a big event ...just go to the teams page and check out how many countries are entered and in what divisions ...this is what most hardcore paddlers hope to be a part of 1 day

[BlueStreak]

2.  Each time I asked if every team can hear me and they always say yes, but when I tell them to move up, some listen and a few hold back, so the stragglers have to catch up and then the rest have drifted over the start line.  The teams were warned the race will start without them if they don't move up. 

I suppose some teams like to advance up to the start line slowly. However, one thing I did notice at Harrison : despite passing the "can you hear me" test, as the teams got closer to start line alignment and the frequency of correcting calls went up (either by you, the starter, and by various teams' steerspersons), it became difficult to hear your calls. I havn't notice this effect happening at other races and I'm not sure why/how this happened at Harrison. Perhaps its the wind or close proximity of the lanes... So for next year, perhaps Harrison should look at getting a louder megaphone for the starter.   And don't throw away the old megaphone - give it to the chase boat callers, cause they could have really used one!

Overall, I think it was pretty well run festival. When not bogged down by the various before mentioned delays, it was just great. And just like everyone else, I think the giant LED screen was super idea and something Alcan can learn from. They should seriously consider getting one of these bad boys set up for the spectators with a camera mid-course so that everyone can see what the heck is going on!

[rightarm]

Rightarm ...personally I don't care about the medal and this festival was only practice and it turned out to be the best practice I could have asked for .I think I had more happen in this small event than any other race I have been in and thats alot of them .


 As for your comment about womens teams racing in mixed ...I'm all for it .There are womens teams out there that get tired of dominating that 1 division and they want to be pushed hard to get better and I think its great they want to race a tougher division.........I say bring it on ! There is 1 womens team out there that could pretty much put away all of the rec teams and probably most of the comp C teams and they get tired of having no real competition so let the ladies race...its their only chance to get even stronger

re: gong show comment - thanks for clearing that up, i withdraw my comment... i forget that gong show has humourous conotations to it as opposed to meaning something that was a failure  (generally these days when i hear someone say "it was a total gong show" it isn't a good thing)

re: womens only in mixed - again don't want to get into that debate here, but i agree some women's teams are stronger than a lot of mixed teams.  that's not my issue.  my issue is that if there are to be a minimum number of female paddlers in the boat on mixed teams then there should be a minimum number of male paddlers as well.  to me this extends to all co-ed sports, not just paddling, but this is our context.  If the women on those strong teams want more competition and aren't finding it in the women's divisions, then they can join mixed teams. No one would stand for an all male team (regardless of how good or bad they are) jumping into mixed divisions, would they?  "FCRCC mens" could probably make the same statement you just made about their competition, couldn't they?  anyways enough of that, if anyone else wants to comment on this, lets move it to another thread.

[domo]

If only the races shown on screen is available on a DVD, I would pick one up in a heart beat!

,, Give Wayne Price an email , he was the camera guy for the day, and has all the races on hard drive. He did say that he could put them on DVD for around $20.00
So email Wayne at [email protected]

sweet! that was the first thought i had when i saw them having a live feed.

thanks!