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Dragon Boat Canada


IDBF


Canoe Kayak Canada

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[GrannyB]

please feed starving children before they run off and "make girls cry".

Please feed the starving children before they eat all the fruit baskets! 

blizzy: It was our team that yelled "WE HAVE A HOLE IN THE BOAT", when asked if there was a problem. Officials responded with something like "well then bail your boat"...

[ConfusedAsian]

please feed starving children before they run off and "make girls cry".

Please feed the starving children before they eat all the fruit baskets! 

blizzy: It was our team that yelled "WE HAVE A HOLE IN THE BOAT", when asked if there was a problem. Officials responded with something like "well then bail your boat"...

Which race was this?

[GrannyB]

I believe it was our second race in lane #2 on Saturday.

[rightarm]

Here is my constructive feedback:
2) Award medals to the 2nd and 3rd place teams in the Men's and Women's Division.

agreed on pretty well all points.  Re medals: not only because my mens crew would have gotten silvers if this were the case, but more importantly, a women's crew which came to this festival from out of town thought they would be taking home some hardware... and discovered during the award ceremony that wasn't the case.  again, recognizing this is a fun race and all, but this is what makes or breaks the reputation of the festival... why bother having gender specific races if there is no incentive for competition?  There were only 4 teams in the mens, and only 2 as of saturday at 1pm when I registered my crew, and the fourth registered on sunday morning i assume as they were pencilled onto the grid.  And lets face it, when a team like FCRCC puts a men's team in, there is no competition... While I'd like to think we gave them a run for their money, reality says they probably weren't showing us their A-game, and still beat us by 9 seconds.

And again, I feel for the women's team that thought they had bronze to take home... they looked really disappointed in the beer garden after finding that out.  they're a good crew with high spirits and i'm sure they'll come back, but that doesn't exactly look good for the festival.

That aside, overall a fun festival, I enjoyed it

[DiggerPig]

Overall it was a great Long Weekend and good times had by all. 

Kudos to the organizers for getting Dragon Boat team Captains - Todd Wong Gung Haggis and Ian Paul Pirates (on loan to Sudden Impact) to help with the commentary on Sunday.  Not only did they do a good job on calling the races but gave tons of insight into the teams competing.  If anything it helped give the festival a more personal touch. 

My only problem came in our 4th race (first Sunday).  When boat 6 had to straighten out, which caused a wake that pushed us off line.  The end result was they started the race and lanes 4,5,6 all started 2-4 seats ahead before the horn even went off.  Keeping it real - no one was going to beat FCRCC this weekend - we tried but they're the best team for a reason.   

BUT having teams start ahead of you before the race begins is sort of a drag. No harm as we managed to make up the difference and in the end it was a fun festival to attend.

BernMan kudos goes out to you introducing yourself and your team - too bad we couldn't get that finals race against each other 

I know Gung Haggis wants us to think this was a fun race but I know all teams were paddling hard and wanting a win.  Good job RGL on taking the Bronze in Group A.  First time we went against each other in a festival and your crew paddled hard.

Final note:  Can FCRCC have the boat that was filling with water next time! 

Now where is MY MP3 Player!  In 2005 it was digital camera and mp3 players for 1st and 2nd place.  3rd place got a goodie bag (I know because we finished 3rd last year) - I wanted a cool camera or mp3 this time - hence one of the reasons we wanted to do the festival.

[BlueStreak]

Now where is MY MP3 Player!  In 2005 it was digital camera and mp3 players for 1st and 2nd place.  3rd place got a goodie bag (I know because we finished 3rd last year) - I wanted a cool camera or mp3 this time - hence one of the reasons we wanted to do the festival.

Those MP3 players were junk! They were a no name asian brand with only 32 mb capacity, used the rare 2.5mm headphone jack size (regular headphones are 3.5mm) and mine broke in about 6 months!   The Sony digital cameras, on the other hand, were pretty decent... they were low end models for sure but at least it was a current model at that time and so much more usable then the mp3 players.

Yeah, I suspected that the increased level of competition at this year's Taiwanese festival was partly due the nice prizes given out at the previous years.

[Colossus]

i think i still have that mp3 player kicking around somewhere.......    with all of the 4 songs it fit. 

to diggerpig:
we did have the leaky boat, twice in fact.   we just spent a lot of time bailing it right before the races lined up.      you guys put in quite the effort in all the races against us, having great starts that kept you beside us for the first part of the race.  if you want, i can try to find my mp3 player from last year, and i'll give it to you? 

[hoover]

Rumour has it the organizers changed the prizing from last year once they heard of the increase in competition this year. *If* that were true, why bother reinviting the top team for next year as the prize?

[Colossus]

getting rid of prizes because of "increased competition" is stupid...  i think the only differences between last year and this year in terms of increased competition, is that teams (over the whole spectrum) have stepped it up inthe past year, and that FCRCC replaced Success as the top team.  they should be happy that more people are joining their festival to participate.

[Beat My Drum]

This yrs festival was great fun for me as there was plenty of entertainment for both paddlers(us) and non paddlers(my freinds who came out to support us) and to be honest; we're not in it for the prizes or beer but to try it for the different boats. Yes for once we don't have to complain about the gemini; but to experience another version of dragonboating and the "heaviness" of the taiwanese boats. I quite enjoyed seeing how the Phillipines team "standing paddling " technique would compare to sitting technique.

 If this is a "FUN" festival, does it matter what the prizes are? The dragonboating is just one aspect of this festival but when combined with the richness of the culture and the community; I think we can all appreciate how dragonboating has evolved in other parts of asia and what local influences can contribute to the sport.

It's great that there are more elite teams entering into the festival as that may encourage other elite teams to participate so that the "A" final can be as exciting to watch as the "B" final was. Yes, we all want to win and defend our team pride and I recognize that many dedicated paddlers work extremely hard on and off the water year round to improve themselves and receiving a "prize/medal" is an acknowledgement of that effort; but that can't be the only motivation for a team to participate in THIS festival?

this is just my opinion and now i will go back to my swamp...   

[BlueStreak]

Rumour has it the organizers changed the prizing from last year once they heard of the increase in competition this year. *If* that were true, why bother reinviting the top team for next year as the prize?

I believe that the prizes given out in previous years were donated by Telus....and the prizes themselves I suspect are the surplus of the freebies that Telus gave out to new high speed internet subscribers. Notice the technology themed prizes? The digital camera, the mp3 player and the webcam (1st prize @ the 2004 TW fest)?....  This year, Telus wasn't a sponsor at the festival, hence, no cool prizes.

[kathln]

Rumour has it the organizers changed the prizing from last year once they heard of the increase in competition this year. *If* that were true, why bother reinviting the top team for next year as the prize?

I believe that the prizes given out in previous years were donated by Telus....and the prizes themselves I suspect are the surplus of the freebies that Telus gave out to new high speed internet subscribers. Notice the technology themed prizes? The digital camera, the mp3 player and the webcam (1st prize @ the 2004 TW fest)?....  This year, Telus wasn't a sponsor at the festival, hence, no cool prizes.

Yep! That's correct. 

[Colossus]

ok, that makes sense.   i personally joined the taiwanese festival as a fun, end of the season festival.  "prizes" would be a nice bonus, but not necessary.  last year, i had no clue about that there were to be prizes before i joined. 

[BlueStreak]

Yes, the prizes would have been a nice bonus... especially since Telus has since been giving away iPods, LCD monitors, and currently, a whole Dell desktop computer to new internet subscribers. Wouldn't that have been a riot to get one of those prizes this year?

Well... here's hoping Telus comes back as a Taiwanese festival sponsor next year.

[rtsdhvy]

I thought that on the whole the Taiwanese Festival Ran very smoothly. I would like to offer a few suggestions
that might improve the quality of the races even more.

1) It may be helpful to have small public address system speakers attached to the railing behind the start line.
    The P.A. system speakers would allow all the boats to hear the starters commands more clearly, and the
    starters horn would be heard by all the crews at the same time, as opposed to the sound of the starters
    horn having to travel over six lanes from lane six to lane one.( Those bull horns that were in use this year
    tend to get quieter as the batteries wear out.)

2) Perhaps in future events space can be made available for a racer's village, as opposed to what appears to be  a "first come first served" system that exists now.


A couple of random thoughts.....
What are people's thoughts on having to play "dodge the barge" at the finish line????
Is it just me or is the creek getting narrower and narrower????