[Guest]

Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

 

Dragon Boat Canada


IDBF


Canoe Kayak Canada

234 Guests, 0 Users

[glowing_ice]

bleachers!  good point grifter...  they should put some of those Indy style bleachers on the north side.  i saw spectators (and children) crawling down the rocky slopes just to catch a good view of the race.  very dangerous indeed.

another idea is perhaps they can utilitze the north side space more efficiently.  i noticed there was no place for people to eat... not all the of food stand's delicious munchies are finger foods.  there was a lot of empty space from the north side shore to the food stands.  perhaps add some picnic tables, fold chairs, tents or something so spectators can eat and watch the racing at the same time?

[bolshevik]

wait a second just how deep do we think the pockets of Alcan and it's sponsors are! What we need to do is find more sponsors or send them the alcan way so they can pay for these extras.

The big screen was a loaner from vanoc i believe

I think the festival/ races went very well. the PA system was constantly going down in racers village and the organizers did everything in their power to keep the races on time, sunday afternoon presented some unforseeable obstacles which threw a wrench in the process. Its tough to say what should be when everyone wants their stuff included.

I know g&G is great for the spectators but it isn't realistic for planning and when there are ships coming in and out of the creek that cause delay.

I suppose its a call the qualifying teams should make but does it actually affect standings in the grand scheme?

[Colossus]

I agree with Colossus.

oh no!!!!  the world is coming to an end! 

[puppy]

The G&G qualifying rules are:

Top 8 Comp A
Top 8 Comp B
Top 1 Comp C
Top 1 Comp D

[BlueStreak]

bleachers!  good point grifter...  they should put some of those Indy style bleachers on the north side.  i saw spectators (and children) crawling down the rocky slopes just to catch a good view of the race.  very dangerous indeed.

Anyone notice that on the ADBF site map there's a big box on the north shore labeled "Finish Line Viewing"? I saw that and though it they would be putting the bleachers in finally.... but as it turns out, that wasn't the case this past weekend. So was there something supposed to be there?

[magicpaddler]

Great festival, Well run etc,   Unfortunate about the speakers cutting in and out in the village, but like somebody said earlier a good manager would have been on top of it.   Only complaints I had were the weather,  darn rain (still like my Alberta sunshine).  and the entry to the G&G.  After our Comp D final I went to the registrar's tent and asked if we were in, and she said no, so we packed up everything and were just heading to the beer gardens when we heard them calling for us to marshall.  Thank god for the delay, it gave us time to get our team together.  I think we proved our right to be in the race as Comp D champs given that we won the G&G in the Gemini's

We will be making some design improvements on the Beer Bong for our next festivals.  Start preparing now.   Hope to see many of you in Vernon and Calgary.

[alcanranker]

The race grid was, by far, the most bizarre I've ever seen.  In general the race organizers don't seem to be taking into account how far a few of the "mighty" teams of the past have fallen and still give them lane 4 for their first heat.

It seemed unfair to the "novice" teams to segregate them from the rest of the group after only one heat on Saturday and also unfair to the "recreational" teams to have the first placer's from the heat one taken out and given sacred status.  Because of that first heat at least one first place finisher was given better lane position for the rest of the weekend than other "recreational" teams who had consistently performed better than them.  No need to hand it on a silver platter to the competitive teams - they need to earn it just as much as the rest of the teams. 

Please find a grid and stick to it.  Teams need to be able to count on some kind of consistency in what they are paying for in a race weekend.

The race organization in general was excellent.

Based on your comments you believe that the organizers do not listen to what teams want, that is far from the truth.  We have had requests over the last few years from the "novice" and "recreational" teams that racing the competitive teams is not much fun.  We listened and came up with a way to move some of the more competitive teams into their own division as soon as possible.  In addition the novice teams did not want to have to race the recreational teams for a whole day and requested that they get to race each other most of the time.  That is what this grid attempts to do.  In prior years, Saturday for many teams were really practice races for the Sunday semi but not anymore.  They need to race from the start to guarantee what they believe are the fast lanes. 

As for the team you make mention of

Because of that first heat at least one first place finisher was given better lane position for the rest of the weekend than other "recreational" teams who had

, can you elaborate more instead of being general.  It is really tough to look at something that is someone's head.

Your comment about once "mighty" teams getting a better position.  Again can you provide an example.  The ranking of teams is not done by one person but by many (see the other thread for further details).  It is based on what the team has done over the last year, particularly this year if they have raced.  In fact we had teams who said they were better than other teams and wanted the rankings to be changed because they believed it.  In the end, these teams did not even end up where the rankers had them (i.e. they did worse than the rankers thought).  My point is that what one believes is not necessarily correct and generally most teams over hype themselves, racing is the only way to clear the air and hopefully Alcan helps in this

The explanation of the grid has been known for months now and was discussed at the manager's meeting in the months leading up to the festival.  If your manager was not able to make it then that may be a problem (coming from Portland I can see why they were not there).

In the end, the grid has evolved over the years by listening to the DB community.  It will never make everyone happy because everyone has their own ideas and they may not match what is currently happening.  If you have some suggestions please forward to me and we will consider them, we always are looking to make it better and fair.

[paddleboy]

 Alcanranker ...........we luv you .!!!! .....you all rock !! You will never be able to please everyone...........trust me you already know ,I'm probably one of the most difficult !! ...hehe

[wanker]

  We have had requests over the last few years from the "novice" and "recreational" teams that racing the competitive teams is not much fun.  We listened and came up with a way to move some of the more competitive teams into their own division as soon as possible. 

And being on a team that ended up well down the ranks in the rec division, I thank you for that decision.  We only had to watch the back end of the eventual G&G winner during our first race.   

Oh wait, I was watching the stroke - didn't see the other teams.   

[Backward Rowing]

a lot of good comments submitted.  of course with such an event, there was a lack of volunteers (ie. not everything could be covered).  focus on the racing was great. on the ranking side, i haven't seen much problems.  i must double check later, but from my glance at the championship and consolations heats, they seemed to be very close. even when multiple similarly ranked boats were in the same heat on saturday, they still remained in comp level on sunday.  taken tide (outflow in morning, inflow in afternoon) and class (BuK were faster by 5% than Gemini), the times seemed to get progressively better in with each heat.

[chuieXX]

And being on a team that ended up well down the ranks in the rec division, I thank you for that decision.  We only had to watch the back end of the eventual G&G winner during our first race.   

I think your team being well down in the ranks in the rec division was probably due to your paddling rather than the way the race grid was set up. If you look carefully at the first round of races, lane 4 was given to the top ranking teams coming into the festival. Every heat in the first round had a dominant team where all the other teams were watching the backs of them. Keep in mind that this is dragon boat RACING, not babying an athletic event for you just so anybody can micky mouse their way to a medal. It takes a lot of hard work and each of those top seeded teams worked their way to where they were. My team got sandwiched by two American teams in the first race and we collided too, that definitely took some time off our race, but that's the point of dragon boat racing, sh*t happens and you paddle through. Pacific Reach 1 failed to reach comp A like most thought but you don't see them bitching on the forum do you?

This is somewhere around my 7th Alcan festival and I want to say well done to Water's Edge and the organizers at ADBF for a fantastic job. This was definitely the best organized festival with a much improved race grid. Every year these groups seem to know their stuff and are actually improving the way the festival is run. Its good to see that Water's Edge will be running a few more festivals this season. It was extremely surprising to see so many out of town teams coming from California, Oregon, Washington state, Calgary, Toronto and even New York coming to our beautiful city and actually paddle in typical Vancouver training weather. Now they know what its like.

The only disappointing part was seeing how the rec teams advanced into the finals: 1 and 2 reached A final, 3 and 4 reached A consolation, 5 and 6 reached B final and 7 and 8 reached B consolation. To me, I wouldn't want to be 3,4, 7 or 8.

All I have left to say is: somebody buy some more BUKs!!!! But by then somebody will probably come up with a newer and better boat.

[rightarm]

And being on a team that ended up well down the ranks in the rec division, I thank you for that decision.  We only had to watch the back end of the eventual G&G winner during our first race.   

I think your team being well down in the ranks in the rec division was probably due to your paddling rather than the way the race grid was set up. If you look carefully at the first round of races, lane 4 was given to the top ranking teams coming into the festival. Every heat in the first round had a dominant team where all the other teams were watching the backs of them. Keep in mind that this is dragon boat RACING, not babying an athletic event for you just so anybody can micky mouse their way to a medal.

You need to re-read wanker's post, and possibly the rest of the thread, and re-think what you just said.  Clearly you don't get the point that he/she was trying to make.

[wanker]

I think your team being well down in the ranks in the rec division was probably due to your paddling rather than the way the race grid was set up. If you look carefully at the first round of races, lane 4 was given to the top ranking teams coming into the festival. Every heat in the first round had a dominant team where all the other teams were watching the backs of them. Keep in mind that this is dragon boat RACING, not babying an athletic event for you just so anybody can micky mouse their way to a medal.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, settle down - you misunderstand.  I was actually thanking the organizers for moving the stronger team UP!  The system worked well, from what I saw. I'm an out of town veteran paddler who was paddling on a local team with many first year paddlers and had no illusions of ending up in the upper competitive divisions. They only had six practices and counting the regatta from a couple of weeks ago, this was the second festival ever for much of the team.

The first year paddlers may not appreciate the Mickey Mouse comparisons - I'm sure you must realize that you have improved since your first season or two.  

[simpleton]

Only complaints I had were the weather,  darn rain (still like my Alberta sunshine).  and the entry to the G&G.  After our Comp D final I went to the registrar's tent and asked if we were in, and she said no, so we packed up everything and were just heading to the beer gardens when we heard them calling for us to marshall.  Thank god for the delay, it gave us time to get our team together.  I think we proved our right to be in the race as Comp D champs given that we won the G&G in the Gemini's

Calgary can't complain about the entry into the G&G.  As Comp. D winners you were 9 places shy of legitimately qualifying.  The registrar was correct to say no.  I think somebody did you a favor and pulled some strings...         

[clm10k]

calgary won the comp d division and had every right to be there.  the last two spots were for the gold medal winners for Comp C and D.  No strings pulled...it wasnt a last minute decision to include them.