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Dragon Boat Canada


IDBF


Canoe Kayak Canada

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[Waters Edge]

For more info visit www.canpaddle.com

$15,000 in CASH prizing to all participants! Point System: Teams accumulate points at each Event. Free Event Technical DRYfit t-shirt ($40 retail value). Festival Entertainment, Vendors and Paddlers Party! Mark These Race Series Dates on your Calendar!!! 200m Dash - April 25, 2009, Deep Cove www.200mdash.com Whistler Dragon Boat Festival - July 4/5, 2009  www.whistlerdragonboat.com Harrison DragonFest - July 25, 2009 www.harrisondragonfest.com Seattle Dragon Boat Festival - August 22/23, 2009 www.seattledragonboat.com

[LARDCore]

i woke up, went to mother's beach and our 10 men boats are gone.... coincidence?   

[Ken]

lol scott,

the 10 man boats were in foster city this last weekend

[NFW]

Looks like an interesting series! Good work organizers!

Wont be long until a Dragon Boat Grand Prix type of event rolls along lol 

[paddlecwazy]

Sounds like a great way to "incentivize" teams to attend more Waters Edge events...

Getting the chance to race for money should really stimulate the competitive juices of many dragonboaters.... hopefully it doesn't change the spirit of the events and bring out a darker side in some participants.

[CCR-MGR]

yeah i guess now,  All the False Creek Teams will be at ALL these events now.
Not much chance for the other Rec and Novice teams eh ?
Unless they have breakdowns for the lesser divisions and there is another issue.  That would be better teams sand bagging to lower Division to collect prise money.

Sorry if this is this being a bit too harsh ?

[CCR-MGR]

Oops very sorry Water's Edge !!  My bad.

I guess i should have read the whole blurb before i started bark out loud.

Actually, this is a great way to promote your A-1 Product.  We are surely going to be one team that will be attending at least three of these events.

[LARDCore]

will there be 200m-10man races in seattle or just the standard ho-hum 500m?

[James Cole]

Sounds like someone should put together an Outrigger all-star team to snag some cash...

[LARDCore]

no doubt outrigger guys are good, but IMHO the shorter the race, the greater the advantage a good dragon boat team has - especially one that can get the boat up and accelerated quickly. 

most of the outrigger guys i've had the pleasure of paddling with (some of the best Southern California has to offer) find it difficult to get enough blade pressure at a high enough rate to get the boat up quickly from a dead start - a vital component of a 200m piece.

[Rob]

I don't know about that LARD core,  when I paddled in the IVF World Outrigger Sprints in Nimbus Flats, the outrigger guys seemed to have very good starts...Including the Southern Cal group.

  The winning time from that event was 1:49 in an oc6 for 500m into a head wind.  Our best time was for FCRCC was only 1:58. 

I think that it doesn't matter if you are an outrigger paddler or DB paddler, everyone is equal. If you can be fast in one kind of boat, with some training you can be fast in another type of boat.

[James Cole]

no doubt outrigger guys are good, but IMHO the shorter the race, the greater the advantage a good dragon boat team has - especially one that can get the boat up and accelerated quickly. 

most of the outrigger guys i've had the pleasure of paddling with (some of the best Southern California has to offer) find it difficult to get enough blade pressure at a high enough rate to get the boat up quickly from a dead start - a vital component of a 200m piece.

Did you go to World Sprints?
Those guys didn't seem to have much trouble getting a boat up to speed...

[LARDCore]

To be clear, I have not paddled with every single outrigger paddler in So Cal.  I can only draw from my direct experience.  Although my experience may be limited compared to some of your experiences, my experience is direct experience - not just watching a team from shore which I believe may be a bit more relevant than just watching from shore or on youtube.

What limited amount I do know is that, as a paddler on the West Coast Paddling Association (the West Coast group at this year's USDBF Nationals), the outrigger guys assigned by the coach (not me) to paddle in the 200m races had a hard time getting adequate blade pressure at the rates I had become accustomed to racing with my dragon boat team.  I know because they told me this after the coach pretty much asked us to use a faster dragon boat start in practice to see how quickly we could get the boat up to speed.  We pretty much failed using that start.

So, we changed the start sequence so that a lower stroke rate was used - the boat got up to speed but not as quickly as I thought a boat should with the type of talent we had on that boat.  Of course, there were other factors - namely, we only practiced less than a handful of times together, and for many of the outrigger paddlers, it was the first time in a dragon boat.  Perhaps the outcome would have been different if that team actually trained consistently together. 

By no means am I saying I know all.  I'm merely making an observation. 

That being said, I would bet on the strongest dragon boat team against the strongest outrigger team in a 200m dragon boat race any day.  This is not disrespecting outrigger paddlers in any way.  On the flipside, as the length of a dragon boat race grows, I would bet more and more on the outrigger team.

~Scott

[James Cole]

Actually... the longer the race the more likely a DB team is going to win (you're paddling all on one side).
At 200m.... smart money is on a strong OC team.

Here's the thing...
You're basing your opinion on the results in your one experience.
The trouble is that (to be blunt) the OC paddlers racing with you were not a great example. The US DB Nationals were the same weekend as the SCORA and NCOCA Sprint Champs (and the week before the IVF Worlds). As a result - many of the top sprint OC paddlers were racing elsewhere or tapering.

In terms of getting a boat up to speed...
Your average competition DB runs around 600lbs. Add in the tiller and drummer for another 300lbs. Divide by 20 paddlers. So each paddler is carrying an extra 45lbs that they need to accelerate.
An OC6 weighs 400lbs. Assuming you've got a hot **** steersperson who paddles the whole time and never pokes, you divide by 6 paddlers. So each paddler needs to accelerate an extra 66lbs.

For an example... the following video shows the start of the 1500m final at the IVF world sprints. Realize that this is a 1500m and as such this is a slower start than what you would see in a 500m (for example).

1500m sprint

In terms of holding a high rate... see the above video. Again... I think that your particular sample is colouring your opinion. As you can see in the video - OC sprint paddlers often use a reasonably high rate. And... again... this is for a 1500m (not a shorter sprint). If that's not convincing... think about this... Shell Va'a held an average stroke rate of 82/minute to win the Molokai Ho'e this year. 82 strokes a minute across the Molokai Channel!! For those who don't know... that's 42 miles.

At the end of the day... this will be settled on the water.
Then again... it's been settled on the water before. Scott... how did you all do against Mauna Hale at Alcan last year? Or a better example... Look at the 2007 Alcan Open Finals...

[LARDCore]

Wow! Thanks so much for setting me straight, James! 

I must apologize for drawing from my own personal paddling experiences in both dragon boat and outrigger as they are clearly not relevant.  I should have realized that all of my paddling experiences to date have been all coincidental anomalies.

But one thing - you forgot to point out which paddler you are in any those videos.... and you forgot to mention how those boats felt compared to paddling in dragon boats with similar crews.  I couldn't imagine you gained your astute wisdom merely from watching videos...

I'm sure shape of vessel (OC v. d-boat), shape of blades and shafts have nothing to do with the equation either as I am sure, if they did, you would have discussed them.

Finally, I'm not sure how referencing my team's pitiful performances (at least in your all-knowing eyes) over the years somehow lends credence to your arguments but I'll make sure I tell my teammates how much they suck.

Perhaps one day you can come out and do a clinic for us?

Since you seem to be the final word in paddling, perhaps you can answer my original question - if there will be 10 man races in Seattle?