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Dragon Boat Canada


IDBF


Canoe Kayak Canada

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[ian]

Hi Everyone
Registration for the harrison Dragonboat Regatta is now open , please visit the website for all information

www.harrisondragonboat.com/

[ian]

We are now over the 50% for teams registered for this years regatta , Maybe time to think about bringing your team to Harrison.
All details on our regatta site at www.harrisondragonboat.com

[ian]

 
We are pleased to announce that Harrison regatta is now a CCW  sanctioned  qualifier event looking forward to seeing all the club crews

thanks

[ian]

Harrison Regatta still has some spaces for teams , sign up now at www.harrisondragonboat.com , This year we have the road back and our big screen will be onsite. water level is dropping , so our racers village should be back to normal,  Race management again will be run by GTG (Thanks Greg, Kerry and crew) Free bottled water as usual and all the other good stuff !
thanks

[rb]

Good festival, lots of fun. I have to say the bottled water is a disincentive for me to go. I hate to see piles of plastics bottles at the end of the day, ugh.

There's running water on site and we all have water bottles that we can fill up. Run a few extra hoses from the building if you need to. I'm assuming Harrison tap water is ok to drink?

[ian]

You can drink the water you paddle in it`s that good ! Also all the re cycling is collected by the boy scouts and they get ALL the money from the empty bottles, so drink the bottled water and leave the empties thanks .

[mandachan]

Good festival, lots of fun. I have to say the bottled water is a disincentive for me to go. I hate to see piles of plastics bottles at the end of the day, ugh.

There's running water on site and we all have water bottles that we can fill up. Run a few extra hoses from the building if you need to. I'm assuming Harrison tap water is ok to drink?

Yeah, the bottled water was a disincentive for my team to go too. So much waste. The FCRCC Women's Regatta is a lot cleaner in that they encourage everyone to bring their own reusable cup/mug/bottle and provide large, refillable office jugs of water for the teams and volunteers.

Yes the bottles at Harrison are recycled but it isn't nearly as green (not even close) to using refillable bottles and tap water. And tap water more regulated than bottled water in terms of quality.

Don't mean to be a downer, Harrison was always awesome, but just my humble opinion.

[Kathy]

I applaud the Fraser Valley Dragonboat Club for giving back to the community and the Boy Scouts.
Also at some festivals the line-ups to the water stations are very long and there have been rude
comments made from some people in line. The Harrison festival committee goes out of their way
to give back to the paddlers and make it an outstanding regatta.

[mandachan]

I applaud the Fraser Valley Dragonboat Club for giving back to the community and the Boy Scouts.
Also at some festivals the line-ups to the water stations are very long and there have been rude
comments made from some people in line. The Harrison festival committee goes out of their way
to give back to the paddlers and make it an outstanding regatta.

The Women's Regatta gives back to KidSport via 50/50, which is tons more $$ than a heap of empties. And, not all the empties end up in the recycling bin. Tons of them go into the garbage can. Some end up in Harrison Lake. Some bottles are taken home and thrown away. Some are left in the hotel rooms where the people also end up tossing them. It takes so many resources and energy to produce and distribute bottled water.  Lineups for water stations and rudeness being a barrier to having a greener regatta? Really?

There are dozens of other ways to give back to the boy scouts. Water's Edge Dash for Charity had a canoe where you can give canned goods to the food bank. The organizers of Rio Tinto Alcan Dragonboat Festival are constantly searching for sponsors to support the youth programs for the inner city schools and community centers. Lots of regattas allow some teams and organizations to host a pancake breakfast for their cause. I agree that Harrison is giving back something.... there are just many other, more effective ways of supporting the Boy Scouts.

I only mention the Women's Regatta because I know firsthand as the past Race Director that we have tons of water jugs and pumps, enough for people to fill up their water bottles. Women's Regatta is about the same size as Harrison (in number of teams). It takes a few seconds each bottle. If people can't wait that long, teams can bring their own water jugs.

We live in Canada. How can someone live in such a beautiful country with amazing people, be so closeminded to the idea of something so common only a decade ago. Tap water.

Anyway. End rant. I'm a very kind, friendly young Canadian and I'm usually nice on the dragonboat forums but it really erks me that people can just applaud convenience over preservation of our country's natural beauty. Agh.

[kryssee]

Water bottles or not, I'm a huge supporter of the Harrison festival. Everyone will have an opinion on the matter and no one will ever agree. Someone will always prefer the other choice. No festival is perfect. Not to go head to head with False Creek vs. Harrison, but I much prefer being splashed in the face with Harrison water compared to the nuclear waste dump at FC. But hey..let's not nitpick. Cuz no festival is perfectly environmentally friendly. I'm sure there's something to be said about all the outhouses lined up with all the chemicals they use inside, or all the people that come and don't carpool and burn emissions to get there, or all the garbage (not including water bottles) they leave laying around, or using plastic on the lanyards or armbands for paddlers to get into the paddlers village, or the free samples that are handed out by the thousands that are wrapped in plastic that aren't biodegradable..I'm sure I could go on and on.

The point is, they do their best to recycle the bottles and the profits are for the boy scouts. Going to Harrison is an awesome break from going the races in Vancouver. A true way to enjoy the beauty of the world, rather than the concrete jungle.

[SLMT]

Leave it to the Ares coach to look for a fight on the internet...

Thanks guys, we are really looking forward to the Harrison festival this year.   You put on a great show year in and year out.   Lets keep our fingers crossed for glorious weather.

[coach]

Yeah, the bottled water was a disincentive for my team to go too. So much waste. The FCRCC Women's Regatta is a lot cleaner in that they encourage everyone to bring their own reusable cup/mug/bottle and provide large, refillable office jugs of water for the teams and volunteers.

Yes the bottles at Harrison are recycled but it isn't nearly as green (not even close) to using refillable bottles and tap water. And tap water more regulated than bottled water in terms of quality.

Don't mean to be a downer, Harrison was always awesome, but just my humble opinion.

I agree, the bottled water is a negative for me as well. Harrison would you please look into providing a more sustainable source of water.

Thanks for the opportunity to provide some input and keep up the good work.

[Backward Rowing]

I am wondering why the silence from organizers of the Harrison Dragon Boat Regatta on this issue?

The suggestion of using refilling stations from mandachan is a good one, yet kryssee and SMLT belittle her point, unless I somehow missed the subtle humour on the forum. rb, Kathy and coach made good points, and I do hope the Fraser Valley Dragon Boat Society considers this for next year if not sooner.  At RTADBF this year, Metro Vancouver Regional District brought out their truck using tap water for their paddlers' refilling station as well as an educational display what the regional district does for its water. One can only hope the Fraser Valley Regional District and the Village of Harrison Hot Springs does something similar to show their tap water is clean.

http://www.bcliving.ca/home/what-youre-too-good-for-our-water

[kryssee]

Are you saying I'm 'belittling' because I did not fully agree with what Mandachan had to say? Opinions are nice that way: we don't have to share the same one as anyone else. Or we can partially agree. Or we can totally agree. But hey..way to turn a good debate into 'that' kind of debate. My point was..we can nitpick all we want at all the regattas. Something is always going to done that someone else doesn't agree with. That's just the way life is. The more experience/years a regatta gets under it's belt, the more suggestions how to run things better comes in. And if they can impliment it, they do. If they can't, they don't. If the organizers of Harrison feel this is something they can attain, I'm sure it will be considered. But, and correct me if I'm wrong, I do believe that Nestle is one of their sponsors, who supplies the water bottles, that are recycled by the Boy Scouts for their fundraising.

[ian]

Wow
I deliberately refrained from answering any posts just to see where this would lead. First off thanks to everyone for your input and while it is too late to make any changes this year you can be sure we (FVDBC) will be looking for other options available for 2014.

Harrison has no major sponsors, and our regatta commitee really works hard to get what we can from local supporters, Nestle water has provied us from day one with bottled water for our paddlers, as there is just one tap outside on the beach which is also used by the public for everything from drinking to washing their feet ,so again yes we will be looking for more responsible options ,Thankyou

We also have had a food canoe for the past 7 years , it`s usually located close to the registration tent and all donations are gratefully received by the local Harrison/ Aggasiz foood bank

50/50 draws are done to help fund our junior paddling programe ,currently we have a school bus that collectsour juniors from all the local schools to get them out paddling , they do not pay anything we cover the cost of all their activities including their regattas, so hope that you can help us to keep them on the water.

On a brighter note we are now at 65 teams entered only 5 spots left folks ..

The FVDBC is looking forward to welcoming you, see you all soon ..