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Dragon Boat Canada


IDBF


Canoe Kayak Canada

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[DBWTim]

What do you guys think of mixed boats?  What I mean are two teams combining to make one boat for a race. I don't mean picking up one or two paddlers from one team, but rather having pretty much an equal representation from both teams.  GungHaggis for example, did Victoria with DieselFish and will be with Team United for Kelowna. VO2 and FODB have done this a couple times over the past years with some success.

Yeah, slow day at work...

*DISCLAIMER* This thread has nothing to do with planning for next year. If it was, I'd post it in the VO2 section. This is just put out in the open to spark debate and that's it.

EDIT - Only a couple GungHaggis will be joining United to Kelowna.  The grapevine tends to distort things as the information goes through it. Thanks to Nakano for clearing that up.

[Photog]

For which race are you wanting to do this for?
I generally like it.

[DBWTim]

For which race are you wanting to do this for?
I generally like it.

None in particular. I just wanted people's opinion and reasoning on the matter.

I personally have mixed feelings on the idea since to me, a "team" is a group of people that competes for the season. At it's lowest denomination it is 20 paddlers (well 18 is the bare minimum), a drummer and a steersperson. A season starts from February and ends in September. Like it's fine and dandy that you want to enter as many races as possible during the year but does it really make you feel good that you win with paddlers from another team on board rather than your full compliment of team members?

[Photog]

but does it really make you feel good that you win with paddlers from another team on board rather than your full compliment of team members?

If it's an out of town race, at least you can say you're from the same city.
Or if you mix with a team from another town, like Dieselfish, it becomes an opportunity to get to know some people you would not otherwise get a chance to spend time with.

[Mach_5]

For "in-town" races (Alcan, Dichmond) it seems kind of pointless since most people on either team should be able to attend.  For out-of-town races I see no problem with it, except that you may have more than 1/2 of each team wanting to go, and in that case some people won't get to paddle as much as they'd like.  

Why don't we just poll our teams next year and see how many from each will commit to each out of town race, if it seems best to go half and half for each team, we can do it, if it looks like one of our teams will mostly be going with only a few paddlers short, it would seem best to fill up the few extra slots from the other team.

[BelligerentTuna]

i personally like the idea of having mixed boats for out-of-town races. it's a lil reminescent of having foreign exchange students; being able to witness the quirky things they do different and having the chance to say to them, "OMG the folks at home EAT THIS STUFF?"

i'm sure each dragonboat team does things a little differently and although a lot of us feel very honour-bound to stay on one specific team, an infrequent mix-up would at least allow paddlers to put names to faces and personalities to boats.

this, of course, is only good for the ppl who are interested in the whole DB experience rather  than just the "winning" factor.

then again, what do i know? ive only paddled on one boat lol!


_t

[WRX-STi]

I think mixed-boats are a great idea for out-of-town races, just like we did with FODB down to Portland.  This is especially true when there are insufficient numbers from either team alone to make the trip.  And it's also better to have a couple extra paddlers then having to scrounge for paddlers when your team is understrength (like what happened with LARD).

Local races on the other hand, there's not much of a point unless again, there are insufficient paddlers for either team alone to make the trip worth while (cost wise, like going to Victoria with only half a team).

However, caution should be taken with the teams being mixed together.  e.g. mixing a Rec.D team and a competitive team wouldn't make much sense since they'd be so different in ideals and goals.  It may seem obvious, but you never know.  Also, I think team chemistry plays a big role.  You can't have a real team if one half of the boat doesn't like the other half.

[nakano]

I don't mean picking up one or two paddlers from one team, but rather having pretty much an equal representation from both teams.  GungHaggis for example, did Victoria with DieselFish and will be with Team United for Kelowna.

To set the record straight, yes, some members of Gung-Haggis will be joining Team United for Kelowna.  I am not sure where you got the information stating it will be an equal representation from both teams, but for the record there will be a few members from Haggis, as well as a few members from Stirstix.  So it will be a Gung-Haggis/Stirstix/Team United combo in Kelowna.  Before Kelowna though, it will be Stirstix/Team United in the DBA Race at the Taiwanese Festival.  On another note, some of the Stirstix members joining Team United for the DBA, and Kelowna races are technically Team United members from last year.

The reason behind the recruiting of paddlers from other teams was because we are short paddlers on our team.  Some of our members have conflicting schedules with work, or school so they could not continue this season, and some have either left the country to pursue school (Bermuda), or off to do volunteer work overseas (Guatemala), or left the province for work (Alberta).  This was not by choice.  If we had it any other way, we would have like to have our 'original' team represented in all festivals we enter.  We still have our core of 15 paddlers from the beginning of the season.

[DBWTim]

To set the record straight, yes, some members of Gung-Haggis will be joining Team United for Kelowna.  I am not sure where you got the information stating it will be an equal representation from both teams, but for the record there will be a few members from Haggis, as well as a few members from Stirstix.  So it will be a Gung-Haggis/Stirstix/Team United combo in Kelowna.  Before Kelowna though, it will be Stirstix/Team United in the DBA Race at the Taiwanese Festival.  On another note, some of the Stirstix members joining Team United for the DBA, and Kelowna races are technically Team United members from last year.

Thanks Nakano for setting the record straight.  I had been scratching my head when I heard that GungHaggis was going with United for Kelowna.  I had heard earlier that you guys and StirStix were going so that the news regarding GungHaggis confused me.

On an aside, could you let us know how the DBA race goes?  I had been thinking about entering the team for that race but decided against it for various reasons, but it the experience is positive I may think of doing it next year.

Best of luck to you guys for Kelowna and the Taiwanese Festival.

[Paddle Freak]

Good luck Team United!  Have fun doing GH's one-finger drills and sermons.