Leave it to the dragon boat forum to twist this into so much more than it is.
Just so you know, I'm the Riptider that built the website with that letter on it (and for the record, I also raced Waterloo). I created it unofficially to keep our team up to date on the goings-on of Riptide. I had it in the public domain with no worry that some schmuck was going to copy and paste into HERE. But whatever, if it's in the public domain, I suppose it's fair game.
As far as the letter goes, we have a long history of literarily-prolific team captains, and we wouldn't have it any other way. We're not brainwashed by it...but we do get all freakin' fired up by the passion flowing in the words! Which, by the way, is all it is. He's not putting down other crews. We love ALL the other teams...we're lovers AND fighters. Nor is he propping up our team without cause...we DID post the best time that day...and we ARE consistently bringing home more medals than ever before.
Which takes me to Waterloo (a subject well documented here on the forum). We had the best time of the day when the race was called. Would we have preferred to keep racing (even if, perish the thought, it meant giving up first place)? Damn straight! Would that have changed our placing that day? Who knows? Riptide is paddling well this year, and is consistently pulling great times. Lane controversies riddle this forum like pimples on a teen, and of course they affect times. But racing is a double-edged sword...some days it goes your way and other days it doesn't. One not-so-good day that comes to mind is when we were t-boned on the way to crossing the line first.
What I find amusing is that people say things like "you guys just lost my respect", and think that means something coming from an anonymous poster. And where, by the way, does anybody say anything about us being the new kids on the block? We know exactly where our team has come from, as does most of the community. If you haven't seen (or heard) us at the festivals over the past few years, you've seen us on the rankings.
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