Ok, got a few questions for everyone.

When do most of the top 'elite level' crews recruit? For most of these crews, I'm guessing that the next season has started or is about to start. Do you recruit now, or in January when the not so dedicated (or not so insane) start to look for a more competitive crew to join?

And, if you recruit now and have your team selected in the fall.....what happens if you get a really good paddler come to you in February and asks for a tryout?
Would you say no?
Would you cut someone who spent the off-season with you?
Or would you add an addition body to your crew?
And I guess that leads to...what is the opitmum number of paddlers to carry on your roster?

Always be Closing... I mean Recruiting
Never turn away a good paddler
10 gals and 14 guys give or take. (Screw the island and their stupid 10/10)

"You see these? Do you know what they are? Brass balls. That's what you need if you're in" dragonboating.

"First prize is a new car. Second prize is a set of steak knives. Third prize is you're fired."

you can never have enough good paddlers and this is where time trials come into play for seats

Some teams hold social dynamics equal to paddling skills. Most teams are always on the lookout for new recruits, so go to their social events, websites and just email them to introduce yourself. They won't know you're interested unless you tell them, and if you already know them then you have a leg up on the competition.

I think 26 paddlers is good one cox, drummer and coach/cox. So 28 is good if you get that. What is nice is if you can bring everyone up together so the quality of the team is good and that way anyone can sit without having an impact on racing performance. Nice in theory, hard in practise.

head that the Coach of Shogun is looking for paddlers... how can I get in touch with their coach

Tempest, IMPS, Big Fish, Hanalai, HammerHeads, Shogun, everyone else.

 

If your interested then I suggest you get in touch with them sooner rather than later so they can get a look at you this fall prior to shifting to full dryland training. By the spring it will be a lot tougher to crack the roster as they will have been training together for months already.

 

You may be able to find links/eMail on paddlesup.ca or you can post your interest here and maybe someone will contact you. The key is not to wait or it may be too late.

I approached Mayfair and they are prepared to listen. Talk is cheap my friend, approach whom ever you are interested in paddling with.

If you're good, you shouldn't have to contact anyone to try-out, they'll come to you. Free agents in the NHL don't go around asking teams to pick them up, the teams make them an offer.

Bad idea, just waiting for teams to come looking for you. A few people may be directly recruited by friends on other teams, but if you're looking to make a move the onus is on YOU to go to THEM.

Second silliest thing I've read this year.

I'm pretty sure free agents in the NHL let their agents do all the networking for them.

Does anyone (except maybe G&G) in DB have an agent?

Myself and several other competitive paddlers with lots of experience and willingness to train hard are looking for a new ride.

If you are interested in finding out more respond here with an email address. I will not being adding mine - not worth the grief from my old team.

M

Why don't you guys just contact the teams that you'd like to join? I'm sure that a lot of competitive teams probably don't want to post the fact that they are recruiting here.

Agree with WTF. If you don't approach us, we don't know you exist. Take the initiative, no one is going to respond to your anonymous post on this forum with their legit contact info.

If you're interested, we're interested.

Tempest is looking for paddlers.

Please reply to the above address.

Stephen, are you looking to recruit males or females?

We're looking for both males and females. They need to have a competitive attitude and fun at the same time.

 

Since you didn't bother emailng, I guess you aren't really looking.

how bizarre is that? you would want him to email you to let you know that he is looking for paddlers when it says that 2 posts up? what would his email say - "We're looking for paddlers. Please email me back."

retarded

Any one know if G&G is recruiting for next year?

To Anon@12:54:

I believe lookingforpaddlers is yet another team that is looking for paddlers. From his post it seems that the people who were originally looking to paddle have simply not contacted the lookingforpaddlers team. Perhaps the original interested parties have already found teams...

Oops. I meant Anon@October 18 2005, 12:47 PM

We are a competitive team that is always open to talking to good paddlers about our program.

As with many others, we would rather deal with interested parties on an individual basis rather than on this open forum which is why we set up the above gMail address for inquiries.

Although I have been paddling for some time, I am not totally "in the loop" as to who are the elite teams that are also fun, teams that are looking to add to the roster and training schedules that are flexible, yet competitive. I dont have a lot of time, so I wonder if there are top teams that are organized in their recruiting approach, as I cannot attend several offseason events, etc to make the move to a team at the next level. Any suggestions are appreciated. Thank you.

in general, if you don't have a lot of time, you won't have much more time for practice to get better. until you can invest that time, which can be a significant amount, don't set your expectations sky high.

you're probably better off joining a canoe/outrigger club with paddlers that paddle dragonboat (probably top tier teams), and be a ringer for them for the odd practice/regatta. this way, you'll get the flexibility of how much paddling (not exclusively dboat) you get to do, as well as some opportunities to paddle dragonbaot

As the previous poster states, this comment by you:

"I dont have a lot of time, so I wonder if there are top teams that are organized in their recruiting approach, as I cannot attend several offseason events"

Eliminates you from any competitive teams radar.

Unless you simply meant you don't have time to try out for several teams in which case how would you know what the best fit is for you?

Crips, we do several offseason events EACH WEEK. Good luck with that hunt for a non-training top team that has fun. Let us all know when you find it.

Like they said, sounds like a canoe club is your only hope, but good luck with that as well.

Are you in the GTA? As everyone mentioned all of the top teams require you to spend a lot of time paddling (be it dragon boat or other paddling disciplines). Best bang for your commitment buck IMO would be to find the teams in B/C divisions that paddle 1-2 times per week but are still reasonably competitive. Teams like Baycrest, Wave Cutters, Mofos, Jetstart come to mind