1. Paddling in the dark rocks!
2. The announcer from Woodstock should announce all DB races from now on and forever.
3. The Laoyam Eagles Junior Men and Women are beautiful teams to watch paddle.
4. The Canadian Senior Men and Women are beautiful teams to watch paddle.
5. Unitards DO make you faster.
6. Passing another team in the 2000m is a real rush.
7. Giant TV screens are cool.
8. Strict rules about uniforms do not improve an event.
9. Everyone likes to have a badge with their picture on it.
10. Canadians are awesome paddlers.

I would add the following;

Canadians are awesome hosts

also cool was the live TV feed of the races in the athelete's village

And the live video feed in the beer tent.....great way to watch last night's 2000m mixed race!

Someone told me Macao was just motoring through the 2000m and the German team with 9 rows took 2 boats. Is this true?

AGREED, Passing a team in the 2000m is the best rush!!!

Too funny. I couldn't agree more with the comment about the Woodstock announcer. He may be over the top but geez he makes you take attention.
Too many races he would call a close "finish" when they were only about 100m into the race. Regardless, he did a great job, very memorable.

I think Macao passed both Mayfair and the Sloths. They were FAST!

I had one team complain that the announcer calling the race "threw the team off". Apparently they wer e sensitive to the announcers comments. It was said that everywhere else the races are not called like this. What is the consensus out there? Should he back off a bit, lower the volume, lower the intensity? By the way his day job is calling motocross racing events.

I don't think the announcer should back off one bit.

He's there for the benefit of the audience, the spectators. ANYTHING we can do to make this sport better for the spectators is a GOOD thing.

To be honest, I raced nine races this weekend and never heard the announcer. Whoever is complaining needs to concentrate more on their racing.

BUT, even if they did hear the announcer, so what? As a competitor you are drilled and drilled by your coach to keep your head in your boat, listen only to your cox and your drummer, and to ignore all the other sh!t that happens during a race. Letting the announcer distract you just shows that you have some work to do.

Awesome, awesome, awesome job by the officials and volunteers.

For an international event I felt that the officials were as unabtrusive as possible, and the volunteers were an absolute joy.

Thanks for all your hard work. You made this regatta run so smoothly that all I had to worry about was paddling. That is an incredible success.

If it were a really competitive event, then I would say that the announcer should can it. But in this case I would say that teams should just learn to cope with it since it seems to have such a valuable entertainment factor.

As an aside, that has actually been one of my pet peeves with some DB teams - the lack of discipline in the boat. Everyone's focus should be in the boat, listening to the coach. Nothing else. None of this looking around and admiring the sky, or the boat next to you, or chatting away with your neighbour while the coach is trying to get the boat turned around, or taking strokes at dockside of your own accord because you think you know how to dock the boat better than the coach, etc., etc.

Ok, I'm done complaining now.

Dave - it was fantastic racing in Woodstock this weekend and the announcer was indeed one of the best parts about the event. He made all the races sound exciting, and it definitely added to the atmosphere.

Kudos

Ok, we've got 2 events in the same thread. Woodstock, get your own thread!

Announcers at the CCWC's were great. Mr. Ford did a fantastic job (as always).

The starter was pretty funny too (especially when lining up the teams for teh 2000m races).

Agreed, the announcer at CCWC worked tirelessly all weekend and it was nice to see how much energy he had left even at the end, for the 2000m finals. Great job

Hahaha, we are talking about CCWC not Woodstock!

Mr Ford was awesome!

Whole event was fantastic!

That's the great thing about a thread called Miscellaneous Thoughts....You CAN talk about 2 events in one thread.

I think it was meant for CCWC's.

Just sayin'

Actually point #2 of the original post was talking specifically about woodstock announcer so Dave wan't off topic.

BOOHOOHOO. Suck it up. The sport is not about how you're feeling but how you're doing. It was the best announcing I have ever heard.

Dave we got a kick out of the announcer. My only suggestion would be that he could maybe ease off on the excitement at the start of the race and build it up as teams near the finish. He was all-out all the time, which was impressive, but you tune it out after a while when you know he calls the first 100m just like the last 100m.

Thanks for a great day.

The Woodstock announcer was awesome! Loved it.

I thought the woodstock announcer was refreshing even though he may be over the top.
If people were talking about the woodstock announcer, yes he was loud, yes he was exaggerated but I doubt you will find too many who didn't find him refreshingly different. Come on, you all know he got people excited...
If paddlers are complaining about him, geezuz, focus on the paddling people.

That was awesome! It's almost a shame to be paddling. I could have happily spent my Sunday afternoon in the beer tent watching races.

The coverage of the mixed 2k race was fantastic! Cameras on both turns AND the middle of the course.

Great job!

Any video copy out there?