If you are currently on a team now but are interested in trying to race at the elite dragon boat level, this may be the opportunity for you.

We are a well known, elite-level dragon boat crew that is looking for females to complete our roster as we go into CCWC qualifying races. Since time is short, we are willing to accept females who are currently on non-CCWC competing crews who want to try racing at a higher level.

We will work with you to respect your current team's practice and racing schedule.

If interested, please email achievemorenow@gmail.com

Serious responses only please.

Hi. I'm in Australia. Where should I meet the team for practice? Or is this yet another team from the center of the DB universe?

Hi! What do you use to test a paddler to see if she qualifies for your team?

If she supports women's only regattas, she's gone!

If interested, please email achievemorenow@gmail.com

We are a Toronto-based crew.

If you can make it to practices reasonably from Australia, feel free to send us an email.

Oh, snap!

Good one!

Piranhas?

Elite Team

What days of the week will you practice? What location?

hammerheads? heard they're short this year but they haven't done any forum recruiting yet.

re: australian guy - this is the dragon boat rankings forum for EASTERN CANADA. it's totally reasonable for posters to assume most of their audience is from there.

...is Pickering. They're fond of using the word "elite" in their team descriptions.

I think it's for "Elite Trout" =D

I'd be all over this. A top level crew is basically saying you can tryout without forcing you to quit your old team and commit to them. Best of both worlds.

Of course, this better be a real elite team but not a pretender. But if it is a real elite team, how often will they just throw open their doors like this?

"But if it is a real elite team, how often will they just throw open their doors like this?"

How do you think elite teams become elite?

First you recruit to get the best bunch of propestive paddlers you can. A history of success is the best lure to attract quality paddlers. People are lazy and greedy, they want to join a proven winner. It's a bit of a chicken and egg problem, but the better your team to start with, the better it will get when you put out a call for new members.

So the list of who this "elite" team could be is pretty short (assuming they are an Ontario team):

Mayfair
PDBC
Imperial Dragons
Scotia Rouge
G&G
and possibly Eat Trout.

Every now and then, you have to put out the call and add new blood. Otherwise people stop even trying to join your crew and attrition will eventually knock you out.


BTW - your use of "pretenders" is fairly offensive, IMO. It smacks of the kind of snobbery that makes it hard for other teams not on this list to attract quality paddlers. This explains in part why there is such a gap between the "A" teams and the "B" teams, and why it's so hard to move up.

To be fair, listing a bunch of teams that should be included as "elite" naturally implies that those not listed are pretenders. No one tried identifying this group until the previous poster did. To give respect where it is due I would include the following teams on the list

- Hammerheads (if G&G wasn't at Montreal, they would have made it into CCWC)
- Piranhas (Beat pretty much everyone except for a few at GWN without stacking)
- Hanalei (Have beaten most teams that have been listed on this thread)
- Big Fish (always close but have won a little less than the others on this thread)

Those teams are all good, but not at the level of the prior list. I wouldn't call them "pretenders", but I wouldn't consider them Elite either. Maybe it's splitting hairs, but just because a team is good, or even very good, doesnt' mean it's "elite".

"Elite" to me implies results, wins at significant regattas. There are very few teams who can make that claim.

I guess it depends on where you put the cutoff. For me, "elite" means A division every time, anywhere. Moreover, period of performance matters too I guess. Case in point is the Imps haven't won an event in awhile now. But they always finish high. By the same token, G&G has only won for one year and some believe they are elite already. Looking at it further, the Hammerheads have probably been at or near A division for over 10 years now, which is much longer than anyone else.

Rather than trying to figure out which team this is or not, contact them, if you think you have the brass. Rather than whine about who is elite or not, won this race or that, shut the f#@k up and paddle.

"Looking at it further, the Hammerheads have probably been at or near A division for over 10 years now, which is much longer than anyone else. "

No it's not much longer than anyone else. You're forgeting quite a few crews...

Prove me wrong. Hammerheads have been near the top for awhile. Longer than 10 years but I don't know since when. After that it was Imperial who dominated from 2000 - 2002 until the pack caught up (7 years).

Mayfair has only been good for the last 5 years or so
X-pads (PDBC) about 4
G&G was last year
Scotia for about 4
Sudbury about 3
Wongs about 5
Verdun about 4

Since then:
BMO died off (about 5 years)
Star Choice/2 Young 4 U (about 2 years)
Shaolin Monks (about 4 years)

From the list you supplied, Scotia.

Scotia's rise was later than Imperials. So no, you'd be wrong

Scotia - was originally Scotia Spitfires, then died after Max left, Kevin Stott
picked them up as coach and added bodies out of West Rouge - hence Scotia Rouge.

Imps - once a great team against "good A" level crews.
Blake no longer coaches them, and they cannot pull the same level of recruiting
as before.

Mayfair - used to be all Mayfair members. Now they are basically a select crew
with Jim's Senior bodies sprinkled in to ensure they go to the next world's

Hammerheads - have changed over so many times, but manage to keep knocking
on the door of a big championship race. They need a few ringers in to help.

Canada Senior Club - pseudo national senior team

G&G - depends on how much cash Gary wants to spend.

Hammerheads is my guess

No age specified which eliminates SNP and Trout , most of whom are too old to use the internet anyway.

Scotia
Imps
Wong's

Sure. 6 years ago then. 2007 hasn't started so that doesn't count. By my memory, Imps were good for at least a year or 2 before that and Hammerheads much longer. So why bring up Scotia when they were clearly not as long tenured?

"So why bring up Scotia when they were clearly not as long tenured? "
Because they have been in more A finals than Imps and definetely more than Hammerheads in the last 15 or so years, which is how long bank teams have been around. Heck, I bet you BMO's won more A finals than Hammerheads raced in even though they haven't done much in the last few years.

"Because they have been in more A finals than Imps"

I seriously doubt that. Scotia blew chunks for a bit in between

Wong's made all A finals since year 2000. (6-7 festivals per season)