The Sunday night party cost $85/person (which had to be purchased in advance). The ONLY good part was the band, who performed well.

Now for the bad...

You got ONE free drink per $85 ticket.

The party was held in what coould have been an airplane hangar. The lighting was horrible, and there was no heat even though it was quite chilly outside and in.

The food was a complete disaster on every level. The quality was terrible, including the horribly overdone steaks. Crowd control for the food line was non-existent, as a number of Russian paddlers cut to the front of the line, shoved their way to the buffet, and took enough food for 5 people each. Then, at 9PM (the party started at 7PM), the food ran out!!! Security had to be brought in as many people berated the woman in charge of the event. She actually had the audacity to blame those who did not get food for arrving too late. She offered no refunds, of course.

Personally, I would have paid maybe $25 for this event and not have been too upset even if food ran out early. But for $85, expectations were understandably much higher.

Yawn. I am sure most competitors were not that interested in eating.

How about instead of complaining like a baby you give us some results.

Are you ever racing again or am I to assume you weren't there to race?

Okay, first of all the second poster here is a complete a$$hole.

Secondly, yeah, I'm also familiar with the way Russian athletes behave in settings like this. There were incidents in both Rome and Capetown with pushy, rude, overbearing Russians. Yes, I'm sure that Ysome of you have met some wonderfully polite Russians and you could also give me examples of terrible Canadian behaviour, but by my experience these guys are the worst.

Those darn Ruskies! Where's Phil Esposito when you need him?

not only was it over-priced and the food ran out, but it was over by 11:30pm and the location didn't offer much in the way of after-party facilities.

wah wah wah.

and you are posting here now instead of heading back home? sleeping? or making your own party?

all you can bitch about is the Russkies and the food.

please spare us the negativity and do not go to Russia in 2009.

stick with club crews.

Any World-class event needs world-class organization, yes, including social events. This year's Worlds' were poorly executed on nearly all levels. Let's hope this is a wake-up call to the IDBF to get its act together before it's too late to salvage its reputation.

Let's wait for the competitors to come home and hear it from them first hand. From the pictures everyone looks like they were having a blast.

Where do you find pictures taken at the party? I want to find out who my husband was fooling around with!

What happens in Australia, stays in Australia.

Not talking about pictures of the party but I did see your hubby with a cute Aussie chick.

At least no ankles were broken by the Russians....dirty Canadians.

I've been to few "parties" at IDBF events... always a rip-off, at Club Crews and at "real" ones... always fun though, due to all the ****ing that goes on...

(So how come I can never get any...?)

85 f#cking dollars for a drink, a steak, and a concert?? You gotta be sh!ttin' me! And what, they never heard of "one ticket-one steak"??

And a BUFFET for that many athletes, who eat like horses to begin with!?!? Hello...!! No f#cking WONDER the food ran out. A buffet!! Sure, push in and help yourself!! Did those country bumpkins stuff the food into their pockets, too?

What dumba$$ organized this fiasco??

As a fellow, who also raced the Worlds in Sydney, I'm embarrassed and sorry to see this thread.

The Sydney Worlds was a great event, and the after party was a ton of fun too.

A party, after all, is what you make of it.

Yes the $$$$ admission was a steep gash, but that's the way it goes.
The food, although the steaks were dry, was terrific. And because it was a buffet, you could heap on as many steaks, portobellos and potatoes as you wanted.

The band was surprisingly great! And the dancing.. well it's no one's fault if you don't enjoy yourself and cut loose.

To the first poster, please remember that this party was for everyone. It wasn't a party just for you to please just you. Step back at and look at the big picture, it was an awesome and fun time.

Please keep your sour grapes to yourself!

ps.. I don't even remember seeing the Russians there.

The Slovaks, New Zealanders, Chinese Taipei, Canada, Japan, Aussies and Brits were there for sure.

Slovaks, by the way, were friendly and approachable at the party.

Besides helping in racing at the Worlds prior experience counts when evaluating the celebration party. The team leadership looked at the cost, need to take a bus, prior parties at Worlds and decided to make it optional for the Philly component of Team USA. Another great coaching decision! I don't think any of our paddlers went there. We saved our money and had a blast at a local place in Parammatta, Gallagher's. They gave us the upstairs for a few hours, the rookies put on a funny skit mocking coach and the vets and we only had to walk (stumble?) two blocks home. Some of the Canadian women had the same idea as they were downstairs when we finished upstairs.
The racing itself was some of the best ever. Beautiful course, excellent running of the regatta, timely scores, live video of the finish line, nice boats and friendly Aussie volunteers. Parties and opening celebrations mean little in comparison to the on the water experience and this was tops in that area.

"The team leadership looked at the cost, need to take a bus, prior parties at Worlds and decided to make it optional for the Philly component of Team USA."

But wasn't the USDBF's mantra for the past year "we must be a unified Team USA"? Interesting how that philosophy was only applied selectively.

throw the DVD into the disapointment mix.... before purchasing, i asked if ALL the races would be included on the video. i was assured that they would include at least up until the last races on saturday, and perhaps some of the sunday races. I got back to the hotel, put on the dvd, and got less than $1/minute of dvd! $25 for a dvd that showed 10minutes of opening cerimony crap, and 7 minutes of races that were obscured by overlay of people talking about random things!

you mean the ladies outpartied you guys?

But wasn't the USDBF's mantra for the past year "we must be a unified Team USA"? Interesting how that philosophy was only applied selectively.

Kidding right? You are busting on them for not beind "unified" at an overpriced party? You think the USDBF will be upset that their world champion team did not throw away $85 per paddler?

The US partied in the upstairs room they rented out for the night until that was over then partied with the Canadians downstairs until the bar closed. There were probably about 120 gold medals between the people there, so it was pretty hard partying by both sides.

The best celebration parties are the free ones. Shanghai was free. No more of these rip off celebration parties for me. The aussies promised a 1st class party. yuck!

I wonder if the dude from philly would sing a different tone, if there had been different results... lets face it, we all know the true colours of the philly side, when they win, its roses. When they loose... where are they for a hand shake???

"I wonder if the dude from philly would sing a different tone, if there had been different results... lets face it, we all know the true colours of the philly side, when they win, its roses. When they loose... where are they for a hand shake???"


The Philly paddlers never made it to the crappy party that cost $85. They just had their own party at a bar near their hotel. Smart move.

amazing how close minded some people are.

Who gives a flying **** if the US wasn't at the party?

To you guys who do have a problem with it, it's none of your business.

Even more amazing is the complete failure to bring up... ohh one minute little detail... Barely 1/4 of the teams attended that super expensive dinner

eh.. I don't care. it was fun anyways!

"I wonder if the dude from philly would sing a different tone, if there had been different results... lets face it, we all know the true colours of the philly side, when they win, its roses. When they loose... where are they for a hand shake??? "

Is that you Honey Bear? Sure looks like your spelling from the October 2005 thread laying into the Philly coach. If so, go back under your rock. In Montreal the Philly men came right up to DCH and were the FIRST ones to shake their hands after DCH won the 250.

"we all know the true colours of the philly side"

Does Honey Bear spell "colours" with a "u"? Sounds British or soemthing.

"Does Honey Bear spell "colours" with a "u"? Sounds British or soemthing."

The "loose" looked like it came from a "looser" who sings a different tone when we all sing tunes.

"Does Honey Bear spell "colours" with a "u"? Sounds British or soemthing"

Wow. What marvelous insight. I'll bet the government could use a good man like you! Hey dumbkopf, in Canada we spell "colour", and other such words with a "u". Surprise. And I'm from Quebec.

As well, most human beings spell the word "something", as such.

Quit hitting the pipe, and start hitting the... word things...-whattaya call 'em-... BOOKS! That's it.

Honey bear has never ever ever shown any inkling of sportsmanship. I've raced against the dude since 1995 and tried out 3 times during that time frame and the never has he shown any type of class. Whoever gets involved with him will be a contaminated and become another rotten apple if they already aren't, stay away from him!! Ever since he left, Philly and National team has improved, look at the results at Sydney.

Dude, get a life and let it go.

We'ved moved on years ago and it's refreshing to see the crew become better because of it. Just annoying to see him make his normal outlandish comments.

You can't prove a causal relationship between one person leaving a team and the team's future success. Too many variables. You hear this silliness in other sports: like when a baseball player gets injured and the team plays better without him. Some sports writer will always take the opportunity to blast the injured player, saying that he's unneeded.

The USA team did very well in Sydney. Were the best teams in the world from Europe and Canada there? Not this time. Would the USA have won as many gold medals if that competition was there? NO ONE KNOWS. Would the USA have done as well if a former paddler competed with them in Sydney? NO ONE KNOWS. Got it? OK, let's move on.

I beg to differ - if there is a person that is cancerous and causing the entire crew or team to lose focus then it's no casual relationship.

How often have you read in large team sports where they trade a player away so the team can focus on the sport and not on irrelevant issues.

Most of us got it, apparently you need to get it.

"The USA team did very well in Sydney. Were the best teams in the world from Europe and Canada there? Not this time. Would the USA have won as many gold medals if that competition was there? NO ONE KNOWS. Would the USA have done as well if a former paddler competed with them in Sydney? NO ONE KNOWS. Got it? OK, let's move on."

Oh, so this is the honey bear supporters view (or should I say jealous rationalization)? Dissing their own country's achievement in Sydney saying the Nations Cup was won because Canada's and Europe's best was missing. In honey bear's words, what a "looser"!

Fact is honey bear paddling or not is not the main issue, honey bear and his minions were trying to remove the coach, take the team over and eliminate the outside talent so they could wear the USA jersey. EVERYONE KNOWS that if this happened Philly/USA would not have won.

While we are at it pissing on your country's achievement is bogus besides being totally low class. The Canadian entry False Creek was real close to Toronto at NTT, check it out, tenths of a second in the 1000 and 500 and Slovakia won the EDBF champs 500 over Russia and the Czechs in 2006.

Yeah, let's move on, obviously you haven't, looser.

"I beg to differ - if there is a person that is cancerous and causing the entire crew or team to lose focus then it's no casual relationship."

Uh, the poster you are responding to was referring to a CAUSAL relationship, not a CASUAL relationship. That poster actually gave you a nice lesson on something called "causality". (Look it up.)

And someone else wrote: "Dissing their own country's achievement in Sydney saying the Nations Cup was won because Canada's and Europe's best was missing."

Again, read what was written. No one dissed the USA. The poster was actually defending the USA against those who have been saying that the USA only won because other stronger teams did not show up (and plenty of that speculation was going around Sydney -- even before the races started, when it was clear that a lot of countries did not show up.) The point was that just as you cannot prove causality between some countries not showing up and the USA winning golds, you also cannot prove causality between one of USA's paddlers leaving the team a few years ago and today's team being better for it.

The two erroneous posts show that some people just can't leave a dead issue alone and would rather twist the words they read to suit their tired agenda.

"The Canadian entry False Creek was real close to Toronto at NTT, check it out, tenths of a second in the 1000 and 500 and Slovakia won the EDBF champs 500 over Russia and the Czechs in 2006."

And your point is what? How Canadian teams did in their national trials or how European teams did in 2006 means little today. What matters is what teams showed up in Sydney. There were two factors that prevented the strongest field from showing up: cost and the ICF.

For teams from Europe, Canada, and the USA, Sydeny was the most expensive Worlds ever. Not every team was able to fund their teams. As for the ICF, that organization has already attracted some of the top European teams from the IDBF; those top teams now compete in ICF events only.

It's a shame, really. No one really knows which team is truly the best these days. Maybe it is the USA. Maybe it's the ICF champion. But we won't know until the day comes when all teams compete at the same event. And since the ICF is not going away (contrary to popular belief, btw), whoever wins medals at the ICF and IDBF Worlds will always have to wonder. But until then, we show up, enjoy the sport, and do the best we can.

Looking back, the most competitive Worlds was likely held in Shanghai in 2004. Looks like the USA won a Gold in the 1000 there, so clearly the USA has always been one of the top teams. Was that "honey bear" guy with them then?

"The two erroneous posts show that some people just can't leave a dead issue alone and would rather twist the words they read to suit their tired agenda."

There isn't any agenda here. The point is -
Is a team better off if they keep a cancerous crew member on who is trying to undermine the coach or kicking him off?


You don't need casual or causal relationship here to figure that out.

Trying to undermine a coach is never good. But did this guy try to undermine the coach? Or did he just disagree with the coach and ultimately moved on?

In any case, both caoch and paddlers have parted ways, right? And both are still involved in the sport. So it seems like the result was agreeable to both parties. Yet some other posters here seems to like to dredge up old issues. That's sad.

"Again, read what was written. No one dissed the USA. The poster was actually defending the USA against those who have been saying that the USA only won because other stronger teams did not show up"

OK, here again is what was written (likely by the same poster who wrote the above):
"The USA team did very well in Sydney. Were the best teams in the world from Europe and Canada there? Not this time."

Maybe you should argue it was a Freudian slip. This clearly says the "best teams in the world" were not there directly implying the USA is not the best team in the world. Your true "colours" are showing through.

Here is the rest:
"Would the USA have won as many gold medals if that competition was there? NO ONE KNOWS."

Doesn't sound like defending the USA to me, looser.

Way to take one sentence out of context. Geez.

OK, let me clarify. My point was causality. Here's another way to put it: "Just as you can't assume that the USA wouldn't have won the Nations Cup if other teams showed up, you can't assume that the USA team is better because one paddler is no longer with them." Clear? OK? Happy?

been readign this and shaking my head. i understood waht the guy who made the original causality point was tryign to say -- but maybe it wasn't totally clear. so some people took it the wrong way. then the causality guy explains it, just to be clear. yet the guy at 12:40 still wants to argue it. 12:40, you seem very angry.

"Maybe you should argue it was a Freudian slip. This clearly says the "best teams in the world" were not there directly implying the USA is not the best team in the world. Your true "colours" are showing through."

Man, are dragon boaters this stubborn?

Earleir posts say that no one can know if the USA team is the best in world because of the disapointing turnout at sydney and the ICF influence. Theres no implication that the USA would have lost to those other top teams if they had showed.

I love how if you win worlds you automatically have a license to discredit anyone winning worlds for the next ten years. Because people can now always say that "if our real team had been there..." Just as people will say if the real Russians had been in Sydney, or the "real" Canadian team had been there or the shun de senior team had been there, things may have been different. Suddenly the real winners are discredited. The teams that were there and won the golds (US men/overall, Canada women and seniors)are the best in the world. Period. Otherwise the US can take the next two years off and not go to Poland/Moscow and say they would have won if they went.

"The teams that were there and won the golds (US men/overall, Canada women and seniors)are the best in the world."

Best in the world? Says who? Only the IDBF, that's who. The ICF would beg to differ -- and they ain't going away. The ICF provides free food and lodging when you participate in their version of the world championships. That's already attracted some top teams. Also, because many top padddlers in some countries already compete in ICF non-dragon boat events, they are no longer paddling in IDBF d-boat events. As long as the IDBF and ICF stay split, there will never be a true world championship. Tha sucks. This should be settled on the water.

"The teams that were there and won the golds (US men/overall, Canada women and seniors)are the best in the world."

Enough said, couldn't agree more. The very fast times turned in cannot be argued with. There is no fluke and nothing unexpected in the Sydney results. As mentioned, the US won the 1000 in 2004 and they also took the silver in the 500 in 2005. This year it was gold in both, no big surprise there. Same thing for the women and seniors.