Hello all you forum dwellers!

A group of guys has banded together out of the love of paddling. We formalized this arrangement, through the formation of an Open team, Shaka - OHDBC. Yes, we will be practicing on the fine waters at Outer Harbour!

We'd like to invite some enthusiastic men to paddle with us in the upcoming year. We aim to paddle in as many open races as possible, with a goal of qualifying for a Macau spot at the Nationals in Montreal.

The Kwoks have graciously offered to coach the team in the upcoming year. Training has already started at MCC, so we're ready to go if you are!

If youd like to join us or need more info, send me an email at shakadbc@live.com

See you on the water!

Stephen.

What does Shaka mean? How many times a week do you practice?

false creek still wins

Hmmmmm qualifying for Macau, a lofty goal indeed. I'll shoot you an email for some more details.

Is this a separate team from Rip the Fondue or a second generation of the same?

I'm pretty sure RTF still exists??? This is probably a similar style of team...taking men from many teams to form an open team. I hope RTF is still around those guys rock!

Tentatively, we will be practicing Sundays late morning/early noon and Fridays @ 7:30pm.

No, we are not Rip the Fondue, they are a separate team. We would love to be as well respected as they are. We would also be very flattered to eventually be in the same league as False Creek as well.

Yes, we have lofty goals. We have a long way to go before being in game shape. However, we have the dedication, the drive, and we have heart (sorry about the corniness). Our coaches will provide the technique and the guidance to help us reach our goals.

The Shaka sign refers to the surfer/Hawaiian hand sign with the thumb and pinky extended. Some people might know it as the "Hang Loose" or "Hang Ten" sign. It is commonly used to say hello and is a general sign of friendship and camaraderie. Perfect for water culture and our own team first attitude.

Again, if you're interested in being part of a new team, striving to reach new heights, give us a shout!

shakadbc@live.com

Is the name still up for debate?

Is this the same people as the Bus team that competed at GWN?

As someone who paddled on The Bus, I can say it is not the same team as that was at GWN

Getting the Kwoks involved is a good start. Even better if you could get Kevin to paddle.

Why would getting the Kwoks involved be a good thing?

FYI guys you will need to be a member of OHDBC as a club to allow you to paddle and qualify with this men's crew. So, if you already paddle on a mixed crew which is neither a member crew of OHDBC or is a member of another Club you will have to choose between your mixed or your men's as a paddler can only belong to 1 club.

Unfortunately this is a problem for many single sex crews/teams that will try to form from more than 1 non affiliated existing mixed crews.

Hmm, what about this?

Let's say you paddle out of Outer Harbour, part of the OHDBC collective.

Let's say you paddle for OHDBC Hammerheads, would you still be allowed to paddle for OHDBC Men's? Technically, you're still part of the OHDBC collective, and still paddling for one "crew".

as long as you are registered as an Outer Harbor crew you should be fine

You will be a representative from the CLUB, not a team. OHDBC is the club, Hammerheads and the Open team are... err... teams... So yes Hammerhead paddler, you can paddle for the OHDBC Open team.

So there IS a way to paddle legitimately for both open and mixed crew for the upcoming qualifiers.

I always thought one paddler per CREW, that's it. But I guess it's one paddler per CLUB.

Just to clarify this: you either join an existing "crew" which is part of the OHDBC: Mayfair Preds or Warriors, Hydros, Hammerheads, Chaos, Senior Womens, Premier Women etc. or your existing "crew" affiliates itself under the OHDBC banner - what some previous poster stated as the OHDBC collective. You and all your crewmates are now an OHDBC club member. This will then allow you to paddle with any crew under the OHDBC banner as long as you qualify to race under sex/age restrictions.

Example: you are a 51 year old women: you could paddle for OHDBC Senior women, Premier Women, Grandmasters Women (if they had one), and OHDBC Grandmasters Mixed, Senior Mixed and Premier Mixed. As long as these crews had all there paddlers as OHDBC members.

So as it stands now paddlers from crews such as: Killer Koi/Big Fish, Mofos, Mojos, Piranhas, Hanalei, CSDC, Scotia Rouge, PDBC etc. could not paddle on this men's crew. They would have to either leave there existing mixed crew and join an existing mixed crew that is already affiliated with OHDBC or try to convince there exisitng crew to join under the OHDBC banner.

Note: these rules are only for Sport racing/DBC racing for the purposes of qualifying for Canadian National Championships and ultimately Macau WCCRC's.
So if this crew wanted to qualify for that that specific goal it has some restrictions but if it wanted to enter non DBC regattas such Toronto Island, Montreal Regatta, 911 etc than these restrictions are not in place.

Hope that helps

Thanks! It does.

Good for the Kwok's putting together a men's team. RTF was OK, but let's remember they couldn't beat the Beast mixed crew at Nationals. The level of men's club racing is pretty low so far - let's hope this team is better.

So if you already paddle for a team/crew, and it does not paddle in any sport divisions, requiring them to register for DBC, then they can freely join any team (open team) which is registered.

WOW some actual useful information...what's become of this board? Sheeesh.

This sounds quite promising I'll send you an email Stephen.

Hey! Don't knock RTF! They medalled in a very competetive international field!

They still got beat by girls.

Not to mention they were consistently slower than Hydro. So take out eight men from the RTF boat and insert eight women and the boat goes faster??? Gut check time, mes amis.

RTF, not a bad team...for a bunch of newbies.

RTF is awesome! Don't go bashing a great group of guys.

I missed the bus, and that's something I will never ever have to do again!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhUx3ENL-RQ

December 10 2008, 2:13 PM

Just to clarify one point: this rule only applies if the teams are registered in Sport Division with DBC. So, if I paddle for a mixed crew, not a member of OHDBC, that does NOT register for Sport Div. with DBC, I could still paddle for Shaka. Right?

Yes that is correct.

That also means your mixed crew can't go to nationals because based on last year you have to be a dbc-registered team to compete there.

Long live Dragon Boat Canada. I give them 2 years and they will be done. Anyone wanting to bet?

Mixed crews going to nationals
- False Creek
- Mayfair
- Dragonbeasts
- Gorging
- Sudbury

- Other possibilities... Hydro, Hanalei, Verdun

- Everyone else... slim pickings unless you can knock off 5 seconds

So a good option if you really want a chance at going to macau would be to form an open team

Enter...this new Men's team! Sounds like a great way to take some of the best guys from various mixed teams and have a chance at Macau. I'll email you Stephen for more specifics about the team.

Read Albert's blog today - he says the Beasts (and Mayfair and False Creek) aren't going to Nationals - should be wide open in mixed.

Albert's comment was written months ago before the date change.

Well will see if that actually pans out - I think not. The Beasts will potentially still send their 2nd crew but they will need to find a coach as their coaches will all be in Prague. Additionally, I imagine that False Creek will still send there 2nd team (which is probably better then most clubs best crew) and Mayfair may not send a crew but I would think that with the half of Mayfair not going to Prague and some Hammerheads and Chaos paddlers filling in Outer Harbour could still send a very competitive crew.

In all 3 cases it is too early for anyone to state accurately who is or is not going to paddle at Montreal including me

But I would suspect that teams like Hydro and Chaos would be better off sending their own team, not filling out the ranks of a depleted Mayfair squad.

OHDBC may be a "club" in some respects, but those teams function independently and have their own goals and aspirations.

Like...winning it for themselves, just for example.

This just shows how the degree of fallacy in the "clubs" that we have. OHDBC is a "club" but you don't see a club mentality at all. Everything is done on an independent basis. In fact the whole club structure at almost every "DBC Club"is the same - just a pathetic pretense. Why are we following such a useless model? There is no "club" in any of these clubs be it OHDBC, PDBC, G&G etc.....

I have a club between my legs. Just thought I would add to this forum. Attracts so many smart people

Don't expect to see Mayfair at the nationals, even with the change in date. Mayfairs paddlers are involved with the senior men's, senior men's, premier women's, and premier open crews, and that will take priority over the nationals. I suspect the same is true for Beasts. I wouldn't be surprised to see False Creek there though.

False Creek has the berth for premier open and mixed, so they'll be Prague bound as well. Great opportunity for some other crews to jump into the mix.

Not to mention they were consistently slower than Hydro. So take out eight men from the RTF boat and insert eight women and the boat goes faster??? Gut check time, mes amis.

You couldn't be more wrong. Instead of spreading misinformation check your facts:
http://www.dragonboatcanada.org/documents08/CanNatChamps2008results.pdf


RTF at Nationals had the overall fastest time in the 200m. They posted the fastest 500m time for the weekend (albeit in a heat) and a respectable 3rd in the 2k.

Not bad for a collective group of solely dragon boaters without a flatwater background amongst the lot to them and a single season of actually training together.


Stephen I hope you successfully field a team. It would be great to see more male crews out racing. The camaraderie is great and the respect between competitors is second to none. Just ask RTF and Montreal Men.

Does Mayfair, Beasts or False Creek have any paddlers that are not on the National Team.
I thought the "Club" system was supposed to stop this.

Almost every paddler on the Beasts is Senior age and I think on the Senior National team. I think they have one women on the Premier team.
The rule is for Premier paddlers.

Mayfair must have a number of Premier paddlers.

False Creek would obviously have many premier paddlers.

And I'm confused - the date for Nationals was moved, but then moved back. The racing is the weekend before Worlds - and the racing for Worlds starts on Wednesday. There's no way any Worlds paddler will be at Nationals.

Spin all you want RTF - you got beat head to head by girls at Nationals in the 500 and 2K - I saw it.

"Does Mayfair, Beasts or False Creek have any paddlers that are not on the National Team. I thought the "Club" system was supposed to stop this."

How was the club system supposed to stop this? Why would anyone want to stop it? We're talking about the world championships, not club crew championships, and we should have the best people possible representing Canada.

The premier open and women's teams will include paddlers from all of those 3 clubs, plus others. The senior open and women's teams will include paddlers from Beasts and Mayfair, and from other clubs (including the Canadian Seniors). This is exactly how a national team should be created.

If you're saying you don't like national team paddlers participating in clubs that race at the club crew championships, then that is a different issue.

When an entire crew is made up of National Team paddlers it changes the dynamics.
Festival rules do not stipulate the make-up or format of a crew.

But, DBC should consider at the very least on a moral ground the formation
of a Club crew that is entirely National Crew based.

Back on topic, RTF ROCKS, and this new Men's team will have some big shoes to fill.

"When an entire crew is made up of National Team paddlers it changes the dynamics."

Yes, it makes them faster.

With respect to RTF, they haven't been much faster (if at all) than the top mixed crews. Maybe having another team will help raise the level of open competition in Ontario, or maybe it will just dilute each crew, and they'll remain mediocre.

RTF isn't as fast as Fox and others have stated - they lost to a throw together crew at 911, to a mixed crew at Quebec Cup and at the start of the season to a bunch of senior guys. Not the greatest of records.

So 3 losses to crews that on paper they should beat according to some on this forum.

Fox was responding to the previous poster who claimed that RTF had consistently underperformed Hydro. I think the reference he provided dispelled teh previous claim. That takes nothing away from the Hydro ladies...they would kick the nads off many of the male dragonboaters in Canada head to head in OC1 races.

Yes, RTF was beaten head to head by the Beasts at Nationals. So was almost everyone else. The fact is that Dragonboat in Canada is about mixed crews, and the Beasts are among the cream of the crop. RTF did well to stay as close as they did. Look at the mixed results from Penang and you'll see that, had Mayfair registered in the open category, they would have taken down a large proportion of the men's crews in attendance. So put into the appropriate context, RTF's performance speaks volumes about the Canadian dragonboat scene in Canada. What other countries could boast the ability to pull together a rag-tag group of paddlers that could compete at that level after a year of training with so few competitors in their category? They only did what they did because they got beat by the Beasts and other amazingly strong mixed crews.

That being said, we need to foster more Canadian competition in the Open (i.e. Men's) category if we ever expect to dominate that category the way we do mixed. The more teams competing, the better the competition. The better the competition, the better the placements on the world stage.

Good luck guys. With two years of practice, you'll likely do as well, if not better, than RTF.

Good luck to Kevin (aka Jackie Chan) and Stephen. I know with your guidance the Shaka team will be competitive.

For all the rest of you trolls, get your team together to race RTF and Shaka in 2009. We'll see if your boats move as fast as your lips flap.

Well said Joel, well said.

What type of lips? I saw some fast flapping lips down at FYEO a little while ago. Would make your eyes bug out!

Goodluck guys!

A quick shout out to all the teams that have started training already! Happy new year to all! Just wanted to say thanks to everyone for the support. I've had great response so far and we've developed quite a great set of guys. We're looking to round out our team with a few final guys. So if you're interested in trying out, drop by MCC on sundays and have a paddle with us. If you're feeling extra gung-ho, you can even jog with us before practice through the sub-zero temperatures. (I can't believe we've stuck through it!) Kevin and Steve Kwok have been working us hard, but we have all learned better form and technique through their guidance. I'm sure that we'll be bringing back great lessons for our mixed teams. But I digress. Give me a shout if you guys are interested in joining us! (shakadbc@live.com)

See the rest of you folks on the water!

Hi everybody,

Is it possible to join your team?
I have several seasons experience in dragonboating as well as several years experience in canoeing.

Please let me know if this is possible.

Thanks
Pavel

Pavel,

We'd love to have you come out. Fire me an email and we'll make arrangements for you to come out.

We're still looking for enthusiastic paddlers (men) for our team. Come by and see us! You won't be disappointed.

Stephen.

Is this Men's team still recruiting?

I believe they are, too bad about RTF

We're still looking for a few enthusiastic men! Drop me a line!

contact Gregg Chenier he's available if the price is right

How about the other open crew that went to the worlds? They looking?

They broke up.

There were two that came from GTA. RTF and Pirahanas. I guess you could email the latter to see if they are looking. They were recruiting earlier.

A 2:01 (500m) at Pickering! Please tell me your still recruiting? Is this basically a remake of RTF? Or is this a totally new team?

I don't think these guys are RTF...anyone know?

No, we are not RTF

Alliance beat them by more than a second! Does anybody know who they are? I've never heard of them before...are they still recriting?

The guy left his contact info above. Seriously, just scroll up... Wow, good job guys...

we're always looking for paddlers, why don't you email stephen above and get more information. we practice fridays @ 7:30 and sundays at noonish out in outer harbour.

practice on Fridays....? that's dedication.

Alliance won the Sport Open at Pickering and are essentially CSDC with a couple of young bucks thrown into the mix.

They will be in the Sport Open race at the island also.

Actually the Alliance is CSDC with a bunch of Hanalei old bucks.

"Actually the Alliance is CSDC with a bunch of Hanalei old bucks."


Wrong.

The Sport Mixed Crew at Pickering were all CSDC paddlers except for 3 men under 30 years old.

The Sport Open Crew were CSDC with the 3 guys mentioned above and only 2 others from Hanalei.

if you're going to post like an ass, at least have your facts straight.

Yes the Sport Open crew was CSDC with 3 extra guys, but there were 5 Hanalei guys, not 2.

It really doesn't matter, but I just felt like correcting you so that I can prove you're not as smart as you think.

Do you paddle with CSDC?

If not, perhaps you post about something else because you look like a fool.

Funny thing is, you're all wrong!

All the teams present were pretty damn fast! Doesn't matter who was in the boats! We definitely have our work cut out for us in the next few races. Here's my pitch again for interested people! If you're still interested and have a great attitude, drop me a line!

Stephen.

I'm pretty sure Alliance was Hanalei men with a few fillers from Seniors & Piranhas....

Agreed, it was great racing all around. It's hard to put together a Men's team. Hopefully, you get some more paddlers Stephen and goodluck at the Island.