With only one team allowed to practice (Puff) what will happen with the dragon boat community down in South Florida? I guess Tampa will continue to be the dominant Florida team....too bad so sad. Hyrdos and Red Dragons were really starting to catch us.

I guess Tampa will continue to be the dominant Florida team?

Its actually team(S). There are two Dominant teams in Tampa, TECO and Blade Runners. Actually, together they usually place 1, 2, 3, out of the 4 teams they bring to races.

I am sure they will all get creative to stay in shape.

I don't get it. Why is only one team allowed to practice in Florida? Please explain.

Explain? this is a mute point and I don't think we will ever get someone to explain, but rather than add to the rumors and politics of the sport, we just need to let it play out.

Just like in any other sport, you have to cross train in other ways and no one can take that from us. And who knows, not practicing together may push everyone individually to work harder on themselves.

This makes no sense. Is there only 1 boat in Miami? Does that team own the boat?


ps...moot point

moot point... ahhhhh got it, LOL, actually never knew that and this whole time I have been saying mute. Learn something new every day.

it's a moo point. You know, like a cow's opinion. It just doesn't matter. It's moo.

Eli,

So what happened? How come only one team can practice? I never heard of such a thing?

I don't know the all the details. All I can say is there are really only 2 places to practice in South Florida, one is in Fort Lauderdale and that is being threated by a Kayaker who is trying to get dragon boats kicked out of that park. The other location is the MRC which is at the moment closed for practice. So the growth at the moment is stalled.

On another note:
We usually only do 1 out of state race a year but this year we have the unique opportunity to do 2 races. With Philly now past we look ahead to the next one. We like to travel to races with all of our team members, but we have a race coming up where all of our members understandably cannot attend. That is the Hartford race on Aug 15th and 16th, so we have opened our team to interested paddlers. I believe we require the paddler(s) to be ERDBA members or a member of your specific region, but I am not sure about this race you will have to ask our captain Cesar. just drop us a note if you are interested at the contact page ofhttp://www.hydroblades.net/#/contact.

Nice Friends reference 9:58

9:21 a.m. - There are four boats in Miami but one person owns them. This one person is the same person who had a Miami Brickell race and did not want to give out the prize money to the deserving teams until DBRC stepped in. Puff is friendly with this one person and since Puff is currently the worst team in Miami they asked this one person to not allow all the other DB teams in Miami to race even though everyone was paying their practice fees.

Correction - since Puff is currently the worst team in Miami they asked this one person to not allow all the other DB teams in Miami to PRACTICE even though everyone was paying their practice fees.

My God. That's insane.

That would be like the worst team in Long Beach asking Dr. Chen to not allow any other team to use the boats. That would never happen.

The Miami Brikell Key races are also poorly run. My team won't go anymore. The 2008 races were insane. The cops shut the races down at 6 or 7pm and only 2 heats had been run. They take LOOOOOOONG lunches at Brickell Key. Really a bad race venue, in a beautiful place. Very choppy water on one side of bridge with bridge pylings getting in way of lanes.

While I'm sure their are 10 versions of the truth from a number of different perspectives at the end of the day it's a real shame and frankly bad business sense that anyone would be restricted for practicing, or participating in any way.

I'm sure this is just some growing pains at the moment. If practices can't be had in one place, some enterprising individual will offer it up somewhere else soon enough.

Crap like this (regardless of the why and who's to blame) sure makes you appreciate the myriad of options we have here in Toronto to practice and race. 4-5 major paddling centers (most of which are cross discipline) and probably 10 - 15 regattas within an hour and a half drive with 2 being in the top 3 or 4 events in NA from a teams a competitiveness perspective. If you extend your drive to 4-5 hours you can add Montreal and Ottawa to that and probably hit 4 of the top 5 races in NA with Alcan being the only one you would miss.

The popularity sure seems to be growing in Florida so its really probably only a matter or time before it really starts to take off and things like where can we practice will be a thing of the past.

Cheers

The truth is that we don't know for sure what is going on but regardless we will continue improving no matter what.

As for those benefited from the politics we wish that would help them improve, we need to have all the competition possible in Florida so that we can all grow.

Like someone else said in this forum:this type of thing will push us to come up with creative solutions and in the end all of us will be benefited.

Correction - since Puff is currently the worst team in Miami they asked this one person to not allow all the other DB teams in Miami to PRACTICE even though everyone was paying their practice fees.

Not just only Puff but the rest of the S.FL teams, next in line is DS or Blazzing, hydro.. All u guys need to get your **** together down there, starting with the Organizer.

"even though everyone was paying their practice fees."

Are you sure about that?? Every team is current with their practice fees?? No late, past due or anything?

Just try to figure out why it happened and eliminate the possibility of financial reasons.

Isn't there plenty of Marinas down there that you can practice out of?

Well, I am not sure but I think the organization of the races is outsourced to someone else, I don;t think it has anything to do with the teams.

Also, the more we talk about it I think the longer it will take to resolve because people get crazy on here and it might piss someone off. the paddlers on either side have really nothing to do with what is going on, or at least I would like to hope not. So as we voice our opinions and frustrations please show sportsmanship if it is possible.

All teams were told that all payments from June forward, were not to be paid since there is no practices until a new payment structure was created. Up to May all fees were current.

Cesar wrote: "As for those benefited from the politics we wish that would help them improve, we need to have all the competition possible in Florida so that we can all grow."

Dude, you don't need local competition to grow. The Philly team, which has dominated dragon boating in the U.S. for years, dominated without any local competition at all. Just do what they do: practice, practice, practice.

you are referring to that "dude" will murphy?

Just do what they do: practice, practice, practice.???????

Apparently he or she is not reading the thread. Practice, Practice, Practice is hard to do when you can't use the boats.

Apparently he or she is not reading the thread. Practice, Practice, Practice is hard to do when you can't use the boats.

It is only for month of June how about all the other months you guys were praticing right?? 3 times a week and still can't beat those Tampa teams. Better tell CJ to up the practice to 5 or 6 times a week.

doesn't TECO practice every morning? so going to 5 days would help. BTW, CJ does not coach all of the teams in S. Florida

TECO does NOT practice every am!

Keep away from people who belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you too can become great....Mark Twain

Sorry to hear about your screwed up situation. Only solution is buy your own boat and find a place to park it. I'm sure you are looking into it. The more teams there are the better it is for everybody. The more facilities the more the sport grows.

Shame really with what sounds like a growing interest level.

Good luck.

My corporate team was coached by Puff for the MRC race. I will personally speak to the captain of Puff and Joe Chi and get there side of the story. Until then I have told my employees if they want to join a full time dragon boat team, to please consider joining another team. My office believes in integrity and fair play in getting business and accounts. This seems to be lost in Puff's style of competition.

Old News - Puff is only team allowed to practice and acknowledges this advantage but says "its not in our control, but Joe Chi's"

New News - Puff needs paddlers from other teams to help them in Denver race. If these individual paddlers come help Puff, these and only these paddlers will be able to practice as "special" guests for Puff.

Does this Joe Chi dude have too much money and is just rolling in it? How else can you explain a guy turning down money from 3 other dragon boat teams while the boat sits idle?! (I assume that PUFF does not practice three times a day, seven days a week).

Puff is like the little fat kid who's father is a coach of a team. Since the little fat kid isn't good enough, dedicated enough, and talented enough, he tells his dad to not let the other players play so he can get better. The problem is...he will always be the little fat kid not good enough, dedicated enough and talented enough.

Why don't the 2-3 teams that are out get together to buy a boat? Problem solved!

This thread has degenerated into a Mr. & Mrs. Smith type plot. There's so much mud-slinging that I don't think anyone realizes just how preposturous their allegations really are.

Reality check folks, you're living in the center of the capitalist world. Stop bitching and invest in a solution.

But Puff probably has already talked to the dragon boat manufacturer not to see any boats to other south Florida teams.

LOL, the last post was so wrong but funny.

"Reality check folks, you're living in the center of the capitalist world. Stop bitching and invest in a solution."

We did try and find a solution. We asked the city if we could bring our own boats and store them at the same facility. The city said only Joe Chi can use the facility.

" The city said only Joe Chi can use the facility. "


Wow. Another corrupt town. Lovely.

IF Joe Chi leased the facility from the City, then the City gave the correct response. Sad but true.

Baloney. The city can force Chi to do the right thing -- if the city wanted to.

Attention: Hydro, Red Dragons, Dragon Slayers,and SoS,

If you don't know how the game is played by now let us tell you. When Joe Chi takes a crap, you get down and wipe his butt. When Joe's wife isn't giving it up, you offer one of your female paddlers. When Joe's feet ache, you massage them. When Joe feels hungry at 3 am, you offer to bring him food. When Joe doesn't like the other South Florida dragon boat organizer, you only side with Joe. When Joe's car is dirty, you offer to wash it. When Joe feels like experimenting, you offer one of your male paddlers. This is what we do and is why he lets us practice and if the other teams don't understand it, its not our fault.

You cannot stop whats coming.

South Florida needs to isolate this Chi guy and create options for dragon boating that do not rely on him.

When Joe feels like experimenting, you offer one of your male paddlers.?? Is that the secret? which team is left to practice again? Better yet, who was the lucky paddler?

you have to learn from current events, when price of oil gets too high we talk about alternative energy and people adapt and conserve. When the dragon boat leadership threatens the growth of the sport, his customers talk about alternatives, and teams adapt.