Lately it seems like many of the threads (e.g. Taiwan World Games, False Creek World Record) are being hijacked by people who want to defend or attack McNamara or Blundetto.

As a Canadian paddler, who has participated in multiple IDBF World Championships, and raced against the U.S. team, I have an idea who McNamara is. I think I'm getting a sort of confused idea of the history between McNamara and Blundetto, but there is so much conflicting information it is tough to follow.

Really though, I don't want to learn more about these two and the crazy accusations they or their supporters make.

Rather than trying to pull every thread into a Mc vs B argument, could those of you who care about this post all of your comments in this thread? Then those who are interested can click on this topic and keep up to date and those who don't care don't have to be exposed to it.

Thanks in advance.

(Installs a permanent popcorn machine and leather chair in this room.)

Snack counter? $150
Beer tap? $450
Popcorn Machine? $225
More McNamara and Blundetto? Priceless

So, just to refresh. I believe we were discussing a hand, and how it got broken setting a world record at the ICF Dragon Boating Olympics.

Talk amongst yourselves... munch munch, sip.

munch munch munch , maybe we can all get together in Prague and have a go of it between heats and then throw popcorn at them

grabs another handful

The information does not need to be posted here as it is out there in other threads from past years. What stoked things again was the move to USACK by Blundetto, the supposed counter move of Flemer to USACK, etc. This too will pass and then you can go on to more interesting topics like who actually was wearing life jackets at a race.

DCH, DCH Rules!! Ya!

YAWN!

Never heard these f*cking names before in my life. Seems like one guy, and his one issue. WTF?

Tried looking them up on Google. Do you mean Abbott and Costello?

Re: DCH, DCH Rules!! Ya!

They suck, three full teams of scrubs! They have the potential of being a rec db team for a long long time. You guys definitely belong in that toliet race in Flushing. Stay in the states and pls don't come back to Montreal.

thank you

Re: McNamara and Blundetto August 3 2009, 9:23 AM


"Re: DCH, DCH Rules!! Ya!

They suck, three full teams of scrubs! They have the potential of being a rec db team for a long long time. You guys definitely belong in that toliet race in Flushing. Stay in the states and pls don't come back to Montreal.

thank you"

Please go back to pre-school and learn to count and read, they had 6 teams of scrubs in Montreal, not 4. Thank you.

Wow, that's alot of scrubs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Av7m_Pgt1S8

Ripping on our club is real bold with no real name backing it up. Learn to spell before you write.

What happened to the topic of discussion? Who cares about DCH. Let's talk about Bob and Mike.

Blundetto and McNamara are just two guys with an over-inflated sense of self and no perspective. Instead of just enjoying this sport for what it is -- an exhilarating yet obscure activity -- they treat it like it's really, really important. It's not.

I wouldn't take it that far. This is typical of who you get along with is who you side with. I've read postings on here for last 8 years and it's incredible how some crews are being judged based on hear say of another crew. Unless you get to know everyone on a personal level don't judge anyone.

Please. It's dragonboating. Anyone who takes it THIS seriously is silly. Just have fun, will you all?

"Blundetto and McNamara are just two guys with an over-inflated sense of self and no perspective. Instead of just enjoying this sport for what it is -- an exhilarating yet obscure activity -- they treat it like it's really, really important. It's not. "

And you know this personally? How do you know they don't enjoy it, they have their kids doing it do you?

Their kids do it. And that proves nothing more than the fact that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

This is about taking it too seriously, which both men do. Why else do you think they are at each other every chance they get?

You guys are a bunch of hypocrites. How can you sit here criticizing these guys for being "too serious" when you all started a thread just to talk about them two. I don't think many people can reach their level without taking the sport seriously. Winning is fun and to win you have to be serious. The two aren't mutually exclusive.

Are you guys going to say that all the top teams in Canada don't the sport very seriously? Practicing multiple times a week during the season with off season training sounds pretty serious to me. Keep their issues between them two. Don't bring their children into it too?

There's a difference between taking this sport seriously and taking it TOO seriously. The Canadians are a great example of how to take dragonboating seriously without taking it too seriously. The train and paddle hard, yet are very sportsmanlike. Yeah, there are some politics in Canada, too -- but nothing to the degree of the stuff we hear in the U.S.

Typical American navel gazing. Most Americans believe the world revolves around the U.S. I wonder how long it will take before American National DB Champions start calling themselves "World Champions" as they do with NBA, NFL and MLB.

this too...is dumb.

We in Canada are pretty spoiled when it comes to Dragon Boating.

With cross participation and coaching from other paddle disciplines from the earliest days we have a rather mature structure in place that seems to work for the most part and we now have an abundance of experienced coaches and training facilities.

In almost all cases we have worked together with canoe clubs and other paddle disciplines sharing facilities and leveraging numbers to help offset some of those facilities to the betterment of all.

Currently we have arguably 3 Elite teams/Clubs in Canada that are a step ahead of the rest (Mayfair, FCRCC and Dragon Boat East "Beasts"). There are a couple other such as MCC and/or Madawaska (insert name of the year here) if they were to come out and play more.

In addition to that we have a very deep group of teams on the edge of that group that year over year push each other and jockey for positioning. In any given year some are heading up, some peaking and some dipping, but all are racing hard and making things interesting.

To the best of my knowledge having raced many of these teams for years and years, while there is for sure a high degree of competitiveness there is virtually no animosity. We are intensely competitive on the water, but that's generally where it stays. After all there is usually a beer tent that needs attending to after the races, and there a lot more fun in this type of environment.

In fact I am sure if you were to poll the paddlers on these teams and ask them if they would like to see even more competition at the highest levels they would almost all say absolutely yes.

While I am not quite as familiar with the depth out West (Where perhaps the best club crew in the world resides) and the East coast (another pretty darn good crew) I know that we are particularly spoiled here in the geographically close Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and surrounding areas. Any competitive team that cannot find 4 or 5 highly competitive and deep regatta's to attend in a given year within very reasonable driving distance simply isn't trying.

"Typical American navel gazing. Most Americans believe the world revolves around the U.S. I wonder how long it will take before American National DB Champions start calling themselves "World Champions" as they do with NBA, NFL and MLB. "

Psst...there are Canadian teams in the NBA and MLB too. Btw, the US National team did win the Nations Cup in 2007 so as of now they ARE "world champions". Give it a rest please.

"Psst...there are Canadian teams in the NBA and MLB too. Btw, the US National team did win the Nations Cup in 2007 so as of now they ARE "world champions". Give it a rest please."

Canadian team, yes....as in ONE in each of MLB and NBA. Americans seem to forget the existence of Europe, Asia, Central and South America when it comes to declaring themselves "WORLD CHAMPIONS" in basketball and baseball. Self-absorbed, self-important, narrow-minded, ignorant people.

Wow, cry some more why don't you?

Do you know why the "World Series" is called the "World Series"?
Try researching the answer before running your mouth.

Cause Americans rule the world?

From wikipedia:

- The term "World Series" is derived from "World's Championship Series", a term which first appeared in the 1880s and continued into the early 1900s.


That seems to support the idea that Americans are self-absorbed, actually.

"Do you know why the "World Series" is called the "World Series"?
Try researching the answer before running your mouth."

Yes. Because a newspaper called the World News were the main supporters of the first baseball championship in the USA. This has somehow morphed into American sports champions being call World Champions by the American media and Americans in general. Any other questions, pinhead.

If you want to call yourself World Champions, perhaps you should invite the rest of the world to participate.

I guess most of this thread answers the question about whether most of the Philly/US team criticism/McNamara vs Blundetto instigation is coming from Canada or amongst the Americans....

This is all i got from reading everything above...

"DCJ had 6 teams of scrubs in Montreal, not 4. Thank you."


HAHAHAHAHAHA!

This is all i got from reading everything above...

"DCH had 6 teams of scrubs in Montreal, not 4. Thank you."


HAHAHAHAHAHA!

You are just hating because DCH is a better team and you are just another team who struggle to maintain one crew.

Oh yeah. That's the reason why. LOL. How do you know that. He could be on a team that is bored of kicking your ass and annoyed you still think you can win.

"This has somehow morphed into American sports champions being call World Champions by the American media and Americans in general. Any other questions, pinhead."

Yes, and it's this: Do you hear these messages on the one radio signal that manages to penetrate your tinfoil hat, Needledick? NEVER heard any broadcaster refer to the team that wins the World Series of Baseball as "World Champions". Try spending October on Earth this year, instead of leaving for your own planet to avoid the winter.

"Yes, and it's this: Do you hear these messages on the one radio signal that manages to penetrate your tinfoil hat, Needledick? NEVER heard any broadcaster refer to the team that wins the World Series of Baseball as "World Champions"."


You arrogant moron. I suggest you clean up your sloppy catch in the dragonboat because you must have had water in your ears in October when Joe Buck said: "Phillies are World Champions".

Don't believe me? Read the second paragraph here:http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20081029&content_id=3653846&vkey=perspectives&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

Wanna hear it yourself? Click this:http://phillies.fandome.com/video/114266/Joe-Buck-Phillies-are-World-Champions/


Even Sports Illustrated got in the act in 2006 with the Cardinals:http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/cover/featured/10554/index.htm

"Yes, and it's this: Do you hear these messages on the one radio signal that manages to penetrate your tinfoil hat, Needledick? NEVER heard any broadcaster refer to the team that wins the World Series of Baseball as "World Champions"."


Just a sample of quotes that took me 5 seconds to find...


"World Champion Cardinals due for makeover in '07" (Sports Illustrated)

"Yankees 26 World Championship teams" (newyork.yankees.mlb.com)

"2000 World Champions New York Yankees" (Sportsencyclopedia)

"World Champion St Louis Cardinals" (The Post-Dispatch)

"World Champion Arizona Diamondbacks Selects Williams Communications For Multi-year Broadcast Services Deal" (PR News Wire)

"The World Champion Marlins are eager to show disbelievers that last season was no fluke." (Sporting News)



Crawl out from that rock that you are living under, moron.

August 6 2009, 10:38 AM = epic fail.

So what happens if Toronto wins the World Series? Are the Americans still wrong? Can they too wrongfully claim to be world champions so that they're able to send their best like the Americans?

You guys are arguing about something so stupid.

"August 6 2009, 10:38 AM = epic fail."

Hahahahahaha!

Your example is not relevant because Toronto isn't going to win another World Series in our lifetime.

"There's a difference between taking this sport seriously and taking it TOO seriously. The Canadians are a great example of how to take dragonboating seriously without taking it too seriously. The train and paddle hard, yet are very sportsmanlike. "

Sure they are, Canadians learn to be deferential at an early age, it is part of a national identity when your entire existence rests upon having the beast lying to your south remain a friendly neighbor with no intention of wiping you out and confiscating all of your natural resources for themselves. Many Americans on the other hand are bred to strive to be #1 in everything they do, makes for an intensely competitive bunch. They are told that not only should you want to win, you should win.

To Americans, Canada is a non-issue. When is the last time Canada did anything that could have pissed off Americans? Americans spend very little time thinking about Canada, but the converse is not true. What pisses Canada off is that America doesn't give a crap if what they are doing pisses off Canadians. It just isn't on the radar screen. Hell a huge number of Americans probably can't even find Canada on a map.

Americans train and paddle hard and maybe they are not always sportsmanlike. On the other hand their military trains and fights hard and it is a good thing for Canada and the rest of the free world that they are not sportsmanlike but out to win at all costs. Take the good with the bad and respect the cultural differences.

"What pisses Canada off is that America doesn't give a crap if what they are doing pisses off Canadians. It just isn't on the radar screen. Hell a huge number of Americans probably can't even find Canada on a map."

Substitute "Canada" with any other country in the world and you will see why the rest of the world has such a strong dislike of the U.S. Your last two sentences are specifically the reason why American foreign policy is a joke and likely closet imperialism. Enjoy your big dog status while it lasts. Like the U.K. before you, your time is soon coming to an end. Then you'll have to cowtow to China.

Wow. I'm shocked that you know how to use the word "deferential" and yet are so utterly uninformed about geo-politics and U.S. Foreign Policy.

I've heard the Bill O'Reilly-esque logic echoed many times over: Canada's got to play nice or the U.S. will wipe it out. Unfortunately, like most things with O'Reilly's taint, it does not hold up to logic. Such aggression towards a relatively wealthy nation would certainly bring upon the ire of the rest of the industrialized world. After all, any country could see this aggression easily extended to them. This idea is so utterly ludicrous it is laughable.

You may be #1 in some things, but not in things that matter: quality of living, healthcare, safety from crime, etc etc. That's the problem. You've been taught to strive to be number 1 in a lot of things that don't matter. That's why you guys even take high school football so seriously.

Lastly, I know there's no way anyone can ever convince you of this but I'll try anyway: America is not the wholesome defender of the free world you believe it to be. Your view of the world is childishly black and white. There are countless examples of the U.S. invading free democratic nations, or disposing of democratically elected leaders to install their own dictator (Guatemala, Chile, etc.) Canada, like most industrialized nations is not completely guilt-free either. But I was just surprised that (assuming you're an adult) someone of your age still holds onto such naive views.

Anyway, enough of this political derail. Are the pro-McNamara and pro-Blundetto fans ever going to show up?

now this is really retarded

South Park had it right

Yeah. What would Brian Boytano do?

Get the vaseline and bend over?

"On the other hand their military trains and fights hard and it is a good thing for Canada and the rest of the free world that they are not sportsmanlike but out to win at all costs. Take the good with the bad and respect the cultural differences. "

Don't even get us started. I assume this is a joke. Actually to be fair, it has nothing to do with the guy doing the fighting, but the folks deciding the when and where and the why have some serious delusions about right and wrong.

Weapons of mass destruction anyone? And now that the country has been completely destabilized. Let's leave cause it's pricey. Hopefully things will improve now that Bush is no longer pulling the strings.

And Canada contributes exactly what to the world? Bush whom you love to bash delivered big time on HIV meds to sub-Saharan Africa. Even Bono was impressed. No nation gives more in terms of foreign aid or assistance be it monetary or military. You cast out the word imperialism yet when is the last time the US acquired new territory? Not in your lifetime.

Face it, Canada has a complex about America and it extends into your view of American dragon boating.

Dude. Modern day imperalism is done by overthrowing governments and installing your own "democractic" leadership (cough Iraq) or by using economic and military power to make countries bend to your will.

"Hell a huge number of Americans probably can't even find Canada on a map"

Is this because they don't care or lack the education? Or is it one because of the other?