Anyone know of any shake ups with respect to coaches? Any one get booted, get hired? What about crews? Are the Predators splitting up?

The Predators have disbanded.

After 13 years (11 with Jim), Mayfair Predators are wrapping up their team. It's been a great run, some super memories and a lot of good paddlers have been part of their history.
Thanks to the dragon boat community for your support over the years.

The Greats:

Imperial Dragons
Mayfair Predators
Scotia Spitfires
Wong's Dragon Slayers

Impressive, especially considering this list is only about their First Place finishes and does not include 2nd or 3rd place results:

Pickering 1999
Stratford 2001
GWN - Summer Sizzler 2001
GWN - Summer Sizzler 2002
GWN 3000m 2002
GWN 3000m 2003
GWN - Summer Sizzler 2003
GWN 2003
GWN - Summer Sizzler 2004
GWN 3000m 2004
Welland HPR 2004
GWN 3000m 2005
Pickering 2005
NACCC 2005
Lachine Knockout Challenge 2005
Welland HPR 2006
GWN 2006
Pickering 2007
GWN 3000m 2007
Sudbury 2007
TIDBRF - Premier Mixed 2007
GWN 2007
GWN 2008
TIDBRF - Premier Mixed 2008
Pickering 2008
GWN 3000m 2008
GWN Sport Regatta 2009
TIDBRF - Premier Mixed 2009
Pickering 2009
GWN 3000m 2009

The end of an era... time for the new guard to pick it up...
I guess the MOFOs will be the next dominant team

Canadians 2008, CCWC 2008...

"I guess the MOFOs will be the next dominant team"

This is a joke, right?

no... no... pretty sure that guy was serious....

go preds!

END of ERA mayfair could have raced in the over 50 age class. Most of those guys are ex flatwater paddlers. It will be a long time before more flaties get involved. As far as I see it is wide open for anyone

That is an exaggeration of the age of the Mayfair crew. This year there were only 4 guys over 50.

Only 5 flatwater backgrounds too...

Impressive list of accomplishments by the Preds. But what's more impressive is that someone actually kept track over 10 years of their victories!

So who will be the top mixed crew in Ontario/Quebec in 2010? Verdun? Big Fish?

Big Fish would appear to have momentum after coming back so strongly in 2009. Will we see some of the crews who will be racing in Macau recruiting new paddlers(maybe even Predators?) and improving their performance?

Uhm... did people forget about Hydro? This group really isn't a group of flat water paddlers, although they may cross train on small boats. They started from the bottom and now are at the top. I'd say they still have room for improvement.

The Alliance seem to be the best candidate to pick up the torch. CSDC and Hanalei have always been strong and will probably re-tool a bit for 2010 to become even stronger. The Pirahnas and Big Fish in Ontario, and Verdun in Quebec will also step up in 2010.

The person who suggested MOFOs must not have been at Nationals this year. They placed a lowly 16th out of 21 Mixed Crews. All muscle...no hustle.

Didn't Sudbury do well this year at nationals?

Top teams in Ontario (no particular order)

Hydro
Piranhas
Big Fish
Chiro
Hanalei
CSDC

And if you want: SRP and Alliance (which includes some of the above)

I hope the Chiros can attend some of the GTA regattas next year. We missed you guys last year.

Is Kevin coaching SRP next year? I heard a rumour that he's not.

I heard Marek Ploch was coming back to coach SRP for a fee.

Just like he came back to China in 2005?

Yes. Rumour has it that Rob found some sympathetic venture capitalist to finance the coaching.

No comment from the Ridge/Wascana on the matter.

Depends on where the former predators go.
Depends on who Jim coaches.
All teams going to Penang will experience an additional spike due to increased training.

"All teams going to Penang will experience an additional spike due to increased training."

You mean Macau, right?

Balmy is screwed!

I hear SRP is picking up some guys from mayfair. alot of srp paddlers from last year are not coming back.

"I hear Team X is picking up some guys from mayfair."

We're going to hear different versions of this rumour for the next six months.

5-10 Dragons you may have thought went away but they have retooled their team and will be going for the Island title.

Heard doug tutty wants to get back into it big time.

I'm reading baloney... purely rumours... I challenge all of this..

Who are the 5 10 dragons? What makes them think they can make an A final, let alone win at the island?

To: October 21 2009, 5:17 PM "Balmy is screwed!"

Why is Balmy screwed?

Doug and Blake stagging a come back, it is about time, I love those guys

Well that's great.

I suppose Gavin won't just going to hand over the women's crew back to Blake. If those who are loyal to Blake and side with him (a la Stonehookers) want to give it a run they better be ready to work hard because even though they may have the pedigree to succeed they're rusty, a few years older, and have been out of the game for some time. I mean it's great that they are stacked were an ex-flatwater paddler and were hot **** back in the day but what does it mean now?

As for the men - I wonder who Doug is going to choose from. Are there enough of the old guard like Larry, Derek, Drayton, Stringer, Ford, etc. who even care to come back? Are there enough recently retired ex-HP paddlers or sub-national team flatwater guys sufficiently interested to make a run? Are there guys from Mayfair who would cross the divide between east side (Jim) and west side (Blake/Doug)? Does Doug even want them?

On both sides, they would have to contend with Gavin's women, Kamini's men - all of whom have stayed in the sport and put in the time. But many who post on the forum are of the belief and perception that both groups currently are not as good at Blake's and Doug's were back in the day.

The more important questions are what Doug/Blake have up their sleeve now. And why those who are sharing this news want to spread it on the forum? Generally such initiatives that spill on the forum are more hype than anything and the best ones are the ones you don't even hear about until you hit the start ilne. So I'm betting they try, but don't succeed.

Why post that rambling bit of fluff in the first place? I read it and ask myself, what exactly was the point?

Does Ontario have it's own version of Maple Bear now, if slightly more coherent and with a better grasp of English?

The saddest part of all of this that 40 women could potentially have to spend 40,000 to fly to whistler because Blake and Gavin can't pick up the phone and talk to each other.

While there are plenty of national team calibre girls on the stonehookers, they wouldn't have the depth to win the race-off.

That is the DBC rules, read their web page you moron

actually moron, that wasn't the point.

If they worked to together they'd save a pile of money. The girls will suffer because of male egos.

My point is that even if they stage a comeback - so what.

You think a race-off is necessary because Blake/Doug can't agree to terms with Gavin?

Don't you think it has more to do with an emerging FCRCC looking to take back the National Team sanction?

I hope blake and doug take it all back. This way we know it is in good hands

Who's Gavin? I guess you guys are all on a first name basis with these immortals you speak of.

Gavin Maxwell, former Canadian Olympic C-1 paddler, was the coach of the Canadian premier women's dragon boat team. I think he's retired from that role now.

yup...he's busy gaining back all the weight he lost to be on the Preds and playing with his balls...golf balls that is

Don't think doug and blake would be interested. They worked well when they could do whatever they wanted and didn't have to report to anyone.

you are correct. i cant see blake and doug reporting to DBC now a days, it is a little bit of a joke. but those people pay their money!!

The thing is, back in the day people used to care about what flatwater people thought. these guys still show up at races expecting to be the ****. People just don't care about them anymore.

what's more of a joke. DBC, or CKC running dragon boat.

DBC is a joke?

They are one of the best DB national organizations in the world. Tell me who is better and why.

Yes CKC running DB is a joke. Actually it's a bad joke, waste of time. I would be pissed if I wre a CKC club and saw CKC spending time and $$ on DB, what's the point? Totally takes away from the CKC athletes.

each sport should have their own federation with people who care about the sport running it.

these two federations should be working together. it is quite sad they can't get along.

well said. DBC runs DB, CKC runs canoe kayak and they each support each other. Egos are too big at CKC for this to happen.

Let's not underestimate the potential ego's at DBC either.

They are pretty set and confident that the Club Crew and National Team structures they are creating is the way to go. We shall see.

The egos don't compare.

DBC knows that it is in development. They have no choice but to try different structures to make sure they find the best one.

The club structure is fine. It's working. The growth of Nationals and participating at CCWCs supports this.

National team is another beast. Without funding any NSO would be hard pressed to do it properly. When was the last time CKC put a crew boat on the podium? Don't mean to take a shot at CKC, but national teams are hard things to do.

With Mike and Sharifa gone the situation has been much better for a few years now.

Anything can be improved but we have to accept the lesser of two evils. I think the club system is working because even though at times dragonboat is considered more of a recreational sport (by the general public, I could be wrong) it continues to flourish on the club level. Even though some events have suffered the last few years because of the economy or even poor oranization, key events like montreal and toronto islands continue to be profitable or at least appear to be. I can only assume the same for any key events on the west coast as well. But on the national team level we have to accept that it will always be difficult. We live in a socialist country where the countries' priorities are elsewhere.(Mind you meered in corruption as well) Olympic athletes still find it hard to make ends meet even with this new program (Own the podium)and still find a way to make it to the podium at times. So I can again only assume the stipend that DBC gets is minimal at best and not enough to develop a strong national presence. We are doing with the best with what we got. I think we are making major strides even with the little funding we get. This is off the sweat and love of the sport from the participants. And they should be applauded for this.

willie, nice peice but go stroke your own willie

you anonymous kiss my a**., im not afraid to roll.. thats why i put my name

Mike came in to rid DBC of Sharifa who was a cancer. Once she was gone he walked away.

Seems pretty boring without Mike and Sharifa. I kind of miss the old days. No one trashes the current staff and execs like before.

I miss those old days too, when the teams were good, the money to send the best was there, and there were fewer geeks in this sport.

Once the IDBF moved worlds away from Hong Kong the Asian marketing dollars disappeared.
Those teams were good but wouldn't win against the teams of today.

The 2001 Open Crew would have beaten anyone.

2004 open crew as good or better

I think bringing back the 2001 team would be kind of like that movie with the old superheroes with rusty skills. But then they'd get the hang of it after a while and win again.

And then we would always Remember the titans.

What?

The 2001 and 2004 men would not have beaten the Philipines at worlds last summer. They were by far the best men's team.

Don't bite.

Quit living in the past, losers.

This thread is about 2010 ....... something known as "the future".

Is your past that bad that you can't look back?

How crap was your team?

This thread is about the FUTURE.

Start a new thread called "The has beens of dragonboating" if you want to talk about your glory years.

Hey man let threads go where they may...

Why do you care so much?

Are you the forum Nazi?

Your off topic!

No forum for you!


Relax buddy.