The Wahoos are a high-end recreation team (in Toronto). We are currently recruiting to fill a couple of spaces in our 2010 roster.

Please contact us if you may be interested.

wahoos.dragonboat@gmail.com

the Wahoos are not a high level anything.

Says the guy, from a team, most likely beaten by the Wahoo's regularly.

Wahoos are ranked 80th in the mixed rankings... you can decide if that constitutes high level or not (there are 629 teams in the list, many of which only raced once in 2009).

OK, to ask the question differentlty, at what level does competative end and rec begin?

Exactly at 79.

I don't see an initial question, so what are you asking differently?

I don't think that "rec" and "competitive" are based on results, it has more to do with how the team is run - and how decisions are made.

So hypothetically, you can have a very fast rec team and a very slow competitive team...

I would agree in principal, but you will NEVER have a championship Rec team.

Even for top teams gone bye that arguably considered DB itself REC, such as MCC, trained heavily in other disciplines so you cannot say they were "Rec" paddlers or athletes.

You could train competitively with bad coaching and crappy team philosophy and suck, but you will never win training "rec".

You pretty much have to train your arse off just to maintain your standing let alone advance on the field.

You can easily have a championship Rec team. Just enter the low-key festivals like Oakville, St. Catherines, or Mississauga. Win all three and become the only other team to have a triple crown, besides Mayfair.

Responding to the poster two posts above (as the one directly above is just annoying...)

What is the highest level that a "rec" team could achieve? What's the cap? Any examples?

I really don't understand why this post went in this direction... we have a team posting to legitimately recruit people. Sure, they may not be Mayfair, but they are a solid 2:12 to 2:13 team that probably has a lot of fun and finishes in the top 10% of most regattas they enter. Why the need to talk trash about them? Is it that only the "top" teams are allowed to recruit? Who really cares if they are competitive or rec?

Listen, you may consider yourself too good a paddler to ever consider lowering yourself to their standards, but there are a lot of people that would disagree with you. The posting described the Wahoos as a "high-end recreation team"... I believe that is 100% accurate. Of the "recreation" teams out there, a 2:13 team is probably near the top. In fact, I'd go as far as saying that there are some teams that want to call themselves "competitive" that end up right around the same divisions as the Wahoos.

Stop this holier-than-thou crap and let people paddle in peace - even if they are slower than you. If you want to try out for them then respond to the thread, if not then move on to the next one!

Amen .... well said!

To be fair, I agree that this discussion does not belong in this thread. Someone should start a new one if they want to continue it (it's even mildly interesting)

That said, I do not feel that other than maybe a couple of the initial posters, that the conversation now has anything to do with the original poster or their team. it's much more about (What is a Rec Team and what is a Competitive team and how do they compare in various areas). Which is again, why it should be in another thread.

so, as soon as people want to move to another thread, the conversation seems to die....

Someone suggested that rec and comp are based on team decision style, but what decisions make the distinction?

I think teams who hold tryouts would be competitive teams.
But I don't think that teams who don't hold tryouts are necessarily recreation teams: you could be a competitive team who just recruits people with known ability and not hold tryouts. Or is this just a type of tryout?

Another possible distinction could be how you chose your race roster. Maybe a competitive team always puts their "best" bodies in the boat - but a recreation team would give everyone their fair share of racing?

The original poster says he/she is recruiting for a "high-end recreation team". Not a competitive sport team. what the big deal. 80th or 100th makes no difference. The paddlers on the team makes the difference by their commitment and love for the spot and their team. Some teams in the 80-100 level ranking have more love for the sport than the higher numbered teams.

You guys are stupid for following those rankings so closely anyway

are you kidding if not for those rankings how else would we all know how much you suck :P