Never too soon to plan. What advice can the forum community provide to DBC to make 2015 a best ever world championships. We know Welland is a fast and fair race course and I beleive Welland-Niagara will build up the venue to be more "world-class". Therefore it really boils down to how many countries, athletes and supporters a Canadian even can attract. In my opinion DBC should immediately begin to source federal, provincial (and private) funding to provide financial/travel/housing assistance for countries who typically do not attend North American world championships because they simply cannot afford it.

http://www.wellandtribune.ca/2012/06/20/racing-equipment-okd-for-waterway

do not use Champion Boats!!! BuK or Kahlua

Upgrade facilities: yes
Canadian taxpayers funding vacations in Canada for paddlers from other countries: no

IMHO

Yes, I believe Welland will be ready for some of the fairest and fastest racing that IDBF member nations expect and deserve. The challenge will be to get those nations over here in full force with at least a full complement of premier open/women/mixed rosters. I'm talking about India, Brazil, Phillipines, some Eastern Euro countries.

9:12 AM
I tend to agree although I see how so much public money is wasted so why not get on the bandwagon for our own personal benefit, ie. - I want to race against all IDBF member teams, against all the best athletes, and I want them to see and appreciate Canada and Niagara and our hospitality. No taxpayer money is a legitimate but negative response. I'm a fan of "don't simply complain or beat down, suggest a solution or alternative". What would be your suggestion to DBC if they were to dismiss public funding sources? Let's try to be specific in this thread so we can hopefully get the results we all seek.

I dont see Shunde or JiuJiang planning to go to Canada (if they dont retire)

It's Team China we're after. If some of those club athletes are part of that then great.

Free beer!!!!

beer. Beer, BEER

Beer

The idiots of dragonboat ruin another thread. You guys will probably be the knobs who are critisizing DBC a couple of years down the road when things don't go as you see fit. So let's continue with more "beer" posts and make a$$eS out of ourselves. Ya, that's fun... if you have the mental capacity of a 6 year old.

So this horse goes into a bar...

You asked a question, the racing will happen.

China will come.

Niagara will be a huge draw, make it so.

YOU CAN DO IT!

(I will be there)

and hoping to kick your *** on the water, so make it good.

beer

you f------g better have good beer,

Since the city of Welland doesn't have the room night capacity to host very many athletes what about temporary or portable housing in the big field behind the race course for countries who can't afford $120 a night for a room? Local hotels will be full in any case so this solution shouldn't piss off those folks. DBC should check into creating a temporary athlete village for the week with portables. Some of these athletes don't even need showers. An early morning swim in the relatively clean waters of the Welland canal will do nicely.

This issue will have to be addressed for the Pan Am Games so I am sure DBC will be able to piggy back on to whatever solution they come up with.

Realistically, how many canoe-kayak athletes and supporters will be staying in Welland for Pan Am Games? Maybe 500? Certainly not as many as will attend IDBF Nations Cup. I agree it will help somewhat though. One thing is certain. No one is building a new 100 room hotel in Welland any time soon.

What about Brock university dorms? How far away are they from the race course?

I would expect that a lot of the out of country paddlers will stay in the Niagara Falls area and have a team bus for the 30 minute drive to the race site.

That may be true for Canada, USA, Australia and some Euro countries but to stay focused on competition with the intention of seeing as many IDBF member nations as possible I really want the Philippines and Indonesians to show up and they would much rather camp or stay in modest housing at the race course and take the bus to Niagara Falls for a day of sightseeiing.

Welland will be a fair course, but what a boring location to hold a championship! That fact alone will attract fewer teams.

While there is truth to that statement, the 2015 event has been awarded and now we deal. Welland is a sleepy town, slightly depressed, but nearby Niagara is bustling with stuff to do. Would you rather world's was held in NYC (great!) at Flushing (whoops!)? Most serious athletes would say no. Big cities build condos and yacht marinas on their protected waterfronts. The real estate is too valuable to use as a regatta course. This post is about how to make Welland the best world championships it can be and to me that means figuring out how to host the greatest number of countries. I am tapping into the forum community to get some out-fo-the-box ideas about how DBC can get as many IDBF member countries to attend as possible. This will be the last world championships hosted in North America until after 2025 so let's make it a good one.

"Big cities build condos and yacht marinas on their protected waterfronts. The real estate is too valuable to use as a regatta course."

Philadelphia had the Worlds in 2001. Surely there are venues in other big cities in Canada and the U.S.

^^ How is this helping?

The fact remains that the 2015 Worlds are in Welland.

email for the original poster to be contacted at offlist?

For those that were at Praque, how long was the commute by bus from the hotel to the race site???? Not seeing much different for Welland and staying at the university dorms is not bad. Almost cheaper than a hotel because in the townhouse style ones, you can cook your own meals. Logisitcally wise,, there should be allot of shuttles offered/arranged for transport to the race site and offered to teams who also want to do some sight seeing. Perhaps talk to the city and arrange for city bus passes for teams so they can go shopping etc without having to rent cars and talk to car rental agencies to see about creating a package deal. There are allot options, all you have to do is explore, ask and arrange.

Beer, tents, no problem.
Some sort of entertainment, like a barbeque and a campground sounds good.

I know in some other world regattas, they also combine local regattas around the same time to generate more interest, and therefore attracting more people and events. Even in CCWC in Toronto in 2006, they have evening races as well. Perhaps they can add that to Welland to generate more interest and therefore have more activities through the events.

Hold the event in Ottawa.

"nearby Niagara is bustling with stuff to do"

Yeah, that Niagara is a world-renown rockin' town!! :o

The reality is that if this event was being held at Long Pond everyone would be complaining about technical issues, lane depth, weeds, and what not. The IDBF's first priority is to produce world championships on a purpose built regatta course so that as often as possible the best team wins. Isn't that what it's all about after all. For Club Crew World's I would say the IDBF weighs the technical side and the sport-tourism side at least equally. For the world traveler the opportunities for a North American vacation lie the week before or after the week of racing. Fair racing is the priority and Welland provides that moreso than any other piece of water in the country.

^ BRAVO!! Well said.

Can anyone Google Map me a picture of Welland Course

-Vancouver paddler.

"Fair racing is the priority and Welland provides that moreso than any other piece of water in the country."

If that is the case, then the IDBF should have just skipped Canada altogether. And they should have skipped Tampa, too. Welland and Tampa: two boring towns!

4:29p.m.

Search for "canal bank st & humberstone rd, welland, on" in google maps.

@5:16. Are you retarded? You have TOTALLY missed the point!

Thanks 5:55pm

7:57 , I don't remember anything about how long the bus commute was in Prague, but I do remember the women in the square were really hot. For welland, i guess there's always the sundowner close by.

No, you Welland cheerleaders are missing the point. The Worlds should be held in a city with a fair course AND some form of excitement. Not all paddlers get a free trip to the IDBF Worlds (and I doubt any get a stipend for missed work time). Having the Worlds in an interesting city entices more paddlers to participate. But barring some unusual circumstance in Canada in 2015, we're stuck with Welland.

I point you to the other thread where all kinds of bitching and complaining is going on about the IDBF's SECOND tier CCWC event in Hong Kong. Can you imagine if IDBF Nations Cup was held there? The wining and moaning would be worse than Prague 2009. I'll do my touristy thing after racing on a great race course where if some crew beats us by 1/100 of a second it can only mean that they deserve it, thank you very much. And I would submit that the vast majority of my fellow athletes feel exactly the same way. In Tampa the racing was outstanding on a deep, fair course and I personally enjoyed two days of deep sea fishing and a day at Epcot after my paddling commitment was done.

What is wrong with the Montreal Sprint Basin?

Montreal was deemed not deep enough for IDBF World Champs. The course is dug to old FISA standards at 2.5 metres and IDBF wants 3.5 metres for dragon boats.

That's sad. Montreal is one of the better course.

Montreal is one of the better course???? Only if you like baking on the pavement. and as for a fair course... not.... express lanes are there.. however, you could go to Laronde and have a spin on the merry go round in between races.

Montreal vs Toronto.

Montreal sounds more fair.

Because dragon boat are displacement vessels unlike canoes, kayaks and rowing shells they plow and their speed is affected by the depth of the lane you are in. One study in the UK determined that only after 6.0 metres of water does the bottom effect become negligable. The key to international level racing is to use current FISA standard courses which are 3.5 m or greater and if possible to use that subset of regatta courses that have near consistant depth across all lanes. The point is to minimize wash with deeper water but to also minimize lane bias by having the same depth in all lanes, or as close as possible. There are not that many race courses that can meet these specifications. Welland happens to be one of them. The Toronto course lanes start out near shore at about 2m in lane one and end up at 5m in lane six.

Toronto course as in the Island or Marilyn Bell Park?

MBP
The island is a bowl with all kinds of hills and holes.
Weeds are also an issue on both courses in shallow lanes making matters worse.

island