I guess the argument now starts that Who is better Mix now that Philly won IDBF - FCRCC, Mayfair or Philly?

Why bother?

There is no easy answer. The USA team at Sydney was comprised of many Philly paddlers, but there were also some non-Philly guys in the boat. It was a USA team after all.

The right question would be: why does the FCRCC Open team suck so badly?

Minor final? Are you kidding me?

Canada sent a Club Crew to the Worlds - What did they expect!

Canada's weakest performance was in Premier Open and Mixed!!

What girls did they use in Premier Mixed?

Any results

That was NOT the Philly Men's team that won.
It was the Philly Men's COACH and included a bunch of Philly guys - but also included a bunch of US Flatwater program guys, a bunch of west coast outrigger guys, people from various other DB programs... It was a true National Team.

There is an easy answer to this question - The Beasts

11 paddlers at worlds (by the by the mixed 2K crew had 7 beast men, 1 Mayfair guy) while back at home the rest of the beasts were dominating the Quebec Cup

Love the Beasts but they are talking PREMIER DIVISION not Senior.

when the Beasts or Mayfair as a crew win the premier mix world championship then we can put them in the same light as USA national mix

Why is the US NATIONAL mix crew getting compared to club crews, considering that the Beasts are a "club crew" to begin with. The Beasts seem like a collection of all stars and not really a home-grown club?

The make-up of the USA mix crew would be surprisingly the same as their "club crew" so the comparisons would be valid.

There's no such thing as a "home grown club" at that level of paddling. The best attract the best. All of these teams become fairly stacked, and it only gets worse/better they have achieved some success.

"The make-up of the USA mix crew would be surprisingly the same as their "club crew" so the comparisons would be valid."

True but you also have to look at the different approaches to evaluate teams and how fast they are at any given race. The Philly program focuses intensely on only two races, US nationals and the IDBF worlds. You're never gonna catch them at top form unless you compete in one of those two events. When they travel to other events it's to either to get a warm up for one of those two or to try and win some money (NY).

Philly on its own is real fast without outside help. They took the Silver in the 500 Mixed in the Club Crews last year with all Philly paddlers AND it was their FIRST freakin' race of that year. To them the CCWC was mainly a warm up for Tampa and a chance for some of their second tier guys to paddle in a top race. The boat they had in Tampa was much faster with outside guys and more of their young blood in there. The only team that beat them in the CCWC 500 was False Creek which was peaked (and pissed) having just come off the NTT. They showed pretty much the same this year in Montreal winning their first race of the year while not in peak form with only half of their top dogs in the boat.

By my count, they only did two races last year: CCWC and Tampa and three total races this year: Montreal for the warm up, NYC for $$, and Sydney, that is how they have approached it for years.

The enduring lesson from Sydney is that the racing at the IDBF worlds is a major step up from the CCWC. The 3 medal winners in the Premier 500 in Toronto 2006: Kurpfalz from Germany, False Creek and Macau were likely pretty much the same teams in Sydney and none made the 500 final. This is good, club crews should be a step behind as this is designed. The problems we have had is what are really national teams like the Czechs and Russians showing up disguised as a club at the CCWCs. On the other hand trying to win with a club crew in Sydney had poor results this year.

There is no argument on who is the better mix crew. We will all know on race day.

Club vs. National team
October 8 2007, 12:22 AM

The enduring lesson from Sydney is that the racing at the IDBF worlds is a major step up from the CCWC. The 3 medal winners in the Premier 500 in Toronto 2006: Kurpfalz from Germany, False Creek and Macau were likely pretty much the same teams in Sydney and none made the 500 final. This is good, club crews should be a step behind as this is designed. The problems we have had is what are really national teams like the Czechs and Russians showing up disguised as a club at the CCWCs. On the other hand trying to win with a club crew in Sydney had poor results this year.



---- of course the Worlds are a step up from CCWC, that's stating the obvious. Being at the Worlds, it's nice to see exactly how much of a step up it was.

You also have to make a distinction between Premier Open, Mixed and Womens crews. For better or worse, you can't take the performance of one crew and paintbrush the whole kit 'n kaboodle.

I have a hunch G&G is going to be giving these crews paddling lessons next year.

Given that these other crews will all be at the World Club Crew Championships for part of the summer, they may miss G&G's lessons... maybe they can videotape it so that the crews who qualified can watch the lessons on Youtube.

G&G is not too upset by missing out on next year's club crews. It is is a nice event and G&G will let those crews enjoy their vacation in Malaysia.

"G&G is not too upset by missing out on next year's club crews. It is is a nice event and G&G will let those crews enjoy their vacation in Malaysia."

They didn't let anyone do anything. They were beaten.

That's right. Next year I doubt they'll have anything more then seniors and alumni. Next year is all about enjoying the sport and friends for this team. Good luck to everyone next year.

One thing I learned from Sydney was that crews are becoming so cometitive that teams may have to specialize their training in the future to the different events, 200, 500 and 1000 metres. The 200 may require an entirely different team to become successful than the 1000 m race. In the 200 metre race, the phillipines and the chinese looked untouchable just as the british and americans looked untouchable in the 1000. It seems like there may be new strategies, for instance will a team train only for the longer or shorter distance to try to take gold or train for all of them and try to get enough points for the nations cup while maybe not winning an event. While it may be a ways off, it seems we are definitely moving in that direction, which i believe to be a positive indicator that the sport is moving forward, and it is becoming harder to dominate.

Also, to the original topic of this thread, it is almost impossible to judge between fc, mayfair and philly because they each probably have different definitions of club crews. (and i think philly cares more about the open)

They're all fast.