I'm not trying to hate on regattas, i was just thinking....
My girlfriend is paddling novice B along with like 17 other girls at her club. And i was looking around the other day and realized, what happens to all these girls next year? I don't have a whole lot of experience with a big club, but it seems like the large majority of novice paddlers don't stick around. So, it seems like there is something wrong with the way things are set up, no? Why do like 98% of novices quit, not to mention all of the high school paddlers around Hawai'i who don't make the transition to OC-6 or OC-1 (or V-1).
Could it be because regattas are not very fun? Or at least after you've done a season of them, another season of sitting on the beach all day watching races probably isn't very appealing. Novices and high school paddlers don't really get to see what we (as life-long paddlers) see. Distance races, whether in an OC-1 or and OC-6, are a lot more fun than sprint races. The added dynamic of surfing and choosing your course and pacing yourself and hydrating properly and eating properly, all of that is irrelevant in a regatta. Regattas probably weed out all of the novices who are not sprinters, but could be good at longer distances. So, every year along with the 98% of novices and high school paddlers that are quitting paddling, there are probably a lot of gifted distance athletes who would've flourished in other types of racing. Also, with regattas it seems like a lot of people in the bigger clubs don't even get to race very much, but i could be wrong on that.
Also, where did the regatta format come from? Isn't it more of a westernized rowing style of racing?
Everybody always says that regattas are for the kids, but kids are just as capable to race distance races. I remember paddling when i was young and wishing that i could race distance. And when i was like 14 i did have the good fortune of being in a club that encouraged the kids to paddle with the men and was able to race in a lot of the Kaua'i long distance races and Kona. Three of us paddled with the men, got our eyes opened to different formats of racing, and we are the only three out of the entire youth program that are still paddling.
I'm not suggesting that we end the regatta season, but what about making it shorter and mixing some more pre-season distance races in there that are formatted with novices in mind? And, even though i say it too much by now, but we could add a couple OC-1 races throughout the summer as well.
Alright, that's all. Feel free to bash, extend, or ignore the idea.
