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Post by Stephanie on Apr 27, 2014 21:41:09 GMT -8
I only worked Starting and Race Umpiring today so I can't say for any other aspects of the race, but I thought things went well! We had only one capsize (but there were no injuries and the "recovery" probably couldn't have been much improved), no collisions (that I'm aware of), and minimal protests.
There were, of course, some hiccups: starting late and never making up for lost time, the buoy misalignment, that long break between heats 10 and 11, the miscommunication of the h17 lane violation, me saying "GO!" before the horn in one race, numerous local steers not wearing their steering number even after all the announcements to do so...
I got feedback after the race that some teams couldn't always hear me during Starts (thank god! I thought steers were purposely disregarding instructions! [though I guarantee that at least a few steers were]) A few things we did well that I hope to repeat for Big Long Beach (BLB): alternating Starters/Course Umpires so no one gets too tired, bullhorn on the chase boat, having two drivers on the chase boat (good in case of capsize!). And I need to get a stopwatch. I hate saying "1 minute to start" when I have no idea how much time has passed. I'll also be speeding up my calls a bit at BLB, especially since each lane will have a speaker so there should be no "I couldn't hear."
Tips for steers: stay together as a pack when setting up (you need to bring it forward together anyway, and now teams going behind you don't have to make such a huge circle), pull up to the starting line together by judging where you are in relation to other steers (you should be in a straight line), don't back up so far when resetting (wastes time and your paddlers' energy). Though hopefully some of these issues will be alleviated at BLB by having a Marshaling buoy near the start line.
I'm curious what people thought of CK's "live" results posts on Google+. Did you use it? What did you think?
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Stephen
New Member
You are awesome!
Posts: 13 
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Post by Stephen on Apr 28, 2014 7:10:15 GMT -8
At the boat loading where I was working, I don't think that the volunteers knew everything to be expected of them. I often had to tell them the same things over and over in how to bring in the boats. Off the top of my head:
1. Instead of dragging the boats up the beach, they should have been lifted and carried. But because we had maybe 2 or 3 (at most) volunteers per boat, they wouldn't have been able to do a proper lift and carry.
2. The volunteers need to be aware of boat traffic before pushing the boats out. There were several close calls when there was a boat behind the one being pushed out. Better communication and better awareness by the volunteers and the steers is needed.
3. A few times, the incoming boats were not yielding to the outgoing boats.
4. I had to remind several paddlers to buckle/zip their PFDs up completely before going out. I'm sure there were others that the volunteers didn't know to watch for.
5. We could have used more breaks for sunblock and bathrooms. I have raccoon eyes today. :-D
6. A lot of boats were coming in too fast, and ran up the sand. They should have checked and held sooner to come in slower.
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CK
New Member
Posts: 1
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Post by CK on Apr 28, 2014 7:12:22 GMT -8
1st time using google+, upload/replace the image is not so straight forward as I thought. If I use G+ again in future, I will make new album for completed heat to avoid this problem again. (This might be only problem with the mobile data, @ home seems to be OK)
I tried twitter last night, posting picture (> 900pic on one side) will work for the full image, but will not have enough text for display full heat information (4ln is problem already).
Will discuss with you for future if I do it again.
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Post by azhu23 on Apr 28, 2014 11:23:57 GMT -8
At the start line, would have been nice to have everybody start further back and line up before approaching the buoys. This method has great success in the larger festivals even with twice as many boats. Especially with the cages, this would allow us to come in together and have the race start without taking anybody by surprise. However, this requires an experienced starting official, as well as well trained steersmen. I can also attest to the fact that it was difficult to hear the starting commands.
Threatening teams with penalties doesn't help situations when you expect steers to be calm and controlled, when instead they worry too much about an impractical penalty. Buoy drift was frustrating to deal with because rather than take the straightest and safest course, we followed the buoys to avoid being penalized. Also the inconsistency of penalties (20s for some teams, 12s for another, some with no penalty at all) was rather concerning.
Lastly, and most importantly, I found that the seeding of the race grid, coupled with the 3-race format that SCDBC adopted for this race, led to unfair placements in terms of division. Semi-finals within the same division saw up to 10 SECONDS between boats. Even in finals, we saw large time differences between boats, when the competition should be as close as possible.
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lcheng9
New Member
Posts: 1
Position: paddler, steer, coach, caller
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Post by lcheng9 on Apr 28, 2014 15:52:21 GMT -8
I do recall some of of the occasions and agree with some of the comments made above, but would also like to commend Steph and staff for a relatively quick turnaround between races, and especially doing so in a calm and controlled manner. Sure, some things could be improved. Seeding as mentioned by azhu23 was a little weird in that our third team placed in a higher division than our second team, in both distances, but otherwise, the atmosphere you guys created for teams at the staging line was the most relaxed I've felt at Long Beach in, well, ever, and it's certainly appreciated. Thanks for all your work!
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Post by MyTopArm on Apr 28, 2014 16:06:03 GMT -8
I second all the comments from AZHU23.
In my opinion, the buoy misalignment (and the inconsistent coloring) is the most significant issue because it is related to safety.
Misalignment of buoys leads to confusion for the steers. The race officials did not correct the issue and forced steers to follow a course that is not the straightest and safest course. It is appreciated that SCDBC invests in buoy and starting gate improvements, however these improvements should implemented properly to result in safer courses, instead of implemented negligently which increases the risk or confusion for participating teams.
Also, why did the chase boat officials not see that the buoys were misaligned? Or why did the officials not take necessary steps to realign the buoys again?
I believe it would have been very beneficial and safer for all teams if the officials held the races, and then took a few minutes to adjust the course and finish line (regardless if the races were running late), and then resume racing again.
As for the race grid or not hearing at the start line issues, all of those are important to teams as well. But at the end of the day, it does not impact life safety as much as the race course itself.
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Post by chriskg on Apr 28, 2014 22:56:07 GMT -8
Administration seemed to run very well. Race results were posted in a timely manner compared to other festivals. Loading/unloading seemed to go quickly though as mentioned before some volunteers could use a little more instruction on why we lift and don't drag or why we empty first 3 rows and pull it up some more. Officials at the starting line sounded more relaxed helping lower stress levels.
Craziest thing this spring to me was the race advancement. Trying to advance by both placement and time yielded some strange results. Like lower placements with faster times than higher placements in other heats yielding advancement like Leon mentioned. In the 200's one of our teams had a 3rd place time in the opening round that was faster than 8 of the 2nd place times. And that rewards an advancement to division C semi? In other festivals that do advancement by time they take the average of two rounds to help compensate for different weather conditions, lane assignments, faster/slower rabbit in the heat. But understandably difficult to do in a one-day event where you want to do both 500 and 200-m races. Not sure how to accomplish unless you sacrifice the number of races in 200m to give more emphasis to 500m. Maybe if doing two seeding heats for 500 you eliminate the seeding round for 200 and use the 500 seeding results to place the 200's straight to semi's. Just something to think about.
But overall well done.
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OneSpeedPandaKG
New Member
Posts: 4
Team: KG, USC, H1-Racers
Position: paddler, steer, coach, caller
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Post by OneSpeedPandaKG on Apr 29, 2014 10:57:14 GMT -8
Looks like my fellow steerers and teammates have got most of my comments covered. Only thing I have left to add would be that it's nice to have a couple porta-potties at the start line area, like at Big LB, for both the officials/volunteers and those who don't get much of a break between heats.
As for the lane stuff, I wound up steering in lane 4 the most of all the lanes, so I got to see the buoy's drift over the day. The best line I found for the lane was to be lined up on the left buoy, aimed at the 200m to go right side buoy, and then you have a slight correction to the right around that point to be in line to finish next to #3 finish buoy. Of course, lining up on the left buoy is made extra interesting by the wind pushing you across into it, so that made for some fun challenges. =D
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