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ROPAG Who We Are and What We Do
Regatta Operations and Pathway Advisory Group (Ropag). The Committee reports to the DBV Board and final decisions are ratified by the Board. The Committee meets every month and members speak to each other many times during the course of each month. Your Committee is made up of the following DBV Members, who have knowledge of and are committed to Paddlers, Sweeps, Coaches and Officials, together with DBV.
Adrian Stephens
Ben Fels
Jen Reilly
Serghei Cucsa
This Committee is responsible for:
- Confirming Dates of events/regattas for the calendar year of dragon boating
- Determining regatta locations. We have 28 Clubs throughout Victoria, membership continues to grow, and sometimes there are challenges
- Organising regatta logistics, including food vans, toilets, water etc
- Determining crews, the composition of boats and race distances, ensuring there is a full complement of mixed, opens, womens and inclusion of positive scheduling for Cancer paddlers, Premiers, Juniors, 24U, Seniors
- Ensuring a range of distances are covered across the season and that these are placed with a view to clubs’ full season training
- Facilitating participation at all levels for all clubs across Victoria
- Ensuring course set ups
- Developing the race draws for each regatta
- Reccomending changes to the DBV Race Rules
- Sourcing, supporting and developing the amazing officials and volunteers who attend regattas
- Positively debriefing after each regatta and ensuring feedback from surveys is noted and acted upon
- Working closely with the DBV Board
- Maintaining a good working relationship with AusDBF
The regatta season 2023/24 wasthe first year we have been able to run a full calendar. Notwithstanding the horrors of Covid, where we were unable to paddle, we then suffered bushfires and floods last season, cutting the paddling year short.
One of the most successful regattas has been Cross Border Championships. The success, apart from the large number of crews who were able to compete and not just clubs from Victoria, is the ability to run the event over two or three days. Naturally this does not suit everyone, however, try as we might, not all regattas are going to work for everyone.
Lots of teams like to paddle 500m races. Some only 200m. Others 1000m and/or 2000m. The difficulty for ROPAG is selecting what races will appeal to clubs based on the location they are travelling to. For instance, very few Metro Clubs are attending Falls Creek this year because of the race categories, the timing of the event and the costs.
Often, we find businesses who have registered to bring food and/or coffee vans to a regatta, pull out at the last minute, or just don’t turn up. When this happens, we struggle to find alternate providers at short notice.
The weather is unpredictable and as you know, sometimes we have to cancel or postpone a regatta due to 30+ km winds, lightening, etc. Where we can, we reschedule, however sometimes this is not possible. We need at least twelve weeks’ notice to obtain the permits required to run a regatta from Parks Vic, Councils, Water ways etc. This then can compete with other regattas that have been scheduled. Where the risk is unacceptable, the event will be modified, cancelled or rescheduled, if possible.
Sometimes our regattas go ahead in trying conditions but it’s neccessary to paddle in conditions that are not glamourously ideal.
What ROPAG tries very hard to achieve is fairness for everyone. Not every regatta is going to be suitable to every club. We look at the feedback previously received, consider the teams who may attend and work towards making the racing structure suitable. When everything is finalised, the race draw has been completed and all clubs are as happy as they can be, a team and/or a club may withdraw at the last minute. There can be a number of reasons for this - paddler illness, travel times and or prohibitive costs. This can’t be avoided, however it does make it a difficult for everyone on the day, when the schedule of racing is amended. We juggle draws at the last minute to achieve the best possible outcome in the space of time available to us.
Naturally we want to have the best regatta season and not lose sight that we want you to have fun, compete in the categories you enjoy, and hopefully achieve your best. For these reasons, we cannot run a regatta and have all clubs competing with every category of racing – this would take a couple of days.
We aim to provide as much good racing as the conditions allow.
ROPAG welcomes your constructive feedback and please feel free to contact is if you have any questions.