Review: GWN Challenge at Marilyn Bell Park

This year's GWN Challenge (ie. the 13th one) took place for the first time at Marilyn Bell Park (named for the heroic Marilyn Bell), on Sept. 8 and 9. Marilyn Bell is by far a better venue than Ontario Place, where the previous 12 other GWN races have been. Here's my review on how the event faired, from a paddler's perspective:

1. Course. The water conditions were fantastic, with a full breaker lining about a 1,000 meters (or more?) of watercourse. They did a nice job of, wrangling in and calming a corner of Lake Ontario. In other waters, as we all know from practicing at Sunnyside beach, the waves can really rough up a boat, especially close to the ends of the much-shorter break walls. Then again, it ought to be a "perfect course"-- the Marilyn Bell was purposefully created to meet international standards in water racing, for the Toronto International Dragon Boat Club Crew Championships that were hosted here last year.

2. Sight lines. While a man-made breaker lines one side of the course, the land side is all perfectly manicured landscape with optimal viewing points along the entire course. With such perfect sight lines, a db fan could sit in one spot and watch the entire race from beginning to end. Or, as some are willing, to run alongside the boats, from start to finish. Some areas even protrude slightly from the wide boardwalk, getting the viewer an extra foot or two closer. As a viewer, I have been closer to the racing boats at other events, but with good eye sight and a sharp camera lens, much can be seen. A grandstand was also brought in for GWN.

3. Athlete's Village. The sprawling Athlete’s Village is on park grassland this year, which is hugely refreshing compared to the hard pavement near Ontario Place. The shape of the Village area is loose, with corporate tents lining the boardwalk (and getting the best view of the course) and the food and entertainment tents at one end. While the paid-for areas are fenced in and secured at night, the rest of the tents in the Athlete’s Village are pretty much in public park space—a big enough concern for us that we took our tent down over night, and simply marked our space with a tarp. The occasional tree and picnic table also broke up the landscape, but without real organization, the village experience came down to how well you picked your spot in the morning.

4. Organizers. The organization was near-perfect at this regatta. With a lot of online management tools available, waivers were done cleanly and quickly using email. Our race package was available immediately as soon as I got there and all of the instructions were given to me personally. Good volunteers and good signage made the event accessible.

5. Facilities (ie. Porta-potties). Toilets being what they are at these events, it is worthwhile to mention them, and at GWN, give credit where credit is due. Lots of portable toilets were available at this venue, with the biggest ones located closest to the main stage and beer tent. I never had to line up for more than a minute for a toilet, although the main toilets did run out of toilet paper near the end of the day on the second day. Not too concerned, the next batch of porta-lets was only 2 minutes away. The nicest touch was a group of toilets right beside the marshalling area, as people, as we all know, have the biggest urge to pee right before getting on the boat.

6. Food and entertainment. Because of my previous experiences, this part of the race weekend was mediocore at best. There was a fairly large, sophisticated beer tent (with wide screen plasma TVs for close up viewing of the races) and standard BBQ. There was also the standard fry truck and pizza place. Other than that, there was just a handful of vendors doing unoriginal things, and even fewer giving out free samples that we love so much. The crocs tent was the most elaborate sponsor tent, and its obvious from their presence that crocs have found a gold mine with this sporting niche.

7. Awards. The master of ceremonies was the voice of the races, which I should mention did a fabulous job of commentary the whole weekend. Although I ignored him for the most part, I would look to see what was happening each time I heard that rise of excitement in his voice. Anyway, Mr. Sports commentator was also the MC at the Awards ceremony, which was typically unfabulous and standard. At least it was proper staging though, and not just on a flatbed truck like in Oakville.

Awards went out to divisions A through K, with each division breaking out into “Championship” and “Consolation” categories. The top three winners in the Championship division won unlimited (and anonymous) medals for every team member in gold, silver and bronze, PLUS a Cup that declared the division name and win. Of course, ours says “I Championship Division First Place”. Only the gold winners in the Consolation Prize were given anything.

Summary
Cost: $1300 Number of races: 5 total = 2 races/first day + 2 races/second day + education cup (bonus race) on day one

Scores (out of 5):
Water: 4.5
Sight lines: 5
Athlete’s Village: 4
Organizers: 5
Facilities: 4
Food and entertainment: 3
Awards: 3
OVERALL SCORE: 28.5

All in all a good event to be at, but with a $1,300 price tag, also definitely one of the pricier ones.