Rowing and the 2011 Vancouver North American Outgames

Vancouver; Although rowing is not a featured sport at the 2011 North American Outgames, there is a two-day masters rowing event that is scheduled for 23 – 24 Jul 2011, the weekend preceding the 2011 North American Outgames, 25 – 31 Jul 2011 . So if you were hoping to attend or participate in the community events surrounding the 2011 North American Outgames, rowers can still get their rowing fix.

2011 will mark the second year of the Cascadia Masters Regatta. Hosted by the Cascadia Masters Group, a confederacy of master rowers from various rowing clubs in the greater Vancouver area, the regatta is slated to be held on the Deas Slough in Delta, British Columbia. That venue may change since there was talk of the regatta being moved to a different location each year.

The 2011 event is listed as offering two masters categories: masters and adaptive. The 2010 regatta offered entries to 8+, 4+, 4x, 2x, 2-, and 1x. Regatta Central’s statistics show 207 entries from 19 clubs.

Currently, the regatta is scheduled to open registration on 01 Jun 2011 and close registration on 06 Jul 2011. What little information that can be found is on Regatta Central, and these two pages of the Rowing BC website: scheduled event and story.

GLRF had previously met with the Executive Director of Rowing British Columbia last year in order to propose a GLRF promotional partnership in support of the Cascadia Regatta. In addition, GLRF sent an email to the regatta director this spring, detailing our desire to promote the regatta with a GLRF regatta page and an All Oars Network group. Unfortunately, there has been no response. That lack of response should not be necessarily taken to mean gay and lesbian rowers are not welcome. It could be that, as is the case with many local regattas, the committee has not had a chance to respond or is just very busy with other matters. Canadians have traditionally been very supportive of gay and lesbian sports affiliations.

Unless there is a positive response, GLRF will not be creating a GLRF Regatta page or a group on the All Oars Network for the regatta but any GLRF member is welcome to create their own group on All Oars Groups if they plan to compete at the Cascadia Regatta and want to encourage others to participate.

For GLRF members who do plan to attend the North American Outgames in either a sports or a social capacity, tickets can be purchased here. It is important to understand that even if you register as an athlete, you will still need to buy an event ticket(s). Athletes get a discount on the event tickets which are really tiered passes. Spectators buy the same passes but just pay a higher fee.

The Outgames website is a little confusing because there are two links for tickets on the registration page of the 2011 Outgames website: the first under the heading of North America Outgames Event Tickets, and then another below that section, at the bottom of the page that is called the Spectator Link. Either link will secure you passes. The second link asks for a lot more information since it is intended to ‘encourage’ you to book your hotel lodging reservations through a centralized tourism source. Then your information is passed seamlessly to the same Ticket Card web page that we listed previously where you can purchase the event passes. Confused? Post a topic on the Canada All Oars forum and we’ll do our best to answer it.