Our Mission at the Paradise Regatta
Our mission is in starting the Paradise Regatta was to solve the following problems:
1. The Gold Coast desperately needs a professionally coached rowing/dragon boat pathway.
Despite being Australia’s 6th largest and fastest growing city the Gold Coast has no funded elite program for high school graduates to pursue their high performance dreams. Exceptional volunteer coaches have come and gone but no permanent pathway exists.
Adding to the tragedy is that the Gold Coast has an ideal climate and 487kms of waterways (more than Vennice and Amsterdam combined!) for elite rowing and a huge school and univeristy rowing population to draw upon.
Solution: Proceeds from the Paradise Regatta go to the Griffith University Boat Club that aims to build an equipment and coaching support base to train those selected to state and Australian honours.
2. Rowing lacks a major day in the Mainstream Australian Sporting Calendar.
Yachting has the Sydney to Hobart. Horse racing has the Melbourne Cup. Rowing has the… ….
Solution: The incredible location of the Paradise Regatta is perfectly suited to creating a sustainable annual media interest in rowing. This course takes the sport to the people in a place that millions of tourists look to attend each year.
This race location has the ability to attract some of the best international crews as the choice of holding the Australian Rowing Coaches Conference 2008 on the Gold Coast demonstrates.
The twin media spectacles of a Trans-Tasman University Head of the River and an International Boat Race pitting the VIIIs of Australia, New Zealand and other invited nations is a televised future we are currently pursuing.
Imagine if the Wallabies never played a home game in Australia. This is the situation that Australias rowers find selves in each year when they only get the chance to compete on the other side of the world.
The Paradise Regatta will change this and give the Australian public an annual opportunity to support their highly successful, much respected yet currently enigmatic rowing team.
3. Rowing offers little corporate return for businesses.
By running a televised event in the heart of one of Australia’s largest cities corporate support for attending crews can be increased. In 2008 all School and Corporate crews successfully attracted corporate support through decisions based on a mix of philanthropy and the Paradise Regattas efforts to offer a corporate return through initiatives like our event documentary to be posted on You-tube, big screen promotion in Cavil Avenue and web links.
In time the Paradise Regatta hopes that crew corporate support will be based purely on corporate return and are putting steps in place to ensure this agenda comes to fruition.
4. There is no one regatta that brings together School, University, Masters and Elite Rowers plus a raft of Australia’s other passionate watersports competitors.
The accommodation abundance of Surfers Paradise allow the unique situation of bringing together Australia’s rowers in one place.The Paradise Regatta in 2009 aims to host races for:
1. Rowing VIIIs
2. Dragon Boats
With expansion plans including: Out Rigger Canoes, Kayaks, Board Paddlers, Surf Boats and anything else that floats and can be raced.When complete it will be bigger than Ben Hur basically…
In Summary:
Our desire to permanently solve these problems drives us here at the Paradise Regatta. Its a challenging mission but one which we are totally committed to over the long haul as we feel its the next logical step for these paddling sports with a huge following both within Australia and Internationally.
The rowing and watersports community deserve a mainstream and publicly televised Regatta that promotes the sports with the same dedication to excellence and perfection that the sports themselves demand on the water.
We at the Paradise Regatta will stop and nothing to deliver this and seek your support to help to accelerate this iconic events enormous progress.
