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Survivor - ACP Paddlers

Purpose: The purpose of this survey is to get your input about inclusion of male paddlers in our crew for local cancer races. 

Background: ACP means All Cancer Paddler (versus BCP which is breast cancer paddlers.) Both divisions are “Open”, meaning that a crew can consist of any combination of women and men. ACP is an increasingly popular race division. Its popularity will likely only grow.  Our own Coach Anne is on the national ACP committee and has been working behind the scenes to encourage ACP race divisions across the country. We are, at our core, an ACP team. The ACP opportunities in local races have grown, but not yet to a point where women and mixed crews can race in different divisions. Therefore, we are beginning to see cancer heats where we are racing in an open class against crews that contain men.

We are now faced with the question of whether we can or should include men in our crew for local cancer races.  

Survivor SAKE has existed and continues to thrive as an inclusive team. We have welcomed women with a diagnosis of any type of cancer. We are now faced with the opportunity to expand that inclusion to male cancer survivors. 

Note that most of our local races do not have a full separate ACP division, but just one or two “survivor” race(s). This is the only race where men could be included. Otherwise we are racing in the Women’s division. The number of Survivor races offered at any festival is dependent on how many teams register as such, so it’s unpredictable until the race grid comes out days before the festival.

For example:

  1. Tacoma Rainier Fest

    1. Women Div. 4 races

    2. Survivor Div. 2 races

  2. Seattle Fest

    1. Women Div. 4 races

    2. Survivor Div. 1 race

  3. Olympia

    1. Women Div. 4 races

    2. Survivor Div. 0

  4. Portland

    1. Women Div 4 races

    2. Survivor Div 2 races (2024)

    3. For 2025* we have the option to enter an ACP Women’s crew and also an ACP Open crew

 

Also note that Survivor as a TSNW activity will remain true to our all-women Tuesday/Saturday schedule. If we were to include men for competition purposes, they would join during extra training sessions, or drop in on race day. Also note that these questions are regarding local races only.  ACP crews at Club Crew races are working as we intended at the beginning of the season.

We have not yet approached TSNW because we wanted to explore our team’s interest and opinions.  We would love to know what you think.  Here are a few questions: 

 

What is your general opinion of the idea of a Survivor ACP team that includes male paddlers? In favor? Not in favor? Need more information? Can you say more?

How would you feel if you were asked to sit out of a race because the coach placed a male paddler in the boat for competitive reasons?

How do you feel about continuing to race in local cancer heats as an all-women ACP crew, even if there are mixed crews in the heats with us?

Here is a space to write your thoughts; you may submit this anonymously, but if you would like to be contacted for additional info, please leave your name: