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Western Race Directors Conference

Doug Doyle / 06.10.2005

For the last four years, race directors in Western Canada have been meeting each fall to discuss the sport of adventure racing.

This year, the 2005 Conference took place in Cumberland, B.C. at the beautiful Mt. Washington Alpine Resort with Bryan Tasaka of MOMAR playing host.

The list of attendees included:
- Chris Koch: Valhalla Pure Challenge

- Simon Donato, Jim Mandelli: CARA

- Dean Payne, Dave Howells: Sea 2 Summit

- Bryan Tasaka: Mind Over Mountain Event Co. Ltd.

- Eileen Bistrisky, Derek Oelmann: SAFARI

- Geoff Langford: Frontier Adventure Racing

- Dean Wutke, Shawn Leclair: Suburban Rush

- Doug Doyle: SleepMonsters.ca


Comments were also submitted by additional organizations unable to attend the meeting:

- Brian Gallant: Full Moon in June

- Robert Wellon: Fitness Adventures

- Mike Waddington: Golden Horseshoes Orienteering Club

The theme for this year\'s conference was \"Adventure Racing C.P.R.\". The focus was on the growth of the sport.

Racers would be pleased to know how passionate those behind the events are about adventure racing. These are businesses, yet the race directors/owners work co-operatively for the overall benefit of adventure racing in Canada.

The agenda for the meeting included:

- Setting the 2006 race schedule

- Reviewing CARA\'s draft safety standards and environmental guidelines

- Discussion on CARA\'s mandate

- A united campaign between all stakeholders on growing the sport

The above represent important issues for the sport of Canadian adventure racing. The guidelines and standards are industry and CARA driven. Keep in mind, nobody is telling the race directors and CARA to do this (ie - government): this is an industry initiative within Canada that is overdue and the industry must be proactive in it’s movement to be visible domestically as well as internationally in developing effective standards for our sport.

As an adventure racing participant, you will only see better quality events from this ongoing cooperation from our industry leaders.