Tribe Long Beach Triathlon Club Review

That sucks, sorry you had that experience. Try Cal Tri. Free to join and lots of activities in the Long Beach area. Nice folks.

After those two tools gave you a hard time, why did you even bother coming back two more times? You should have vocally called them a couple of overinflated peacocks in front of the rest of the group and walked away! I can't speak to other clubs in that area, but that stuff is really lame and really showcases why people think triathletes are idiots

Edited by davejustdave 2016-06-25 4:03 PM

Thank you to everyone for the advise. I am hooking up with California Triathlon group. I already messaged a few people from the group and had really positive and encouraging replies so far.

I think I will stay away from the Tribe Long Beach group. I was hoping it was just a few bad apples but it seems like a whole batch.

Long time lurker but I had to make an account to reply to this.

I had a similar experience with Tribe of Long Beach.

I was a member for about a year or so. The first time I went to a group bike ride, they dropped me. I did not know the route. I got lost. Had to call uber. There were about 25+ people. No one helped me or said hi.

I was also told not to register for any Ironman races under the club name until I got my time up. They told me slow people hurt their club rankings and ability to obtain early registration slots for races.

I went to a few events and was ignored.

But I registered to tell you, do not give up! There are lots of really great triathlon clubs out there. People who will take the time to help beginners. People who are excited to see newbies participate in the sport. I am here to promise you that not all clubs or triathletes will act this way.

I can personally recommend LA Tri Club. They are friendly and excited to have people of all abilities.

Sorry that happened. It really sucks.

I'm a member of California Triathlon and part of their San Gabriel Valley Chapter. If you'd like to join me for some Saturday morning rides in Griffith Park let me know, I'll be more than happy to ride with you. I've hosted a few rides when I was training for IMAZ last year and I have a no drop policy.

Did those rides have a "no drop" policy? If so, that's lame they dropped you, but if not, that's on you.

Sounds like there are a lot of delta bravos in that club for a lot of reasons, but I think it's important that people understand the difference between no drop rides and higher competitive level/"advanced" rides where it's ok to drop. Most clubs in my area (san diego) have both, and both are fun, but if you show up to the "advanced" rides and expect them to wait for you if you can't keep up, you shouldn't be disappointed when they dont.

Good point. I think that is something that needs distinction when a new member is present. Is this a no drop ride or every man for himself?

Thank you for bringing that up. It is an important distinction.

I should also clarify that TRIBE dropped me at the beginning of the ride. On the way to a bike specific trail, they had to use a public street (PCH for those familiar with California). They rode THE WRONG WAY down PCH to take a short cut to the trail.

I refused to do this and properly waited for the green light and rode on the correct side of the street to get to the trail.

When I got to the trail I wasn't sure which way they went because no one waited for me or explained the route before the ride.

Once I got on the trail there were a few forks. I ended up getting lost. There were some suspect characters along the riverbed. I chose to call the Uber because I was a female alone and unfamiliar with the area.

Eh. What can you do.

That makes sense. Again, sounds like there is some seriou asshattery going on within that club.

I love going on local club rides, especially the "drop" ones, because it reeeeeealy pushes me. I'm fairly quick but there are some freakish fast riders in San Diego and even the occasional pro in the mix so it can be super challenging to keep up, let alone pull with a good group.

That being said, there are some groups I will not ride with because they do unsafe and/or illegal stuff like ride the wrong way on PCH, so good on you for not.

I also wanted to drop back in and say I met up with some people from Newport Coast Triathlon Club. I do not live close to this area but I met some of these guys during a bike ride last week. These guys are so nice. There are some young and some old, some fast and some slow, some new to the sport and some old to the sport, but one thing they all had in common was nice and not stuck up.

I am glad to find this forum because you guys helped me. Thank you to the people here. I was going to quit looking for a group after what happened with Tribe Long Beach. I have now found two or three groups that have been nice and welcoming.

Hi Carol/ All,
Sorry to hear you had such a bad experience. I apologize for the late response but the club is not active on this forum and your review was just brought to my attention from one of our members. This is Joshua the club president and the "Tribe guy" you are referring to. Sorry if you felt offended but we typically ask every new member their respective experience, fitness level, and ability to swim unassisted in the bay. We typically swim, as we did on the day you came out, 1 - 3 miles and many times this includes crossing the channel. Many newbies join with little to no experience and we have someone stay with them hugging the buoy line and avoid the channel crossing. Our members come in all shapes and sizes and I have learned over the years it is very difficult to judge anyone's ability by simply looking at them. Therefore we get straight to the point and ask. As you appeared to have the experience I personally was not concerned about your swimming ability. The tri zone comment was not based on your ability/ speed as we had no knowledge of such, but rather due to the fact that you mentioned moving to Lakewood/ Los Alamitos area where Tri Zone is located. They are also a sponsor so we direct all club members to this location for gear, rides etc. Sorry if this came across any other way but informative. It saddens me that you and others on this forum have had a bad experience as we have attempted to ensure the the stereotype agro personalities of our sport are eliminated from the club.
Regarding the signal hill runs, the workout director for this event recently moved out of the country and we have had some hiccups filling the role. Unfortunately that means that there have been some Fridays were few or none were present. Our facebook group provides all the specific details of the club workouts and notifications of changes etc. (benefit of being a member). While the website provides generic information you are correct that it should accurately reflect the club workouts. I apologize for the lack of leadership at the workout but hope you enjoyed your run. In general it is best for non members to reach out before attending a posted event to make sure it is still happening as we are simply a bunch of volunteers with a common goal of promoting the sport.

Kelly,
Sorry you had a bad experience as well. I cannot speak to your specific ride but our no drop rides are the first Saturday of the month. The other 3 are all over the place when it comes to speed. Sometimes the rides average 25+ MPH sometimes there are 2 groups, etc. This is how we all get stronger but also encourage new people to join. I am not sure who would have told you not to register for any races. This is actually opposite of the way Ironman works. We encourage all members to sign up under the club name for many reasons including camaraderie, club points, and future early entries. The more people we have the more we get as a club! As far as points this is from the Ironman website, "Any time an athlete races for their club at either an IRONMAN or IRONMAN 70.3 they generate age group ranking points for themselves as well as their TriClub." While speed plays a role in the number of points IM provides, any points are better than no points.

Hope some of you find this informative. Keep on swimming, biking, running!