
If you've never seen one, the excitement centers around the race, or the win. People purchase an artificial duck (or many) to help raise money for a special cause. Prices of rubber ducks are inflated beyond the actual cost and usually cost participants anywhere from $5 to 100. When you buy the duck, you become its sponsor in a race. Your name or an assigned number is written on the duck with marker pen to distinguish yours from the rest.
Some participants opt to not take their ducks home (when it is an option) after the races have finished. There are companies that rent and deliver thousands of rubber ducks, and take them back after the event, cleaning them, recycling them, etc.
The rubber duck race or derby requires a source of water to race the hundreds or thousands of ducks that bobble and bounce toward some destination. To get them to move in a direction, there must be a slant on the artificial ramp, or waves you'll find naturally in lakes and oceans.
We've seen California duck races held in the Pacific Ocean with volunteers gathering the ducks as they come to shore, we've seen at water parks, and we've seen them in places where there's no natural body of water. In those situations, the planners make their own water race course. Rubber ducky fans can't get their fill of duck-mania in California can certainly get their fix.
2012 Duck Derbies
Here are some past rubber duck races and derbies in California:
There must be something special about the yellow rubber duck. People go quackers for them. In my house alone, there are four sitting on the bathtub shelf and every time I try to make them disappear (they've been there for years) someone cries, "fowl!" It's said that a maid at the Royal Palace even spotted the Queen with one (the duck wears a crown) so you just never know who likes them--and why. For rubber ducky fans, you can't get your fill of duck-mania in California but you can certainly get your fix.
