Unofficial UK Slalom BBS

I paddle at the Yat regularly and you could hold a very good slalom on it at the moment. Having trained there often over the years, I agree it can be a pain to set up but no worse than many other sites. It's not difficult water, but there are some choice surfin' waves there at the mo'. You could pu...

Ah, frontman, those were the days eh? Racing up to HPP straight after work, traffic jams on the motorway, rafters in the way, getting in half a session then having the lights switched off halfway down a run! Happy days! Seriously though getting sponsorship from outside of the sport is very difficul...

CP- I have mentioned this before but why not base C2 points on a percentage of the maximum K1M points? i.e C2 gets 125% of winning K1M, they get 100 - 25 = 75% of the points, 110% gives them 90% of the points etc. That way you avoid the situation we had at Tully prem where the top 3 C2s all got the...

One good case for forerunners that is very helpful for C2/C1 is showing whether there is sufficient depth of water to do a move a particular way. This is not always clear from just looking from the bank. It may be clear which is the fastest move, but that's no good if you rip your hull out or trip ...

Would it not be more effective if the points scored were based on % of the maximum K1M points? i.e. The winning C2 gets say 125% of winning K1M so gets 1000 - 25% = 750 points. That way there is no problem with several C2s getting under the 125%. You get your % of the 1000 maximum. I'm curious that...

What happens if more than 1 C2 gets below 125% of winning K1M? Do they both get 1000 points? Top C2s are regularly below this %, so I can see this situation cropping up quite often. This has got to be wrong, surely. Additionally, if K1M scores are very close, it is possible for a C2 at one race to ...

Ah yes, the "Big Boy" LifeDeck was cool..., until you had to walk past a bunch of non-paddlers when getting out at the end of a trip/session. Cue "canoe in your pocket" comments. Anyway, another thing to bear in mind with buouyancy aids is whether it is going to be for kayak, canoe or both, since y...

In Prem C2 this season, it has been necessary to enter either late or without enclosing the normal fee with entry, due to the fact that so few have actually entered by the time the start lists have come out. I'm fed up of doing races where the maximum points we can realistically get is 80 (as oppos...

[quote]Slalom, as you indicate, takes place in relatively protected conditions where the risk to paddler and boat of a swim are minimal compared to river running. I stand by this regardless of whether the organiser has put "proper" safety precautions in place. It would seem to me that there is a de...

I presume the sort of rivers you paddle recreationally are relatively isolated and trips are more than a few hundred yards? In this instance, airbags make sense (so would more fixed foam bouyancy as well), as do they for river racing boats where the consequences of a swim are more than just picking...

As I've said before, I think this is just a non-issue for slalom competition. The priority should be getting the paddler to safety, not the kit, and airbags are not going to assist this. There are very few slalom sites in this country where the total loss of a boat is a real possibility (Llangollen...

Although moving off topic a bit, I do think it's very important to paddle lots of different rough water, and to add general "play" sessions into a training schedule. Surfing waves, sitting in stoppers, etc, not only teaches technique, but is good aerobic exercise, and confidence building. These are...