hi there everyone! well, i thought i'd kick off a discussion about one of the most important aspects of our sport : judging. i am hoping that this will promote a bit of thought on the matter and not descend into some sort of mosh pit fight.
well at the agm/acm jackie wetzig (who is in charge of judging in this country) said that there is a big shortfall in the number of section judges and that the number is declining. she said that many of the section judges do pretty much the whole competition on their section and that there isn't much 'slack' in the sytem.
also, as paddler rep, i have heard many paddlers who are dissatisfied with judging at some races. it struck me that there is something going on here. the section judges work very hard but after a full day outside braving the elements, i think it would be only human for errors to occur.
so i thought, why can't we get more section judges? it would be excellent for the sport, it would be 'helping ourselves' and there are also ways in which section judges can be financially assisted. why couldn't paddlers who are racing div1 get qualified and do section judge duties for the prem racers and vice versa? with the many div1/prem races around this has got to make sense.
also, calling all mums and dads - maybe you could get involved too. i reckon there are more than enough hours on race day that you could do some section judging when your offspring(s) are not on the water. bear in mind, you can't judge your own paddlers, so you could still easily watch them.
i don't know what you all think of this, but i think the paddlers should get off their beehinds and try to make their sport better - and i reckon that it makes sense to paddlers trying to get results at these prem/1 races.
let's see if we can't imrove this state of affairs ready for next season. cheers for reading
etienne