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John Gilmour

well you do need to stabilize a truck and have accurate ankle control. Going a little quick and then introducing a little "wobbly shimmy" to the trucks ie turn a little left and flick a little right.... that should introduce some wobble to a newbie. You have to learn to ride stable straight before y...

John Gilmour

For an ultra low cost alternative- these g-trucks are hard to beat. I think for lighter weight ie. younger riders, they are a good comprimise of stability and quickturning. I also think the grommmets they come with are some of hte best grommets for lightweight riders I know of. I would like to see s...

John Gilmour

This will have lousy tone- so disregard it- I just have to say it as I see it. The 12-17 year old kickflipper demographic simply is not going to accept slalom. Sure there will be exceptions, but I don't and haven't seen it happening. I've tried setting courses for kickflipper decks and you it is aki...

John Gilmour

Who set that course? And what was the spacing and offset like? Pictures can be confusing shot from the bottom.

John Gilmour

First dealing with speed. The best thing you can do is get accustomed to the speed in very small increments. So try going down a hill that has a good runout and even pitch. Travel just 15 feet higher up the hill with each run. When you get to the run out try to initate wobbles on your deck and then...

John Gilmour

I also looked at the tape and Hollien's Position is almost exactly the same for each cone- no fade.

John Gilmour

There are a few things going on in regards to flex. Firstly in regards to the road we have several different kinds of things going on- in regards to flex in the system and maintaining the "correct suspension" ie road contact. 1. We have to absorb the larger surface imperfections in the road (cracks ...

John Gilmour

I revisited this discourse again and rethought. Perhaps the ideas of course setting relate directly to the goals of the course setter. Vladz course. To set a course that is a technical challenge- without the intention of racing it- but with the intention to build skills and find answer to a previous...

John Gilmour

In NYC a slalomer friend of mine and I used to skate "The Tavern On the Green course in Central Park (A simple set of straight cones 6-6.5 feet on center maintained by slalomskateboarder/Rollerskater/inline skaters for the past 20 years). We both rode Turners, and to newbies wanting to get into it t...

John Gilmour

At 30 mph- it is likely you have the record. That's cooking.

John Gilmour

You can run TS on very steep slopes and it will be makeable- but by few unless you try to make certain things happen to "manage the slope". The key to making the course makable is to not set too many straight cones in a row- and to work across the slope ocassionally with diagonal cone sets (cones go...

John Gilmour

You see- your example is even more brilliant than I interpreted it. I also agree than anything under 1 meter is ridiculous- leave that to quad skaters on 1 foot. So your graph makes excellent sense. I also agree there should not be any black holes as that might limit the course setting choices too m...

John Gilmour

I'm in for a flat land speed run- I'll need a Roe Hester though and some fast wheels. Since none of us have radar guns lets do this through a timing trap (using tape switches like Tway's timer) that is short say 10 feet where the conversion to mph would be easy. Actually Metric is the easier convers...

John Gilmour

Colorado is really the closest link to the Snowboard community and skiing community and would be the first place I would expect to see "secured" runs with lifts albeit old rusted rope tows, for great slalom venues at ski resorts in the off season. Colorado to me is the most important slalom scene fo...

John Gilmour

I like the graphical representation of this course "Key" of Corky's. Hopefully I can add some input to an already clear display - brilliantly clear I might add. One thought of what might define the disciplines is the type of deck ridden for each. IMHO I think this is pertainent to the racers as they...

John Gilmour

It is on the back cover of one of the slalom! MAgs that I sent to Adam Trahan.

John Gilmour

I'm going to try and describe a course...and see if it makes ense to poeple. but first..... how does one measure the pitch of a hill easily and accurately?

John Gilmour

That is why , if possible it would be a good idea to try and represent the course visually with a side profile of the pitch profile of the road and a course layout with an indicator of where the cones fall on the pitch profile. I think a numerical representation is good for some- but it starts to lo...

John Gilmour

If a course is not set well, the accident level will rise. If you don't give a racer a place to brake- he might break. So setting a fast straight section into a huge offset with little distance downhill between the cones invites disaster and blood. In order to set a technical course with braking tha...

John Gilmour

I agree that the grade of hill and cone spacing as well as offfsets might give a better description of what is needed than a short TS or Hybrid or slalom designation. Perhaps a better idea would be to suggest what type of deck would be appropriate for the course. So if a promoter says "The race will...

John Gilmour

I would like to race over there this year. I figure that hte current snowboard sales in Korea- along with a strong footwear industry should make for decent slalom grounds. Japan has always been on my list. I really don't want to wait too long for any conflict to escalate. A email from a friend of mi...

John Gilmour

How should we define a hill and the surface? Certainly a rough surface would require a differenet set up in terms of wheels. Also a smooth hard surface of say older asphalt or cement, will roll much faster than the same grade of new (softer) asphalt. Should we describe the pitch of the hill in secti...

John Gilmour

It seems though I may be wrong, that one of the FCR gates does not open at the exact same time as the other one perhaps a tenth or so later. Hackett got hung on one of the gates at Catalina as did I at Breckenridge "TS" against Cross. After doing that I get a bit "gate shy". I would prefer to see th...

John Gilmour

I sandbagged hard at two events last year. One was at DC where I tried to use a double eliminations bracket to influence placings and demonstrate distortions (people put in teh wrong positions) which can occur within a large eliminations bracket. I did about the slowest qualification run ever. (in r...

John Gilmour

Chris nailed it. The only other thing you can do in a fast course is wear loose baggy clothes- likely some people could have posted times .8 seconds faster at La Costa 2002 if they had lost the flapping jacket or shirt. Mollica's aero strategy definitely was a smart one. Of course the clothing thing...

John Gilmour

I'd like to race Korten - his way flat tight straights- then race him my way on a good hill , tech, fast, fast start. Both feet on the board though or It is likely he would set a roller skater slalom course and ride one footed. Sooner or later this guy is going to pop up. (after all only a few haven...

John Gilmour

I remember when Bad H was working for Mervin Manufacturing (Makers of Gnu and Libtech (short for Liberace Technologies) snowboards). I was a buyer in 1990 for a Snowboard shop in Boston and had pulled a bunch of strings to get gear in my shop (seemed some of the slalomers moved to the snowboard Indu...

John Gilmour

Do me a favor and take TK to Bieneveneda someones got to ride that hill before 20 years goes by and the pavement gets cracked.

John Gilmour

Well you can brake on fast courses, and of course that is part of the skill- he who brakes the absolute least possible at the last possible second....wins. Those tenths mount awfully quickly otherwise. That is how you can run tight on a steeper slope. Besides it is cool to hear the wheels chirp. But...

John Gilmour

I also think Maria is a wonderful person and that she is a good choice for moderator of this Forum as she has no direct industry ties- her focus like her husbands is for the betterment of the sport.

John Gilmour

If Korten set the course it is likely that it was "super tight" and a wiggle fest from what others have said. I've spoken to "korto" on the phone- and never met him in person. He seemed very occupied with religion and for someone occupied with religion it seemed really terrible things used to befall...

John Gilmour

Lots of Euros ride raised heel- particularly in conjunction withte S-camber decks and some hard wood decks. Riding raised heel on a Turner Hybrid is a no-no. Those decks should be ridden witht eh heel fixed down. Riding raised heel gives you more "clearance" for tight cones- you can cut a lot closer...

John Gilmour

So what distances do you guys think are the fastest/most exciting to race and watch? Also at what steepness do people think is too steep for TS? Lets take Avila beach as one extreme and Battle by the Bay "hybrid" as another. interesting to note that the steepness of teh hill doesn't always have an e...

John Gilmour

I think the hill and spacing relationship is a sound one. That being said 5.5 foot on a fast hill (over 20 mph) would be too difficult for most skaters. 6.5 foot is more reasonable and currently 7.5 to 7 foot is a competition worthy distance for steeper hills. IMHO 6 foot and under for the current a...

John Gilmour

Mongo pushers may have choosen to focus more on slalom where being Mongo was not such a great detriment in your skating- Downhill...mongo is hairball...ask Chaput. flatland Freestyle it looks less graceful and in parkriding it means you need to take longer to set up. Fixed box starts with Single pus...

John Gilmour

Strategy can work or screw you up- sometimes depending upon whom you are racing. In Morro Bay 2001- my strategy in the early brackets was pretty straight forward. I would go just fast enough stay slightly ahead of my opponent- forcing the other to try harder and harder until he DQ'd or plowed enough...

John Gilmour

I have been to Europe and raced I saw what went on there. I know the participants the courses and the skill levels. I've tried to skate one of Martin Sweeney's courses. I know some of the history and lived through some of it. To set teh record straight. 4 foot courses were not rampant throughout Eur...

John Gilmour

So with all this talk about racing I am curious as to what distances people would like to see in tight slalom. Please post what you are running and also which spacings allow you to generate + sustain the most speed. Also please make this relevant to TS board lengths. Ie. saying that you like to run ...

John Gilmour

Does he want to sell me those magnesium midtracks? Looking forward to more racing Swedes.

John Gilmour

I am looking forward to whatever you may organize because always- racing for the racers is the priority- not merely as a sideshow. I am very happy to see you involved again as you were in a sense the "rosetta stone" of slalom translating all the concerns into comprehensible text. Also- good show on ...

John Gilmour

7 foot....huge.

John Gilmour

I think Marc Dupal shot it. Those shoes were a slalom first. When I got there the organizers did not have cones so I let them use mine. I set up a practice course- and though it was an easy course at the time, the guys there weren't used to running anything other than GS. I set a fairly easy tight c...

John Gilmour

GBJ is right on the money- experiment. try all new cone combos. If you set a curve to the right you should also set a curve to the left. If you set an s curve try to make sure that the speed for both the left and right curve are close to the same. cool course components to work with are s curves and...

John Gilmour

Arab- for someone that scoffs at the "Least Coast" you are a helluva guy for taking an East Coaster under your wing and recognizing a regular slalomers zest for slalom and supporting it. I think you are a tough punk rocker on the outside- but a real softie on the inside. (happens all the time). Many...

John Gilmour

If what I am hearing is that people want to deter sandbagging- and its distorting effects on the racing brackets. And that people want racers to be ordered appropriately for their respective times... How about this unusual scenario? Everyone qualifies 2 runs. Fastest run is your time. Now you want t...

John Gilmour

Just so no one gets offended- I want to make it perfectly clear that I feel Ransom and Chicken are excellent racers- I have never raced them head to head...but I don't have to because of the clock. On a GS course in the beginning of the FCR season in San Fran- Ransom simply blew every racer out of t...

John Gilmour

Can you tell that I get cranky when I'm tired? It is interesting to see this thread literally take off. over 3 pages in less than 20 hours. Many page views. Perhaps there is demand for tighter slalom than "slalom". I do think that there is a biomechanical relationship here in cone width spacing, pit...

John Gilmour

is that 6.0 center to center or 6.0 cone edge to cone edge?

John Gilmour

That's the spirit! After all SSS did get Chicken on top through lots of encouragement and practice. Congrats SSS- should have joined your team when I had the chance.

John Gilmour

1. To slalom in the far east and infect them with the slalom bug.

2. To make a wheel that I really enjoy riding.

3. To learn to Ollie- and get sponsored. Oops typo .......to learn with Ollie (Gelfand) and get him sponsored.

Join the ISSA 25 cone series. One cyber race every second month!

Regular sessions allow newbies to join our community and discover slalom racing.

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