More Than Dual-Lane Racing

[Wesley Tucker]

There's a lot of discussion lately concerning what Slalom Skateboarding can do to make it more "spectator appealing" and "racer engaging." Here's a thought for no other reason that it's different. And it might look cool in the street too.

Why are we so hung up on "dual racing?" I know orginally we took this format from snow skiing, but if you think about it, snow skiing and drag racing are about the only speed sports with one against another one. (There's that weird sprint ice skating, but who cares?) Track and Field, auto racing, bike racing, swimming, motorcycles, boats, etc. all have multiple competitors on the track at the same time. Why can't we for the hell of it?

Has anyone ever considered three or four lane racing? More skaters on the track, more cones flying, more intensity. Sure, I know one complaint that comes immediately to mind: "well, if you have four racers you'd have to run each bracket four times so every skater runs in every lane."

Baloney.

When's the last time you saw the 100 meter dash run 8 times so ever runner can run in each lane? I know, slalom courses have subtle variations that aren't apparent in a pool or a running track. Well, that's easy to overcome: bust your ass in qualifying so you have the advantage of LANE CHOICE over your three opponents. Think of the fun if the top seed makes a mistake and picks the WRONG COURSE. Great stuff for racing.

Can Trak Mate be adapted to run multi lanes (meaning more than two?) What about two of Pat Chewnings systems plugged into one lap top? A quick and easy fix til a real four or eight lane system could be developed.

This is something that might be worth an experiment. Perhaps an outlaw event and just adding one more lane and one more racer to see how it goes? Working out how to handle cones (possibly numbered for each lane for easy identification after a heat?) and timing would be the logistical obstable. Handling 8 tempers instead of two might take a little longer.

Think about this: an eight-lane hybrid course of 60 cones on a four-lane decent hill with BLR in four lanes and SSS in the other four. Or maybe Team Roe with TK, Fluitt, Morris and Kimbel up against Gorman, Biffle, Ohm and Evans for Ick? With Evans out front, Gorman decides to spray a few cones at Fluitt and TK so to preserve the win for his teammate. After the heat a huge fight breaks out and Maria gets it all on video for Fuel.

Man, that would be so cool!

[Mathias Puentedura]

i think is quite easy to do on a "regular" tight slalom, but you will need a motorway in order to run a giant...

If you need more "spectactr appealing" or "racer engaging", what about a sort of slalom boarder cross?