ISSA - International Slalom Skateboarding Association

1. SLALOM COURSE

1.1 The course shall consist of a start, a timing line, a flat or slightly downhill course with a series of cones, a finish line and a run out area. The run out area should be at least 20 m long, of good surface and be free of objects.

1.2 A starting ramp is compulsory, and it shall have a height of at least 1.80 m and a maximum angle of 20 degrees.

so you say that all the americans have to throw away their now-existant ramps?

thats a big ramp!.

1.2 A starting ramp is optional. If a ramp is used, it should have gentle transitions and be of sturdy construction.


Reasons: Good races can be run without ramps. Many different ramp heights, angles, and construction techniques can still yeild a good race. Ramps of excessively sharp transitions or poorly constructed are dangerous to the skater.

i think good races can also be held on flat surfaces.
i would recommend parking-lots for that purpose.
ikea and wal-mart are great venues for that kind of contests.

Anyone ever considered uphill competitions? I would be looking forward to the run after the final ...


rmn

A starting ramp is compulsory, and it shall have a height of at least 1.80 m...

This was one of the latest rules added to the ISSA rulebook probably in the early mid 90's. It was encouraged by the Swiss who were the only ones to have such a ramp. They managed to pursuade all others that this might bring higher speed to the events. This rule was never applied, except in Switzerland as far as I recall. It may have been that the French ramps were close to that height too.

Today it seems a little bit too much, but it all depends on the venue. On a flat surface that would be good.

/Jani

The race in Leverkusen last year was uphill wasn't it?... Didn't it also take place in a parking lot?

You're probably right Patrick, but that was because of the rain. No parking lot under the bridge = no race.

rmn

right on,ramon
without the parking lot we would have cancelled the whole event.

Maybe we should have new topic about starting ramps. "Does a race have to have a starting ramp". We could also split this topic and reset the very votes so far on this question, to make it clearer what we vote for or against.

/Jani

Big start rump its wery good, but not the main punkt on this. Most important course style. Distance from cone to cone.For example 1.60-2.50 m.for pro., 1.80-3.00 for Am , jun. Wom. When you came to the competition you want to know what you will get here, you need to know what kind of course you need to practise before and what kind of board you need to take to competition. Otherway its posible to get 5, 7, 10 meters from cone to cone in special (no mather, now tight), but this distance its for gigant.

In this rule it does not say how wide and how much offset the cones shall be therefore special slalom can just be everything.

That's not 100% untrue. In my opinion a Special Slalom can really varify. As a rule of thumb a special slalom for me can be:

• Tight (1.50-1.80) and includes technical offsets, rhytm changes, and other technical parts such as blind cones etc. Mostly on flat surfaces or slightly downhill.
• Slalom" (1.70-2.50) and includes a couple of hard offsets or wide spread sections, but should be set to have still a fast rhytm/frequency. Most useful at a steeper slope or hill.
• Hybrid (ca. 2-4m) and mainly includes wide spread sections and offsets, a few cones should be set tighter ("stingers" they're called I think ?!!) to make it special and intersting. Hill/steep slope.
• Half/half and contain change somewhere in the middle of the course where the rhytm suddenly changes either from tight to wide or the other way round and keeps at this conedistance on to the finishline. This kind of slalom can be used when the slope changes the angle towards the finish line.

rmn