2008 ISSA Rules Update -- Section 11 (Contest Director)

[Pat Chewning]

Put comments on section 11 here.

You may view the draft rules here in 3 forms:

As a WORD document: http://www.slalomskateboarder.com/ISSA/ ... -DRAFT.doc

As a PDF document:http://www.slalomskateboarder.com/ISSA/ ... FT-0_2.pdf

As a Webpage:http://www.slalomskateboarder.com/ISSA/ ... -DRAFT.htm

[Pat Chewning]

11. Contest Director Instructions
11.1. Course Officials
· Required Course Officials

· Head Race Judge – Makes on-the-hill decisions and is head of the Protest Jury

· Suggested Course Officials

· Head Timer – Runs timing equipment and records the final cone-counts.

· Head Cone Judge – Coordinates cone judges and informs Timer of the final cone count and DQ’s for each racer.

· Other possible Course Officials

· Cone Judges – Count displaced cones, determine if racer has negotiated the course correctly.



It should be made clear to all racers which people are acting as course officials, and which are merely doing clerical, voluntary, or manual-labor functions. It is suggested that the Course Officials wear some sort of identifying clothing (special shirt, hat, vest, etc).

11.2. Allowable Variations from Rules
Variations from these rules are allowable under the following conditions:

· For MAJOR and MAIN status competitions:

· Variations shall be stated clearly in the contest sanction application.

· Variations shall be declared in written communication to the racers on the day of the race.

· Variations shall be minor, few, and not significantly change the nature of the race.

· Examples of possible variations: Start ramp specification variation (larger, smaller, etc); Tone count-down variation.



· For PRIME, BASIC, PLAIN status competitions:

· Variations shall be stated clearly in the contest sanction application.

· Variations shall be declared to the racers on the day of the race (e.g. in a Racer’s meeting or announcement).

· Variations are allowed to alter the nature of the race.

· Examples of possible variations: Push-start vs. ramp start; A-B-C bracketing system to expand the # of racers entering head-to-head rounds, taking 4 runs on a single-lane race instead of 2 runs.



· ISSA Regional Contest Coordinators will review contest sanction applications and may reduce the contest status based on the number and magnitude of the declared variations from these rules.

This is an important part of the rules. It allows some variations from the rules -- more variation as the contest status is lower. It requires that race directors know the rules, and more importantly, know when they are deviating from the rules. Deviations must be communicated to the racers.

I imagine that a lot of comments in other sections can be covered by this section -- by contest directors specifying that their race will not have tones for starting, will not have a start ramp, will have a different limit of racers going into the head-to-head rounds, etc. In such cases, the number and magnitude of the deviations will affect the ISSA contest sanction status awarded to the race.

[Hans Koraeus]

I would like to see a more detailed spec of what we demand of an event depending on status.

For example I think Major/Main events should be forced to have cone judges and a head cone judge. We also have a very good documentation of how conejudging should work with panels they show with a number of how many cones that was hit in each section of the course. ISSA could even make a couple of proper sets of these and give/sell to event organizers needing them. Because they are needed and too often neglected.

A specified list of required officials for Major/Main, Prime and Basic/Plain events would be good.

[Pat Chewning]

I would like to see a more detailed spec of what we demand of an event depending on status.

For example I think Major/Main events should be forced to have cone judges and a head cone judge. We also have a very good documentation of how conejudging should work with panels they show with a number of how many cones that was hit in each section of the course. ISSA could even make a couple of proper sets of these and give/sell to event organizers needing them. Because they are needed and too often neglected.

A specified list of required officials for Major/Main, Prime and Basic/Plain events would be good.

I'd like to see your specific proposal for which race officials are required for which status of race. Then we can ask for comments from the race organizers to see if it makes sense.

On your other subject of the specifics of HOW to count the cones, I would like to leave that up to the race organizer. Some may use human judges with panels, others with human judges and radio-relay up to the head cone judge. Personally, I would like to see automated electronic sensing of cone counting, complete with a computer graphic of which cones have been hit. But the point I am trying to make is that the exact details of how cone counting occurs should be an area left to the race organizer to implement a satisfactory (or improved) method. I think the rules are adequate to just say that the cones must be counted, and what to do with the # of cones counted....

[Wesley Tucker]

One thing we have to avoid is making the rules so detailed and so demanding that race organizers end up saying, "Aw, to hell with it!" and the sanctioning process loses steam.

We want races to have standard rules but we don't want to make race organizers spend more time worrying about minutae to the point they decide it's not worth the hassle.

A rule insisting the race organizer makes appropriate allowances for cone marshalling is good. A rule making the process too complicated to implement is not so good.

I think we all want to see a day where there's no longer a scramble five minutes before the first heat looking for cone heads. This rule certainly makes that a thing of the past. What I don't want, though, is the need for race organizers to have to retain legal counsel to figure out what the ISSA expects from a sanctioned event.

[Hans Koraeus]

Conejudging is a big problem. That is why I wanted to help the organizers with this. Not making it more difficult. If they want to do it in some other way it is ok. But let them get the info about how it works well. And giving organizers the cone judge panels would be a great help for any race organizer.

Let's use some of the ISSA funds to print up these and get them out. ISSA could even sell them to the organizers for the cost making them. It would be worth every penny and we would help all events look better and work better concerning the cone counting circus.

[Marcus Rietema]

I would like to see a more detailed spec of what we demand of an event depending on status.

For example I think Major/Main events should be forced to have cone judges and a head cone judge. We also have a very good documentation of how conejudging should work with panels they show with a number of how many cones that was hit in each section of the course. ISSA could even make a couple of proper sets of these and give/sell to event organizers needing them. Because they are needed and too often neglected.

A specified list of required officials for Major/Main, Prime and Basic/Plain events would be good.

All of these things can be available as simple and free pdf downloads on the website. This way the organizer can print them as needed.

[Hans Koraeus]

All of these things can be available as simple and free pdf downloads on the website. This way the organizer can print them as needed.

Yes that is the second best alternative. But it does not make sure the result is good enough. You need to find a good way to attach them so they don't fall apart. They have to look and work proffesionally.