slalom growth and affordable racing for all racers

[John Gilmour]

This post is of course related to further growth of the sport- and is made under the assumption that this sport MUST grow to continue to support the manufacturers and hence availabily of the gear.

BACKGROUND:
With the largest amount of "coming out of retirement slalom Pro's", FCR's series based in California, helped to get the rest of the Pro's racing again.

Most skaters currently aged in their late 30's practiced slalom and NEVER got to race with the pros' they had to practice- then wait 25 years. The reemergence of the Pro's is what really fueled the growth of slalom for the 30's set which currently is likely to be slalom's larger competition demographic. (someone could do the stats on this).

There are a bunch of other Pro's in Europe that need to be woken up too. With a wave of competition would come new growth and the chance for a very exciting competition series.

PREMISE:
Making the current set of "larger skateboard contest" locations more accessible for everyone will help everyone in the sport.

FACTORS:
In computers we used to have large mainframe computers which had a lot of overhead- costly to maintain. Now the power of computing has come to the people in PC's as we decentralized. Still there exist powerful mainframes- ones far more powerful than in the past- but it is the PC which has allowed our sport to grow as quickly as it has linking skaters through- ebay, NCDSA.com, Slalomskateboarder.com, and contests.

Without the decentralization of computers it is likely that Slalom Skateboarding would have never seen a rebirth- and certainly not with the speed at which it has grown. Even Google.com the search engine that many skaters might have found it's first few slalom contacts is made up of a huge network of ordinary PC's.

FUTURE LOCALES:
With our racing it is also time that we think about decentralizing a little so that our sport can grow and reach people in far away places.

I think we need more local smaller races so going to race does always involve buying plane tickets. IMHO I think the FCR series locations is a near perfect model for a California "regional" race series if they were to have dropped New Mexico and Colorado and perhaps flipped a few dates around to maximize riding in 65-75 degree weather.
Think of FCR locales but with 'Da Farm type of minimal overhead. Of course La Costa will always be La Costa.

Colorado would have been a good place to hold another regional series - especially seeding the snow belt in the offseason. Denver- Aspen- Vail- Summit county- Telluride etc.

As for Nationals Colorado might be another good choice as it is central to many and likely has discounted fares in their snow offseason.

One other place for Nationals in terms of accessibility might be Chicago as there are extremely cheap fares there for everyone- including Europe which might want to get a taste of competeing with the USA for a warm up during the Nationals.

As for Worlds- likely the location of the Worlds should move from time to time- just like the Olympics does from time to time (The Olympics are a World Championships in a sense).

From a central location point of view the East Coast is the most Central for the skaters (about 5-6 hours of travel-max- for about 99% of all of the skaters with travel costs being limited to about $280 for an advanced purchased ticket LAX-LGA (La Guardia- even closer than JFK to Central Park)

New York City would likely be the best venue as Airfares are extremely cheap to NYC for nearly everyone- a Chicago/LGA round trip fare on Orbitz is $174. Skaters could stay either in the city- as hotel rates for NYC have become much much much more competitive on the web thanks to Priceline,Expedia etc... or NYC's extensive mass transit system of Commuter Rail trains makes staying at a nice quiet (30-45 minute out of the city) hotel easy (pretty much the same distance we have to drive for many races anyhow). NYC would have very comfortable weather in September and October as well- and Central Park is regularly closed for traffic on the weekends through September. Realistically an event held in Central Park would offer much more exposure for our sport than any other venue- Central Park foot traffic is very very high.

Other Worlds' venues could be held in San Diego, Paris (also cheap airfares). Italy - another.

I think a series where racers only might HAVE to fly for the Nationals and World's would be more affordable for everyone.

Morro Bay has been great this past year and with the Addittion of A. Beach's hill it was certainly even more fun than last year. IMHO Morro historically now has " near La Costa like status" what with at least 4 major events held there of significance. But I do think the World's SHOULD move when we CAN (effectively and easily) move them ... just like they do for many other motion sports (not counting "Stadium" sports).

If possible World Championships should occur where there is a large amount of "spectator foot traffic" in "Pedestrian" cities that would be prone to using/buying slalom skateboards as a form of transportation/recreation. For instance Dallas would be a poor venue choice as compared to NYC, DC, San Francisco etc...

Jack Smith take no offense as your contribution to slalom is great- and many racers want to race YOUR events in particular. This has to do with Logistics and Airfares and nothing negative regarding the quality of your events- the fine hospitality of Morro Bay and the friendly support of the town- which we all recognize and are thankful for.

[David Eye]

The only regional slalom race series you
will see in Colorado this year (or will likely see in the near future) will occur
in the Front Range cities of Golden,
Longmont, Fort Collins and / or Denver.
Estes Park , Boulder and Colorado Springs are also possibilites.
They will occur here because thats where the greater majority of dedicated slalom and longboarders live. We have alot more pavement to work with and a relatively mild climate (we skate all year down here) We are also much closer to the airport. Races in the mountain towns (like Breckenridge) are great, but the logisitics of putting on a race in these are tough even with good connections in these towns.
Skating is typically out of the question in places like Telluride, CB and the Boat during
the 8 months of winter.

[Vlad Popov]

A couple of ideas on the topic of Slalom Growth and Affordable Racing:

1. I will teach you slalom for free if you:
a. Do your homework and practice on your own a lot.
b. Will teach 3 people slalom within a year on the same conditions.

2. Inexpensive equipment should be sold right there and then…when people are exposed to slalom and express an interest. There were several times last year when I wished I had a complete set with me for sale. I could have sold close to 10 boards.

If brand “*****” sends me, say, 3 complete boards for free and I send them the money when I sell the boards, then I will sell brand “*****”. If I don’t sell the boards within a year, I will send the boards back. The complete package shouldn’t cost more then $100.

If you have time, let me/others know how crazy/realistic it sounds.

Vlad.

[Jack Smith]

If ***** = Bahne, we can do that.

[Vlad Popov]

Jack, if you can do that, then “*****” IS Bahne!

[Jack Smith]

Vlad...email me your shipping address.

[MJ Fisher]

slalom can always be affordable, if you know whaere to and what to buy. my next setup will put me back about...oh...$245, but i have a longboard that costs near $300.

[Claude Regnier]

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Claude Regnier on 2003-02-04 18:16 ]</font>