ISSA - International Slalom Skateboarding Association

I am considering hosting the 2008 US Nationals on the central coast of California, and would like to ask for racer input on when to hold the event.

Thanks,
Jack

I don't know what to suggest. I just hope it can be decided soon so I can make it, that is one of the 4 races I will attend next season.

I am booking two weeks of camps in July and August. The weekend of July will likely be our 5th Annual Dovercourt Open and the Worlds are going to be the 1st. weekend n August.

Do you have any ideas as to when you would like to host it?

Claude,

I was thinking August or September. I was hoping to hold them before the Worlds, however I haven't seen a confirmed date for the Worlds.

It's not confirmed but likely.

Gothenburg the 1st

http://www.slalomskateboarder.com/phpBB ... php?t=5639

They will likely receive the support to host it. They have a lot of support from the town and last years contest was great according to all reports.

They also have a good and big crew to pull it off.

also i am in the process of placing the brixlegg invitational one week after the swedish contest.
please keep that in mind too
thanks

I personally like the tradition of Nationals in COSS land, but I am a bit biased,

Basically, if Nationals is in California, that means I won't be able to go to pump station. I can only afford a few races, you know. it would be cool, but we must have a BIG race in colorado then.

...How about a 3 day event in late August. Friday 8/22, Sat 8/23, and Sun 8/24? Have the qualifying the same day as the elimination rounds, and not make it a weeklong event.

This could be one of the 3 mains in the West with the others being:
West Coast Championships
San Diego or Colorado

Thanks alot Jack

The US Nationals might merit a MAJOR status, rather than MAIN, regardless of where/when it is held.

As usual, good point Pat.

It would make sense to have a Major in the Western Region since the Eastern Region had the North American major event last year.....Then again, there's Kenny's race of which I've heard great things about!!!

Id like to see the wonder kids and G-Pap do the COSS Open for the Colorado Main...it was a well run fun race

The only problem I see with the Nationals being so late in the season is the fact that Morro isnt easy to get to cheap(Fly to LA and rent a car, then drive a few hrs?)....If its earlier in the year those of us with kids in school would be able to road trip it and the jrs wouldnt miss too much or any school.

I'm thinking mid-July.

Delta is now offering regional jet service to San Luis Obispo. Santa Barbara, which is 1.5 - 2.0 hours away also offers direct flights from many US cities, as does San Jose, about a 2.5 - 3.0 drive. I hear Fresno has good deals also...but hey, that means you have to go Fresno.

More soon.

i dont get it fly and then drive hours to a race?
are all you people made out of money?
if a race is more then a 60 minutes from a major airport you need a new spot.

Sounds good Jack!

Hope you have a good one. In a few weeks I'll one year away from 50. Looking forward to it.
Maybe by then I'll have stopped racing the young'uns.

If its in July we (family) are road tripping it and camping somewhere close....
Come on Goad...load up the family, it will be a blast

sweden and austria are back to back events happening between aug 1st and aug 10th.
both will be kick ass events and surely attract a lot of racers from the usa.
placing the nationals close to those 2 events would be absolutely wrong.
i would suggest mid june as a possible date.
so the big events are a bit apart and it will be easier for some riders to scratch their money together.
on another note i'm wondering why the nationals can't be held in the greater l.a. s.d. area.
why does it have to be morro?
that's a 3-4 hour drive from l.a.


i'm just asking jack
a venue located in the above mentioned area would be more preferrable for a lot of people.

again:when you put your event too close to the 2 big euro events i know a lot of us skaters who won't attend the us nationals then.simply because it is too much money spent in a short time period.

maybe you can arrange something,hopefully

There are only 52 weekends in a year and only 14 during the summer vacation months.

Eventually, races will conflict with each other. Organizers who spend too much time worrying about what another organizer is doing will probably end up with a less-than-adequate event of their own.

We have a few "traditional" events (Texas in Febuary, Luna in April, St. Lou on Memorial Day, Canada on Canada Day, the Farm the first weekend in August, the Dixie Cup the first weekend in November) but even those may end up getting pinched as racing becomes more popular and more racers start showing up.

What's more is there are now races happening on a regular basis on THREE continents. Sorry to say we are getting past the point where a race has an exclusive schedule with nothing two weeks before or after.

There's no reason to be rude and just schedule a race to aggrevate someone. If an organizer, though, has a great weekend available with municipal support and sponsors lined up then it's pretty much a given he should go for it. If there's another race the same weekend either on the same continent or elsewhere then it's just going to come down to which racers decide to go to what race.

Donald, please note that I wrote "I'm thinking mid-July".

As for the events in Sweden and Austria, I'm sure they will be great events, but realistically how many US racers will attend? Probably a handful at best, and most likely they will be the top rated racers, who hopefully get helped out a bit their sponsors.

The 2006 and 2007 Nationals were within an hour of Denver, how many international racers attended, if I remember correctly just a few.

Yes, there are probably advantages to holding the event in the LA or San Diego area. Personally I have little experience in organizing events in southern California, the only two I have been involved with were La Costa and Catalina, both when I was a part of FCR. Both of those events were tremendously expensive to stage, southern California permit fees are very high and the assorted conditions placed on the event are difficult to say the least. The city governments can also be difficult to work with, as evidenced by the problems encountered by the organizers of the La Costa event .

I have no personal knowledge of decent race venues in So Cal, I also do not have any connections with local city governments. If I were to attempt to organize the Nationals in
So Cal, it would be a tremendous financial undertaking, thus making for higher sponsorship fees, and probably higher entry fees, if a title sponsor could not be secured.

Travel to Morro Bay can be a more expensive and time consuming, I realize that. As I did mention in one of my previous posts, there are more options than flying to LA. Delta is now offering regional jet service to San Luis Obispo. Santa Barbara, which is 1.5 - 2.0 hours away also offers direct flights from many US cities, as does San Jose, about a 2.5 - 3.0 drive. I am hoping that by nailing down a race date early, traveling racers would have the opportunity to seek out less expensive airfares.

The city of Morro Bay and the county of San Luis Obispo are supportive of slalom racing and are also easy to work with in regards to permits and fees. And event though the population base of the are is not very large, the number of spectators at past events in Morro Bay easily rival the spectator turnout at any other major slalom racing event.

To be blunt, I have zero interest in organizing the Nationals in Southern California. The time and financial burdens would be extreme.

I realize that weather is much more a factor for the events in Sweden and Austria, thus the August dates, however, in my opinion the Worlds date is much too early in the season.

thanks for the input jack

wesley:we are all very keen to see you hit the european continent next year.

If I had the money to go to Europe I doubt I'd spend it going to Europe.

I still have to see the World's Biggest Ball Of String and the Big Butter Jesus. It's been a lifelong desire of mine to make a pilgrimage someday to See Rock City.

There's so much to see and so much to do. Why would I ever consider spending any of my hard earned cash on a passport when I can travel to the Wisconsin Dells without papers?

exactly what i thought about you

It's important a topic about scheduling races be about Donald's opinion of me.

Jack- It doesn't matter when the race is...LCB will be there! I've heard about the last World's there, the hill in Cambria, the TS right down the center of town in Morro Bay...In my opinion, that is as good a place as any to have a race. I am already looking forward to it.

Is the Cambria hill still available? I seem to remember someone saying the developer finally started building houses there.

I could be wrong.

July or August in Morro Bay sounds great Jack. If I'm racing next summer, I'll see you there!
Thanks alot Jack!
Art

Jack Smith wrote:Donald, please note that I wrote "I'm thinking mid-July".

As for the events in Sweden and Austria, I'm sure they will be great events, but realistically how many US racers will attend? Probably a handful at best, and most likely they will be the top rated racers, who hopefully get helped out a bit their sponsors.

Hmmmm, sponsors helping out....... what a lovely thought!

Cat - that photo of the Pavel and the kitty just begs to be in some sort of Pavel ad.

Love to go to Cali for US Nats next year...come on over Donald!

I will be meeting with Morro Bay City officials later this week regarding a $400,000 grant the city has received for street re-paving.

OH YEAH! Keep us posted!

-RF

Tentative Dates for 2008 US Nationals:

July 18, 19 and 20th.

More info soon.

How hot will it be?

Karl Floitgraf wrote:How hot will it be?

Hot enough to bake a bean from Boston...but cooler than it will be in North Carolina at that time of year!



-RF

It's never hot in Morro Bay. People from the San Joaquin Valley come to Morro Bay to escape the heat in the summer.

Expect daytime temps of 65-75 in Morro Bay. If any of the events are help in San Luis Obispo, you can add 10-15 degrees.

Morro Bay in July sounds KILLER. Let us know ASAP so we can start planning our ROAD TRIP!

Jack Smith wrote:Tentative Dates for 2008 US Nationals:

July 18, 19 and 20th.

More info soon.

Really bummed I won't be able to race the Nationals this year. That date is right in the middle of all the European Downhill World Cups and only two weeks before the Worlds in Gothenburg. At least the Swedish date doesn't conflict. Hopefully Hood River will be in June this year so at least I can race there...

Hood, Morro, Gothenburg...hope my new employer is ready for this!!! May have to pull a couple 16 hour days to make up!! Can't wait!

-RF

WAX ARMY ROADTRIP....
stoked!!!

Jim Weatherwax wrote:WAX ARMY ROADTRIP....
stoked!!!

Morro Bay is an awesome road trip...lots of places to camp within a few miles of town. On another note: You mistakenly put a "W" in front of AXE...and you forgot yhe "E"!

Mid-July sounds like a great time for the Nats, and you can count on Silverfish Longboarding to support the venue and event. Go for it, Jack!

What a pity ( for me... ) the year I decide to travel to California... in August...

Anybody knows if something's planned in August ?!

If there is nothing else planned, we might have a race at Pump Station just for you!

Kevin Dunne wrote:If there is nothing else planned, we might have a race at Pump Station just for you!

Sounds cool !!!!

After the worlds in August, I'll jump in a plane for L.A. to join my wife near Huntington beach...

Morro Bay is an awesome road trip...lots of places to camp within a few miles of town. On another note: You mistakenly put a "W" in front of AXE...and you forgot yhe "E"!

dont worry Kevin
all the racing members of the WAX ARMY know how to spell... we are coming to kick some AXE
and for quality boards...its spelled PAVEL
look forward to being back in Morro (its been 20 years)

The 2008 Nationals are on.

After a week of sleepless nights and a headache from banging my head against the wall (at my age I should know better), I have decided to go forward with the event. The points level will be prime. THe "double elimination" format will be used in the tight and hybrid events.

I want to thank Pat Chewning for keeping open a line of communication. However, the other two members of the sanctioning committee did not return email or private messages.

So onward with the organizing of the event. I will be looking all over the central coast in an effort to find the best venues possible. So there is a chance that all of the races won't be held in Morro Bay. I do plan to keep the Super G on Turri Road, site of the 2004/2005 Super G.

There is a chance that there will be a bonus flat (well almost) single lane event on a new bike path that runs right along the bay in Morro Bay.

More soon.

Jack,

Glad to hear it. Do your best, stage the best possible event, charge an appropriate registration fee, attract a load of slalomers and let the sanctioning process take care of itself.

ANYONE who has the means to travel to California's Central Coast and opts out because it's a Prime should have their head examined.

Jack Smith wrote:The 2008 Nationals are on.

I want to thank Pat Chewning for keeping open a line of communication. However, the other two members of the sanctioning committee did not return email or private messages.

This is great news -- I was also losing some sleep if the event should be cancelled. That is definitely NOT what anyone wanted to happen.

This will be a great event and a great venue for exposing this new format to LOTS of racers.

If you need any help moving forward, just let me know. (Or maybe you've got more "help" than you needed over the past 2 weeks )

Jack: It may have been my fault that Eddy and Chris were not very responsive, since I've sort of acted as the "spokesman" for our contest coordinators. I was consulting with them as you and I were trading options back and forth. So let's not place fault with them, but with me.

Thanks for the encouraging words and also for the offer to help. A contest organizer can never have enough help.

Pat, I understand that you were acting as spokesman. However, a quick reply from Chris and Eddy, saying just that, would have been appreciated.

Hey Eddy, how old are you? Whatever your age, I'm setting the Master's age limit, just above your it, that way you will have to compete with those fast kids in the Open division. And as for Barker, well I'll just hide his board from him, and cause him to miss his heat....I'm kidding.

Wesley Tucker wrote: Why would I ever consider spending any of my hard earned cash on a passport when I can travel to the Wisconsin Dells without papers?

Hey - Sun Prairie is only an hour away from the Dells. Come to my race in June and you can take a trip to the Dells too!

Nice job Jack and Pat! I haven't met you guys in person...yet...but I plan to be there! Turri just sounds (and looks in the video I've seen ) SO SWEEEEET!

Schedule:

Friday, July 11
Super G on Turri Road
One and Done 50 Cone Challenge on the beautiful Morro Bay Harbor Walk

Saturday, July 12
Hybrid and Tight Qualifying - Location TBA

Sunday, July 13
Hybrid and Tight Racing (Double Elimination)- Morro Bay Blvd (tentative)
Awards Ceremony

Jack, will the location and courses of the hybrid and tight races be different than the qualifying??? Your post makes it sound so...