chalk line?

[Erin Riffel]

I have been thinking of a way to create a nonpermanent long straight line on which to place cones. A chalk line came to mind. They come in about 100 foot lengths. Anyone tried this? Any reason not to go this route? Would it be a problem for slalom wheels if they ran over this line?

[Erin Riffel]

hummm, ok, so I can tell this is definitely not a hot topic here...lol

anyways I am going to try the chalk line thing. Sometimes I just need a quick way to get a straight line laid down so I place my cyber course or set up a TS. I think this is going to save that endless walking up and down the line trying to get all the cones sorted that are slightly off.

[Jack Smith]

Erin,

We use chalk lines all the time...work great!

[Erin Riffel]

Oh nice, thanks for posting.

[Pat Chewning]

Something I've thought about but never followed through with:

How about a chalk holder attached to your skateboard? It could be used in several ways:

a) lay down a curve against which to set cones
b) lay down a (relatively) straight line that's longer than a chalkline
c) as a training aid to see where your path actually goes

I envision a lightly spring-loaded chalk holder that mounts to the deck with the truck bolts. The chalk then follows the path of the rear truck through the course.

-- Pat

[Wesley Tucker]

Pat,

Good luck with that invention

Here's the problem: as you "write" with chalk, the stick gets shorter. So as you went down the hill with the chalk attached, after the first few feet, the stick would have shortened to the point it no longer touched the ground. So now how do you advance the chalk while still carving your course down the street?

Of course, this doesn't even consider the problem that a skateboard "sways" up and down as you turn. How do you adjust so that the chalk maintains contact with street? Even if you center mount the chalk on the back of the board, it would then pendulum back and forth and make really strange marks on your road . . . until it shortened to the point it was no longer touching the asphalt.

It might be a good idea. Let us know if you get the kinks worked out

[Pat Chewning]

I envision a lightly spring-loaded chalk holder

Wesley: Key point is "spring-loaded". The spring would force the chalk against the road regardless of decreasing chalk length or variability in deck-to-road distance.

-- Pat

[jeff bonny]

I use a variety of laser levels and measuring devices in the rigging work I do and have found a cheap Strait-Line laser works really well for course layout. Setting up a straight line course is a matter of placing the laser at the end of a course and placing the cones at the desired intervals in it's path. For offsets the beam is your reference point and it makes setting accurately matched duals much easier. It's not self levelling (and you want to avoid this type for our purposes) so it can be tilted to compensate for slope and if you mark the position of the device and set an end point reference the height and angle can be adjusted while maintaining the line. Chalklines are messy, hard for one person to handle accurately and limited to the length of the string. I paid $30 for this laser a couple of years ago and I'm seeing similar ones for $10-$20 now. Well worth the investment.

jeffb
vanvouver.bc.ca