Unofficial UK Slalom BBS

I have been blatting on about this for a few years now, for the SE region at least. It's been clear enough to see the problem coming down the tracks. I think I called it a "Slow motion train crash". My comments are restricted to these regions, I don't feel qualified to comment on others. Take a look...

Dead right Dee, this is definitely NOT a pop at the committee, it's a plea to recognise that we are in a rather dodgy situation so need a fresh look at our strategy at entry level, just in this group of regions at least. And yes, we have to acknowledge that it's up to us to build our own future. The...

John The "Greater South"s share of Div 4 newbies, at 26%, isn't a mile away from what you might expect given the population. After that things accelerate away from us, looks like our share of D4-3 promotions is around 15%, D3-2 is 10%, D2-1 is 5%, D1-Prem is.... nil. I fear things have drifted furth...

John, if you suffer ACM withdrawal symptoms perhaps we could have some interim ECMs (ExtraordinaryCMs) for you.

Spot on

In slalom it's more of a disadvantage to be too heavy for your boat rather than too light. I am too heavy for my 4m boat and resemble a submarine conning tower progressing slowly along, the hull largely submerged. Turns as sharply as the Queen Mary. Stay away from 4m boats, courses are rinky dinky t...

Vkcmikey says by banning 2/3/4 races it doesn't then improve div1 races. It will reduce the number of people entering the sport . I couldn't agree more. It is harder now to get newcomers into the sport, we have to compete against other sports who have moved to make entry level competion easier and m...

All my retro kit was handed to me by an ex-paddler. Yes ther was a cag thing but no way would it keep any water out

Slalom is a competitive sport. That is to say it's competing for the attention of kids and their parents. Competing against swimming, football, tennis, gymnastics, rugby. All have these have, in recent years, adapted their sport to attract youngsters, with growing success. So we too must adapt or di...

Please also see the topic under Home Nations/ England on "Entry Level Slalom, a slow motion train crash".

Terry: At the SE Region ACM yesterday there was a prolonged discussion on this with Adur, Hastings, Tandridge and Shepperton all pitching in. Our thoughts are pretty much in line with yours, with further proposals to make the rigging of D4 events much simpler and the event more in tune with the J12s...

Ah, but you weren't paddling a floppy 36 year old vessel with no footrests and a paddle hewn from a treetrunk. And you obviously once had talent! Should be easy to sort this....just rank the D2 vets ahead of D3. I guess same thing applies to Prem/ D1. I just switched to vets so I could occasionally ...

In that case I have 1460 points, should have been credited with 294 at Yalding on the 27th, paddling my old JC Streaker, combined age of boat n paddler is 100!

Slalom has slowly ebbed away in our regions (London/S/SE/SW) in spite of the almost heroic efforts of a small band of committed volunteers. There is lots of discussion on the Canoe Slalom website about refining the sport’s structure, but it seems that while this is all valid for higher div paddlers ...

Is it best 4 results?