Age groups and very young paddlers
As Mum to 2 quite little paddlers who have enjoyed some slaloms in the past 12 months, I find the way clubs handle very young paddlers inconsistent to say the least! Some clubs really welcome younger paddlers (Peterborough deserve a special mention here!!!) allowing them plenty of time to complete their runs, holding back other paddlers etc to avoid tinies being whistled off etc, and ignoring the fact that someone got pushed over the finish line whilst battling against the flow to get back to a gate ( We really appreciated that, since it was never going to affect the results and the sense of achievement of getting back to a gate that you've missed justifies minor rule bending in my book!) Some of these clubs will accept a category of J6 or J8 on the entry cards and will publish results as such - again a huge motivator for tinies who frantically look to see how they've done against other paddlers their age, or to see how many older paddlers they have beaten. Other clubs are much less accomodating, churning paddlers across the start line, even when asked for extra time. My son, who is a J6 has frequently been listed as a J16, presumably because someone in Control thinks it's a mistake on the entry card. These tinies are the slalom paddlers of the future, so surely they deserve all the encouragement that they can get, if they are to enjoy the sport and stay with it to a very high standard. I have been doing slaloms for 14 years and gone are the days of oversubscribed entries with no slack in the running order, surely extra time can be given to these juniors. Will it be possible to increase the age ranges as part of the review of slalom to make J6, J8 and J10 proper categories? I think the prize giving system works well, and trophies are obviously balanced against entry numbers which is fair. Once paddlers reach a standard that means they are likely to do well enough for promotion then ofcourse all th slalom rules should be applied in the normal way, but lets invest a little in the future of our sport!