Chris
Piggy backing is has not shown to be super effective. It does help
though. One of the best nationals I remember was at NOC 1996 when the
open ww canoes were there as well. A good deal of cross over was
present. great fun
So how do we get people out there having fun racing. Fun creates the
enviroment that keep people coming back
How about one you inquiring peoeple look up how many WW festivals
have DR races.
Ask Harold Von Winnson about his struggles to keep it going in
Canada. Which for most of you is where I race most of the time!!! To
me going and having fun and challenging water. Hanging out with
buddies drinking a couple of beers and good food.
Remember going to races freezing my butt off no drink no food crap
prizes. No amenties at all Team trials 1985 and list goes on.....
So lets brainstorm and move forward.
Dan
> Dan,
>
> Over the past 10 years I have seen many National level wildwater
events piggy-backed onto festivals or other large profile events. I
agree that is presents an attractive strategy for increasing
participation, but my perception is that not a single one of these
events has broadened the appeal of wildwater or increased
participation outside of the event itself. In some cases wildwater
paddles have felt marginalized at these larger events by a lack of
focus on their event, which is often something that have been
focusing on for an extended period of time. Does this mean that
piggy backing is bad thing - no. However, it is clear that this
strategy that we have been using for nearly 10 years now is not
working and we need to figure out a way to get the most of of these
events so people become interested in staying on to paddle wildwater
outside of the event. In addition, some of these events are not
geographically located in areas in which it is actually
> possible to race regularly. The Deerfield Nationals were on an
awesome course in a great area, but there is no domestic racing for
many hours in any direction. The same is true for Fibark, where the
number of wildwater ranking races has declined significantly in the
past few years to the point where, outside of the high schools, there
is no wildwater paddler base. Thus, even though people may paddle at
a high profile event they cannot follow up by racing more. In most
parts of the country we suffer from a severe lack of races which can
engage people - even in the South East where wildwater is arguably
strongest in the country pretty much ALL of the races are on a single
river. What is the solution? I don't know, but what we have done in
the past (e.g. simple piggy-backing) is not working. I value these
discussions and think that as many folks as possible should weigh in,
but we do have to be realistic. There are probably less than 25
people in
> the country who are training regularly in a wildwater boat and
they are spread across 4 time zones with no easy way to coordinate or
increase participation. I'm a glass half empty kind of guy, but I
don't see that things are getting better.
>
> Now I expect to be flamed on this, so go for it.
>
> Chris
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: lakesurfer52 <dmurn@...>
> To: wildwater@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Thursday, November 6, 2008 10:31:05 AM
> Subject: [wildwater] Got your Attention!!!
>
>
> Hey All
>
> 1 expensive boats hard to get
> 2 always need repair( PIA )
> 3 playboaters not interested (Skateboarders on Water)
> 4 Changing demographics.
> 5 overall cost
> 6 no club system
> 7 local races poorly attended (canceled salmon)
>
>
> Solutions.
> 1 establish % racing wavehopper, speeder, fasttrak.vs glass boats (
> tough boats )
> 2 novice groups in races, geezer class
> 3 find festivals easy water and come in force. (wildwater derby,
> hudson,shortsville 3000 spectators and craft fair ,Webster wv. Run
a
> nationals at these events. FIBARK great choice
> 4 good food and drink
> 5 nice prizes
> 6 big regional races at these type of sites
>
> Cheers Dan
>
> Please feel free to expand and add too
>
> This all works open water races are thriving.
> My local flatwater TT avgs 28 people for 12 weeks.
>