Seth
Great reply!!!!! you seemed to ahve it pegged. Now What? Are you
being named to the white house staff!!!! Do you remeber was there any
amenities at the 1984 trials?
Is slalom fading as well. Sprint Racing is AS WELL no boats in final
at olympics. What to do!!!! Tie WW racing in with ASurf skis some
how!!
Cheers Dan--- In wildwater@yahoogroups.com, "Seth Eisner"
<seth_eisner@...> wrote:
>
>
> The response I promised yesterday...
>
> Though it was almost 25 years ago, I rather vividly recall my
second US
> Team Trials. It was 1984, Peshtigo River, about 100 miles to the
north
> of Green Bay. That's right, 100 miles north of Green Bay, in April.
> Of course, it was cold. The put-in was not on solid ground, it
involved
> walking across a 10-15 foot-long sheet of ice. And even with the
frigid
> weather, there were more than 105 entrants to the 1984 US Team
Trials.
>
> 1984 was a Pre-Worlds year at Garmisch. And man, we sent the whole
> kitchen sink to Germany. 6 "A" Team K-1s, 6 "B" Team
> K-1s, and a few other K-1s also went just hoping that perhaps they'd
> get a chance to race. Though we didn't fill out "B" Teams
> in the other races classes, the US was flush with C-1s, C-2s, and
Dubs.
> Though I don't have the exact count, I'm sure there were almost
> 30 paddling Americans banging their way down the Loisach.
>
> For purposes of comparison, let me play back some stats from this
> year's (2008) US Team Trials on the Cheat River. It was an early
> April race, and we had 22 entrants. 12 K-1s, 6 Dubs, 4 C-1s, and
no C-2
> entrants. 5 of the entrants were of Masters designation, and 4 were
> Juniors – the Jrs and Srs made up about 40% of the race. By the
> time we got Europe, we had 7 K-1s, 4 C-1s, and 1 Dub. This
includes 5
> Masters and 2 Juniors.
>
> So the totals:
>
> 1984 Team Trials Entrants: ~105
>
> 1984 US Team Members to Europe: ~28
>
> 2008 Team Trials Entrants: 22
>
> 2008 US Team Members to Europe: 12
>
>
>
>
>
> So, just looking at the figures, yep, on the domestic wildwater
front,
> there was more going on 25 years ago. Anecdotally speaking, I
think we
> hit a high-water mark in 1989, the same year the Worlds came to the
> Savage River.
>
> And this had led Dan Murn to legitimately ask "Why is WW racing
> fading?" Though I have no conclusive reasoning behind this decline,
> I can serve up a few possibilities.
>
> 1) Expansion of open water paddlesport racing. Here I am talking
about
> the seemingly endless array of races for sea kayaks, surfskis, and
other
> long boats. 25 years ago, this was just peeking in from around the
> corner. And now, this slightly-unstructured class of competition is
> flourishing. On any given Sunday here in Seattle, the Sounds Rowers
> Club will have a race with over 200 boats in it. And it's like
> almost every weekend. I know that all of you have an analog where
you
> live. If paddling competition is in your heart, his alternative to
> river wildwater paddling is pretty compelling.
>
> 2) Equipment. Boats, that is. This is a huge problem. 25 years
ago,
> an American-built composite wildwater was not too tough to get.
Jaycox
> in CO, Bushnell up in NY State, Andy Bridge in Maryland, and since
ww
> boat molds were around, the occasional home-built popped up from
> time-to-time. Fast forward to 2008 – I am not aware of any
> US-based wildwater boat builders. Getting a new boat today
requires a
> bi-lingual transaction with one of the builders in Europe. And
then you
> need to solve the expensive problem of getting it delivered.
>
> There are no "bad guys" in this observation. Wildwater boat
> building is a micro-niche here in the US, and all of the would-be
> customers have no money. Bad business model, here the business
reality.
>
> Plastic boats, like WaveHoppers and the Speeder have a ton of
potential
> here in the US. But these Brit boats are not ubiquitous…there are
> some interesting boat import constraints that are challenging to
> comprehend. Yuck – more business reality.
>
> 3) Race organizers. Over the years, the number of third-party
players
> willing to host races has dropped to almost zero. How come? Well,
> putting on a race is time-consuming, and the hosts typically lose
money
> as well. This is the main reason that we've seen a shift where
> individuals, and not companies, are putting on races. We all know
the
> obvious solutions to this – higher entry fees, subsidies from USACK
> or other supporters, or guarantees of revenue lift (probably from
retail
> sales). This is a case of prudent business making smart decisions
for
> their businesses. More business stuff.
>
> 4) Organic marketing. In the past, would-be wildwater paddlers are
> exposed to the sport at events and through their paddling buddies.
This
> exposure was the de facto marketing (ie recruiting) for sport
growth.
> Well, take a peek at #2 and #3 above. As that dries up, the Implied
> Marketing effect stops happening. So, the recruiting problem that
used
> to solve itself no longer does.
>
>
>
> I know this is getting long, so let me quickly comment on the key
items
> our US Wildwater Board is working to solve.
>
> a) How do we attract Race Organizers? As we know, this is a
business
> problem, and probably can be solved with a business approach.
Stated
> simply…how do we make a Wildwater race financially profitable to a
> host? In fact, irresistibly profitable to a potential host?
>
> b) Marketing/Recruiting. Since the organic marketing has
evaporated,
> how do we explicitly recruit into the sport? And of course, how do
we
> do that in a way that's not super expensive? We experimented with a
> few adjunct events to the 2008 Nationals this year, and we will not
> really know the results until the spring. But in the future,
expect to
> see more out-of-the-ordinary things at your local river. They're
> all back-handed attempts to get more butts into wildwater boats.
>
> c) Equipment. Though the old school guys look at WaveHoppers and
> Speeders somewhat disdainfully, there is enormous potential for
sport
> growth with these plastic beauties. We just need to solve the
> procurement problems, and that's a solvable problem.
>
> d) Money (fund raising). Though it's a short-term fix, we can throw
> some more cash at some of these problems, and get some short-term
lift
> in all categories. But for non-Olympic wildwater, corporate
sponsorship
> is too tough a sell at this stage. So, we're trying to find better
> ways to tap individuals, like friends and alum, to cough up some
green.
> But, as I said, this is very short-term solution. Ultimately the
sport
> has to be able to support itself financially. And I'll spare
> y'all the details of what that would like for my next fillibuster.
>
>
>
> So Dan, ya got any other questions? <grin>
>
>
>
>
>
> Seth Eisner
>
> Chairman, US Wildwater Committee
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> --- In wildwater@yahoogroups.com, "Seth Eisner" <seth@> wrote:
> >
> > Friends, this is something I have been noodling on for 10 years.
And
> > at this point, I have some pretty reasons, and some pretty
specific
> > possible remedies.
> >
> > Please give me a day or two to tune my thoughts, I'll let post a
> > hopefully-well-thought-out response here.
> >
> > Until then, I appreciate your patience.
> >
> >
> > Seth Eisner
> > Chairman, US Wildwater Committee
> >
> >
> >
> > --- In wildwater@yahoogroups.com, "lakesurfer52" dmurn@ wrote:
> > >
> > > Hi
> > > Why is WW racing fading? Is there a reason(s) we can not draw
new
> > > paddlers to enjoy this sport?
> > > I have been promoting the sport for 25 years. hosting many
regional
> > > races and the Nationals.
> > > I have my opinions! Would like to hear from our group why the
sport
> > > does not move forward.
> > > Dan
> > >
> >
>