Warning: Watch for switch pieces

[Boody]

With the mix of switch ropes and regular ropes out there, make sure you are very careful when running tournaments. I know in Arizona, one round got scrapped because they found the switch pieces on. On our tournament earlier this year at our lake, the dock starter removed the switch piece on one rope, and it was not discovered for several skiers later. Ok, so no more switch ropes, right? Got it.

No switch ropes at all at this last weekends tournament. BUT, this last weekend, a skier accidentally brought in a switch piece that stayed connected to his handle when he removed it from HIS rope. That piece then stayed on for a few skiers before it was discovered. So, we didn't know when the #^$#^! it was brought in, so we were on the verge of scrapping the entire round. We were finally able to figure it out and re-ride a few skiers.

Dock starters, beware, pay attention to this stuff.  Tournament directors, learn from these mistakes. It will still be a few years before the switch ropes are cycled out.

[Horton]

Funny stuff. I have sure had some odd practice rides when the rope was longer or shorter then I thought.

[A_B]

We had the same thing happen 2 years ago.  One rope had a switch section in it and we were using the switch, the other rope was fine.

Some skiers got it and were killing their PB's, so we stopped and checked.  The only problem was I used a good rope and ran 3.5@38 (which was where I had been running in practice) and the entire round was scrapped.  I was on a bum ankle and the second round the ankle was swollen and basically shot and I don't think I got through 32 off.  Really bummed.  Didn't even go out for  the third round.

 One guy was really pissed and being very disrespectful to the organizer, but I thought it was somewhat comical, but figured everyone got the same deal, only I was a little more screwed due to my ankle.

 

 

 

[Old MS Accout]

Big Dawg Mi stop when Favret ran 41 or so everyone thought.  

[Roger]

And.... the rumor is that Zero Off is looking to add a switch for slalom /vanillaforum/js/tinymce/jscripts/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/images/smiley-wink.gif

[ToddL]

Maybe AWSA/USAWS needs to establish a formal color scheme for the mainline just like all of the take-off sections:

• black mainline = switch length
• white mainline = non-switch length

With consistency, this would allow for quick visual recognition of mistakes.   It would take a few years to weed out the older ropes, but it would improve this issue.

[clemsondave]

lol, this is too funny. We skied yesterday and I got 2.5 at 39. Was wide and early and felt like I could easily run it. Another guy ran back to back 38s. We then, much to our disappointment, found the extra switch section.