Just have to say it - no run off at Moomba Sucks

[skiray]

Hate to see it come down to gates and rankings...

[Wish]

agree..does seem like it should have been done that way. its such a challenging site that any of those three could have ended up in second.

[MattP]

Also time constraints to think about. There are scheduled times when they open the river to boat traffic. Mens slalom is not the only event..

[Horton]

As long as the rules were known in advance it is fair.

[MattP]

@scotchipman such is the sport. It's the Yarra anything can happen. They should have gone through the gates..

[Horton]

@ob agree

[auskier]

the overwhelming majority of gates that get pulled at moomba happen at the city end. by the time the boat straightens up you have maybe 2 seconds before you need to start pulling out. the current was definitely flowing during mens slalom, the tide was high and rollers do go straight up course when this is the case, as they bounce off the bank where the boat goes close to it. the buoys move, the boat moves and it flows.

Name me a pro who trains with these sorts of conditions? If you want to come to moomba, be prepared to wait half an hour between river closures, sitting in your ski gear in a crowded park, be prepared for the fact you may blow your opener 1st round from a phantom roller, have your gates pulled because the current got you, or have a swan/duck/bottle/trash in your way at one ball.

Moomba is a pro event run to IWWF rules with a few exceptions due to the nature of running a tournament on public water, in the middle of a few hundred thousand people where time is critical. This isnt a gated ski lake community, its downtown CBD. Much of the 'moomba rules' were originally put in place because of TV, however the time issues around them still apply. Moomba was once 4 days of live coverage on free to air tv. There has been years where the telecast was cut during the final jumper on monday afternoon. 'Sorry, cant wait 3 minutes, its news time..'

rules are rules, gates are gates, and moomba is moomba.

[Edbrazil]

Back quite a few years ago, the IWSF (then called) had scoring by sum of rounds: prelim + final. I think this is still done in Jr. Moomba. That could be a big advantage to a skier with a great prelim. score, especially in jumping, when there were only 2 jumps in the prelims. I think that system held through the 1989 Worlds in West Palm Beach. Soon afterward, perhaps 1990 or 1991, they went to scoring the final round by itself for placement. Ties, even for first, were then settled by looking back to the preliminary round, as possible. That did happen at a Moomba, and it was quickly apparent that TV and audience on-site needed to have a tiebreaking runoff for first.

 

However, no runoffs for lower places, like done in the US Nationals. As noted, that could be a problem with time. And, it can take plenty of time: a runoff among the Top5 in Open Men at the 1977 Nationals took "forever", and they finally gave up trying to settle it for a couple of lower places, who were getting into 43 off (9.75m) as the line had to be shortened and shortened by the Rules at the time. The line didn't even have loops beyond 38 off, so they had to be added and added and added.

[GK]

I agree that no run-off was disappointing. I understand the time constraints, but until we're giving the audience something enjoyable to watch, slalom will continue to be somewhat boring. A run-off would have been enjoyable to watch, especially knowing Mapple would have been in the mix.