Revisiting “How Slalom Gates are Judged”

[ski4xtc]

When @Rico did the first poll a couple of months ago, I quickly voted that the rule should stay the same and the gates should be judged. I thought it worked and why change? Here is the link to the original poll: http://ballofspray.com/forum#/discussion/7775/lets-not-judge-the-slalom-entrance-gates/p1

 

During a recent trip to ski with friends in the CA desert the topic came up for discussion. After thinking about it further, discussing it with other skiers, dropping and skiing a simulation buoy, and seeing the effect of the recent high profile misses, I have totally changed my mind. Now I think having an additional right hand reference buoy at 14 meters is a great solution to the current issue.

 

I asked myself - how would the change help or hurt me? I could not think of one reason why it would hurt me.

 

The benefits I see:

 

Skier Friendly:

- Skiers have the reduced risk of missed gates. How many skiers travel to a big tournament such as Regionals or Nationals and have their ride end due to a small miscalculation on their opener?

- Juniors and new course skiers could transition to tournament skiing more gradually.

- Scores might improve, but that is not a thing. Better scores lead to more enthusiasm and interest in skiing tournaments…. something the sport could really use.

 

Spectator Friendly:

- New spectators view the sport as rounding buoys and big spray. The gates mean nothing to the crowd. If there is a video review delay for gates, the crowd’s interest diminishes quickly.

 

Official Friendly:

- Wider gate tolerance equals reduced burden and stress on gate officials to make a correct call. Sometimes you simply cannot tell if they made or missed the gates.

 

Technical Controller and LOC Friendly:

- Necessity of gate video equipment (cameras, monitors and recorders) would be eliminated. It would suddenly become a little easier to put on an RC tournament…especially for sites that gate camera setup is difficult or near impossible.

 

The only negative I can see with making a change is that it may not be internationally accepted.

 

Perhaps you have changed your mind too? What is your vote now?

 

[RazorRoss3]

Something may need to be put in place to make it easier to determine if a gate was made or not but I think the rules about what counts as a made or missed gate and the geometry of the course should stay the same. We all have nightmares about being "that guy who got his gate pulled" but going through the gates is (in my opinion) an important part of the sport.

[Waternut]

The gates are in a good spot and make going into the course a smooth process. I vote for a rule change only because I feel like there is far too much scrutiny placed on something that is extremely difficult to judge. Nobody likes seeing someone eliminated from a competition due to a technicality. Typically even the new winner hates it because the overturned results get more attention than the winners do and robs them of their glory...whether it's actual attention or just a subconcious feeling of being less worthy of victory.

 

Honestly I would prefer more accurate judging but that makes things more expensive for smaller tournaments. Since not every tournament can afford an expensive high speed camera, I vote for a rule change. Heck make the gates wider, balls bigger, and don't even allow skiers to touch the ball anymore if that would help. Maybe even make the gates a low profile tube that's a foot long like a pool noodle. If the skier hits the tube, it would twist it indicating a failed gate.

[jwr]

I've gone back and forth on this a few times. At heart I'm a traditionalist and think that the course should remain the same. The gates add to the competition and I do not think they pose any danger. I've also never had mine pulled when they didn't need to be. I'm also not in favor of making changes to the course lay out. Why reinvent the wheel.

 

That being said tournament/judging is getting very cumbersome, and I wouldn't have a lot of heart ache if they decided to change the rule. Change the start of the course to the 55's and how you get around the 6 buoys after that is up to you. Even with that rule change, I personally would still go between the gate balls, because it works for my timing. It would greatly help the beginners, kids, and older skiers which we should try to do. Who wants to spend $50 to go around one buoy and go home? The only real issue I see with this is during head to head competition. Say you are trying to run the pass and set up for a traditional start and fall around 1 ball scoring 1/2 @38 off, the next guy just has to pull out to the right enough to get around 1 ball for the win. Not that big a deal, but less climactic then the traditional way.

 

I would still like to have the traditional end gates used as a stopping point. If some knucklehead wants to try and come around 6 with the entire rope in the water and hold onto it, that stupidity is on him.

 

Personal responsibility

 

They changed the starting gates for tricks. I'm sure the same can be done for slalom.

[jipster43]

It seems like the top performers are crossing the gates before the bouys have actually sprung up from the passing of the boat. At the very least the gates are moving enough that a fudge rule needs to be applied. The current judging methods are simply not accurate enough to remain valid. In my humble opinion.

[Bulldog]

This only makes sense.

[Chuck_Dickey]

We tried it at our lake this weekend and it works well, it was not in the way or a distraction and was easy to adjust too. I like the ides that there is less need to have to correct your ski path to make the gates only to get dumped and one ball.

 

I still made the gates, they are my focus point, but knowing I had the extra room if needed made a big difference mentally.

 

If the proposed change helps people be more enthusiastic about their skiing, maybe it will help draw more people into our sport, I'm all for that.

[Shortenit]

If the technology was in place to judge the gates accurately there would be no need to change the rules. But currently it is not, hence my vote to change.

Rules aside, I wonder how many people think that a couple inches difference at the gate would actually translate to a full buoy more at 41 or 43 off? At 35 off I don't believe a couple inches of gate would determine whether I would make 1 more buoy or not. Way too many other factors are more important in my skiing. That said, I have no clue if it would really make a difference at the pro level with the rope that short.

[Waternut]

Heck at my level of 15off, I've found that if I get good angle through the gates and come close to the right ball, I'm usually so early at 1 ball that it messes up my rhythm more than being late. Maybe things change so much at shorter line lengths that the extra 3-4 inches of being outside the ball translates to running the pass but I just don't see it.

 

Just some geeky math for you guys... At 36mph, being an extra 4 inches further up course translates into 0.0063 seconds of extra time at 1 ball. For reference, it takes 50 times longer to blink an eye. What an advantage.... Now I really don't get why the gates are so heavily scrutinized.

[smanski]

I shore judged for a couple of rounds this past weekend and couldn't help thinking how stupid it was that I was positioned at one end of the course to focus on the gates, but really couldn't see 4, 5 or 6. Forget the entrance gates and put me in the middle of the course so I can judge 6 buoys instead of the entrance gate plus 1, 2 and 3.