Slalom course tolerances

[jetpilotg4]

Question I bought and installed a slalom course from @Ed_Obermeier , almost exactly a year ago ... I set the arms to the outside tolerances What have you other guys set up yours at ? Any benefits to outside tolerances vs inside or middle tolerances ?? Other than the obvious ? And Ed you never did come down and ski with me on it !! It's always warm in October here

[LeonL]

Why not set the buoy width to the exact measurements?

[jetpilotg4]

My logic is that harder course at home = easier course at tournaments .. Although now that I've thought about it for a while I think I set it up to 37 8 3/4 .... Does that sound right ?

[Waternut]

This should help. The tolerances really aren't that tight but you might not wanna get your course too far out of whack or it could mess with your timing and/or confidence.

 

https://www.usawaterski.org/pages/divisions/3event/Comp.Sldim.html

[Ed_Obermeier]

Exactly on the money @jetpilotg4. 11.5m = 37.7315 ft = 37' 8.778"

 

It's definitely not that I haven't wanted to come down (trust me!), just haven't been able to ski anywhere with anyone since 2nd weekend of June. Tore my damn left rotor cuff (again). Haven't been able to take the time off to go get it fixed yet, arm is functional enough to keep working but not enough to ski on. MRI in the next week or two, hoping to get it fixed sometime in October. Was hoping to get my left knee replaced this fall but now I gotta get the shoulder working first. This trying to remain athletic at age 60+ stuff ain't for the faint hearted...

[klindy]

Use the rule book for dimensions. It explains what all the letter "codes" are on the dimension chart.

 

@Waternut I'd suggest the tolerances don't seem that tight. And if you only look at length and width dimensions you'd be correct. But add the diagonal dimensions (C and D) in the chart and things get real "tight" real fast. I've surveyed dozens of slalom courses and getting the diagonals to all work out correctly are easily the hardest part.

 

To me, that's the one potential disadvantage of a portable course. They can be perfect in length and width but since the arms tend to bow the diagonals are always a challenge. Before anyone things I'm bashing any portable course, I ski'd on one for more than 20 years on a public lake and can't complain.

[Ed_Obermeier]

Agreed @klindy, that is an issue with ANY floating type, single centerline type slalom course. It's just inherent in the design and materials usually used for the buoy arms, which is why such a course can't be considered for use in an R tournament. UNLESS proper modifications are made, which then a floating course (cable mainline, not a portable poly rope mainline) CAN be used for an IWSF sanctioned R tournament. We've had our cable mainlines used in at least a half dozen IWSF sanctioned R tournaments that I'm aware of, with the necessary mods made of course.

 

IMO unless you're a regular 38 off and up skier it's unlikely that 1) you're using a portable course anyway, and 2) it's unlikely you'd really be able to tell the difference (assuming low wind conditions of course). We have several current and former pro tour skiers using our stock HD permanent courses for at least some of their practice and we've gotten very positive comments from them on the feel and accuracy of what we build (listed on our web site if anyone is interested).