Setting up a good course

[Robbie Lyons]

I am still new to the whole slalom thing, but it is a blast. I bought a 50 pack of Solo cups to use and I usually stack two of them together to weigh them down a bit more. I have a perfect grade for slalom (at least for beginners) right by my house that can hold a course of about 30-35 cones. First run I spaced them 7 feet apart, but cleared the course first try. Next I put the cones at 6 feet apart which was a bit more challenging for me, but I got it after a few tries. How tight should the cones be? How many cones do courses usually have? Like I said I am new to slalom, so any advice would be greatly appreciated...

Robbie

[Chris Iversen]

Tight slalom can usually run 5 ft or 5.5 ft centres. Hybrid you can use your imagination... starting with 6 footers, closing to 5, opening to 7's with offsets, tightening back up for the finish... Have fun with it!

[Jonathan Harms]

How tight should the cones be? How many cones do courses usually have?

How tight depends on how steep the slope is and what type of course you want to set. If you made the 7-footers first try, and soon made 6-footers easily, either

a) you've got a nicely set up board with loose trucks and a short wheelbase
b) your hill is not overly steep (as you say, that's a good thing for beginners)

or

c) you're a prodigy!

Regardless of which of those is true: whatever you're doing, keep doing it.

I did slalom when I was a kid on what I'm guessing was a similar street--just a very mellow slope--and with similar "cones"--I used old rollerskate wheels, and even rocks, as cones. When a car came down the street, my friend and I would wave them around the side of the "cones."

Like you, I was having a good time just riding and having fun. I felt like I was into something that most people had no idea about--my own little secret. And I was pretty stoked on my ability to rip through the course.

What I didn't know, however, was that most slalom courses aren't straight. They have what are called "offset" cones, which means that they are not set in a straight line, but are "offset" from it.

When I started out, I always set my cones in a straight line. I never thought of doing anything else. And when I got back into slalom in 2002, that was the first, and only, kind of course I saw. "Oh, yeah, I remember this," I said to myself. So when I went to my first race, I did great on the straight cones, but I was really sketchy on the offsets, because I'd never ridden them.

So ANYWAY...to get back to your questions:
Most courses have anywhere from 30 to 50 cones, although they can go as high as 100. And as Chris said, the spacing usually ranges from a minimum of 5 feet to a maximum of whatever the hill will allow. (Steeper hills with higher speed require a little or a lot more distance between cones.)

So my answer to your questions is: First, above all, keep having fun. Second, if you start finding that straight courses are too easy or boring, try tightening up the spacing even more, or start adding in offset cones at the same spacing and notice how you have to adjust to them. If 6-footers are easy, try 6-footers that are offset by 6 inches or more. There's really no right or wrong, just easier and more difficult.

[Robbie Lyons]

Yeah, my friend and I were going to set up a hybrid course with cones ranging from 6-7 feet and throwing a few offsets in there. The setup I am running right now is an
Axe II with Rts/x and Manx 80a all around. I like the board because the little tail in the back helps my lock my feet in. The slope is very mellow, but it is really comfortable at my skill level.

[Jonathan Harms]

Sounds perfect. That's a very good setup.

Should you decide you want to race or to practice on some gnarlier hills, see if you can get in touch with Lynn Kramer. You can send her a PM via this forum. She lives in the San Diego area somewhere. She's very friendly, a great racer and race organizer, and is always willing to encourage other people to improve.

[Jeremy Coffman]

This sounds alot like my week. I have a good stretch of road down the street from me to set up. It's a mellow slope so it can be a bit slow. A few good pushes and some pumping around the cones and it can still be challenging. Not the best pavement. I can run up to 25 cones depending on spacing with the room I have.

I started with six foot centers but that was a bit easy on this hill. Next I tried 5 foot center. Tougher but do-able. Next I tried laying out a course at seven foot center. Then offsetting each cone about one cone space off the center line. That gave me a good workout. The pavement made it easy to slide out closer to the shoulder of the road. That just forced me to work on my form. Foot placement, angles, force, pump and speed absortion. Like I said. A good workout.

[Robbie Lyons]

I went out again tonight. Set up the course with 25 cones the first and last 7 were set at about 6 foot centers, and the middle cones were set at 7 foot centers with a few offsets thrown in. Much more difficult with the offsets, but it was alot of fun trying something new.