ISSA - International Slalom Skateboarding Association

East Americans have 4 high status competitions to select for each season.
2 Main
2 Prime

This topic is aimed for East Americans to discuss statuses for the competitions in their region.

Note! All competitions count into the world ranking though. All competitions apart from the selected above will get the status "Basic". There is no limit for this status but it should still be considered only for serious competitions. With the "Basic" status the competition can’t have a separate Pro class. Its highest class will be the Open class.

Is The Gathering of Prime status?

Can we have some votes among skaters in the area?

/Jani

Luna was prime.

Gathering is not a race (?)

Permitted and insured should surely be a requirement for prime.

The racers at the Gathering were prime. I could have sworn,the racers at Friday nights Outlaw race were busting a gut attempting to make the course there was about 35 of them, only 16 were able to make the course. Mike Ohm raced hard that night On Saturday Civ from Canada came very close to beating Vlad the Russian Rocket. On Sunday Claude won the Longboard slalom contest. A lot of top pros were present and racing hard. Maybe the Gathering is not considered prime, but I will return next year very cool vibes and cool people, willing to share their slalom knowledge. Eddy Texas Outlaws

Sorry I've not been aware of this topic.

Luna could go either way to me. I'm not totally up to speed on what makes a Main main and a Prime prime. Is it totally up to the racers and there are no set milestones to determine status?

How about I make a suggestion and then we can all tear it apart. Better, I think, to start a dialog now, than to end up in some unhappy fued later.

Main:
Da Farm
Luna

I've chosen these two based upon talent pool.

Prime:
Red Clay
WV

Basic:
Gathering (All three days). I know that traditionally the G isn't a race, but it was this year. Friday night was a killer course with fast racing. Saturday was really just racing. Somone will have to speak up for Sunday. I beleive that caliber of racing deserves notation at least.

The only sticky wickett here is if Gilmour pulls together a world class race in Boston. If he can do that, the ease of travel from Europe to Boston, and the possibility of points may incent foreign participation.

Under the guidelines that Corky has outlined, the term "MAIN" is a higher status than "PRIME".

Does this change your proposal, Joe?

-- Pat

That sounds pretty good Joe, I can live with that. Rumor has it that Jeff GOGO Goad is going to throw a race in St Louis at Tower Grove Park possibly a 2 day event. I believe it will be right after the Red Clay race. Jeff also puts on a very good race. Good warm up for the Worlds. Eddy Texas Outlaws.

Thank you Pat, I have edited my post.

Eddy,

St. Louis is west of the Mississippi and in my mind that make it a US West event.

I hope you are feeling better.

Joe

I can go for that Joe. Luna did have guite a talent pool this year (and last for that matter). To bad I didn't get to race Luna this year.

I hadn't thought about exactly WHERE the USA would be divided EAST/WEST. Until there is a race anounced near the border, I guess it doesn't matter.

In the mean time:


Some arguments for St Louis being in the East USA:

1) It is east of the geographic center of the continental USA (located near Lebanon Kansas at W98 degreees 35.77 minutes) . http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lo ... center.htm

2) It is in one of the two eastern timezones of the continental USA (Eastern, Central time zones). West time zones are Mountain and Pacific.
http://www.town-usa.com/states.html

3) There are more races in the west, so the "skateboard center" of the USA is more to the west, making St Louis in the Eastern half.


Some arguments for St Louis being in the Western USA region:

1) It is the "gateway to the west".
2) Traditionally, the Mississippi river has been used as a convenient east/west dividing line.


Personally, I like using the time zones as a dividing line (Central vs Mountain time zones).

-- Pat

I was born and raised in Illinois, which is often referred to as the "Midwest."

It might be simpler to create a third regional division of the U.S. called "Central"!

dan yes, that is best ............. st louis is not west or east

Guys...that's a good point. With some priming from Gilmour i wrote a letter to this websites moderator (who IS that these days anyway) with a request to do a forum for the Midwest. It just seemed that it may be what we'd need to organize this "in between area". Look at it this way, we have the skaters in the St Lou area (jeff, did you get my Email?), Singlefin and the guys in southern Wisconsin, us up in Detroit, the folks in Chi-town, the guys in Southern Ohio,...and who knows who else?....hell, we're even close for Dave Gale and he needs folks to ride with! ....right now we have nowhere to post up on. I think having a Midwest forum would help us organize into a region that can handle it's own competition circuirt, but i'm pretty new to this whole scene and dont know where to go next with it.

As far as doing a series in the East, especially with the DC crew being so well established, it sounds like a great idea.....one that's worth saving money for over the winter to pay for travel to events south and east.
To combine events in the Northern mountain states, the East coast and the Midwest would be the bomb. It sounds like you guys have all the pieces already, you just need to put them together, aye?

When I was dividing USA in east and west I guess I was thinking of using the timezones as Pat mentioned above. Eastern timezones of the continental USA (Eastern, Central time zones). West time zones are Mountain and Pacific. But I didn't mention this and thought it was better that you Americans decided where to draw the line yourselves.

If you want to go ahead and promote the creation of a third region in USA, "USA Central", it's ok with me but there are some things you should be aware of. An extra region can make sure that the region gets its share of competition with certain statuses but it also may limit how you want to distribute statuses of competitions in USA. Also, by making an extra region inside USA will not alter the 5 Main and 5 Prime statuses that are given to USA. Currently divided as 3 Main and 3 Prime to USA West and 2 Main and 2 Prime to USA East. In the case you go ahead with this idea you will have to share them on 3 regions instead of 2.

Did we get Luna classified? Did we all agree on Joe's proposal?

I just noted that the Luna competition included in the American Cup only had one discipline. This is not very good concerning World Ranking points. Since you can count points from your 2 best disciplines per contest you actually loose important points for the region that way. Especially if you decide to give Luna "Main" status. The higher status the more points you loose.

Just wanted to make you guys aware of this situation. You only have 2 Main and 2 Prime statuses for eastern USA. Would be a shame not to make full use of them.

There was a Friday night race at Luna. I don't know if it's fair to include it unannounced this year, but it shure would help the cause next year.

Joe

USA East event statuses 2004

Unless I don't get hold of any more information these are the only Eastern USA events that will get included in the world ranking for 2004. My intention is to have an updated ranking before the World Championships in Morro Bay.

[Main] Luna Slalom Jam 2004 [TS] April 17 Jackson, Mississippi Contact: Ricky Byrd
[Main] The Farm 4.Open [TS, Special] Aug 7 Bethel, CT Contact: Tway
[Prime] Red Clay Georgia State Champs [GS, Straight] Sept 10 Athens, GA: Rick Stanziale [Results not complete?]
[Prime] 3rd Annual Mountain State Slalom Skate [Slalom, TS] Oct 17 Fayetteville, WV Contact: Dave Gale
[Basic] DC Winter Outlaw Series [GS, Special] Jan 17 Fountainhead Park, VA Contact: Brian Parsons
[Basic] The 4th Gathering [Slalom] May 1 Gaithersburg, Maryland Contact: Brian Parsons? [Results not complete?]
[Basic] St. Louis Memorial weekend race [Special] May 29 St Louis, MO Contact: Jeff Goad
[Basic] July 4th Slalom Event [TS, GS] July 4 Boston, MA Contact: Karl Floitgraf
[Basic] Gaithersburg Open Slalom Series [GS, Special] July 10 Pennsylvania Contact: Kevin M Gamble
[Basic] Chi Town Shoot-out [Special] July 24-25 Chicago, IL Contact: Chris Favero [Results not complete?]
[Basic] Gaithersburg Open Slalom Series [GS, Special] July 24 Pennsylvania Contact: Kevin M Gamble
[Basic] Cascade Slalom Association [Special] Sept 12 Ridgefield, WA Contact: Pat Chewning
[Cancelled?] DC Winter Outlaw Series March 20 Location? Contact: Brian Parsons
[Cancelled?] DC Winter Outlaw Series February 7 Location? Contact: Brian Parsons
[Cancelled?] DC Winter Outlaw Series February 28 Location? Contact: Brian Parsons

3rd Annual Mountain State Slalom Skate. The last competition with one of the higher world ranking statuses for 2004 is about to start. After this competition there will not be much change in the rankings. Even this will probably not change much of the top placements. But for those having just a couple of points up to someone it could very well play in.

New topic started for the season 2005.