Racing in two divisions

[Lynn Kramer]

There are some racers who have an age division or gender division that want to pay twice, and race twice. The NSSA, the National Scholastic Surfing Association allows this. The ISSA used to allow this.
Each entrant would basically enter twice. Their results would not be mingled (two qualification times). Only age and gender could "skate up". 14 year old skating 17 Juniors. 17 year old racing Pro. Women racing Pro. Masters racing Pro.
The goal is to promote the advancement of racers.
For instance: Joe McLaren raced amateur at age 13. He was then not allowed to race Juniors. So he could not be Junior World Champion. For instance: Oshean and Orion Lehrmann race Junior but there are no Juniors against them. They should be allowed to pay another entry fee to get to race up into amateurs. For Instance: Lynn Kramer races Pro with men, so Judi Oyama wins the Women's World Title. What does Judi think of the title now?
The sport can grow, and the organizers can realize more entry fees if there is a certain amount of "skating up." The only "skating down" that would be possible would be into the Masters class.
I would like to petition for this rule. I know I have the backup of Mike McLaren and Patrick Lehrmann.
Others?

[Jani Soderhall]

We can discuss it but I've personally given it some thought before.

The argument that kills it for me is that someone who gets more runs on the course gets an advantage over other racers. Take a pretty good, but not top AM racer as an example. First he races Pro, gets two trial runs, then two qual runs. Doesn't make the cut. The two hours later races AM, two trial runs again. He's now had 6 attempts on the the course and obviously has a large advantage over the other Am racers who just had two.

/Jani

[Lynn Kramer]

That is a valid point. On the contrary, if a racers has to race hard for 4 runs, they have 4 less runs left until they are tired.
The instance for the situation is going to be for a person who is exemplary in their "assigned" group or where their group is too small to bring real competition.
Quite frankly, in the US, the pro division is so small that adding a few good women, juniors, and masters would make it more competitive.

[Jani Soderhall]

Good points Lynn. Anyone else has aspects to add to the discussion?

/Jani