Skater left out of contest apparently by mistake

[Flavio Badenes]

Apparently there has a mistake on the list of skaters that have been invited for the contest in Interlagos on November the 20th 2007.

It has been informed that the first 30 skaters on the brazilian ranking would be invited. For this ranking the first two contests sanctioned by ISSA should be taken into consideration so the first 30 are:

1° Kako Max 2000
2º Thiago Gardenal 1710
3º Oscar mad 1086
4º Bruno Japa 1020
5º Rogerio Sammy 1004
6º Thiago TEBET 900
7º Alexandre Maia 810
8º Willians Indio 787
9º Yuppie 729
9º Lilika 729
11º Ramon 680
12º Bruno Brow 617
13º Caio Esmeraldo 601
14º Mikima 539
15º Caco rato 531
16º Bob Sponja 518
17º Fernadinho Batman 413
18º Jorge Sam 387
18º Marcio Natividade 387
20º ToTó -Bonfa 377
21° Perereca 374
22º Birinha 315
23º Indinho 307
24º Juarez Mascarello 282
25º Folha 276
26º Douglinhas Barboza 273
27º Rodney Shock 207
28° Eloy figueiredo 166
29º Dacio 134
29º Cesar Lufti 134
31º Mario Neto 130
32º Otavio Augusto 121
33º Paulo Coruja 98
34º Per Canguru 79
35º Laercio lao 71
36º Francisco assistente 64
37º Eli Robada 58
37º Felipe Eso 58
39º Fabio Gomide 52
39º Cristian SAM 52
41º Fabricio Elias 47
41º Danilo SAM 47
43º Malek 42
44º Wagner Pinguim 38
45º Eduardo Fujihara 34
46º Felipe Vaz 30
47º Leozinho o
48º Cassius o
49º Marquinhos o
50° Pipoca o
51º Tyson o
52º Not Dead o
53º Ricado o

However the 7º place skater Alexandre Maia has not been invited for the event.
I kindly request his inclusion on the list of invited skaters.
Thank you!!!

[Bruno Brown RIP]

no mistake here...when your not invited to a party 'cause you caused imense problems on a party before ;don't complain ;try to go to somebodyelse's party 'cause you're not welcome in this people's parties anymore...pure and simple...

[Donald Campbell]

bruno,please...
one moment here.
no race organizer as far as i can recall made it impossible for a racer to show up at his contest ever.not in the last few years.please correct me if i'm wrong here.i heard about this but i couldn't believe it.
could you please clarify the reasons more explicitely why you expelled said person from the event?
it it is for personal reasons then you shouldn't get any sanctioning from the issa at all.
if not then we should at least know why so that there are no misunderstandings.

please clarify this situation.

[Flavio Badenes]

I feel terribly embarraced for what you are doing Bruno. After all I was the one to introduce you to the ISSA. I was the one to tell everybody that I had someone, I though was a good friend of mine, that was interrested in promoting slalom events in Brazil and that we could only profit from it.

What is happening now? What is getting to you? First you don´t contact me anymore because I made a remark about the quality of the course you guys built in Brazil. And now I receive an email from Alex Maia with a story that really has no place among civilized souls.

For god´s sake we are all adults and old ones by the way.

If Maia complained because it took you a month to pay him the money he had won in your contest, I am sorry to say Bruno, but he is right in complaining. A month?? to pay?? C´mon.

Money is a serious matter. Alex was right in complaining. The proper way to go about it would have been an apology to him from your side and pronto! Problems solved and forgotten. Now, instead you are creating a situation and you are keeping him from participating in your contest. Why?? Because he wanted to get paid ??
Please come in terms with reality. This behaviour is not what we need.

I don't think that what you are doing is right. This is unaceptable. Your first email to me as an answer to my question to you about this matter was also unaceptable.

Don't spoil the good work done in Brazil so far.

I am for Alex Maia in or no ISSA sanctioning for your event.
We are not kids anymore.

[Bruno Brown RIP]

THIS MATTER REGARDS SOMEBODY CREATING A PROBLEM WHEN EVERYONE SAW, FELT AND WAS UNDERSTANDING THE FACTS THAT HAPPENED "HERE" WITH THAT CONTEST; HE WILL NOT BE ALLOWED IN ANY OF OUR EVENTS ; THAT'S FINAL AND CONCERNS ONLY US AND HIM AND NOBODY ELSE. WE DON'T WANT ANYBODY STRESSING US. WE HAVE ALL THE RIGHTS TO KEEP TROUBLEMAKERS AWAY FROM WHAT WE'RE DOING. IF ISSA FEELS LIKE NOT SANCTIONING THE CONTEST FOR THIS REASON; THEN BE IT.

[Bruno Brown RIP]

OH, I FORGOT; WHY DON'T YOU ASK HIM WHY WAS HE ALSO BANNED FROM THE TEOTONIA SPEED EVENT A WEEK AGO, MAYBE HE CAN GIVE YOU A REASONABLE EXPLANATION FOR THAT TOO.

[Pat Chewning]

With some concerns, the ISSA did issue a sanction for this event. The concerns we had were:

Things I think are in favor:
Brazillian slalom is taking off and we should not discourage them.
Excellent location/surface/road. (see slalomskateboarder.com with pictures -- Brazil forum)
Prize money
Start Ramps

Things I'm concerned about or are not in favor:
Invitation only, to 30 racers -- unknown method of choosing the 30.
Only 1 event (hybrid)
Unknown organizers.
"3 runs each, 10 racer heats" -- unclear if this is head-to-head racing, single-lane, or how the winner is determined.

=======================================

You have to understand that the sanctioning process is new this year and we (ISSA) were unprepared with contest coordinators (contest marshalls) who are familiar with the Brazil slalom situation.

========================================

Within the ISSA, we have discussed the upcoming problems that can occur with "restricted entry" (invitational) events. It was the general consensus that these could be sanctioned, but the method of choosing the invited racers needed to be objective and based on geography, age, pro/am status, or ranking.

Discussion here: http://www.slalomskateboarder.com/phpBB ... php?t=4736

The contest sanction says

This is a F1 race track with smooth and perfect asphalt(pictures on the forum in the brasil area),the
course will be done by all the competitors on the day prior to the event accordingly with the adaptation of
all participants (remembering this is an invitational event-30 invitees with 10 alternates and is the final of
the 07 brazilian circuit)Theres going to be a gate/take of ramp of 1,70m height with a 50 degree angle on
the top of the stretch;you’ll be entering a left downhill turn connecting to a 300m long stretch with an uphill
escape area.we don’t know the pitch ‘cause everyone will only be allowded on the track the day before
the event.we believe this is going to be a 60+ cones.

Therefore, my understanding was that the "restricted entry" was for the top 30 racers in the "Brazillian Circuit" -- whatever that is.

So my expectation would be that the top 30 racers of the "Brazillian Circuit" would be invited -- regardless of other things.

Contest directors need to be prepared to take the "good" contestants with the "bad". Not every racer will be a joy to have at the race -- not every contest director will get along perfectly with every racer. This is part of the downside to running an event. Hopefully, the satisfaction of pleasing 29 of the 30 racers will outweigh the one racer who causes some distress.

==========================================

The ISSA does not have a policy for "banning" or otherwise prohibiting a racer from entering a race based on past behavior, and I hope we never need to.

==========================================

Here's what I would like to happen: (Not official ISSA policy -- just my opinion)

1) Allow the racers who qualified for the race to enter the race based on the objective criteria (top 30 in the Brazillian circuit), as worded in the sanction document.
TWO POSSIBLE OUTCOMES: A) The racer decides to enter. B) The racer decides not to enter.

2) Communicate with the affected racer and have your disagreements and arguments before race day, out of sight of the spectators and other participants. Arm-wrestle, have a boxing match, drink a beer together -- whatever it takes to resolve your differences before race day.
TWO ACCEPTABLE OUTCOMES: A)You resolve differences and agree to behave. B) You don't resolve differences and still agree to behave.
ONE UNACCEPTABLE OUTCOME: C) You don't resolve differences and you don't agree to behave.

3) We (the ISSA) take our learning from the 2007 sanction process and come up with a more enforceable policy and process for ensuring compliance for future sanctions. (e.g. deny sanctions for unusual "invitational" contests, demand more documentation for unusual race formats, gain assurances that prizes will be paid as advertised, deny or revoke sanction if course does not meet standards, etc).

4) For the 2007 Sanctions: We (the ISSA) have been reluctant to enforce adherance to rules that are unwritten. We have not demanded courses meet specifications, we have not demanded a certain threshold for prize money, we have not demanded very much at all. The sanctioning process is (this year) a learning experience for us. We have not yet cancelled a sanction, once it has been granted -- and I don't think we want to start now.

In other words: Contest organizers who do not perform up to what was expected from the sanction process should not expect (in 2007) that the sanction will be denied after the race. Instead, future sanctions to that contest organizer (e.g. 2008) could be denied or downgrade based on past performance of the contest organizer.

5) For 2008 the ISSA will need contest marshalls familiar with the Brazillian contest scene to evaluate sanction applications, gather information, and work with the contest organizers to ensure compliance with ISSA rules. It would be advisable to those with interest in Brazillian slalom to work this out among themselves and make suggestions to the ISSA as to who might be best suited for this task.

[Bruno Brown RIP]

Pat, i'm glad we're on the same page here; what leaded us to that decision was exactly the#2- "C" unaceptable option here;we do have an 10 skaters alternate list for cases of unexpected particular ocurrings(even the case of a skater geting hurt on practing the day of the contest)This was a very distinct case where all the other participants of both our events understood and worked together to form a very consensual group so we can alll discuss all the complains and opinions;so far now this problem had created "HAVOC"among competitors forcing us to take such actions against one particular individual that was(unsucessfully)trying to rot the whole pack for whatever reasons(maybe political)he had;another thing that i agree with you 100% is the fact of having a brazilian martial for the events here and we have discussed this on this last weekend in the banked slalom contest in south of Brazil and you should be contacted soon by someone there.I'd like one thing to be cleared here:we're not trying to be partial on this but we're forced to take this actions for the good and progress of a group that is working together and having excelent results including drawing attention and support from"thrasher" magazine which is not such an easy task in the slalom world, so we can't take risks of one individual's persistent paranoia dragging a whole group back;This is not the last event here or in the world to be making such waves...thanx again for discussing and clarifying this matter as i know we could've been the first ones to have this kind of problems but not the last.

[Pat Chewning]

I don't think we are entirely on the same page, Bruno.

I would like to see some effort from you and from the affected racer to solve your differences or at least agree to put them away for the duration of the race.

I am against the banning of any racer from an ISSA event.

I would like the contest to proceed with ISSA sanction and with the inclusion of all racers who have earned the top 30 spots.

These are my own opinions, not a decision of the ISSA.....

There may be future action from the ISSA in this matter, but the best solution for the advancement of slalom skateboarding is for you and the affected racer to figure out how to put your disagreement into the past and move forward with the contest as planned (with 30 top racers plus alternates).