Slalom poles

John Gilmour · Post by **John Gilmour** » Sun Jul 27, 2003 4:14 pm

I would like to host a competition with 279 Snakeboarders and 6 topslalom skateboarders all racing on ISSA special slalom course on a steep hill.

The word "vanquish" comes to mind.

The following day enrollment at Slalomskateboarder would nearly double as would slalomskateboard sales.

Michael Stride · Post by **Michael Stride** » Fri Jul 25, 2003 10:02 pm

Why dont we adopt the hanging gates they use in canoeing then?

We could get the rollerbladers and snakeboarders to practice on a river and get dragged down and drowned.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Jul 25, 2003 8:54 pm

i think ski slalom racers should adopt cones just like us!

9" orange cones would look good on snow.

:razz:

Wesley Tucker · Post by **Wesley Tucker** » Fri Jul 25, 2003 8:48 pm

Three things I don't like about these poles:

1. You can't skate "through" them. Unlike skis, all that hardware at the base of the pole is begging to snag wheels and trucks.

2. You can't skate "around" them on the wrong side. The counter-weight is just begging to snag someone who makes a mistake and goes to the wrong side.

3. You can't go "over" them." In skate slalom we practice to hug a 9" cone as tight as we can and then lean as much of our body over the cone as possible. A pole dissuades a skater from pursuing that kind of action.

Even when I watch downhill skiers with poles, they pull in their arms and ski poles and round the pole tucked in tight with usually their shoulder brushing the pole. This tactic just doesn't cut it with skateboard slalom. One of the reasons it would fail is most (not all) skaters attack a course in an offset "surf" style stance. If you envision the picture in your mind, you'd see most poles would get hit with the hip or the arm pit. If you go with the short pole Jani posted then you have the problems I explained in reasons (1) and (2). From my perspective I'd have to say that poles have all the problems we got away from when we stopped using tall higway cones with bases.

I know this is a bit much, but I hate someone who says, "I don't like 'em" for any topic and then doesn't offer a reason why they disapprove. So I'm saying "I don't like 'em" and why. I appreciate y'all's patience.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Jul 25, 2003 8:15 pm

Vlad, I agree with you about the FCR gates on the ramps....

What's wrong with cones...simplicity is a good thing.

AND finally...we as a "slalom skateboard community" can be safe to be that there are more of us than people riding snakeboards....phew!

Vlad Popov · Post by **Vlad Popov** » Fri Jul 25, 2003 7:16 pm

I’m scared of ski gates on the courses as much as I’m scared of the FCR gates on the start ramps. I know others like them. We race on ski courses on snowboards in the winter and it literality hurts.

Please continue promoting slalom.

Jani Soderhall · Post by **Jani Soderhall** » Fri Jul 25, 2003 7:02 pm

Somebody told me it was all about promoting slalom. I just didn't understand that you only meant skateboard slalom. Sorry.

Vlad Popov · Post by **Vlad Popov** » Fri Jul 25, 2003 6:32 pm

Ski gates, and now snakeboards?

_____________________________________________
International Slalom Society for Super Tall Gate-free Ramps and Ski-Gate-Free Slalom Courses on Perfect Asphalt at a Perfect Slalom Location with a Perfect Slope

Jani Soderhall · Post by **Jani Soderhall** » Fri Jul 25, 2003 6:10 pm

As I'm anyway considered completely crazy, I might just as well post another one of these skipole type things.

These ones are probably good for low speed figure slalom, like on a snake board.

PS. Compare the heights of the starting ramps in the background. Which ones were used for skateboard slalom racing and which ones for Snakeboards?

Chris Eggers · Post by **Chris Eggers** » Mon Jul 14, 2003 9:29 am

I tried a run at WLAC last year around these poles and it was no fun. I sucked to be honest.

Hey Michael, nice to finally see you here btw.

Michael Stride · Post by **Michael Stride** » Sun Jul 13, 2003 10:37 am

Jani, you've finally flipped! Unless as I suspect you are joking.

The whole point of ski slalom poles in skiing is that you hit the pole, but never go inside of the line set by the poles.

Should a skier go inside of the pole they are DQ'd.

I see absoluetly no way that could be replicated safely on a skateboard. Skaters will go as close the the pole (hitting it with the fore-arm, as in ski racing. Here is the problem...if you are trying to replicate ski racing then at some point true racers will end up going inside the pole, and then being bucked off their board by those bases.

If your intention is to provide falls for spectators then I'd question whether skaters should be part of a circus. I can provide spectcular falls around normal cones.

There were some continetal races using two cones as gates in the 80's and they were a total pile of pants.

Wes Eastridge · Post by **Wes Eastridge** » Sun Jul 13, 2003 4:28 am

Jani Soderhall · Post by **Jani Soderhall** » Sat Jul 12, 2003 10:05 pm

I think it could be cool, but the problem is those baseplates which would be very dangerous to run into.

I think that for giant slalom we could use triangular flags like they do in parallell snowboard racing. If there is nothing out at the smaller end and the flag is fixed at the right end, we wouldn't get hurt.

For tight slalom I guess this is pretty useless. The Japanese do it every now and then, so apparently it has some charm (maybe it is the spectacular bails?).

Michael Stride · Post by **Michael Stride** » Sat Jul 12, 2003 9:57 pm

No!
But great sponsors though.

Jani Soderhall · Post by **Jani Soderhall** » Sat Jul 12, 2003 4:48 pm

Maybe one day we should try these kind of poles for our races?

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