Interest in slolom races????

[gannon311]

There used to be races when I was a kid with lots of turn out. I would like to get back into it. Would any body else be interested??

[Steve S]

I would definitely be interested in Slalom races. And I'm pretty sure Paul Shepherd will say the same thing.

[sig]

Mandy enjoyed racing in it and we would like to give it a try. It seems to be a great way to hone your boat control and make you use the current to get where you have to go.

[gannon311]

I think the deal in the past was that there were a few people that had to do all the gate hanging and work for everyone else to play! If there is some interest maybe we could get the ACC involved as a club event or events. Derks would be a good place if we could get a water release. Used to have one at the piney very year but there was alway the water issue. What do y'all think? Think we could make this happen? Any ideas on locations?? Fisher ford if the ww park goes in? Could probably come up with something for Rockport also. Does anyone still have gates.

Max wellhouse used to be big into it we could get info from him I'm sure. I'll Facebook him and chat !

[sig]

It took several hours (4-6 I think) and 30+ people to hang 21 gates plus the warning sign when we helped in Missouri.

Those people were spread out on both sides of the river plus a handful of boaters who could ferry our string to the other side. There were radios, string, wire, buckets, gate poles and crossbars...

Lotta setup. And that doesn't count course design and pre-planning.

MWA bought a keg of (cheap) beer for setup volunteers and the race weekend volunteers were registered in a raffle with cool gear, artwork, and other swag.

[Heath]

i am very interested!! also check with billy williams, he used to be very involved with the race scene.

[gannon311]

Well looks like we have some interest!! What do we do now?

[hellbender]

I've been very interested for years

[mgood]

Definitely interested. The US slalom headquarters will be within 3 hours from AR- seems like a shame that we might not submit a possible contender when we have everything that is needed to have some legit slalom boaters.

[Shep]

Gates are not difficult to build. We just need some seed money. I got a pretty good look at the gates they have at the NOC, which are used by the US team for winter training. I think the parts list for a single gate is something like this:

2x 4' of 1" PVC, wrapped with tape or painted (green for downstream, red for upstream), holes drilled through one end for chicken wire to hang them from

1x 1/2" square metal stock (aluminum, probably). length is 24-36" or so. two eye-bolts drilled through each end to hang the gate from, two eyebolts to hang the poles down from, and one extra eyebolt to hang the gate sign

Enough steel wire to reach across the river and secure on each side

2x small snap shackles. Go through the top eye-bolts and allow the gate to be easily clipped on to the steel wire across the river

LOTS of orange cord. - the orange cord goes all the way across the river to slide the gate side-to-side. Also, orange cord is tied to each pole and run through the eye-bolts of the gate that hang down. by carefully letting out or taking up this cord as the gate is moved into position, the height of each indiidual gate pole above the water can be adjusted.

Finally, a sign which indicates the gate number on both sides, and has a red slash through the number on the side you should not go through.

Someone with a drill press should be able to knock out gates pretty fast once you get a flow going.

Hope this helps,
Paul

p.s. Yes, I am interested.

[sig]

That sounds very similar to the gates we helped hang in Missouri. I'm sure we can get a consult from some of those organizers.

Where is this US slalom HQ going to be?

[gannon311]

Mgood, Tulsa ?????

[737driver]

OKC.

[sig]

Oh... That's less close than I hoped for. 5+ hours for us.

[gannon311]

Maybe we can all get togeather at canoe school and get something going. Everybody find out as much as u can and we can put it al togeather and come up with plan! Let's do this!!!!