Interest in slolom races????

[knu2xs]

The international rules have been modified to where gates are now predominantly single pole gates. You can build them pretty easily by cutting a single PVC pipe in half. The bands are, "officially," ~12' colored bands. I paint them by masking using a little masking tape and newspaper, and then spraypainting them standing up against a wall with a disposable sheet hanging down.

Get yourself a spool of parachute cord. You are going to use a lot of it. Drill one hole in the top of the pole to become your gate. String the cord from the inside to the outside of the pole so it runs down the outside of the pole. Tie a loop and wrap it around the bottom of the pole. To adjust, do a single twist to form another loop to take up excess length. Repeat this twist as necessary to take up slack. Just slide this wrapped cord up and down to adjust the height of the pole.

Hanging the wires is the most difficult part. The easiest way to get a lot of wire is head to the farm supply and buy a spool of electric fence wire. If you want to protect the trees, get a cheap hose to cut sections from to sleeve the wire through when you wrap it around the tree. Stringing it across the river can be done by using a boat ferry or as we have done before with long spans, a compound bow and some lightweight cord.

With your wires strung, the easiest way to adjust the poles across the river is to attach a small pulley on each side much like a clothesline. Tie a small loop in it. Attach the gate pole to the wire with a cheap mini-carabiner. Also run the small loop on your clothesline to this carabiner. This way you will be able to move the gates back and forth from shore.

I have built gates like this all over the country. Although we get a little more creative when setting up races, since they need numberboards and a little more control over gate height, this is the easiest way to set up a course. The hardest part always is always stringing the wires. Good luck and have fun!

[knu2xs]

Looking through this thread a little more, when it comes to running a race, don't make it any harder than it needs to be. True, I still read the USACK and ICF rules every year and know the ridiculous nuances. The basics are pretty easy, though.

• Some part of the boat and the head must successfully navigate the gate to be a successful navigation.
  For single pole gates, the, "gate," is defined by a pole on shore and the pole in the river.
  The boat must be upright to be a successful navigation.
  Touches are two seconds added to the time.
  A missed gate is 50 seconds added to a time.
  The gate is considered to be started navigation when it is passed through or is touched. Once a gate is started, previous gates cannot be returned to.

Timing can be easily accomplished using two stopwatches. Start them both at the same time. Boats are started on the minute. Finish times are recorded. Subtract the difference, add penalties and you have scores. Split athletes into halves. One half races while the other half judges. Then they switch.

About the best place for more information is the Whitewater Slalom Foundation, started and mostly maintained by Jamie McEwean, 1972 C1 Bronze Medalist, successful author and magnificent human being.

[knu2xs]

PS If you do get races going, make sure and include team runs consisting of three boats. Time starts when the first boat leaves the start and finishes when the last boat crosses the finish line. Each boat accumulates penalties for each gate. Thus if two paddlers touch a gate, each gets a two second penalty for a total of four seconds added to the team time. Team runs are wicked fun and almost always an athlete and crowd favorite.

Here is some awesome footie of a C2 team run at the 2009 worlds: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLBt_xHwV1A" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[hdh]

http://forums.arkansascanoeclub.com/vie ... 15&start=0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Donald]

The gates belong to the ACC, the rest I will gladly donate.

Don

[gannon311]

Great!!! Thanks don!!!!! I'll be getin a holt of u !!
There we go guys and gals. We have gates. Now all we need is someone to turn the water on!

What about the lower little mo???
Anywhere above Rockport ?
Little red below the dam?

[Jim E]

Been following this thread some and I, just as many others, am very interested!!!

Don't really know if water releases would be easier or not but some of the rivers mentioned are mostly controlled by electric companies rather than the COE. Both the Lower Mountain Fork in OK and the Lower Little Missouri in AR are hydro-electric projects and, as everyone already knows, so is Rockport. Dierks and Gillam (lower Cossatot) lakes are COE flood control only.

Dierks would by far be the best choice, in my opinion, as far as river structures, accessibility and being spectator friendly! Though I believe the COE an harder entity to deal with. The City of Dierks is allowed an annual water release in July for a "duck race" but the water levels are never conducive to boating. Just pointing this out to show that "special" releases still do occur there, (even in drought years) though it is a small amount.

The LMF is fairly wide therefor requiring a lot of wire. Limited accessibility and, for the most part, spectators couldn't see anything unless they paddled the river down to the course. At last count, there were 7 liveries operating on this river and I'm not sure if they would be helpful or not. On the plus side though, SWPA might cooperate with releases. Yet the ODWC also has some control of water releases in order to maintain the trout fishery too.

The Lower LMR is not as wide so hanging gates shouldn't be as much of an issue. Accessibility would be a bit better also since the AGFC has 4-5 access points along its banks. Spectators might still have an issue depending on chosen course area. It is extremely rare (as in never nowadays) that SWEPCO releases on weekends. I can only guess that the reason is for the trout fishing and that Flyfishing Clubs requested this long ago. ???

Gillam Lake is also more of an narrow river but accessibility is quite limited save for the Cossatot Reefs campground area immediately below the dam. Not much river structure in that area or the length of this lower river section either for that matter. COE flood control only leaves this project in much of the same situation as Dierks.

Just trying to give some insight to the suggested areas. Would like to think that if the ACC got behind a concentrated effort to "partner" with the Dierks project in some way that things could be made better for boaters in general since that is the whole reason that the structures there were built...for kayaking. (kudos to Scott H and Heath D!!!!).

[mgood]

Lower Mountain Fork is not too wide. In fact, we could have two possible courses- think down to right above prespeterian falls where the river is divided by an island. You have the shoot on one side and the ledges on the other- I see no reason why both couldn't be used as their own course. It would also be more likely to run year-round than Dierks.

[Jim E]

You're right about the shoot Micha. I never really consider it since we always go on over to the ledges to play. The ledges area though is pretty wide from trees to trees. Guess could setup tri-pod type poles on the boulders though if need be. Would be fun to have a gate right above "Bubba" and another just below!! If you haven't driven into Pres Falls in the last few years, it is gated off now with a parking area on top of the hill. Camping is no longer allowed just like most all of the other river side campsites in the Ouachita National Forest.

Perfect area for a course up there would be the Spillway Creek but I can tell you for a fact...it'll never happen!!

The catch and release area below the "Old Park Dam" might have some potential. Great access with the trail following that section of the river and therefor, some good spectator viewing. Mainly just standing waves through there though, during generation of course.

[Heath]

if you could get a steady flow at LMF that would be the best option for more than on reason.

1 river, 4!!! different courses!!!! and this is all in one place, with a perfectly good trail that goes back to the top of each course. the lake is much bigger than most of the other lakes mentioned.

and last but not least, whitewater and cypress trees!!! how often do you get that.

dierks would be awesome, if we could get the release.

[tomcat]

Hey everybody...long time, no post.

I think the gates that Donald mentioned in his post are the ones that Max and I painted back around 1981. All the materials were paid for by ACC funds so those should be available. I think all the racing stuff (including communications gear?) were given to Don according to what Max last told me. Don...did you also inherit those tall A-frame wooden gizmos we used when we didn't have a tree to tie a hang wire?

The Ozark-Ouachita Cup Slalom Series were held from 1983 thru 1990. The series consisted of four races....at the Long Pool Rapid on Big Piney, at Steel Creek on the Buf, at Dierks and below Gilliam Dam on the Tot. So....there is a history of the Corps cooperation for releases at Dierks and Gilliam sites for races.

I would be interested in a slalom race. I would be willing to assist in hanging the course....not so much in the registration, etc.

Also....I think there are some liabilities issues that require insurance coverage when you hold a formal race. But, if a course is hung simply for people to practice running gates without registration, scoring, etc (like at Dierks when there is a release) then maybe the legal issues don't apply?

Max is the guru on all the legal issues and all the organizational stuff.......I just helped on the courses and raced. We need him in this conversation if we move forward.


tomcat

[Shep]

The legal issues should be covered by the ACA in a manner very similar to the classes we teach (WW School, Rec School, SWR classes). In practice, that means that participants need to fill out an ACA waiver, and pay a $5 fee per event if they are not ACA members, before they are allowed to race.

Again, I am not in a position to take a leadership role at this time, but I can't say enough how excited I am for this possibility. I think now is the right time to start this up. In 2 years, we will have USA Canoe and Kayak running races at a facility in OKC. If we have ironed out the bugs in the meantime, Slalom races in Arkansas could become a huge draw. I will definitely be interested in helping hang gates, repair gates if any that we have need it, and doing my best to get the word out!

Thanks,
Paul

[happy happy happy]

Yes,yes I would love to cccrash a gate and help if I can. They told me to keep the green side up ,but my yak is all green?.

[happy happy happy]

Yes,yes I would love to cccrash a gate and help if I can. They told me to keep the green side up ,but my yak is all green?.

[gannon311]

Let's have a pow wow at canoe school! Would it be better before or after the big meeting?? What time is the big meeting?