New Slalom lengths

[Charlie]

Has anyone heard/seen development of shorter slalom boats? I believe the ICF was moving fwd with elminating length rqmnts. A 10' Superglide or Fanatic would be pretty interesting.

[Alden]

Kaz . . . ?

[NEOC Slalom Rules]

See factory news flash posted by Kaz, on Monday, Sept 29, 2003.
Its a couple of pages down in the forum. I've seen the mold (and the mold on the mold before it was refinished). The Amoeba is way cool looking. A 10' Superglide might be wild too.
Pat

[g2d]

Does seem time to let slalom boats go to a more rationale length. But which length? We don't want privateers facing the prospect of owning longer boats for some courses, shorter ones for others. I'd like to get Davey Hearn or Scott Shipley give their opinions.

[DavidM]

It is true that there is a movement to shorten the lengths of slalom boats..last I hear it was for the 05 season. To my knowlede the rule has not been adopted but is being discussed.

This will present some interesting conundrums for the sport.

1. Initial shorter boat designs will be horrible unitl designers figure what works best. chopped down current versions will be just that.

2. Most everyone agrees that if you could lower the cost of racing, more folks would participate....This will only increase the cost to compete as you will now be required to have a quiver of boats (short tight course boats and longer big water boats)

[Bob P]

The rumor that I heard was that length will be not controlled anymore. If that's the case, I suspect that slalom boats won't get that short unless the courses become very tight. You lose too much speed when the waterline gets below 10 ft. I would go for a 10.5-11.5 ft boat, where most of the (excess) length was removed from the stern.

I hope that it doesn't come down to having a different boat for every course to be competitive. Very counterproductive for the development of younger paddlers.

Personally, I can be slow in any length boat.

[the great gonzo]

well, it looks like the changes went through. the length restriction is dropped, the other restrictions stay.

http://www.canoeicf.com/slalom/rules/Ru ... 0boats.pdf

as far as where the developement might go, here is what Toni Prijon of Prijon thinks about it (the english text is at the bottom):

http://www.canoeicf.com/slalom/developm ... on_GER.pdf

And here is a picture of the boat he is talking about:

http://www.prijon.com/Prijon_2003_WEB_ENG/Athlete.htm

well, as far as I am concerned, I don't know much about slalom, only that when I try it, it makes me realize how crappy a paddler I am, no matter what boat I am in

martin

[jKelly-Rand]

Looks like an Atom. Won't be as fast as glass.

The Viper will be elligible. I think they should make a course where you have to back through the gate and pivot.

till next
Jim

[aldenb]

this is all very exciting! see my next post up . . .