TonyC
Posts: 93
Joined: 1/9/2007
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Went to a District 3 event at Hunter Mountian today to see how the other half live. Well, that and the ride was shorter and the weather was sunnny and 67!!
Holy relaxed atmosphere!!!! There were maybe 30 riders, so they can get away with the way they run their events. Their focus is on fun and trust!! They do things very differently and quite frankly it works great for them.
Sign up. Kind of slow with only one guy taking forms. BUT, here is where the trust comes in... when it comes time to pay, put your money in the box, if you need change, take what you need!!!! The fee was only $15, even not belonging to their club. Typically the fee is only FIVE DOLLARS!!!!! This is at their non AMA events. Here comes more trust... those events have NO insurance!!! We were competing in advanced, but they did not make an advanced line, so we had the choice of riding which ever line we felt like. And , yes we could change our mind at each section. We choose to ride Expert. The sections were actually very similar to our advanced, maybe a little easier. I thought all were cleanable accept one. Oh, did I mention EVERYONE rides the same section. Three lines, novice, intermediate and expert. When riding a section, you could choose to ride the tougher line, a big no no here. In other words, a novice could ride the novic eline and during the section he could go up an epxert ledge and that would be OK. PLUS, you check yourself!!! Give yourself whatever score you want!! C'mon if you have to cheat to win a local competition, why bother?? You added up your score card and handed it in on your own as well. Also, NO TIME LIMIT. If you finish late, call them the next day and give them your score. Reason being they want you to drive to their event and enjoy the sections!!! Today, it was decided we would do only four laps of 7 sections. If you wanted to ride 5 or more, you were welcome to.
The first lap, EVERYONE goes to the sections together, walks them and gets clarification on questions. Then one by one everyone goes. The coolest and scariest part of this was the crowd!!! Alot more than the riders, and they went to all the sections with us. A little intimidating at first, then it was fun. The loop was short, to encourage spectators and the loop was easy!!! Dan was there and I'm sure he will attest to the ease of the loop? I got to tell you, I have never met Dan and thought of him more as a whiner. Riding together showed that he is not that good. I only say this because he is the first to admit that, but even more because when he speaks of difficult sections and difficult loops, he knows first hand why they both need to be easier for novices. I finally undersatnd his point!! The novice class here had some tough obstacles. We met a young first timer and he 3'd most sections with occasional 5s. He was pretty beat up at the end and that was after only doing 20 of the 27 sections. It will be interesting to see if he shows up as enthusiastic next week at CATRA.
One negative, no tape, just arrows. It didn't have that competition feel.
Although I had to leave early, I had a great time with their event. Super friendly folks, there to enjoy their weekends together.
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