Slalom

Ok I tried the 86a/80a wheel combo and whilst it definitely made for a rougher ride at times on the smooth it was sharp and quick. Thanks Fitz and Haggy, I will probably run this for a while.

Hard to hide with that lid, and the panza-wagen trucks

Time for a new MyPage shot.

Cheers Marek, that ones a beauty.

Haggy has some words of wisdom on this about 20 pages back. In summary it doesn't matter much, ride what feels good.

Craig,

try jacking the front truck up enough so when your going down the start ramp

the deck is paralell to the ground,

ive only found this method an issshhue if i actually make it to the bottom

of the ramp :).

Nice work Craig. Sounds like your working the setup out.

Having the back slightly lower on your slalom board helps keep more grip on the rear wheels when your powering the turns with weight forward & gives you more drive off the rear truck.

If the nose is lower you'll find the rear wheels lifting & losing grip.

Lower rear seems to work well in a tight / hybrid course. You only need 5-8mm.

I used to set my trucks on the risers, axle to axle on a level surface before mounting them on the deck to get the heights the way I wanted them. Bit of fiddling, but that is part of the fun.

Make sure you have heaps of wedging on the front & good clearance to avoid wheel bite too.

There's some talk about it a while back on NCDSA website in Slalom Q & A with Mike Maysey. You could do a bit of searching on there for more tech info too.

Good luck with tweaking the rig.

The slalom rankings are taking shape. Here's a sneak peek:

Slalom Rankings

Marek you Legend!

Freeze time and live the moment dude.

I'm guessing your vote is to wrap it up now and declare yourself as CHC Championship winner. Ha!

How important is the nose on a slalom board? I know its to clear cones better if you hit them. I'm going to redrill my fibretec croco so it has a bit of nose (the trucks sit right up front) and was wondering if it is worth the effort The board is thin compared to the 5.0 bennet and 83a inheats and I can see them clipping the cones anyways. 

nice one Bugs.

For the Melbourne race, do you want a translation for the incomplete names, or do you want me to use the same names that you have?

Cents, I don't think the shape of the nose really matters.

Bernie, real names are the way to go - in theory they don't change from race to race.

Bugs,

We are dealing with skaters here.... The way some of em carry on, you can never be sure if they are in hiding or witness protection!

Just call me Bradbury

I'm not trying to give PC ideas or anything, but this is GNAR

Yeah Bozac.....That's rad. seen the photo before. That shows the need for a larger bottom radius in the design for sure.  

Already got some designs happening for some more height to my 1650mm (5ft,4") high take off.

Larger radius at the bottom is the go. Less compression from the drop.

I'm thinking between 3.6m & 4.8m radius up to the 45* incline, a bit more length on the 45* section & it should be up around the 2.4m (8ft) height. Similar to whats in the video, but more user friendly & do-able on longboards.

Nice one Marek, that's dedication.

How many races are in the results ?

World Slalom Champs 2011, in a cheezey but great to watch broadcast, 40 min of slalom goodness (link seem to fail a bit) http://www.rogerstv.com/page.aspx?lid=237&rid=4&sid=82&...

Marek, the link demands that I download and install silverlight, which is a bit over the top just to watch a video.

Re the rankings, I reckon we should determine a maximum number of races per year that can be included in a person's points tally. The question is; what should this number be? If it is to err I think it should err on the high side.

Seven?

Yep, it's doable - MAX function indeed.

But a system of bonus points for people who travel would require knowing where they live, and knowing where each race is, and having some system of weighting for travelling various distances, or a threshold distance that must be travelled. Way too hard to keep track of for me.

if mt keira is to be closed off for downhill racing any chance of a sneaky SGS event? or aren't there enough cones in the country for a course that long? it would be rad to see some international guys like ramon and zak maytum charging the cones if they were out for newtons

The rankings will be perpetual, and always include only the preceding 12 months.

If there is a max number of races to be set I'd like to keep it high to encourage more people to put on races.

Pardon the pun... but the wheels are in motion. General consensus on the date but we  were under the impression that the 17th was locked in

17th is good for me.

18th is no good.

17 Dec is locked in for Pumpy SGS!!

I'll create an event tonight when I get home. 

Ok - event page up.

Rego might go up - depends on how busy Robtech is! 

i know theres discussions on this but i am exceptionally light.

i am making a slalom board i have a set of bennets. one of the originally made ones from my mum (dont know if they make them differently now but they looks the same) i am a meer 38kg and am wondering what bushings i should chuck on em. any help would be much appreciated.

Green Retro Reflex (76A) are good bushes however there's also Riptide who do as soft as 65A duro. Get yourself a few different to experiment with until you find your best combo.

Go with cones or barrels for the front. Nothing wide or chubby.

Don't forget to use harder ones for the rear truck say  about 90A and lock it down tight. You don't want the rear to do the steering.

Use wider bushes, never cone shaped on the rear.

The WFB riptides act softer than their rated duro. You may also need to stack flat washers or cut down a hard bushing >90 to make the riptide the same size as the stock reflex. I think I have 3 flat washers under my riptide boardside bushing - though using a cut bushing would be best as there is less play.

The slalom rankings are now all up to date with all the 2011 races, and the MOSSers are dominating the field, save for for Sydneysider Marek in 1st and BMB Ross in 2nd.

Sydney crew, who's up for some tight slalom practice in prep for Canberra? I have spotted a nice wide new path in Prince Alfred Park, between Cleveland Street and Central Station and it looks like it would be great to run a low key twilight session (path is well lit). I was thinking Sunday evening the 27th of November, about 7pm.

Yep, I'm up for that Marek.

Are you thinking the main path that runs from Cleveland St alongside the basketball courts and tennis courts towards Chalmers St? If so, it's pretty busy - could be a bit chaotic. It's actually got a fair bit of pitch to it at the Cleveland St end - would be much faster than Stromlo.

Yeah on a map it is next to Jensen's Tennis Centre. I'm kind of thinking it would be quiet on a Sunday evening. It does have a short steep section but quickly flattens out. I'll check it out for foot traffic tomorrow night and report back.

BTW any suggestions for other locales in or near near Sydney welcome. Close would be good! My family are starting to ask who is that strange man with the skateboard.

This is my local spot in Rushcutters Bay. It's not flat, but it's almost flat, so it makes you work. It's no good during daylight because it's a pedestrian thoroughfare, but at sundown the gate at the end gets closed, so it becomes a dead-end. Very peaceful and scenic.

Click the image for the google map details:

I'm sold looks better than my idea!. Who else is in Sunday evenning 27th Nov? No big setup just cones boards and maybe my dodgey timer. 

I've heard the Surf Rodz Indeez make for a good front truck. Setup with an adj baseplate and those bushing key thingys.

I have a Homer and yes its frikking awesome. Those CZ's look like there's way too much happening. Once I found the right angle for the kingpin I have never changed it or the wheelbase regardless of what course I'm running. Just fine tune the bushes here and there but sometimes thats not even required.

No more "Fitz-Tech" goodies for you Colin!

Opinions are like precision trucks, everyones got one.

Now if we can get Fitz and Bugs together for a bit of tight slalom practice you could try both boards. Both Pavel Roadsters, both rear splitfires (?) only difference one has Foxy GOG one has Homer GOG.

Craig i understand your chompin at the bit to upgrade but maybe take it slow and steady and try some more gear out before spending any more.

Whats up with the indeez? are you bored with the indeez already?

or is skatin your only vice to spend the cash on?

and ake sure you post your left overs up here for sale.

the foxy is awesome.  haven't ridden the homer so can't comment.  but the foxy will do everything. 

i rode a board with tracker rtx on the front recently and it was so horrible compared with the gog.  once you go precision you won't go back.

Actually I don't have a Foxy - I have a Radikal. But they're mostly the same thing, at least in the important ways.

They named it after the fat yellow guy.

Keen to practice some slalom with a more experienced crew and to actually try out my set up on a cone course before Pumpy. Craig keen to buy but will definitely run with my current setup before I jump over to the indeez.