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informal ways to compete?

Doing this on it's on forum to not take away from the discussion on organized competition.

 hope everyone is on the new FLI mailing lists and read Josh's post about the benefits of competition.  I hope i don't misdirect things too much with extolling informal competition, but I hope everyone will find new ways to have fun even if it isn't official competition.  Rochelle and I have made an easy river that neither of us had been on before fun by racing down it for the first round of drinks, and we did it the day after we had already went tooth and nail in competition the day before. 

What about just racing one rapid that everyone knows real well on your weekly trip on the river you do a lot, then cut back to leisure pace?

Or a jam session at the hole.  No one is scoring your run, but you want to show off and push each other to do some new tricks. 

Another thing some of my local crew and I have done was play board.  It's basically like the basketball game of horse except that you receive a letter every time you hit a rock; and the lowest amount of letters wins.  We did it in Costa Rica when the Payebaye river was low and not too exciting ( did any of us make it through without getting board? I can't remember ).  I played it again over the summer.  It was a day when the temperature reached into the high 90's, so we didn't feel like wearing our wetsuits.  There we went in nothing but pfd's , board shorts, booties, and fins, and went to find out who could hit the least amount of rocks with our bare knees and shins.  Then you see who can pick the best lines. 

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Permalink Reply by Rochelle Parry on January 10, 2012 at 9:53pm

Some of my bodyboard friends do this - they call  it "DK Wars" (for Drop Knee Wars),, and recently "Prone Wars" - sometimes getting sponsors to donate a prize or two, but they make up their prize categories. I think Alex and Max's crew has informal sessions on the American and have pretty  much taken over the surf spot!

Permalink Reply by Barry Welling on January 11, 2012 at 12:02am

another great game is "follow the leader".  first man makes a daring move ( hard ferry, small eddy w/e) and the rest have to follow or gain a letter.  lead changes, wash, rinse, repeat.

 

Permalink Reply by Kevin Yount on January 11, 2012 at 12:20am

We might could have a rescue rodeo too.  Throw a dummy in the water and take terms rescuing it.  

Permalink Reply by Barry Welling on January 11, 2012 at 7:00pm

you  volunteering there Kevin? :)  

 

 I would like to do some tethered swims in a few holes to see (safely) what ecsape techniques we can use with a board to get out of them sticky monsters.

Permalink Reply by Kevin Yount on January 11, 2012 at 8:48pm

I was thinking both a store bought dummy ( just can't figure out how to spell manican ) for a good example of counter panic, and we could also use a live test subject to play the part of a panicked victim. 

Permalink Reply by Barry Welling on January 12, 2012 at 7:31am

manequin

 

and I've found that panic is best countered with Calm soothing advice or a good right cross.

Permalink Reply by Kevin Yount on January 12, 2012 at 10:22am

I was talking about the counter panic when a victim kind of just checks out and does nothing as opposed to the screaming, freaking out, panicked victim.

Permalink Reply by J. Young on January 12, 2012 at 8:05pm

I'll do it. :)

Permalink Reply by Alex Koutzoukis on January 12, 2012 at 1:17am

Peter Cameron, and other riverboarders have been informally competing/pushing each other surfing at First Threat for the past few years.  We'll go do the 4 mile "Chili Bar" run and spend a few hours just surfing.  3 years ago no one was drop knee riverboarding anywhere in CA.  Now it's a pretty common site at First Threat (local Sacramento area play spot) where riverboarders are starting to outnumber kayakers.

-Alex Koutzoukis

www.KernRiverboards.com

Heres a photo of Peter drop knee at First Threat.

Permalink Reply by Josh Galt on January 13, 2012 at 3:42am

Alex what do you guys compete for?

I mean, other than for fun and because you guys push each other and get better every time, which is one of the points of competition.

But do you ever do a series of competitions, keep stats, do a tournament, compete for prizes or dinner, etc? I know you and Peter C are competitive, but besides you guys do you have a regular group of competitors? Or is it mainly you guys putting on a show and the rest trying to keep up? (and I don't mean that with any disrespect to anybody else there, I just don't know if there are others on your guys' level, thus the question)

And I can't leave out, do you have hot cheerleaders? ;)

Permalink Reply by Alex Koutzoukis on January 15, 2012 at 3:15am

Max is landing aerial rollos, peter is consistently standing up, ross cohen is riding on his knees.  My buddy Ryan is landing flat spins (super hard on turbulent First Threat).  Theres definitely a lot more progress to be made in this sport still but I've noticed a difference the past couple years at our surf spot.

RE: Hot cheerleaders not at 1st threat but Barking Dog wave (park and play) in the warm summer/fall will see a hottie on the shore every now and then.

Permalink Reply by BrianJ on January 21, 2012 at 5:49pm

slightly off topic:

whats the best surfing trick youve seen yet?  downriver or on a wave??  i was working alot on my downriver backflip this summer, have stuck air rolls and inverts.  also working on a sideways cartwheel type thing that i think would be rad, have you heard of anyone doing air reverses or ARS?  i feel like with the right flow/wave height/type you could get the boost to do that stuff.  i have yet to be able to do anything besides forward/reverse spins and el rollos on a wave.

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