Varsities 2013: Freestyle - full information

[Maryanne]

[Maryanne]

- Women will get their own heat.
- If 30 or more women enter then a second female heat will be created to avoid congestion on the water.
- Heat durations will be adjusted accordingly.

This wasn't mentioned at Captain and Safeties, maybe it's just part of a copy and pasted set of rules on freestyle.
There will be max 17 colleges at the event, each college would need to have two women on their freestyle team for the minimum 30 women to be present, this is probably unrealistic.

But worth seeking clarification on.

[DervM]

I think this is what Conor Bredin was talking about when he mentioned two women- however, I don't know if it's a great tactic for other colleges as I think Emer Farrell is a top class freestyler and the second girl would be getting intensive coaching by Conor, also a top class freestyler.

[Nuala]

When it says you will be allowed a maximum of 6 runs on the wave how much time are they giving to get these runs in? The heats are going to be very long to allow everyone at least 4 goes at dropping on from the top eddy - and the paddle on from the eddy beside the wave is very difficult - at most levels I've tried it I can't do it and just walk around each run.

[Maryanne]

When it says you will be allowed a maximum of 6 runs on the wave how much time are they giving to get these runs in? The heats are going to be very long to allow everyone at least 4 goes at dropping on from the top eddy - and the paddle on from the eddy beside the wave is very difficult - at most levels I've tried it I can't do it and just walk around each run.

Yeah, that's a good point alright. If there are 20 people in a heat that means there'll probably be 3 heats, I guess they could give each one an hour...
I can ask for clarification on that. I'd say competitors would need to get out and walk around quickly, maybe even jog.
Everyone would need to get 2 runs just to be covered (since they count your best two) and after that try to improve on the the first two.
Since they're awarding points for catching the wave it looks like a run where you miss the wave will count out of the six, worth clarification too.

So far the questions are:
1a When would UL know if there'll be a women's competition in freestyle?
1b Would this require more competitors or run within the framework of 4 per team per college?
(Assuming no)

2 How long will each heat last?

3a Will runs where the competitor does not catch the wave be counted as runs?
(Assuming yes)
3b In a case where a competitor moves fast enough to get in a 7th run could this be used to over write a previous run where they missed the wave?

[Tiny Tim]

at most competitions on gower pretty much everybody (except a few very strong paddlers) tend to just drop on from above. the ferry glide is a pain in the ass

[kmck]

To be honest you might be better selecting 3 girls and 1 guy. The girls are in a heat by themselves, our girls have a good chance of getting in the top ten while with the guys we might have one or maybe two who could get in the top ten. Something to think about

[Chunderdragon]

All I'm saying is that to fully represent te scenario in varsitites we really should have one mother of a session the day before. Gotta be accurate yano....

[HelenaC]

the names are huilarious!!

what the hell is a "trickywoo" like??

[DervM]

I like Phonix Monkey! 

[Peter O'Sullivan]

what the hell is a "trickywoo" like??

Its fairly rare, don't think I've ever seen it in real life.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNmhz4w76-4

[Tiny Tim]

i have theyre remarbkly unspectacular. really represent the falling over in a hole repeatedly end of freestyle that tyler bradt and ben marr etc really hate

[Maryanne]

- Women will get their own heat.
- If 30 or more women enter then a second female heat will be created to avoid congestion on the water.
- Heat durations will be adjusted accordingly.

Clarification sought and received:

Maryanne Doyle
This could be a misinterpretation on my part, in the pack it says:
"- Women will get their own heat.
- If 30 or more women enter then a second female heat will be created to avoid congestion on the water.
- Heat durations will be adjusted accordingly"
So I'm wondering if that's just to have the ladies on the water at the same time, or because there's a separate ranking.

Conor Bredin
I'm not entirely sure how to interpret your question so i'll try and just explain the whole thing. Guys will be competing against guys and girls will be competing against girls exclusively. Individuals will be ranked against their own gender.

Each rank is awarded a certain number of points as per the metric for 1st, 2nd, 3rd....etc. the teams will be ranked then according to their accumilated points and this will ve the final order of ranking from the freestyle. I believe there was a discrepency in the captains book and only the metric for the teams was included. It is the same metric however that will be applied to the ranked individuals however.

Conor Bredin
Just seeing your second reply now Maryanne sorry. The idea of separating women into their own heat is just about keeping the women, who are competing against themselves exclusively, on the water for the same time window and thus what ever the conditions will be at that time - they will have the same conditions to work with. This is the same for the men. The skill ranking section of the entry form is so I can put all the people of the same skill level in the same heat so that everyone will have the same conditions to work with as those of the competitors who are closest to their skill level.

Maryanne Doyle
Thanks for the clarification. That actually sounds like quite a good idea, I know I've heard some grumbles in the past that the freestyle standard (generally speaking) is lower among the female paddlers, but if they're ranked against each other this gap won't feature in the same way. It should also encourage more female participation.
However, it's quite a change form other years, so it should really have been mentioned before, I didn't hear it come up at Captain and Safeties and as you said there's a discrepancy in the Captains pack. I still think it's a good idea, just that colleges would probably have run training or team selection differently if they had known earlier.

Looks like it would be in our interest to put more female paddlers on the team, as there will be one scale of points for the male competitors and another for the female competitors.
There will be 13 colleges in the competition, most will have one female paddler and apart from some exceptions the standard of freestyle won't be that high. If UCD enter female paddlers who won't swim and catch the wave we'll come out well. If they catch the wave and manage a trick, we'll do very well.

[Bill C]

This just in:

Newsreel: Breaking News on the FREESTYLE EVENT.

I've been going over and back with my main man at Ardnacrusha to organize water for Curragower come Sunday. However, due to the unprecedented amount of rainfall this spring and with more rain forecast for the coming week their hands are tied and have no choice but to continue with the full flow which they've had going for the last two weeks. At this level unfortunately the wave won't be a consistent and contestable feature. The reason I'm only coming out with this now is that it has only become a possibility that we wouldn't have a contestable wave at Gower yesterday and today that was confirmed.

In the words of Freddie however, "The Show Must Go On!"
...
So here is the proposed alternative.
Everything remains the same bar how we show off as freestylers to score points; Simples!

Ah fuck the fire alarm just went off so I'm going to make this brief.

So every competitor shall start in the top eddy; above the Curragower falls.
When it's your turn you peel out you'll enter the flow (which is slow and flat) at a predetermined point high above the falls. From here you'll have 35 seconds to do flat water tricks (see the proposed score sheet which I'm just about to post in the 'Files' section of this page). Once the 35 seconds are up or you reach the top of the rapid the second half of your run begins and that is to perform down river tricks through the rapid which consists of a series of small holes and wave trains (see the same sheet I've already referenced).

This is a novel format for a freestyle competition and, I admit, if it was just a flat water competition I'd be fairly displeased. However, I do believe that the down river section adds a bit of flare that will keep it mixed up and really bring out competitors creativity in putting a run together. This will all be discussed tonight at the Captains meeting and straight after the captains meeting I would like if every college competing could have a representative of their freestyle team available to meet and discuss the score sheet and any queries people may have.

If anyone has any questions please feel free to ask here also, I'll be keeping an eye throughout the day.

I'm sorry about the late notice but I hope you appreciate I've been doing everything in my power to produce a contestable wave. To lighten the moods though there'll be scones and hot drinks on sale from some lovely ladies right there on the river bank!

[Maryanne]

Freestyle results:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B-LfOEvdKu0veDRRMVpmcmxNbFE/edit?usp=sharing