@chrismatsuno
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Bump.
Drop boats off at the loading/unloading zone in front of the entrance on the south side of the Simon Recreation Center on Laclede Ave. There is street parking on Laclede (free on weekends). Those spaces are usually filled on weekdays but there may be openings on Sunday. If not, park in the parking garage across the street.
SYATP (See You At The Pool).
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Jerry,
The NRS instructions look pretty good. I have a couple of comments:
The form should be at least 2” thick. If you don’t have 2” thick mincell or ethafoam, you can use pink building insulating foam. Wrap a couple of layers of plastic wrap tightly around the form and hold the wrap in place with tape.
Push the form into place from inside the suit. It should be a snug fit. If the form is loose, the gasket might not seal well.
Most definitely, do not use a tapered, cone-shaped form. As soon as you put the aquaseal on the gasket, it will start slipping off a tapered form. In fact, in my experience, the gasket will start slipping off a disk-shaped form with straight sides too. I don’t think a rubber band will hold the gasket in place unless it’s a really strong one. I cut some strips of duct tape and use them to hold the gasket in place. When you remove the duct tape, there will be some residue from the duct tape that will stick to any aquaseal that oozes out past the edge of the gasket. A bit unsightly but won’t affect the repair. Try to wipe off any excess aquaseal before using the duct tape.
After finishing, watch the gasket carefully for a while to make sure it isn’t slipping. There is nothing more annoying than to go away and come back to find the gasket has slipped off the form.
Overcuffs are a pain in the neck when replacing gaskets. Peel them back as far as they will go and hold in place with painter’s tape so they don’t get in the way.
Diluting the aquaseal with Cotol will make it thinner and easier to apply. If you use Cotol, be aware that the Cotol will evaporate pretty quickly and the aquaseal will start getting thick again. You have about 10-15 minutes working time before this happens so don’t mix the Cotol until right when you are ready to apply the aquaseal. If the aquaseal gets too thick before you are done, you can add a few more drops of Cotol to thin it out again. You don’t have to use a lot of aquaseal. A thin layer will do the job, and less will ooze out the back edge of the gasket.
Wrist gaskets are the easiest to replace because they’re the smallest. Ankle gaskets are about the same. Neck gaskets are very difficult. Some dry suits and tops don’t have neck openings that will take a disk shaped form very well.
Good luck. SYOTR.
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The actual course is 30 feet by 40 feet. The 50 foot dimension refers to the minimum recommended length of the pool itself – you need some space between the gates and the end of the pool. I would say 5 feet is too tight. I’m guessing that the standard distance for the backstroke flag poles is 5 yards from each end, since that is about what the Mehlville pool measures. Using those pole locations gives you enough clearance at each end. Subtract 2 x 15 feet from a 75 foot pool and that gives you a course that is 45 feet long, which is what we had at Mehlville. The only downside to a longer course is that it takes a bit longer to navigate (and tires you out a bit more).
You probably don’t want to go any wider than 30 feet. At the Mehlville pool, that leaves about 6 feet between the outer poles and the side of the pool. Less than that – people swinging wide through the gates tend to whack the sides of the pool with their paddles.
The height of the supporting poles needed will depend on how heavy your gate system is. If you use the crossbars and 5 foot, 1 inch diameter wooden poles we have used in the past, that adds up to quite a bit of weight. I think 8 feet would be sufficient assuming the poles are well anchored and don’t bend inwards much under tension.
The simplified system we used this year weighs less and would have worked with the existing backstroke poles, which were about 7 feet high, but a bit of extra height doesn’t hurt. The poles were 4 feet long so that also reduces the height needed. Eliminating the crossbars further reduced the weight of the system.
In my opinion, there’s no need to go with the length and diameter of the gate poles described on the old USACK website. 5 feet long and 1 3/4″ PVC will be very heavy, which increases the height of the supporting poles needed. Remember the KISS principle.
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Twenty hardy (foolhardy?) paddlers and several supporters braved the icy roads to attend the pool slalom on Sunday. For some of us, maneuvering around the stalled and stranded cars on the highway was much more challenging than negotiating the pool slalom course.
68 timed runs were recorded with Joe Sartori logging the only sub-2 minute runs. Racers and spectators enjoyed sub sandwiches from Jimmy John’s, soda, water and Krispy Kreme donuts (thanks to John Biermann and Mark Hromnak). New this year – several modest attendance prizes for lucky participants.
Thanks to everyone who helped with setup, takedown, timing and judging. Thanks to the Mehlville School District for allowing us to use the pool. Hopefully next year will feature better weather.
Results will be completed soon. Stay tuned to this station.
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The reason for the difference is that this particular USACE graph is stuck at 0900 Nov 7. This graph constantly has problems with dropping offline or missing readings from the gauge.
The NWS graph is generally more reliable though you can see it is currently missing data from Nov 6 to Nov 8.
This USACE Roselle graph below is more reliable. This covers 4 days and gives readings every 15 minutes:
http://www.mvs-wc.usace.army.mil/trans/sf/sfro_s.html
This Roselle graph covers 30 days with hourly data shown but it only updates once a day at 0700:
http://www.mvs-wc.usace.army.mil/trans/sf/sfro_30s.html
The following graphs show precipitation at Farmington and Roselle, and CFS at Roselle: You can toggle between 30 day data and 4 day data, except the 4 day CFS graph isn’t working at the moment.
http://www.mvs-wc.usace.army.mil/trans/sf/sffa_30p.html
http://www.mvs-wc.usace.army.mil/trans/sf/sfro_30p.html
http://www.mvs-wc.usace.army.mil/trans/sf/sfro_30fc.html
Black marks on the graph indicate missing data. The graph extrapolates and fills in missing data to draw a line, but no data will be shown in the tabular listing on the left.
The USACE graph on this webpage has some advantages (when it is working). It shows stage and precipitation at the same time. It can also be customized to show up to a year of data. Delete the “7” at the end of the URL and type in the number of days you want to see, up to 360 days. (Jim Warren was the first to discover this feature, as far as I know.)
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We are working on the results and will have them ready in (hopefully) a couple of days. If you are wondering how we can award medals and still be “working on the results” – after each day’s racing we do have complete results which are used to award medals. Back home after the race, we do a check of all the judging sheets vs what is entered in the computer. We usually find a few errors either in communication from judges, entry onto worksheets in the scoring tent or entry errors in the computer. On rare occasions, we find errors that affect 1st/2nd/3rd but usually they don’t have any major impact on standings. We also try to “pretty up” the results to make for better reading.
The results will show raw time plus total penalties, 1st/2nd runs. If you are interested in individual gate penalties, we can send you a file with that data.
Glad you enjoyed the race despite the low water and cold temps.
PS: Jim was first in K1M Long Plastic. I will mail his medal soon.
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As noted above, the club will have an info table at the Expo this weekend, March 2/3/4. Any volunteers to staff the table, please sign up below:
Friday: 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM – Chris Matsuno
Saturday: 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM – Chris Matsuno
1:00 PM – 4:00 PM –
4:00 PM – closing –
Sunday: 11:00 AM – 2:00 PM –
2:00 PM – closing – Chris Matsuno
PS: Bring your own chair; the Alpine shop does not have any to spare.
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Location: the pool (building 63) is in the building with the gray roof, next to the building with the brown roof (the gym). It’s on the west side of the hospital complex.
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The pool slalom is on – Super Bowl Saturday, Feb 3.
The building should be open at 7:00-ish for us to start setting up the course. Any help would be appreciated. The faster we get set up, the faster we can start racing. Generally the course is ready around 9:00. We will have some practice time – maybe 30 minutes, then begin timed runs.
Racers will start in the order they sign up. Each person gets one run. Once everyone has made a run, we start at the beginning of the list again and continue until everyone has had enough. Paddlers who arrive after racing has started will be added to the list and take their turn when their name comes up.
All classes offered at the Missouri Whitewater Championships are offered here. Olympic class slalom boats, plastic boats long (7’6″ and over) and short (under 7’6″), age groups, Open boats. SUPs are welcome but be warned, the course is very tight and you may have to duck your head under the crossbars.
2 runs per class, better run counts. You don’t have to make 2 runs before switching to another class.
Scoring is as follows:
Decked boats: Touch – 2 seconds, missed gate – 50 seconds.
Open boats: Touch – 5 seconds, missed gate – 50 seconds.
Entry fee: Adults $10, under 16 – $5, veterans/active military – no charge. If you are not an ACA member, there is a $5 one day ACA event fee. Please remember to bring your ACA membership card/number. Exact change appreciated. Checks accepted, payable to the MWA.
There are changing rooms at the pool. If I recall correctly, there is a soda machine but if you want snacks or lunch, you will have to bring your own.
This race will help improve your paddling skills, but it’s also for fun. Hope to see you there.
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As far as I know, we have approval from the VA to hold the pool slalom on Super Bowl Saturday.
The usual schedule applies. Setup ~7:30-9:00, practice runs for a while, then race until you are tired. Volunteers needed to help set up and time. (Racers are expected to help also.)
More details to follow.
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