Re: Postponement OF THE VOODOO CONTEST 2010:
OK guys, its the morning after the night before. I can safely say that I'm still as wound up about it now as I was last night. I'm not going to dwell on the change of dates too much Because by the sounds of it, it doesn't matter what happens, the dates have now moved and will not be changed back again. But may I begin by saying that I went to Barca 18 months ago and had my wallet stolen, it feels like its all happened again when I was hoping to put to rest the bad experience I had there last. I'm gutted, more so about ruining the prospects of 4 or 5 of the UK's best and most promising young skimmers who've had their hopes of going to their first European dashed contest.
Joao touched on this subject late last year and the same problem has come back to bite us all on the bum. The fact this is pretty much unregulated sport in Europe has left a massive dent in the relations now between the UK and the rest of Europe. We've come in to this sport as newbies in the past couple of years and have all enjoyed our experience.
This relationship has now been cruelly ruined and I would like to ask how Voodoo Horatio and his gang intend to rebuild the faith we had in European organizing. As it now stands, the only confirmed dates for ANY European contest is the end of August in France, this is down to the hard work of Herve and his gang and I dont doubt that this contest will be superb as usual.
We were very close to publishing our dates for our contest either at the end of September or beginning of October. We have been stopped in our tracks with the announcement of the move of the Barcelona contest to quite possibly the same time of year.
If 9 of us losing over £ 100 for our flights wasn't bad enough, the prospect of a clash against the UK UK skim contest leaves the scene gutted and worried. Will the Europeans be able to travel to 2 contests in one month? Time off work, money etc etc. I know last year it worked well with back to back contests at SC & Hoss but we're talking a proper mission of either a tunnel, a ferry or a plane to get to both.
It's probably a good thing I didn't send the draft copy of this email that I wrote last night. I've re-read it this morning and it wouldnt have been a good idea to put politely.
A serious discussion needs to take place with all the European URGENTLY reps as to where we go from here.The plans of doing so were being talked about for months on Skype. I'm now working two night shifts but am free for discussions on Thursday, Friday & Sunday evening and most of next week.
I will be placing this post on Sandskater in the 'Barcelona ESL 2010 Event # 1' thread and the SK.OL 'Voodoo Skimboard Teaser Barcelona 2010' thread:
http://forum.sandskater.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2473http://skimonline.net/forum/showthread.php?t=35095Maybe Horatio may have the decency to announce the change to the UK himself on our forum or SK.OL? It's one thing hearing about a date change from a fellow European skimmer, but its another thing hearing it from the man himself. Explanations as to why this has happened would be useful too.
Will the UK be re-imbursed skimmers flight their money? What are the plans that will be put in place to make sure this will not happen again? Imagine the uproar if we'd done this to the Europeans for our contest back in October last year and then showing the photos of what an epic weekend it was? I'm sure the contest in Barca will be amazing but it does leave a sour taste in our mouths.
Obviously for the Yanks who read this, some may think whats all the fuss about and surely with holding periods that you would expect dates to change. There never have been holding periods for contests in Europe and I'm hoping that by reading this some may understand the problems the skim scene in Europe has.
All the best and I look forward to a solution in the very near future
Dan Horan