GPS comp for kids

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ka72 said...
Hi Macro Just a reminder that as a member of the windwanderers club you have the opportunity to post your tracks to our online comp. We currently have 8 categories, 7 of which are different to the GPS team challenge (only one the same is the total distance). You are welcome to post any potential new categories/ideas/suggestions you have to our club website forum and members can decide/vote/consider if we want to implement this. Dylan loves a challenge as is always open to new ideas. You also have the chance to win great prizes at our end of season party. Everyone that uploads a file throughout the season is eligible to win.

I love the GPSTC but after 5 years of participating in the exact same categories it is great to try some new challenges including a 2 hr division, straight line (Sausage being the masters here [;)) 5m alpha 2 nm (Peter C the master of this category )etc and of course being able to have your own Kingdom! Only takes 1 more mouse click to then post your session from windwanderers to GPSTC (via KA72) simple and loads of fun! As well as our points based comp we still have our trophy room running each month which includes a 500m, 5x10 and challenge division. Check it out herehttp://www.windwanderers.org.au/Events/GPSSeries/TrophyRoom.aspx

I saw this post to another thread a while ago and thought it sounded really interesting. I had a look at the windwanderers website tonight and I was really impressed by this competition. It seems that they allow changes to their categories too. It's a pity that you have to sail in Queensland waters to participate or we would join the windwanderers in a heartbeat. It would be great if it could be made into a national competition.

I have two children of my own and have lately been teaching a few of their friends as well as helping to teach some other children with windsurfing parents. I am always looking for ideas to motivate children or just to enhance their enjoyment of windsurfing. I believe that anyone learning to windsurf should, if possible, participate in all the windsurfing disciplines to gain any unique skills applicable to that discipline that they can then transfer to the other areas of their windsurfing. Some kids will no doubt become specialists in one particular area and some will hopefully even develop their ability to a high enough level to be competitive internationally.

In the speed sailing discipline, GPS data measurement can be a really useful training and motivational tool. I think that by itself it's usefulness is limited but still important to the beginners. For children to maintain an interest though, some sort of competition or team event is probably the key. I wonder if Dylan would be interested in creating something for kids (maybe even international) following the concept/model that the Windwanderers are using. Mixing it up with different monthly challenges, the variety of ways to earn points like the "SWARM" and particularly the "New Location" method (which would also encourage children to overcome their reluctance to sail in different locations) would add heaps of interest and I reckon the kids would really like the Kingdom concept too.

I wonder if there would be enough interest from the parents/kids to make it worthwhile. Feel free to PM me if you have any thoughts and if there's enough interest I may get in touch with Dylan to ask if he'd be interested in developing something or advising us about how to go about it. We have been very encouraged by the support we have had to help encourage children's participation in windsurfing in Australia and there may be assistance forthcoming to develop some tools as part of a larger approach.

I like!

Will stay tuned for further discussion.