Evan, this is exactly the answer I got when I brought it up two years

ago. Regardless of how I fly the other guys in the start cylinder are

still doing this. It will continue to happen until we replace the rules

with something even more complex, in the name of "safety" of course.

All the meanwhile we'll be sitting down having dinner and a beer at 5:30

in the afternoon complaining that the sport is dying and that no one

wants to go to contests... here is a bit of a news flash, the sport is

not dying of natural causes.. we're killing it!



Rant over...

Luke Szczepaniak



Seriously? A rule promoting contest safety killing this sport? Please.

Let’s go the root of the problem.

We have all discussed the cost of entry into soaring. It is severe in relation to many other activities. Since the middle class hasn’t had a real increase in income (not discussing COL increases) over the past couple of decades, disposable income has steadily dropped. We have to be more selective in our recreational activities.. I’ll stop here. We are all pretty well informed on this. No need to beat a “dead horse”.

What is even more insidious and what effecting many other sports besides soaring is that we are losing youth participation in the US.

Let’s talk another sport.... golf. My best friend from Jr. High School through Grad school is a PGA pro and owns his own course. We recently talked about how golf is in a steady decline in dollars and participation for the past decade or two. I postulated that the cost per round has gone up through proliferation of courses, increase in equipment costs and that our incomes haven’t kept pace. People just can’t afford the activity like they used to. He states that this does impact golf numbers, but what is the greater issue is a huge decline in junior programs. Overall, kids are just NOT interested in golf the way we used to be. Tennis? Soaring? Hah! At the junior level, the same can be said for just about any sport other than perhaps football, soccer and baseball (my guesses here). The base is dwindling. Kids have other activities that interest them. Many activities not related to sports.

The result is that participation numbers for these sports decline over time.. A contest rule one way or the other will NOT change this.