Forget Dying; Is Soaring Dead?

I agree with Erik: the Governor's Cup and similar competitions are a
middle ground between traditional centralized (i.e., one location)
contests and the OLC. In one sense, they're the best of both worlds:
more pilots fly the course on any given day precisely because they
don't have to meet in some common location but can launch from their
own gliderports. Yet, though the courses are assigned area tasks with a
wide range of distances, everyone flies in roughly the same geography,
unlike the OLC.

It's the next best thing to the head-to-head competition many of us
enjoy at the regional and national level. And it's excellent practice
for those, getting us out on course in the kind of less-than-perfect
weather in which contests are often won or lost, albeit at the price of
the occasional landout (although, since most of the G Cup turnpoints
are active glider operations offering a tow, falling down part way
around is sometimes no more traumatic--ignoring the scoring
implications--than pulling into a gas station to fill up the family
car).

But given the title of my original posting, I'll close by noting that
Governor's Cup participation this year looks to be down at least 25%
from last year in number of pilots (from nearly 50 in 2005 to the low
30s this year). Issues cited by others such as increasing numbers of
contests vying for the same fixed number of pilots and the long
distances and vacation time demanded by, say, a nationals on the other
side of the country don't seem to apply here. Soaring, or at least
competitive soaring--would anyone have responded to my posting if I'd
more narrowly defined my subject? --does seem to be in rapid
decline.

Chip Bearden
ASW 24 "JB"