The Australian Orienteer welcomes letters. Preference will be given to letters which are concise and which make positive points. The editor reserves the right to edit letters, particularly ones which are longer than 300 words.
LETTERS
AO should go retail Thanks for the mag., the articles are well written and generally of pretty good value, however there seems to be a strong bias towards representing activities of the Elites……..any chance of skewing it back towards the ordinary folk? And, how about the odd ‘O’ suit / shoe test? I found the story a couple of issues back on Evan Barr’s experience with severe physiological distress quite interesting especially since someone near to me had a similar experience. Articles on bio-physiological responses to stress are always good value. On a different note, there is a perennial concerning the public profile of our great sport. Along with the website The Australian Orienteer is the official organ of the sport. Why not make it public? What are the costs of remaining obscure? I see that those who control the availability of this magazine have missed fantastic opportunities to seriously publicise Orienteering which could not have been bought at any price. The success of our Champions both National and International (foot and bike) should be exploited. So too, of course, should be the wide appeal to the young, old and ‘non-athletic’ alike.
time to perhaps end world poverty or did they have a medical emergency? Were they late for their starts? No, they just got out of their car and chatted away. Their vehicle was a rental and one occupant wore a Western Nomads uniform. We began to form a biased opinion of WA drivers that a respectable publication such as yours would never print. We do not believe this sort of thoughtless behaviour is acceptable within our friendly sport. As President of Orienteering Victoria I personally offer a warm welcome to orienteers from all states who are coming to the 2009 national carnival in Victoria. I will try to ensure that all drives in to events are as safe, easy and well signposted as possible. Any Victorians who I hear have indulged in this sort of anti-social behaviour had better beware. Oh, and there are two impatient drivers who should just stay home! Ian Dodd, VOA President
Oceania Mountain Bike Climbing I hear that the Oceania MTB-O Championships held last March didn’t go too well financially, with only 80 riders entered, and substantially fewer (50) in the Sprint.
If this remains in the ‘too hard basket’ we will forgo a lot of potentially positive exposure (leading to interest and new members) and the hackneyed ‘grow or die’ debate will continue to dog the sport.
I was going to enter myself until I looked at the courses in my age class (M60). Long – 17km and 330m climb; Middle – 10km and 220m climb. The entry fee was rather heavy too - $60 for three events.
You have recently written about the increase in popularity of ‘sprint’ / street orienteering at the cost of classic ‘bush’ orienteering. I’m sure this is a result of targeting a particular demographic so maybe some of the marketing has in fact been successful!!! Bush orienteering remains the Acme of orienteering for me, if it fails to receive the highest level of support within the sport then I, like others, will drift away.
I’m a rather slow recreational rider. I enjoy getting out in the bush and sauntering along. My goodness – how long would 17km and 330m of vertical climb have taken me?
Will I be reading more about orienteering in Mountain Bike or adventure sport mags in the future, I wonder? I hope to see our magazine out there, hopefully sooner, in newsagents, promoting our sport like all the other sport and outdoor rec. mags. do for theirs. I know this will sit uneasily with some since public awareness is anathaema to a secret society!! Randall Hope (Tasmania)
There was no provision for recreational riders in the program. I would have liked to see the hot-shots in action but I didn’t want to be pushing my bike up 330 vertical metres of climb. Some shorter, easier and less expensive non-championship courses for recreational riders like myself would have attracted more entrants. Even just 20 or 30 extra riders at $30 each would have made quite a dent in that deficit. Recreational Rider (name & address supplied) Dear Receational Rider,
Editor: I would just love to see The Australian Orienteer go retail, but it just isn’t going to happen. We don’t have the resources to fund or manage such a venture. And if we sought the assistance of a commercial publishing house it’s likely the magazine content would be much more concentrated on the young and the beautiful than on the wider demographic which Randall wants and I try to fulfil.
Sorry to read your thoughts on why you didn’t enter the Oceania MTB-O Champs. True, we were disappointed that the entries were not better than they were, but you and those that were not able to make it there, really did miss a wonderful weekend of riding in a new area for most of us. I suspect the main reason why the entries were lower than hoped for was that the events were not close to a capital city. The Sprint event was held on a working day, so was always expected to attract fewer numbers.
Impatient Drivers NOT WELCOME
When you read that there was 330m of climb on your course, I suspect you may be thinking of that amount of climbing in terms of a Foot-O course of say 4 to 5km. I feel that climbing 330 metres on a bike over a course length of 17,000 metres is not too bad. Added to this is that most of the roads and tracks were in good and fast condition.
Our first interstate orienteering trip was to the 3-days in WA a few years ago. Driving our rental car on a dirt road into the event one morning, my wife and I were overtaken by an impatient local orienteer who no doubt knew the road much better than us. Our car was sprayed with gravel, leaving a line of small chips across the windscreen. After parking near the culprit a few minutes later we vented our annoyance but the driver was unrepentant. Fast forward to the recent AUS 3-Days in Burra, SA. Admittedly the long dirt drives in were frustrating with poor roads and an awful lot of dust. The organisers specifically asked drivers to exercise patience and care but again, on Day 2, we are overtaken at high speed by a 4WD (risking damage to our own car this time). We arrived at the event perhaps, generously, 20 seconds after the vehicle in question. Were they using this valuable 30 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER JUNE 2007
There were several competitors in your class, who I’m sure would not be too offended if I described them as slow recreational riders, and all managed to complete their courses and were still enthusiastic about the events. As for saying it was too expensive, that’s just incorrect. $20 for each event using new maps stacks up really well with any major orienteering event in Australia these days and incredibly good value compared to any other mountain bike race. The only way we can keep fees down is for all of our competitors to support the efforts of event organisers by entering events rather than deciding to stay away. Peter Cusworth, Victorian MTB-O Coordinator
