Big Bear! What Is The Deal?

yeehaarider said:

ive seen that movie i think....was it the one where the dude has a white face, kinda ghost like??

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Yeah, the character was called, I think, "No-Face". White Japanese noh mask on a black transparent body.

MikeD said:

OK, then: run a search!
<snip>
As a reasonable person, I understand that he had an opportunity to inspect the course prior to racing and should have done so...and if he had an issue with the course markers, shouldn't have raced and perhaps demanded his registration money back.

But no one asked me...they just closed the mountian.

MD

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That is one of the more reasonable and intelligent statements made over this whole thing that I have seen. I have been involved in other forms of racing, mostly karting, for many years. And this is standard practice in most other forms of racing. You as a driver/racer are responsible for walking the track/course and determine if it is safe for you to race on. If you have issues with the track you bring it to the attention of the course marshalls and if they do not correct the situation to your satisfaction you drop out of the race.

But of course all this chatter is pretty much useless to the situation at hand. We've all discussed this at length, beat the dead horse and all that. Hopefully other resorts and race promotors will learn from SS's mistakes and try to improve their own operations should they need to.

Question for all you racers: In motor racing there is a mandatory drivers meeting before racing where the officials talk about any concerns they have, give driver instructions and such. In addition to that many series also have an additional mandatory rookies meeting. They tell the rooks what to expect and all that. Do they do that for DH racing? Also, is it mandatory that you all walk the course at all?

Edit: Spirited Away was a pretty cool movie. Though what I am interisted in more is the thread where Mike D attained his custom title. Anyone have a link? Is it embarrassing? It's one of the better custom titles, IMO.

when we were racing up there last weekend, it was in the newpapers that the local businesses was lossing $$ due to lack of MTB traffic that normally flows through that place. The entire area looked like a ghoat town other then the XC racers in the parking lot. I think I saw under 10 riders riding the lifts up w/o race numbers. The race b4 that (2 weekends prior) there was no one on the lifts besides few tourist.

The lady at the lift booth said the forest service is watching their actions, if the FS see any type of evidence of illegal MTB riding on the slopes, they will lose their lease for the year which includes the winter.

Personally, I'd rather go to Nobel then pay to ride at SS other then racing the superD series. Too much politics involved up there.

Ciaran said:

Question for all you racers: In motor racing there is a mandatory drivers meeting before racing where the officials talk about any concerns they have, give driver instructions and such. In addition to that many series also have an additional mandatory rookies meeting. They tell the rooks what to expect and all that. Do they do that for DH racing? Also, is it mandatory that you all walk the course at all?

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Nope. Dsicussing or walking the course-even practicing at all-are completely at the rider's discretion.

MikeD said:

That's exactly why I won't be heading up there...was thinking maybe TWP this afternoon, though...?

PM me.

MD

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I don't blame you, PM sent.

Ciaran said:

Question for all you racers: In motor racing there is a mandatory drivers meeting before racing where the officials talk about any concerns they have, give driver instructions and such. In addition to that many series also have an additional mandatory rookies meeting. They tell the rooks what to expect and all that. Do they do that for DH racing? Also, is it mandatory that you all walk the course at all?

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From my experience yes.
Did about 30 actual race weekends and probably 3 times that for sanctioned practice days for moto roadrace as an amateur.

Always have a mandatory "riders" meeting raceday after practice and before sprint races to discuss issues with the track(course) and merged classes ,etc due to whatever the unique conditions at that event .
For example: turn #4 might have a slight drainage issue so marshalls would remind racers to watch for that hazzard or turn #8 could have some new slippery sealant between 2 sections ,etc,etc.

You bring up a good idea about this and maybe this woulda negated the whole re-bar incident at BigBear.
Seems kinda logical don't ya think?

*EDIT* i just read MikeD's post about walking the track being at the discretion of the racer and that true but every racing event i participated in always had a "racers" meeting to discuss track surface issues which would be parallel to lets say TBB having one after lunch or something to talk about the tight flow of the tabletop section or course boundry markers,whatever.

Ciaran said:

That is one of the more reasonable and intelligent statements made over this whole thing that I have seen. ...

Edit: Spirited Away was a pretty cool movie. Though what I am interisted in more is the thread where Mike D attained his custom title. Anyone have a link? Is it embarrassing? It's one of the better custom titles, IMO.

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Well, also note that he wouldn't have had a problem with the course markers if he hadn't crashed into one. A pre-inspection wouldn't have changed jack-****, but I think that's what the defense in the lawsuit *should* have been able to say and have it mean something in court. The way the legal system is now, it doesn't make a difference anyhow.

I got my custom title by neither worshipping satin nor satan, but by mocking those who post when drunk.

Hail, Satin!!

MD

LOOnatic said:

*EDIT* i just read MikeD's post about walking the track being at the discretion of the racer and that true but every racing event i participated in always had a "racers" meeting to discuss track surface issues which would be parallel to lets say TBB having one after lunch or something to talk about the tight flow of the tabletop section or course boundry markers,whatever.

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In moto races, etc, there are such meetings...in DH, there are none. You and Ciarian are agreeing on the existence of such meetings for other types of racing; you've both experienced them.

He was asking about DH, though; he's familiar with moto. In DH mtb, you simply pay and show up and stand in line at your seed time. Unless the pros have something else going, that's all anyone ever demanded of me.

MD

MikeD said:

Nope. Dsicussing or walking the course-even practicing at all-are completely at the rider's discretion.

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Yeah and that used to be back in the day. They marked plates at the top on practice run and you had to have the marking to race, but then again DH racing was much more organized as a whole back in the day.

I agree with not giving SS or bear any business. But I think I might have to go up there for winter.