How is covid affecting the IMPBA and NAMBA races?

[eXoNerated]

Hi Mike,
El Zorro ask me today through email was I coming to the Smithfield event to grab a turn fin bracket from him I inquired about. I assume you are having a race the 28th?

Thanks,
Hubert

[eXoNerated]

Got your email and responded but hadnt got anything back. Do you know if any EC SAW will take plce this year? If so when would it be?

Regards,
Hubert

[T.S.Davis]

We raced yesterday. Just club racing though. Fun time was had by all.

[Chilli]

Hey Hubert, Sorry I don't log onto OSE as much as I used to and I missed your post. The Old Dominion Club did have a one day club race yesterday. We had about a dozen folks show up. Two from the Jacksonville area and one from Sanford. Social distancing was marginal. No one wore a mask.. It would of been tough in the heat. I had the only FE and ran with a novice racer gas just to get laps on my P-Lim Mono. Dick was unable to attend.

We havent had SAW Record Trials in Elizabeth City for four or five years now. We also used to run 2 Lap Ovals in Franklin, VA. The players that ran it are still around. I miss it. Hopefully, one of these days it will start back up. It was customarily held early spring (March/April) and late fall (November) so it wouldn't interfere with the district racing schedule and the Internal Combustion guys would have good air.

[eXoNerated]

Thanks gentlemen,
Wow so the action in my State continues to dwindle to even less. Somethings gotta happen about that if the sport is promoted. When I tried to get the club released and restarted here it was more issue with the individuals involved releasing the club so I said forget it. Julian Conde, Jim Allen , and I said wed all participate so we only needed two others to start the club but then we have no spot. The money was no issue because I was willing to pay everyones fees to get started. Someone just sits there with the club name and keys but does nothing to get it back on track. I dont get how we end up having only time trials hours away . It doesnt seem fair that no one seems to care about that and NC as a result just falls off the map never to return. I aint steal nobodys props. So why would I want to have no club here and have to drive to Alabama or nearly DC just to run my boat in speed trials because of it? People talk about whos competed but not all of us are going to load up a trailer and drive cross country to do it. These places are all several hours away and I just want run my boat through the traps and leave. I dont think ill drive multiple hours just to do that. Hopefully you can understand my point of view. To truly open the sport to everyone theres gotta be places they can go to compete near them not several hours away.


Regards
Huberts

[T.S.Davis]

We ran into that kind of thing with a new pond we were trying to use. There was ONE guy that belonged to club such n' such that knew the pond owner. Nobody else was allowed to even speak with the owner. It was a perfect site. Retired gravel pit, clean water, trees all around it, no public access, no homes around it. The other club had access locked up but put no effort to organized racing. We eventually gave up on it.

It's tough building a club. Numbers float. New guys come at about the same rate that others move on. It's an odd thing. Makes it harder if egos aren't kept in check. A glance in the mirror is required on occasion too. Myself included. Club racing has to be about the fun. Yeah, it's racing and all but if the locals aren't having fun above all they wont keep showing up. If it's all super intense high stress compete compete compete whispering and super secret props.......they're not coming back. Club racing is hella fun for us. Everybody gets along for the most part (98%?) and we laugh like little girls.

A handful of our club..lings are willing to load their crap up to get to a sanctioned event. Those are a ton of fun too. Maybe because I just race at those. I've come to realize that if I want events to travel to......I have to travel to events. Sounds stupid and self evident but I think we tend to forget. We look at the sign ups to decide if we're going to go. "Numbers are small......think I'll skip it this year". Someone else makes the same decision. That someone else might have gone if they saw YOU were going. Next year that club decides not to bother hosting an event at all. It was definitely part of our decision making process for the Cup this year. We saw low turnout last year and figured with Covid it would be dismal to nonexistent.

I'm off on a tangent here but to have nice events to attend we have to support those events the best we can. Those people may be able to reciprocate when you're ready to host an event. This is especially true for FE. There aren't many of us sparkies to begin with. If we don't hit the races offering FE it wont be offered in the future.

[eXoNerated]

Ok that makes sense. My thing is NC is indeed part of d12 so it should be of concern to help get at least one event here. Thats my thing T. One thing that cannot happen though is stealing people stuff . That has to stop. I'm paying my dues today so I can have ground to talk from. I want my concerns considered as I really get tired of "competition" metrics when discussing non related issues like physics. Its ridiculous T. I want to bring my boat to show i have every bit as much experience and good things to bring to the table as anyone with the coin to run all over the us behind the toy boats. Competing doesnt automatically give expert status. There's loser at the competitions too and they would be part of the inclusion as well. I never liked the politics and did goto races in OKC in the 90s but they ran my friend Kenneth Stone away with politics and he taught me how to build a quality scale boat 30 years ago. So I go with him. He and Curtis Samuel that use to run Andys goose are my friends. I haven't been to any meets since then and navigating through these forums and personalities is not so easy. If you simply correct someone the bottom usually falls out. That's difficult when you truly know things and are simply trying to help. Im tired of it all so I wanna bring the boat run it thru the traps and go home. No handshakes from the "intense haters" either T. I'm no idiot and know my boats can run well. Im not scared to have them judged by this metric of speed. And agree sometimes you need to put up what you sell on the forums. Im fine with this. I dont wanna be part of any clicks but I do want to be a member that can share like anyone else and have a voice in my district what I have found in 30 plus years from people that were back them some of the best. Kennys outboard sundowners were highly valued at one time in our community. Kennys older and less active now and what is sad is I dont know if anyone from boating even reaches out to him any more besides me. I was on my way to OKC last week and would have checked in on him but they had too much going on out there and I dont have time for all that foolishness. I ALSO DONT WANT COVID!!! With my luck they'd all get their wishes granted and id die.


Thanks for answers that made sense.
Hubert

[T.S.Davis]

I haven't found FE guys to be too clicky. Well, I hope not.

That's where that glance in the mirror comes in handy to me:
What do I want? Well.....more guys with toy boats.
Am I helping with that?

That last question is way harder to answer. Need veteran boat guys. Need new guys. New guys need guidance. Vet guys need inspiration and good competition. New guy needs to be able to compete with vet guy. Can I get vet guy to help new guy? I can if I can get him on board with that first question. It's a bit of a balancing act.

Try not to get frustrated. Keep talking. Patience is hard when guys don't seem like they want to evolve. We can't force them. They have to be convinced.

[eXoNerated]

Dang you need to run for president TS that was an excellent answer and truly funny. All the underlying difficulties you pointed it out exactly how it can be sometimes. The thing about online help is if it ever gets proprietary why post it online in the first place when you know those questions will be asked. Go figure but this is what people like to do instead of keeping their secrets out the public eye. Its hard to self aggrandize and not tell all at the same time..... .

Anyway wheres your club and where do you guys run?

And about covid it isnt getting any better I'm afraid. I want to go fishing for Spanish mackerel but there's too many people at the beach during the 4th ignoring the recommendation from the experts. People do this with their life so I have no idea why I expect people to listen about their boats that they are extremely proud of. Im just stupid that way I guess. Im not good with people and dont how to approcah things like" i measure the efficiency of my boat by watching it with my eyes." If I ignore and just walk away That looks rude. If I correct the person im a dhead to them so how do you win here T? Some answers no matter how nice you say can be embarassing If you've already made a qualifying statement and its wrong. Its not the person with the right answer that set the person up for embarrassment it is the qualifying statement they made and were not absolutely sure that set them up. Maybe Im wrong but can you at least see my view?


Regards
Hubert

[Panther6834]

I haven't found FE guys to be too clicky. Well, I hope not.

I'm still fairly new to the FE scene...and, from my experiences (so far), I will say that those I've met have been extremely open to new people, and have been (for the greatest part) very helpful. This goes for those I've met in-person, as well as online.

It's 'interesting'...when I was involved in RC helis years ago, the plane/heli crowd was fairly "clicky". Getting info was difficult...and, even then, your best bet on getting any info was only from those flying the same class. Ask 'outside' your class, and you'd probably get nothing. However, with ground RC (land-based, as well as water-based), people tend to be more friendly, and a lot more helpful. Using off-road as an example, from the beginning, quite a few people offered helpful info/tips...plus, the more I got involved, the more helpful people became.

I've only been involved in FE for 3 months (I've now got 5 boats, ranging from a 17" Atomik Barbwire 3, to a ProMarine Skater X2)...but, in that time, I've come across a few members of the local club, plus a former speed record holder from Las Vegas (was visiting family), and not a single one of them brushed me off. Same goes for online. Everyone's been as helpful as they could be. I've learned that, with some people (such as the owner of ProMarine), you can only ask one question at a time...if you ask more, you only get the answer to one...but in that, not once have I run into a situation where my question was "pushed aside".

Great hobby, with (mostly) great people supporting it. My only 'complaint' is that I didn't get involved sooner. I got my first RC...a gas-powered car...40 years ago. Looking back on it, I wish it had been a boat.


~ More peace, love, laughter, & kindness would make the world a MUCH better place

[eXoNerated]

Hi Panther

I know its many decent people in rc boating I realize that and that its all a two way street. I just hate that competition is held as some high metric when some of the best boaters chose to move away from competition. It was once said by a great man something like this.....You usually can spot a genius in room by the forming of a confederacy against him. This happens often and people just move away. Not worth it. No matter what it looks like if i want to show my work in person to others in IMPBA ill have to travel for hours...... one and thats not cool that my dues support racing in every other state than my own but were deemed International when were not even in all 50 states yet. In the meantime theres no record trial to run so how can i prove a thing other than posting my gps?. How can we set a world record and we dont even have a site that can support those speeds. So the USA is done in attempts for the fastest rc boat coz we dont have a track unless we fly to munich? WOW thats sad. And whos doing all that. That's way to deep for me and in today's world I wanna stay stateside right now.

Regards
Hubert

[Ken Haines]

Wave Blasters

We too had our first Sunday club race and meet-up couple of weekends ago on June 14th. It was the first time that we had gotten together
since the pandemic started. We lease our pond for little cost from the county and had to have their approval and ok before we proceeded.
They are very good to work with, but did want use to send them some Covid Rules that we would follow for their review. When you have to put pen to paper
on these things it does make you think of so many details. Not sure if we got it right, but we started our club day off with a driver's meeting, handed out the
covid rules, and amazingly nobody objected to the masks aspects. We also asked for a show of hands, who in the club are at risk or have family members
living at home that are at risk. Actually about half of the 10 members in attendance raised their hands. Our attendance was a bit off, but we relaxed, kept all heats
to 4 or less boats, had plenty of open water time and everyone said they enjoyed the day after all that time cooped up. We did bring spare masks and only had
to hand 2 out to a father and son who stopped by to watch and wanted to hang with us for the day.
Going to attach our Covid Rules here for comment. Be nice, but let us know if we seemed fair enough and cautious enough with all this uncertainty.
Btw....enjoyed reading the other good comments here, as we really were wondering how everyone else is doing this.
We also have updated our Club web-site, take a peek at it:
www.WaveBlasters.org
Thx,
Ken

[eXoNerated]

@ Ken
It sounds like you had a good time and are doing it right with protections in place. Im very happy you have sensibility in your club to conform to mask. Not wearing them in some political protest is insane. If people dont i cant come coz my parent who I see daily are 81 and 79 years old and dad just got out of the hospital with AN UPPER RESPITORY INFECTION about a month bfore covid. 4 sure I cannot let my guy get anywheer near this thing that was created on account of me. It just cant happen. So anyone beffing about the mask i cannot play with.

Where are you guys located Ken?

[Ken Haines]

Where are you guys located Ken?

Ft Pierce, Florida...see our website if you have a few

WaveBlasters.org

Btw, can you see that Pdf attachment of the Covid Rules,
or do I need to paste it onto a reply ?

[eXoNerated]

One way IMPBA might be able to expand the sport is through more education of the youth. If we want to build the body up right it should have diversity training as well for the kids as we are an international body. If we include children to teach them science and how to have rogerian debate that will help the atmoshpere of the sport in the furture and make it more inviting. We may be able to get some of the engineering universities involved and find really good water they will let us work with. Sound dumb probably but could something like that work? Im just curious and not complaining about all the responsibility on a few people hands. im sure they like assitance versus lesson on how to run it so I just want that clear for the record. The Germans have done something similar with their youth and the speed planes. We cant go back and redo things or fix broken bonds but we can start fresh an new over after the pandemic and try new things. It looks like adjustment is imminent anyway. I really love model boats and electric motors and joined the body to participate with anyone that would engage.

Regards
Hubert