 Michael
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Posted: 25 April 2010, 2:19 PM
This is a topic to ask questions and share ideas about "close to home" orienteering. It's a philosophy that rescued OHV a dozen years ago when it was at risk of winding up; but we don't know all the answers. For example we haven't been able to emulate Auckland's summer series or Taranaki's secondary school rogaining uptake.
What works somewhere doesn't necessarily translate well, and there's often a person/people with unusual energy, beyond what is generally available. However "close to home" ticks the boxes for [+] volunteer effort [+] competition for participants' leisure time [+] energy cost. If it doesn't tick a box for you, don't bag it, just get on with what DOES turn you on:-))
The close to home ideas often involve varying the form of orienteering, the terrain we do it on, the distance, or the time of day or week. We've had success with smaller areas, green areas, steep areas, urban areas, week-nights, score format, team format, bike, bike/foot optional, moving playing field (bus).
I'm sure we've only scratched the surface. I'm interested in other ideas. I want to know how to use long thin areas like riverbanks, how to map multi-story carparks, and how to do downtown lunch-time orienteering (safety and control theft issues). But these are just examples. Please treat it like a buzz group - negatives not allowed.
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DennisdM
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Posted: 25 April 2010, 4:24 PM
In regards to control theft issue I liked HB's response at a mid-week event. They have a mini painted metal control flag(150mmx150mm) with a punch attached to a small length of chain that can be padlocked round posts or bins. Though the event I did someone had left the key in the padlock at one of the more visible controls!
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Michael
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Posted: 26 April 2010, 4:27 AM
Thanks Dennis. Here's another contribution: Orient-Show. http://www.mikrosprint.hu/tortenelem/orient-show_ot.pdf and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6HIILcCLGc&feature=related
This ultra short distance format is raced in a series of heats, quarters, semis etc, ie its not a single race. You can see "terrain" created for the occasion but I can also think of places with this degree of detail already in place. Talking of heats etc, why don't we have two or more sprints in a row, we introduced the middle distance this way and I think it made it much more attractive.
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Ellmo1769
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Posted: 26 April 2010, 1:55 PM
Hey Michael,
I have been thinking about the complex issue of how best to approach mapping multi-level complexes such as carparks, malls or derelict buildings for a while. The only answer I have come up with is mapping each level seperatley, and mapping stairs with up or down arrows, similar to what you would see on a house plan view or a shopping mall map, and then putting them all onto one map (piece of paper).
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Michael
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Posted: 26 April 2010, 6:30 PM
You could be right Ellmo. I wonder if we have made too much of this mapping problem and we should just get on and run some multi-level events as best we can, and then see what ideas come out of it. The mapreading skills might be similar to moving onto and off an enlargement, which we may meet more and more.
I'm intrigued by "derelict building" terrain!
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tim.a
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Posted: 27 April 2010, 4:15 PM
last year while travelling with kids to Spain we stopped in London. we arranged for them to run at a local club event at Pimlico in the City of Westminster. There they ran the event out of someones flat.. The start triangle was the front door - people queued up the hallway. The map itself was just a local street map with numbers in control circles. It was run as a score event - one hour to cover the 40 locations. Instead of a clipper there was a question on the map to answer at the site you visited. 40 questions, results based on time and accuracy of answers. No complicated mapping at all. No worries about stolen controls. People arrived straight after work, got changed in the flat and then joined together for a rice based dinner afterwards (2GBP per person).
This could be a great way to get an event up and running without needing setters and vetters - but then maybe it's not orienteering?
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Michael
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Posted: 27 April 2010, 4:48 PM
Of course its orienteering. Or urban rogaining. Does it matter? People round here do seem to be more prepared to plan a score event than a fixed-order event. For example completely independant of the committee, someone has organised a meeting in a pub next week to sort out some afterwork rogaines. Or score events. Whatever.
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KevO
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Posted: 28 April 2010, 1:39 AM
Spent a year in Townsville last year orienteering with the Totally Tropical Club! The club's really small so all of their town events were based on street maps remade in Ocad. The controls were red, blue, green or yellow stickers stuck on man-made features [post, sign, railing etc.].
Competitors just wrote down what colour was at each control. 20 'controls' placed and courses were to get 8, 12 or 18 of them to give some challenge.
Really easy for planners, simply cycle around the area with a pocket full of stickers.
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addison
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Posted: 13 May 2010, 9:02 AM
I've found in Hamilton that some mini-rogaines are great. Why?
- easy to map (and fast, can make a map a week if busting a gut)
- lots of terrain around (just using hamilton township is enough for say 20-30 events a year I reckon)
- easy to organise (just doing questions and answers, no need to put controls out or pick them up.... finish a normal day at work and you can still get there on time if organising)
- easy for competitors to understand (1 point per control answered, 1 point lost per min late or part thereof)
- very social (mass start concept, everyone starts/finishes together and talks about their routes etc)
and most importantly:
- they are REGULAR because they are so easy to run you can run heaps of them!
But it is really important the map is setup properly. We got Michael to set us up with a template which we map in... it is great! This ensures the map is future-proofed for gps tracking etc and for future updates.
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Michael
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Posted: 13 May 2010, 10:41 AM
It's interesting that as we use high technology at one end of the sport, looking in completely the opposite direction (question-and-answer controls) proves worthwhile. I'm sure questions can add appeal as well. And something that I've just realised is that an urban Q&A course is a PERMANENT COURSE (provided the questions are selected appropriately). Just have to explore how to market that, deliver the maps, and preferably measure the use.
After this weekend, we'll have another 100-control course available in Wellington, plus a 20-control "taster" on the waterfront.
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Michael
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Posted: 22 July 2010, 9:12 AM
Will the Wynyard Quarter developments on the Auckland waterfront provide a good sprint area?
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paultheOctopus
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Posted: 22 July 2010, 11:50 AM
who knows, it'll probably take another decade or two to get it finished, and besides have you seen some of the bland auckland achitecture and landscape designs, what they need is an orienteer to come up with some nice concepts... it wouldn't be hard, we could reapply to host the auckland street race, only this time on foot, now that would be cool
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.Kyle.
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Posted: 22 July 2010, 2:29 PM
This may be a bit behind, but found this map, looks like a multi-story ship of some sort, and looks like a lot of fun too!
http://www.gustavbergman.se/doma/show_map.php?user=Gustav&map=249
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Martin
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Posted: 22 July 2010, 2:48 PM
You might be onto something Kyle - this could be used in conjunction with the cruise ship terminal they want down on the waterfront
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Michael
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Posted: 16 August 2010, 1:49 PM
See the Winter Classic thread - long tough event born and bred in the Wairarapa - small and diminishing numbers - brought into Wellington to praise and rising numbers. Some key features - close to home - terrain once thought too steep and green being used - mostly public land - start at sports field with facilities - sequence and score options, individuals and teams.
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Michael
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Posted: 24 November 2010, 2:24 AM
There's a thread on Attackpoint about "orienteering without infrastructure". One of the contributors referred to this: http://sites.google.com/site/thehoodhunt/
This is quite similar to close to home rogaine developments in NZ. The interesting thing is that rogaines are reaching down from 3hrs to 2hrs and 1hr and less. Yes of course they are score orienteering events for teams. But some of the other characteristics enable them to be run by anyone - use of a variety of maps, question and answer controls.
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