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Orienteering events on long weekends...

Show Profile  Tane Cambridge Posted: 31 October 2014, 3:06 PM  
Why do we (the orienteering community) insist on holding events on long weekends and then not even use all the days of the weekend for orienteering??

Example 1: Labour Weekend 2014, orienteering Saturday and Sunday, then nothing on Monday...well controllers course, but I hardly need to travel to Auckland to do one of those.

Example 2: South Island Champs 2014, Orienteering Saturday and Sunday, nothing on the Canterbury holiday day... so basically one day to hang around and wait, so you cant actually use your holiday day anyway!

Surely we only need 2 days for orienteering weekends, Saturday, Sprint and Middle, Sunday long.

Pros (for not using long weekends):
* if you are flying up (or down) you don't have to be organised and book flights really early to get the one or two cheap ones available!
* Accommodation is cheaper and easier to book etc too
* Less car traffic on the roads also
* less holiday time wasted
* can go to other things/races on long weekends

Cons
* Less time for standing around and talking crap before and after events
* cant think of anything else...


Show Profile  Jenni Posted: 1 November 2014, 1:58 PM  
I guess part of the issue for Show Day is it's only a holiday in Canterbury so it may be difficult for people coming from elsewhere to get to any events on the Friday. But basically I agree, if it's only going to be two days then it's better on a non-holiday weekend for the reasons you mention.

Show Profile  lyns Posted: 2 November 2014, 8:24 AM  
Oh I don't know, personally I rather appreciated Labour Day to recover from the hills... :-)
More seriously, it did make it easier for teenagers with upcoming exam commitments to not have all 3 days occupied at Labour Weekend. But I realise that's only a subset of the community and not everyone thinks it should be relevant.

Show Profile  Jenni Posted: 4 November 2014, 2:14 AM  
I think part of Tane's point is that if all 3 days of a long weekend are not going to be used then why not have the event on an ordinary weekend. I agree that sometimes it's nice to have a day after a weekend of orienteering to regroup but I'm not sure it's really worth having to pay a few hundred more dollars in airfares for a family... I also agree that for students Labour weekend is not a good weekend to have a major orienteering event but I think that's beside the point of just using an ordinary weekend for the event in the first place.

Show Profile  DennisdM Posted: 4 November 2014, 4:53 AM  
I enjoyed it, I got my orienteering fix in and still had some family time and visiting time. And still got home in time to get some chores done on the Monday.

Show Profile  rob.g Posted: 18 November 2014, 2:35 PM  
Next Queen's Birthday, 30th May-1st June, the North West Club will put on a 3 day forest event, using a couple of New Zealand's best areas in Wioneke and Otakanini, plus a double middle in Woodhill.
Otakanini Forest has low visibility, and hasn't been used for many years, and Wioneke has changed dramatically since the NZ Champs a few years ago, so it will be a very technically challenging weekend.
Looking to having chasing starts the last day at least.

Show Profile  fraser Posted: 19 November 2014, 4:21 AM  
Looks like Waitangi, Easter, ANZAC, Queens Birthday and Labour weekend are all chock full of orienteering for next year so looking good.

And the SI champs was a great weekend with three races and two new maps. So thanks very much to all involved.



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