About the ChallengeThe GPS Team Challenge is a windsurfing group based on average team scores across 6 event disciplines using GPS technology. Teams from across Australia and the World are eligible to enter the event, with a minimum of two members per team required. The event disciplines are: 2 sec gps max; 5 x 10sec gps average; 1hour gps max; Nautical Mile gps max; Alpha racing; and maximum distance travelled in a single session. On each day (a session) the 2 best scores in each discipline by any of a teams members are averaged and that is the teams score for that category. Each team member can submit their own scores or the captain can do it for team members. The data base calculates a team ranking and allocates a score. Teams are ranked with best performances receiving lowest scores, with lowest cumulative scores, ranking best. The competition runs annually, and the team with the lowest score across all disciplines over the 12 months of the yearly challenge is declared the winner. One discard is allowed for national competitions and 4 for the International competition. In Australia there are four Seasonal Cup Months. Jan (Summer), April (Autumn), July (Winter), October (Spring) to keep it interesting. No trophy, just bragging rights! History of ChallengeThe challenge was an idea derived from discussions on the seabreeze.com.au windsurfing forum. The Windsurfing community stated that they were interested in sailing fast, and that the GPS technology that was available today, was an objective way to measure speeds. The idea of an interstate team versus team idea was then floated, which seemed to generate huge interest. Individual community members began to offer ideas about how this could work, and many offered help, the following is a brief list of individual contributions (Seabreeze.com Forum Nick names): Acknowledgments
Hardie: Ideas man. Challenge and Website Co-owner. There is an advisory group to make decisions on the day to day running of the challenge made up of sailors from a number of states. Membership of the group is open to all. Contact us if you wish to be a part or have any queries. The philosophy of the Challenge:Inclusiveness: That everyone in the windsurfing community be included from fun and social sailors, to the serious including Pro's. Participation: That it is important to participate, to be involved, to develop skills and improve Personal Best Times. Be involved all season, not just summer. Fun: That most importantly we have fun, and however you get it, from stacking it on a 15 knot run, to doing 40+ knots, or just having a beer/bourbon/wine with your friends after a session. Building relationships: That we connect people with the same passion, meet new people, create connections intra, inter-state, international and generally just build relationships and grow our community. More generally, Windsurfing at speed is also about getting fit, developing skills and technique, we can all learn how to windsurf better, and some elements of GPS mean you want to sail more in order to give yourself a better chance of performing better, so more time on water has multiple benefits. Rights and OwnershipNB. Joseph "Hardie" Presti and Ben "Nebbian" Hitchcock, have copyright and ownership rights over the GPS Team Challenge, and the Website domains www.gpsteamchallenge.com and www.gpsteamchallenge.com.au |