gps-foilsurfing

National Record Claim protest for May 15th 2009 National record.




Within the concept of fair and impartial record claims, how can a National record be claimed for a date when the record protocol was not in existance or even implemented. Claiming a National record for May 15th. 2009 seems to be in violation of the record protocol that did not come into existance until Septemeber 1st. 2009. Additionally no notification was made in May that a record attempt was going to be made. 




According to "5. Record attempts announcements

5.1 The Speed Record Candidate must announce a National or World GPS Record Claim on the Record Forum of GPS-Speedsurfing.com and GPS-Kitesurfing.com and publish information on the record location and record date. The Speed Record Candidate may announce a Personal GPS Record claim on the Record Forum. Record claims must be made like this: PR/NR/WR attempt YYYY/MM/DD location (example: Personal Record 2009/10/25 Sandy Point). Every rider who wants to attempt a National or World GPS Record must announce the attempt in the Record Forum in an existing relevant thread/topic or in a new thread/topic."




In the interests of free and fair competition could the record committee please answer how the same session can be posted for two different dates? i.e. http://www.gps-speedsurfing.com/default.aspx?mnu=user&val=57638&uid=1762 and http://www.gps-speedsurfing.com/default.aspx?mnu=user&val=44482&uid=1762




If these so called records are to be ever recognised shouldn't the rules and regulations laid out in the protocol be adhered so any doubt about the veracity of the records can be confirmed.
I have to agree with Roo. If you set out a set of rules and protocols then you are obliged to use them without exception. It very clearly states in the record rules pdf that record attempts start on September 1st 2009 so therefore Tom's record claim is not valid. If you start making exceptions for your friends and associates then no-one is going to take you seriously. If Tom wants to get the Polish record he should follow the rules like everybody else. I am sure he will to go out and put up a record run this year. I have nothing against Tom, I think he is a great chap and I did not write the rules but he needs to follow them.

On behalf of the WGPSSRC I post hereby the reaction to the Record protest by Kean Rogers:

It has always been a fundamental philosophy of the WGPSSRC to make it as accessible as possible for speed surfers to claim records or record rankings. The main purpose of the rules is to verify that adequate proof of the claim is presented.

The WGPSSRC rules state that records holders will be ratified and named after January 1 2010. They establish that from September 2009 a published ranking be set up. The rules do not preclude claims relating to attempts before these dates that may be ratified later if they comply with the rules. The WGPSSRC will consider any other claims made for before September 2009 if they can satisfy the committee with appropriate evidence.

The WGPSSRC has reviewed the claim by Dr. Tom Chalko for 16/05/09 and has confirmed that it does comply with the rules and has fully satisfied the requirements for ratification. In particular we confirmed that:

  1.  The required GPS’s were used in the proscribed manner, that the correct firmware was used and that the file handing and witnesses after the session were as required.
  2. There was a question about the Date Stamp and Time Stamp on these GPS units. It has been determined one of the GPS units had the wrong time zone was entered into the settings. This does not invalidate the data in any way but led to some confusion when the record session was posted by the timekeeper. The posting has since been corrected.
  3. The rules clearly state that a record attempt and claim must be announced on the forum. It does not state that the attempt must be announced before it is made. (An amendment to rule 5.1 is being formulated after feedback and requests from GPS-SS members which will simplify and clarify the requirements). The reason why a rider needs to announce a claim on a record is to allow other riders the opportunity to protest against a record being claimed by a GPS-speedsurfing or GPS-kitesurfing member while it is being considered by the WGPSSRC. Tom Chalko failed to do so and so was in violation of the rule. The WGPSSRC also failed to check if Tom had posted a claim on the record forum. The WGPSSRC subsequently advised him to post the claim after ratifying the record as the records are new and everyone has to get used to them. The WGPSSRC will pay close attention to record claims in future and will send a message to a rider if he or she forgets to post a claim on the record forum.
  4. It was announced on GPS-SS as far back as late 2008 that GPS records would be sanctioned as from January 2009. The fact that the WGPSSRC had not announced the final rules at that time or started publishing the record rankings does not preclude any sailors making record attempts and claims as long as those claims can satisfy the rules of proof of speed that were subsequently published.
  5. There was forum and on the beach discussion as far back as late 2008 about the proposed main technical requirements (two GT-31 GPS with the same firmware, witnesses and secure handling of the files at the end of the session) and anyone who was interested could have known these requirements from this discussion or by asking the obvious GPS-SS members. Many members did make enquiries and started to go through the procedures in anticipation of making claims in early 2009. As it happens, there has only been one claim made for a date before the rules were finally published but there could well be others.
Thanks for clearing that up Roger and for taking the time to write such a comprehensive clarification of the rules. Thanks also to the records committee.

Regarding point 3, I think the language of the rules is misleading as an attempt by definition is something that happens in the future. Just to be sure as I understand it now, you do not need to announce an attempt only a record claim - correct?

Congrats to Tom Chalko for a successful record claim.

I do have a question about nationality, as I have both a British passport and US permanent residence (I am sure there are others in similar situations). As I have official government documentation that I am a resident of the USA can I file a claim for a US record?
The committee agrees that the wording has turned out to be not clear enough. We are currently considering changes as outlined in another post. At the moment there is no need to pre announce an attempt except for under the conditions outlined in rules 5.2 and 5.3. Record claims should be announced ASAP on the forum.

Your question about nationality is a good one which we will have to consider. We have determined that if you have dual nationality, you must choose one, but your situation is different.
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