well been reading May's Boards mag and page 88 has a quick scoring system for your sailing, called claimer or flamer, so thought we should all publish our scores:

I make mine 80 (although I'll be improving on that this year)

get your magazine out and start counting

Good idea Paul..... I made mine 86

I did make it 92 to start with, but decided that I couldn't really claim body-dragging as although my stats for that trick do amount to 3 out of 10, I've only ever done 2!!

Theres a long way to go to make the top possible score of 400!!!

If I get the Duck gybe and 360 sorted though I'll mkae it to 100 points.

Al.

yeh I figured it was a good idea, it's a good article as it gives you a few new things to try, I started my score higher, but decided to drop them down, just because I can do things like push tacks on my techno (152litres) it doesn't really count till I can do it on a much smaller board.

Just totted mine up this morning and got 111. Decided I couldn't count 360's as I am only making 20%. It has inspired me to try a few more things rather than the jump, tack, wave ride and gybe rut that I seem to slip into.

It's my ambition to go for a forward this year after 8 years of bottling out, I lost 5 points on the back loop attempts

[Edited on 5-5-2003 by IainO]

My mate Andy did mine... think I limped in at around 30 odd!

It is a good idea on how to measure progress... we¥ve dated it and will do it on the same day next year.

aaargh! avery honest 33 for me, but only because I don't do any freestyle yet! Will update you after 2 weeks in Vass - late June/early July - anyone else going to be out there then?

aaarrgghh! nasty, nasty test! Having read so much on it here, I thought I'd have a look at it last night. I'd just come back from my second 2.5 hour climbing lesson, and was feeling pretty proud of myself for getting started at another sport, and I wish I'd never opened that bl**dy magazine!!! Too embarrased to tell you my score, but let's just say I definitely need some practice!.... mind you I think it was biased, coz there was no questions relating to how sexy you looked in a bikini windsurfing, or how colour co-ordinated your kit was, or even a measure of how quickly you could get changed under a towel without being arrested for indecent exposure!!

Al - How about some clever web thingy where we can put results online & see how others are doing? {not as a competition though}

Mine's well under 100 Perhaps it's time to take a break from out and out blasting this year. Shame there don't seem to be points for basic chop hops though - I'm getting quite keen on my nose-first landings!

OK... I'll have a think about it... I probably shouldn't use the exact same questions etc from the Boards Mag as I'm sure thats copyright protected, but between us we could devise a set of questions and scores that we think are fair.

It would be good to do a windsurfing one, kitesurfing one and surfing one and show the scores for each individual category as well as the overall score.

I'll post again later when i've had a think about how to do it and the problems / limitations and then we should start devising the questions.... Thats if people want me to do it???

Al.

BTW Markh...There is a score for chop hop...it gives you a massive 1 point for it!!!

OK, I've had a think about it. If some people want to help me out with the questions and the scoring then I reckon I could do it. I'd like it to incorporate a couple of different sports as well, and I'd like to make it slightly less depressing than the one in Boards.

Just by weighting the scoring system a little differently and maybe by adding a system whereby you get points if you've completed a manouvre/skill once or twice, more points if you make it 25% of the time, more for 50% and more again for 75%+. Although, setting up the form to implement this would be a little trickier.

As far as the technicalities go then the easiest way would be to just have a form with a series of questions / skills listed for each sport that you tick if the answer is 'yes'. When you submit the form each question has a score which is totaled up and all that would be stored in the database would be your username and the total scores for each sport... That would be the easy way of doing it, but it wouldn't remember which questions you had answered 'yes' to, so if you wanted to update your score at a later date you'd have to work your way through the whole questionaire again... I take it you wouldn't be happy with that??

The other way would be to store your answers to each individual question in a database so that you can edit your own personal 'skills questionaire' at a later date. If you'd prefer it this way, the next question is.... Should you be able to see the answers that other people have given, or just their final scores???

Other than that, there are a few technicalities to work out as far as generating the form goes, but the rest should be fairly straight forward....

Let me know what you think: Should the system remember your answers? Should you be able to see other peoples individual answers or just their scores?

Once we've sorted that out we can start to devise the questions themselves and the weightings for the scoring system.

Post any suggestions here.

Al.

I like the idea of a database that you could update and review.

I didn't like the Boards questions, as it basically ignores or belittles social windsurfers. I managed to get to 24 points , and I don't think I'm that bad, yes I know I can't do some simple stuff that I ought to but I can't see that system encouraging beginners.

I noticed Paul dropped his score cos he's on a big board, but we should all remember there is no purpose to windusrfing.

There is nothing wrong with doing Heli-tacks/rig flips/etc/ on big boards in little wind. I know that planing is what the sport is all about, but there are some good sailors out there who have never tried a Flare Gybe, and have not battled for hours trying to make them better.

Just remember why you do it, I still remember that feeling when I managed to stay upright for all of ten feet. It was great, and I wouldn't have missed (or rushed past) any step along the way.

Excellent!

I'm more than happy for others to see the list of things that I can and can't do, which as you say also means its going to have to remember what specific answers we give. It'll inspire me to improve - perhaps we can highlight recent additions to congratulate people when someone pulls off something new?!

I can see it's more development time for you than I had envisaged Al. My dev expertise doesn't go much further than simple spreadsheets really but I'll have a browse around when i get a chance and see if there are any sites with an appropriate model.

Mark (+1 for chop hops)

OK.... If there no wind and no surf this weekend and we don't have to move all our stuff from one garage to another (don't ask) then i'll start work on it over the weekend.

I'll make it so that it remembers all your answers so you can easily update it and so that others can view your answers should they so wish.

I'll aim to weght the scoring system so that it rewards you for trying things.
i.e. 1 point for trying it. 2 for making 0-10%, 3 for 10-50% 5 for 50%+ (or something along those lines)....

Hopefully then it'll encourage us to go for a few things we wouldn't normally try. If you're out sailing and know that just going for something will gain you an extra point you might go for it. Then once you've tried it (which is often half the battle), you may as well keep trying it until you do one just for another point!!

Obviously some of the bigger moves will have higher points associated with them, but not too much higher as people doing forwards etc will already have points for all the lesser skills anyway.

Hopefully, not only will it be a bit of fun and a way of seeing what everyone can do, but in the long run it'll make us all better sailors / surfers etc and also make us enjoy our session more as we'll be going for new things.

I'll build the database and the scripts associated with it, test it with a few questions and then draft up the whole windsurf questionaire as soon as I have time. Once I've done that I'll let you see the questionaire for you comments and to allow us to add skills or adjust the scoring before I set it all up as a proper front end to the database...

I'll build it in such a way that makes it easy for me to add new manouvres, just in case someone learns to do a one handed, one footed, clew first, switch stance Flaka on a tandem and find that their latest and greatest move doesn't score them any new points.

Looks like I've got my work cut out, I'll hopefully get onto it soon.

Al.
P.S. Mark I had thought of doing somehting like this anyway, so its not entirely your fault that I now have all this work to do!!

Just to let you know that I have started work on this new feature, but its windy at the moment and looks set to stay that way for a few days, so I won't make much progress on it this week!

I've also decided to make it so that it will store 'historical data' and will build a front end to it so that you can view your progress over time via some sort of simple graph.

Al.

This sounds like a good idea... I haven't seen the article as i don't get Boards but a way of tracking your improvement especially for beginners sounds like fun.

SV

Hmmm

I seem to be the perfect 10, although I don't think that is very good in this case.

It did set me thinking though. 10 would seem like a real beginers score, but I would class myself as past that level. Maybe Al could do two surveys/databases. One for Experts and one for 'the rest of us'. That way the 'targets' may be more realistic......

Can/should a seasoned sailor claim points for a beachstart?

By choosing which survey to fill in you can ensure that you don't depress yourself (as I did yesterday )

As I am writing this I realise that Boards almost did this by breaking the survey down into 4 sections. From my side of the fence I wish they had split the survey across a few more copies of the mag.

Oh well, I am off to take up Extreme Ironing

http://www.urbanhousework.com/ />

Don't worry Sean......you weren't the only one!
I'm always quite chuffed if I can stay on the board, or get into the harness for the first time as I did this weekend
I'm just waiting for my week in Vass in a month's time....then perhaps I'll make it into double figures!!

Vass in a months time should be great, if a little crowded on the water. I will be in France at the same time, so weather permitting I should be able to improve my stoked rating if not my point score.

Mind you I may have to get Al to include "Teaching Friend to Windsurf" as an activity as my friend is very keen and if the wind does not blow enough I could just spend lots of time sailing round him as he is learning....still it could be the ideal opportunity to learn some low wind freestyle tricks....now theres an idea.

Congrats with the harness. Did you also achieve any good catapults?

Have a great time in Vass, its a great place!

Just letting you know that I haven't forgotten about this. I'n getting there, just very slowly as I've been working hard for a change.

I've built the interface and the engine behind the 'Are you a Force-of-Nature' questionnaire and I've started on the questions. I've done the:

• Basic Skills
  
• Intermediate skills and gybing
  
• Fresstyle
  

• Jumps
  
• Aerial Freestyle
  
• Wave sailing