I'm with Jeremy. Nice. Countires that don't have existings teams or athletes will make a plan. If they've got whitewater, then they'd get paddling. Everyone would like to represented at an olympic level... Even with little cash, playboating is still more affordable than plenty other sports, and i know a hundred other people would disagree...

i think that if it was then it would become a trndy thing with loads of rich idiots i used to bmx butbecause it was so fashionable and evryone was doing it made it realy boring i think that kayaking is good because its so fun but also because the only people that reely do it are reely into it.

True. The people who do paddle, really are good people (99% of the time anyway)

I dont think that playboating should be in the olympics at all. It would be held on a useless little feature (like the last worlds) and would be confusing and aesthically unappealing to people who dont know about it.

The reason people who dont know about snowboarding or skiing watch it is because its still looks cool to see someone 10 foot above a half pipe even if you dont know what their trying to do. Seeing somone on a 5 foot wide hole about 2 foot in the air (at best) wouldnt have the same appeal.

Also extra rules and regulations on boat length etc would probably be added which wouldnt really bring much to the sport.

Also the eddie queue at Hurley's long enough anyway without a load more people who've seen it on tv coming along, lol.

I don't want to see freestyle become part of the worst tendency of competition: the "MEDAL COUNT"

paddling is an international family. Let's keep it that way. Let our arguements be about boat design and such. Things that family argue over. But the understanding is FAMILY. The Olympics just make things into a stupidly divided "medal count" that divides us all into stupic political borders.

Slalom is already there. So fine. Keep it an Olympic sport so that we can say that we are making Olympic Slalom courses everywhere, and politicians will be impressed with themselves and support whitewater courses. But let's leave freestyle alone.

Every other year there is the world champs. Great. Someone wins and we all go "oooooooo, aaaaaaahhhhhhh" And their sponsors advertise the crap out them (as if it was the boat and not the athlete, PUHlease....) We, who really know the deal, know that an incredible ATHLETE did a terrific job in his free boatl, and we all respect his/her accomplishment (but go buy the boat that we like better anyway...)

If there was a way to show the fiesty, fighting, loving, world-wide family that truely is kayaking, then I'd say, YES, put freestyle in the Olympics. Until that happens, I say, F*** the Olympic corporation!!!!!

i think if people seen rodeo on the olympics and alot more people get into the sport that would be great but what about our eddys? they will end up packed with people and there already full of people up here on the (OTTAWA RIVER)

its not abpout the medal count, its about exposure. Plus, hopefully the event would be held on a nice wave rather than a hole, wave tricks are way cooler to watch than hole trick.( most of the time)

I really don't think the General Public would understand Freestyle (Rodeo) Kayaking!! Terms like Helix, Donkey Flip, and even Cartwheel would be to difficult for the average joe/jill to understand. Most people do not understand Snowboarding at the Olympics, they watch to see the air and if anyone wipes out!! Neither of which are spectacular in Kayaking!!!

I agree that the slalom courses should be used for more then 1 Event (K1, C1, C2). However go along the lines of snowboarding and get something that is entertaining to watch for the average joe/jill. Boatercross is simple, and you can see a stand alone winner!!

Cheers
Andrew

it would ruin the sport if it was in the olympics. its supposed to be fun, people have started taking it far too seriously as it is, so putting it in the olympics is going to take it to a whole new level, people will stop talking, start getting pissed off when they cant nail a move, and throwing tantrums when people get in the way or distract them. i used to race for the gb slalom team and the above reasons are exactly why i quit, it got too serious, and no one was havingfun anymore. i start back paddling 4 years later and what do i find out? that people are starting to take freestyle as serious. its stupid. what happened to having fun? freestyle used to be so relaxed, now its getting to the point where people are training weeks in advance for competitions, and visualising their runs etc.

the olympics will ruin freestyle.

I agree with Sandy. Freestyle is abouat having fun and the olympics will ruin it.

yah i agree.
i think that yes it would be good as a exhibition kinda thing but as soon as it becomes mainstream it would lose something.

also the events like Peak Uk, Quicksilver and all the others are a lot cooler and they are about having fun with winning being a bonus instead of doing just for the win.

i think the same would be true for surfing if that ever got anymore mainstream

[quote:df87e0a61b="jackb"]i think that if it was then it would become a trndy thing with loads of rich idiots i used to bmx butbecause it was so fashionable and evryone was doing it made it realy boring i think that kayaking is good because its so fun but also because the only people that reely do it are reely into it.[/quote:df87e0a61b]

I agree, playholes are usually crowded enough, we don't need millions of people trying to get into the sport, crowding our favorite spots. On the other hand it would be great to have it Televised, and I wonder if the 'fashionability' of playboating would wear off after a few years?

F*&K playboating, its fun and all, but if you want non kayaker buyin, get timed creekin races made into an olympic sport. People want to see hucking in action, not sitting and spinning! TAI, all those folks in TV land goin, "S*&T, those mofos is CRAZY!" everytime some dope drops sideways off a 10-20 ft falls. It would be like nascar, people would watch just to see people get trashed.


T

You make a good point, as exciting as it is for us to watch people catch all of two feet of air, most people would probably be more excited watching someone miss a boof off a 20 foot falls and get thrashed in the hole.

yea but that would limit the venue where they could hold the olympics. A hole can be put at the bottom of the slalom run. And why dont we worry about getting creeking and Playboating in the X-games and then go from there.

The X games or Lg Action games would make more sense than the bloody olympics.

I think it should but i think a lot of extreme sports should be. tbh though i agree with the previous comment and would be better to pout it into the x-games/gravity games/LG etc.
I just wish there was more freestyle shown on TV. Infact i hardly ever see any kayaking of any sorts!!! lol

(Uk)

Channel 4 sunday mornings
'Freestyle on 4'
was o'niel competion surfing in scotland this morning.

if not the summer olympics why not the winter lol im sure there are a few of us nutty enough to have some fun on a down hill slope in a kayak , best time to the bottom wins

I dont think this is a good idea for several reasons:

The competition would be held at a poor feature, ie small hole on a slalom course. This has been a major factor against the worlds as of late, with many top name paddlers not going to the worlds. (not all, credit to the people that competed well) The next worlds will be on Bus Eater, a direction the sport needs to go in. If freestyle was in the Olympics, it would be a step backwards in terms of venue.

Restrictions would have to put in place on new types of boats, moves, paddles. This would stagnate the sport, which has seen plenty of recent growth.

Freestyle isnt as fun to watch as snowboarding for non boaters, especially not in a little slalom hole.

A lot of top paddlers smoke pot, and off season drug testing would discourage many of these from entering. People mightnt like this but its the truth

i don't see why it can't be, but then again it is hard to decide a winner. im just glad the dession is out of my hand so it dosen't consern me too much

Interesting debate - one thing I don't think that's been mentioned so far; if freestyle went in, then some other canoeing discipline or event would very liekly need to come out. There's huge pressure on Olympic organising committees to keep the numbers of athletes within a limit - so for a new sport to come in, a sport somewhere else needs to come out. There was a huge and long political fight to get slalom in hte games - after 72 it took 20 years, and most of the opposoition came from within the canoeing community i.e nations that were strong in flatwater, but not slalom, who didn't want to lose opportunities to win medals. So, assume there was sufficient political support for freestylye - where does it come from? Only from nations interested in winning medals, who don't already have a good chance of winning in other canoeing disciplines or sports. No support from the flatwater nations (e.g hungary, romania, italy, etc), WW nations (e.g france, czech, germany) may be interested, but not if it compromises slalom. Which it could do, although the argument of getting more use out of an expensive slalom course would be appealing to the bean counters. But do you really want to spend months and months getting good on a slalom course?

And to back up earlier comments - the olympics would raise the profile - at least once every 4 years - but I think would hurt the spirit of the sport. Closest comparison probably snow-boarding, which is counter cultural to most olympic sports.

i work in a snowboarding shop, i also ride for the shop. when the olympics were on there was so much hype about it all, and we noticed a considerable rise in customers in comparison to normal. which is good fo us, but on the slopes its manic. everyone like to think theyre shaun white or hannah teter. the attitude of people changes and it all gets way too serious. but now we're back to normal again.
the same would happen to paddling and its really not a good idea in my opinion.

Its already in the olympics, under the name freestyle isn't it

yeah.. that was my point. once people had seen it on tv everyone wanted a go, and the people that do it already started to take it way too seriously.

slopestyle, halfpipe, or slalom are the 3 main areas.

i would love to see playboating in the olympics and feel it would promote the sport and increase the popularity, but i also dont feel that the scoring would suit the olympics, same as with the diving its an opinional score. Results can be controversial.

Play boating would suit the x games and similiar competitions.

I still dont think that all the 'exposure' kayaking would get would be a good thing...

Isn't Rodeo dead on it's feet already? Why are people determined to hammer the final nail in the coffin and take it in the same direction Slalom went?

As soon as you bring in rules, people will loose interest. Why does kayaking need more media attention? Why compare it to a sport like Snowboarding? Kayaking is nothing like Snowboarding and also will never have the same appeal to the masses.

Kayaking is a fantastic fringe sport that takes you to amazing places, away from all mankinds influences. Part of what is great about it is the fact that it is different and not the norm.

I think the question that needs to be asked is why having more media attention on kayaking will benefit kayakers and our sport?

Perhaps if media attention is the focus of your sport, then perhaps auditioning for pop Idol maybe more appropriate?

i think its odd how the poll shows that people want it in but reading the comments suggests that people think its a bad idea.

im against it, stick to the events that are more fun. (teva Games, X-games, Quicksilver, Peak Uk,world freestyle etc. etc.)

[quote:ef807abe22="sickboy101"]

Kayaking is a fantastic fringe sport that takes you to amazing places, away from all mankinds influences. Part of what is great about it is the fact that it is different and not the norm. [/quote:ef807abe22]

[color=cyan:ef807abe22]I couldn't agree more. Kayaking is not only about the right gear or the being able to do the craziest moves, it's about going to amazing places and having an awesome time with great people. I couldn't be bothered as to whether playboating is in the Olympics or not. It's hard to say if it would impact the sport in a good or bad way. [/color:ef807abe22]