From: wwalker@qualcomm.com (Bill Walker)Subject: Re: off off..what is off?> Ya know one thing I never bothered to retain in long term memory was 'off'.> > what does a phrase like 28 off mean? And why is this different than just > plain old measuring from the hook to the handle?It refers to how far the rope has been shortened from the standard 75-footlength, e.g., "22 off" means 22 feet taken off the rope, so the rope is 75-22=53 feet long. So as the "off" number gets bigger, the distance fromthe hook to the handle gets smaller.
Tournament ropes have built-in "take-off loops" at fixed, standardsettings: 15 off, 22 off, 28, 32, 35, 38, 39.5 & 41, if I recallcorrectly. In a slalom tournament, once a skier has cleared the course at36 mph with a 75-foot rope, they start shortening the rope, one loopshorter for each pass through the course, until the skier finally can'tget around all the bouys (OK, this is an oversimplification, because somepasses are routinely skipped, but it's the basic idea). The skier who canget around the most bouys with the shortest rope wins. The skier's scoreis sometimes expressed as the number of bouys succesfully rounded at theshortest line length attained, e.g., "4 @ 38 off" means the skier gotaround all 6 bouys (and the entry and exit gates) at all passes down to 35off, then got around 4 bouys successfully in his 38 off pass. The currentworld record is something @ 41 off, which means the skier is using a ropethat's only 34 feet long to get around bouys that are 37.5 feet from thecenter of the course!
> > I have a back hook not a center post in case you're wondering.Makes no difference, except that it's harder to shorten the line. Themeasurement refers only to the length of the rope.
----------Bill Walker - WWalker@qualcomm.com - QUALCOMM, Inc., San Diego, CA USA
