"Load Bearing Surface"

[ChrisH]

Originally Posted by Natchez

....Personally, I sure hope that straddling the zone does not turn into another, "They didn't call it during the first regional week so it is okay to do" rule.

Are you in the same boat as we are in?
Lucien

I'm with you on this one, though most of my team leaders are planning to take this approach. Fortunately, we have been able to change our approach to the autoloader and get teras without changing our design. We just have to make sure a front wheel is on the tip of the triangle.

So our approach is "if they are penalizing the "straddle" we do the "toe touch", if not we go in straight and "straddle"". If it gets to be a real issue then we will make changes at the event. We currently have weight to play with so adding a "load bearing surface" in a convenient place shouldn't be a problem.

I regard the rule as it stands as difficult to enforce at best. Reverting to just having to be in the three dimensional space above the tetra would be a better option. I personally think it will devolve to this in practice if not in the rule book. Every year there are rules that are functionally changed during the course of the season, even if the change never makes it to the rule book. Our team leaders regard this rule as this year's version.

The other rule they feel falls into this catagory is the high speed ramming rule. We are expecting to get hit repeatedly and hard and are designing protective measures. Even if this rule is enforced during the qualification rounds, we are expecting that it will be relaxed in the Eliminations.

If FIRST is serious about these rules, they need to be enforced rigorously at ALL Week 1 competitions. The refs, especially the head refs, need to be experienced and know the intentions of the rules. This goes double for any events that are broadcast or webcast.