ORIENTEERING CANADA

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ORIENTEERING CANADA

Editor : Juri Peepre

Now to Spell Your Sport 2

Silva s orienteering in varied terrain $

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Europe '74 ......... 0 oo 000000 6

Leadership Course

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W.O.C. '74

O'ree an T. Ring

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Misplaced Controls

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Swedish Tour

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Technical Motes

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Course-setting Competition 22

Aerial '0' 25

Letters 28

Canadian Clubs 29

Canadian Championships 30

EDITORS NOTES...

The lull in orienteering activ-ities has finally arrived --the fall season is over and the winter fast approaches. A chance for a change of pace, perhaps even an opportunity to keep one's mind away from orienteering: After all, there are only ski '0' meets to plan, maps to be drawn, field work to be done, preparations for the spring events, annual general meetings, board meetings, committee meetings, club meetings, club projects to be undertaken and a host of other activities. Orienteering eventually becomes a state of mind, a way of life; pace-counting to the grocery-store, drawing knolls on scraps of paper, and day-dreaming of an endless stream of red and white markers "spiked" -- on the first attempt. Yes, a state of mind. Occasionally the spirits sag and one wonders why -- why the neurosis to convert 20 million people into orienteers. The impossibility of the task, the disappointments, the frustra-tion. How do you explain that running or jogging (and slogging) through the woods is a happiness?

But then something happens --a beautiful autumn day, a massive sense of excitement, and 600 enthusiastic Canadians

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are running, jogging, and hiking over the Niagara Escarpment, 600 Canadians participating in what was billed as a localized "B" meet. Suddenly it seems inappropriate to ask any questions. The challenge, it seems, is not to attract orienteers, but rather to provide sufficient oppor-tunity for all those wishing to orienteer: Back to work:

Develop our permanent orien-teering will soon become a way of life for many, many more Canadians than the relative handful now involved.

The winter lull is not a lull at all, but a time to consolo-date our ideas, attract more club members into leadership roles, and approach the upcoming season with a fresh strength of organization and enthusiasm.

PHOTO CREDITS: Harold Whyte Andy Baxter

TYPING: Debby Ricci

HOW TO SPELL YOUR SPORT The word orienteering is not easy to communicate. Upon initial contact the majority of people reply ori- what? Furthermore we are referred to as the orienting clan or the orientation experts. Its not an easy name to sell -- even after repeated exposure, many people simply mumble orienkgfgation in a low tone making it seem as if there's something unpleasant being mentioned: Oh for a word like golf, football, or tennis:

But it is the word we've inherited -- the least we can do is spell it correctly -- which is the topic at hand. There is simply no such creature as an orienteerer or even an orienteererer! Have you ever heard of a mountaineerer? We are orienteers: There sits an orienteer.

There are enough ee's and r's without adding half a dozen more

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S I LVA ORIENTEERING IN VARIED TERRAIN by Bab Kaill

The development of the Silva compass can be traced back to 1926 when Gunnar Tillandar first showed his compass with a plastic base plate to Torsten Tegner (who didn't consider it especially note-worthy.) This same year, two borthers (Bjorn and Alvar) were growning jealous of their older brother, Arvid. The basis of this jealousy was a liquid compass that their father had brought back from Norway and given to Arvid. This meant not only that Arvid had a compass with a better dampened needle, but that he could turn the housins in the special wooden base that their father, Simon, had made for it. When these things were added to the angle measurer that Arvid had invented, well, Arvid had too great an orien-teering advantage which just wasn't fair! It was extremely unfair!!!!

Before judging the brothers too harshly, you should be reminded that all other orienteers were using air compasses. In order to know which direction to travel, they had to lay on the ground, flatten out their maps and place their clock air-dampened compasses on them. Then it was a matter of carefully turning the maps until north on the map corresponded with the compass needle. Then with the use of an angle measurer, the angle between north and the direction for travel could be measured. This was a time-consuming procedure and a liquid compass made a big dif-ference.

But the young Kjellstroms were not boys who sat around moaning Over their misfortune. Instead, they got to work and designed a little liquid compass of their own, which could be mounted in a new bakelite carrying 'box' (plate) that the military had just begun to use (with an air compass.) They persuaded a company to pro-duce a couple of these com-passes at 50 kronor apiece (no small sum in those days) and they they were equipped to face their brother. During this time, other experiments were also going on. One fellow came to each race, took the top off his compass, immersed it in a cup of liquid and then replaced the top. Thus he had a "refillable" liquid compass.

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However, the 'Kjellstrom' com-pass was a little more practical and soon they had a little business going selling a small number of special 'orienteering' compasses.

In 1930, an unofficial Swedish Championship was held and the orienteers from Stockholm became the immediate envy of everyone, because with their new compasses they didn't need to lay down on the ground to decide which direction to travel.

Two years later, the Kjellstrom brothers (who were incidently the top team of orienteers in Sweden just then) approached Torsten Tegner, editor and owner of the Swedish Sports Paper, and talked him into loaning them 10,000 kronor in order to enter the compass market on a larger scale. During the next two seasons they produced and sold about 5,000 metal compasses. These air-dampened compasses were the first Silva compasses to be marketed.

In the meantime, Gunnar Tillander had been 'secretly' at work improving his 1926 compass. However, his im-provements didn't solve his marketing problems, until one of his friends suggested that he approach the Kjellstroms.

As a consequence, he entered a partnership in which he was responsible for production and the Kjellstroms for marketing a new kind of compass which they designed co-operatively.

According to this 1934 agree-ment, the brothers were res-ponsible for selling a minimum of 2,000 compasses every year. To fill this tremendous number, they started a marketing drive with the slogan "The Silva System - One Grip Exact Bearing". In co-operation with other en-thusiastic orienteers, they began producing instructional and promotional brochures, as well as a series of instructional articles which were carried by newspapers across the country.

Needless to say, the 2,000 figure proved to be an easy match and throughout the years numerous moves had to be made to larger and larger premises. In the autumn of 1973, a move was made into a new large building, especially constructed for Silva production. A recent tour around this new plant (15km north of Stockholm) with Frank Lindberg (Silva's administrative director and an orienteer that led the ski-orienteering section of the Swedish Ski Association for 15 years) revealed many interesting details. During part of the

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tour, Henry Sandberg (Director for research and development), who joined the Kjellstroms as early as 1933 explained technical details.

In the large room with special air-conditioning to keep the air clean for the compasses, there were 60 people making compasses of different shapes and sizes for orienteering, boating and flying. All in all, there were 120 different types and variations.

Needles were being clipped and painted. Some of the workers were sitting in their own little rooms about 2m x 2m x 2m. The rooms consisted of a metal frame with magnetic currents flowing through them, in order that each compass needle could be carefully weighted to correspond to the magnetic zone for which it was designated. (These little rooms had no walls or ceiling.) Each com-pass is constructed so that a 7° angle won't affect the movement of the needle, but if a North American should take his compass to Australia he or she would have to hold it pointing at an angle of about 20° into the ground in order to get the needle to swing correctly.

At the same time, compass housings were being clipped out and the needle after being weighted could be mounted

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and tested. The following step was to weld the whole thing together with ultra-sound.

Next, we moved over to the lab where the compass housings were sent to be immersed in a min-eral terpentine (used because it gives no rust) and put under high vaccuum pressure. This pressure was to draw all the air out of the compass housing and out of the terpentine. The compasses were left at this stage for about 60 minutes before the hole through which the liquid enters the housing was sealed off and the vaccuum pressure removed.

Following this, only the simpler process of mounting the housing on the base plate was left.

Altogether 5 sizes of capsules were being produced and needles being weighted for 5 magnetic zones (ie. 25 varieties of orienteering compasses.) They also produce 6 types of compasses for boats and planes, each of which can be modified to accommodate 5-7 different zones.

Just in case, you think Silva only makes compasses, I might mention their highly computer-ized machines which cut out pieces for cash registers to such high precision that no snading is needed. In addition, a number of machines turn out special bindings for cross-country skiing (began in 1939-40). They expect to sell about

200,000 of their "Snabber" model during 1974-75. Already 20,000 pair are on order destined for Canada this winter.

But going back to compasses, perhaps some of you wonder how far Silva has surpassed their contracted 2,000 compasses per year? For you a few numbers might be in order. For example, 75% of Silva compasses are exported to 42 different countries and compasses make up 75% of Silva's total sales. In 1955, the contracted 2,000 was exceeded by approximately 1,598,000 and in 1973 by about 2,498,000. Thus you may realize that Alvar had other business to take care of when he generously gave me 2 hours of his time to discuss the development of the compass and orienteering in Sweden and Canada.

Leadership Course Most orienteers in Canada are familiar with the Leadership Development Clinic held in Guelph during August. The week long workshop has already, only a few months after its completion, resulted in a phenomenal boost to orienteering in Canada. The course under the direction of Sass Peepre, essentially made orienteering a truly national sport in Canada. Rather than a lengthy report to struggle through, a three-page photo essay is included in this issue, to tell at least part of the story!

EUROPE -74 Several Canadian orienteers travelled to Europe this past summer, and although much has already been written concern-ing their activities, a recap will be worthwhile: for those orienteers that have been lucky enough to compete abroad, the desire is to communicate this experience as broadly as possible. Over a period of a month to eight weeks, about 20 orienteers participated in

numerous competitions, train-ing camps, and clinics, in three Scandinavian countries.

A team of four; Ron Green, Ron Lowery, Pam McIntosh, and Juri Peepre represented Canada at this first staging of a world student championship held in southern Sweden.

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First impressions left the idea that the championship would be a typical student gathering in the local village pub -- but after the first training session most participants were set straight: Many of the teams were represented by leading world class orienteers, and the tone of the event changed to serious competition. But the Canadians were impressed with the friend-liness of all orienteers, and the willingness to share know-ledge of orienteering techniques.

The first day's competition proved to be an ultimate test of sand stomping -- the course was laid out alongside the Baltic Sea, and the sand dunes reached heights of 50 feet. However, the Finns managed a winning time averaging under 6.00 minutes per kilometre, with Canadians turning in 8.00 minutes per kilometre times.

The second day's course was held in terrain very similar to the Ottawa or Montreal area, except for the profusion of trails. Our team fared much better over the 13.5 km distance, although our individual results were still posted in the bottom third. Relays are invariably fun, and this aspect of the champion-ship was no exception. The terrain was very fast -- mean-ing that it was as if someone speeded up the film and one found oneself 100m past the control before even expecting to approach the attack point.

Pam McIntosh turned in a very respectable time, placing in mid-field. The boys also improved their performance, and alas the team managed to defeat one or two teams.

Final placings: the Finns in general out-classed the field, although it was a Swede who won the individual men's event. Our team was not frustrated with law placings -- indeed we became more enthusiastic as it became evident what a fine spirit of orienteer-ing prevailed. That spirit hopefully can be shared by grow-ing numbers of Canadians.

Andy de St. Croix sprinting

to the finish

FORSAKER CONFERENCE July 1 - July 6, 1974

In July of this year three delegates from Canada attended an International Orienteering Conference held in Forsaker, Sweden. They were Mall Feepre, Gord Hunter and Margie James. The conference was sponsored by S.O.F.T. A total of 37 people attend from 17 countries. Thirty-one instruc-tors came from Denmark, Norway, Finland and, of course, Sweden. Delegates attended from five continents from places such as Brazil, Australia and Tunisia.

Many of the participants were newcomers to orienteering, and their purpose in attending was to start the sport in their country. Others were there to learn as much as possible during the one-week course.

The main theme of the conference was to learn by doing - map makers spent the whole week on related activities and came up with a map. I attended a very general section, and we did such things as elemen-tary map making, field work on a base map near Forsaker, course setting, and technique training. One day we attended the World Student Games to observe one method of relay organization. Fart of each day was spent in discussion and we had experts speak to us on such subjects as recreational orienteering -- trim

courses in Norway and Sweden, promotion, club organization, theory in course setting, teach-ing novices, military orienteer-ing. We were able to run on many good maps (when we had time --sometimes at 6:30 in the morning:). One wet afternoon one of us ran one of the legs of the Student • Championship courses.

The conference was conducted mainly in English with German and Spanish interpreters present. The Swedish Orienteering Federation was most generous in every way and the opportunity to attend such a workshop conference was much appreciated.

Margie James

YOUTH CAMP

The second International Youth Camp was held in southern Sweden this past summer and centred in the town of Tyringe. The Swedish Orienteering Federation hosted and absorbed the costs for dele-gates from 13 nations this year, including Canadian representatives -- Jack Lee (leader), Ted de St. Croix, and Ian Brennan.

The primary aim of the Youth Camp was to improve orienteering technique while at the same time foster international good-will among the orienteering nations of the world. Certainly the 1974 camp achieved both of these aims.

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In the learning of orienteering techniques both leaders and youth benefitted from small group instruction methods, know-ledgeable instructors, and well-planned activities. Each day a different skill was emphas-ized. The usual pattern was for small groups to work together on a more individual basis in the afternoon. Nevertheless, the afternoon sessions were still organized so that the instructor would be able to observe each individual in the group on some leg of the course. Courses were extremely well planned to promote utilization of the single skill being practised.

developed. At these meetings I was most impressed with the Swede's concern for excellence of instruction and with their thorough concern for the progress of individual delegates.

I would like to thank the Can-adian Orienteering Federation personally, and on behalf of Ted and Ian for extending to us the opportunity to attend the International Youth Camp. I would also strongly urge maxi-mum participation in all such future international endeavours since we have a great deal to gain and to contribute.

Jack Lee Possibly of even greater value to the participants than the im-provement of orienteering techniques was the immeasurable value to the individual of par-ticipating in an "international" atmosphere. Certainly communica-tion barriers dissolved and international relations were strengthened not only through the common experience of orienteering, but through the day to day sharing of thoughts.

Leaders not only benefitted from the same experiences as the youth delegates, but in addition were able to attend the daily planning meetings of the instructors. In this way we witnessed the inside picture of some of the problems and successes of the camp as they

OAINGEN

What needs to be said? The new '0' film entitled "What Makes Them Run" explains the mammoth 5-days orienteering event far better than words could! This past summer over 20 Canadians participated -- and all returned with an enthusiasm unique to 0-Ringen veterans.

The exciting result of this year's trip however, is the prospect of chartering a flight to Sweden for next years 0-Ringen. The trip could conceivably last two weeks and include up to 10 orienteering events.

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Group rates for flights are also available at a considerable discount. Think about it -- a 1 or 2 week orienteering vacation! Its not a week of pressure competition, but rather a massive orienteering festival with 10,000 participants from 25 countries.

W.O.C. '74

"WM-74" became a familiar symbol, for a number of Can-adian orienteers this year. "WeltMeisterschaften", meaning 'the world championships', were held in Denmark, September 18-22, 1974. Viborg, in the middle of Jutland, was the main center.

The site of the individual event came as a complete sur-prise to everyone as the area bordered a city (Silkeborg.) The Danes use the international green 'shadings' to represent forest density and the champion-ship maps were liberally covered with green. On the other hand, the courses were set to allow a great deal of trail running and the "white" areas were very open also, allowing for fast progress. That the area was fast, was clearly shown by the winner of the men's event, Bernt Frillen, from Sweden, who covered the 15.9km. course in 1:35.48 or 5:56 per km.

The best Canadian performance was turned in by Pam McIntosh who showed steady improvement during training in July and September. Pam placed 35th with a time of 1:36.19 for the 7.9km. women's course, which was won by the Danish girl, Mona Norgaard in 1:03.43.

The weather turned bad for the relays and everyone was thoroughly drenched. The terrain was even hillier than for the individual event, which in combination with the Farsta relay method rapidly spread out the teams times.

The Swedish men proved unbeat-able again as they finished the first leg with more than a 6 min. lead, extended by 2 minutes on the 2nd leg, maintained on the third and jumped to 15 minutes and 59 seconds by Bernt Frilen on the anchor.

Our team came 11th of 15, which can be considered satisfactory for 1974, while leaving room for improvement by our up-and-coming young orienteers who we'll see in '76.

Our women's team had a bad day, finishing last in the 14-country field, but once again the best Canadian performance for the day came from Pam McIntosh whose 1:13.43 on the 2nd leg was only 18 minutes slower than that of former world champion, Ingrid Radler.

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Relay - Men

1. Sweden - Rolf Pettersson - 1:14.43 - Gunnar Ohlund - 1:13.21 - Arne Johansson - 1:14.06 - Bernt Frilen - 1:07.17

4:49.27

11. Canada - Ron Lowry - Bob Kaill - Gord Hunter - Paul Kaki

- 1:44.15 - 1:41.05 - 1:31.55 - 1:48.51

6:46.06

In summing up, Denmark hosted a well-arranged WM-74 in beautiful terrain. The training and competition was also an inspir-ing and educational experience which Canadians will hopefully see mirrored in the future activities of our representatives.

Bob Kaill

Women Individual - 7.9km.

1. Mona Norgaard -DK- 1:03.43 2. Kristin Cullman S- 1:06.43 3. O. Borgenstrom-SF- 1:02.11 35. Pam McIntosh -CDN- 1:36.19 44. Irene Jensen -CDN- 1:49.46 51. Sheila Mitham-CDN- 2:15.12

Relay - Women

1. Sweden - Birgitta Larsson- 1:01.03 - Monica Andersson- 1:01.07 - Kristin Cullman - 49.36

2:51.36

14. Canada - Irene Jensen - 2:09.46 - Pam McIntosh - 1:13.43 - Sheila Mitham - 2:11.56

5:35.25

Men Individual - 15.9km

1. Bernt Frilen - S- 1:35.48 2. Jostein Hfaerestad

- N- 1:40.45 3. Oystein Weltzein N- 1:42.32

45. Bob Kaill -CDN- 2:12.44 47. Gord Hunter -CDN- 2:13.36 51. Ron Lowry -CDN- 2:19.20 66. Paul Kaki -CDN- 2:37.08 69 Russ Evans -CDN- 2:37.59

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O F Ree an T. Ring During our relentless search to unearth articles of inter-est for 'Orienteering Canada' we attend many orienteering events, to try and capture the mood of the competitors, and the atmosphere of the event. At this year's Ontario Championship we came across a somewhat despondent orienteer from Quebec. No doubt he had lost his map or broken his compass, so we commiserated with him. He told us the reason for his "hang dog" expression. We immediately felt we need look no further for our article. So read on about Colin Kirk and his trip to Vineland, and all you fathers and mothers with orienteering sons and daughters, take heed, the day of reckoning is nigh.

The 1974 Ontario Orienteering Championship was meant to be one of the highlight events of the season for me. All of the ingredients that make for a memorable event were promised. The meet was being held in the Banana Belt of Canada, the Niagara Peninsula. This assured outstanding weather and nice easy courses, set amid the orchards and vineyards around the village of Vineland. The name of Vineland conjured up mental pictures of large jugs of cool fruit juices standing

on tables at the finish area, awaiting the pleasures of hordes of hot, tired and very thirsty orienteers.

We also were assured a good map and courses from Dick and Ted de St. Croix. The meet organization would be well handled by "The Silent Hunter" Lyn Russell.

Competition would be keen, as the members of the Canadian and United States World Teams would be competing. An extra bonus was the participation of Gunnar Ohlund, a member of Sweden's World Championship Team.

As I left Montreal on the Friday evening I was in an excellent frame of mind. It was a beautiful evening, clear skies, a full moon, temperatures in the mid 60's, and a glorious week-end of weather forecast.

For travelling companions I had my 13 year old son Christopher and a Junior girl member of our Club, Pia Amping. Christopher and Pia were planning on sleeping out "under the Starts", while I was con-templating the luxury of a motel room all to myself for the week-end.

Around midnight, and some 40 m miles from our destination, I

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was starting to get drowsy and beginning to imagine things. For instance, I thought I could see some raindrops on the windshield, and even imagined that I heard thunder. I rubbed my eyes, but the rain drops refused to go away, in fact they increased in velocity. I philosophically accepted the rain as a "Summer Shower", and thought that it was better now than during the meet. The shower would help to cool off the scorched earth around the Niagara Regan.

On arriving at the hamlet of Fonthill, it was decided that due to the lateness of the hour, plus the short rain shower, that Christopher and Pia would sleep in the motel room. However, they had set their minds on using their sleeping bags, so these were promtly unrolled and laid on the floor. I had planned on having the room to myself, but at least I had the bed to myself.

Next morning I was awakened by the noise of the rain and wind battering the room windows. The summer shower had blossomed into a full fledged monsoon. Looking at it on the positive side I thought that at least I would have no problems getting water if my car radiator boiled over during the heat of the day.

The rain stopped during the day; for two minutes while I was in the toilet. I did not actually see it stop, but I did not hear it pounding on the roof.

Actually, during the race I did not notice the rain, I was too busy trying to keep my balance sliding and slithering down muddy hillsides, and trying to obtain toe holds to clamber up steep ravines. I was getting one of my wishes, in that I was running through vines, only they were not the variety that I had hoped for. It was my belief that Vineland was named for an abundance of fruit vines, I now realize that it was someone with a malicious sense of humour who had named it thus. The vines that I was running amid were the clinging, tearing, clawing type found in Equatorial jungles, and which grew in wild profusion along the Power Line areas.

Now anyone knowing the area may well ask why I was running along the Power Lines at all. That is another story. I was perhaps over-excited that I was doing so well, and could already taste the spoils of victory. I had found control 1 in remarkably quick order, and flushed with success had confidently set my compass and headed off to control 2.

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In my haste, I set my compass using the Power Line (which runs East-West) as my North-South meridian, and consequent-lyran confidently off in a direction 90 degrees from the one I wanted. Some 25 minutes later, and rather disillusioned, I was fighting the vines and thinking that a machete would be more use to me than my compass.

At least I had got a bad race out of my system and day 2 would reveal my true form. Now I would have a nice hot shower and relax in my room, all alone.

This dream was shattered by my sone informing me that he, Pia, plus another girl were also coming for a shower.

Being democratic, they flipped a coin to see what order we would shower; guess what: I came fourth. By the time they were finished the shower room resembled the area I had run in, water everywhere and knee deep in mud.

Saturday night my youthful companions braved the elements and slept out, although upon surveying the condition of my room, with piles of wet orienteering clothing, muddy socks, shoes, sodden towels, a flooded wash room, I think that I was the one who braved the elements.

Sunday was Relay Day.

For some reason I had an uneasy feeling about something. Our team was not exactly a power house, consisting of Don Budge, Christopher and myself. We only had two senior men at the event so had enlisted Christopher to make up a team. I just hoped that he would not be a D.N.F.

Don ran first and came in 10th out of some 30 teams. His daughter Susan ran the first leg for our Ladies team, and ran brilliantly to have the fastest time on the Women's course. The Ladies course was the same as the Men's, and Don and Susan reached the last control together, but Don man-aged to get in just ahead of Susan. After he handed over to Christopher he said to me "just think of the disgrace of getting beaten by a 13 year old daughter". I thought about it for about 2 seconds; and knew what my uneasy feeling stemmed from. It was the thought of a 13 year old boy beating his father.

As the minutes ticked off I felt a bit better, as he obviously was not going to be as fast as Hunter or Lowry, so at least I had a chance. As he passed the half way point I gave him fatherly advice to "take it easy". This he ignored and plunged into the second part of the course at full tilt. Eventually he

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charged into the finish chute and handed over to me. His time was good for one of his age, but one which I felt I could better.

I turned my burners up full blast and tore off to number 1. Maybe I lost a couple of minutes, but nothing serious. Number 2, 3 and 4, I hit almost perfectly. I reached the half way point in just over 20 minutes and knew I had him licked. Controls 5 and 6 were found in rapid order, I had only taken 26 minutes to number 6, and with only 2 more controls to go I could finish in perhaps 38 min-utes, but for sure 40-42.

I will never forgive the de St. Croix's for control 7, a "small spur" located on a hillside, and only 200 meters from number 6.

I churned up and down that hill-side for 15 minutes before find-ing flag, down lower than I had been searching.

The race had now taken on a slightly different aspect for me; one of fear. It is one thing to get beaten by Gunnar Ohlund, Bob Kaill or even Steve Pearson. But to get beaten by your awn son; to see him gloat-ing at the finish, then have to listen to him for six hours on the trip back to Montreal, no way.

I raced to number 8, then 9, and finally into the finish chute. Had I done it? Did I beat him? The answer was soon forthcoming from Don. "I think Christopher got you by about a minute".

So yes, the 1974 Ontario Championships was a memorable one for me. Mind you the mem-ories are not exactly the sort I had anticipated, but then, if they had been it would have been anticlimatic. The mem-ories I now have are the kind that make orienteering a unique sport. Pia will remember the event for winning her race and being on the winning Ladies Relay Team. Christopher will remember it for beating his Dad, Me: I'll just remember it.

So thank you Dick, Pat and Lyn for coming up with a week-end that was different from any of us planned. Now lets see what you can do in future as an encore.

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Misplaced Controls He replied that. In both cases the flags were wrong by 80-100

how to find them

by Cohn Kirk

During this past summer I participated in two orienteering events where a control flag was hung in the wrong place by about 75-100 metres.

In both instances many exper-ienced orienteers milled around searching for the flags. Some 20-30 minutes was spent by members of our National team looking for a misplaced flag.

A Swedish orienteer, Marku Sieppi also competed in both events. In spite of the incorrect flag placings he located both flags in a matter of 3-4 minutes.

In Sweden a control flag is sometimes misplaced, but not too often. In Canada it is not uncommon. In theory we should have more expertise in finding misplaced flags than the Swedes as we get much more practise. So why the difference between Marku and our orienteer? .

I asked him the following ques-tions 1. Was it just luck? 2. Did he think the flags were in the right spots, or were they incorrect? 3. How did he find them so quickly?

metres. 2. It was not luck tht made him find the flags. Luck may have helped him find the flag one or two minutes sooner, or one or two minutes later, but the flags were found by logical thinking. 3. He explained the process he used to find the flag at the Ottawa Meet.

1. The control location was on a Knoll. He orienteered to the knoll where he thought the flag would be. His first question upon not finding the flag was "Am I on the proper knoll?" he thought he was, but could not be 100% sure. His first step was to determine if he was in the proper spot. He looked at his map to see the mearest natural feature that he could use as a check.

A beaver pond should be about 200 metres away. He ran to it, took a bearing from the end of it, and carefully pace counted back. It checked out exactly. He had spent about two minutes running to the pond and back, but he was now 100% sure that he was on the correct knoll. So the flag was misplaced, but where?

2. Assuming that the Course Setter was not completely incompetent, and thatthe flag was on a knoll and not in a marsh, or a re-entrant, he

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now studied his map to see what other knolls were in the vicinity. He saw that there was four. He set off to check these four and found the flag on the second one. If he had been lucky he would have found it on the first one he checked, if he had been unlucky, on the third or fourth.

The point is that he spent only about four minutes in total and all four minutes were spent doing something positive. Other orienteers spent 20 - 30 minutes on the original knoll thrashing around.

3. A second Swedish orienteer, Gudrun Broman, on the same control made her route choice to include the end of the Beaver pond. On her way from the pond to the knoll she came across the flag. She was almost not going to check it because she Knew It Was Not On The Correct Knoll. However she did check it and by doing so saved herself a few minutes of looking

4. Marku further explained that he always goes to a natural feature, such as a lake, when in trouble. The reason being that the natural feature was there before the map was made

and is more sure of being correct. He does not rely as much on features that were added by the map maker as they are not as positive as the natural ones.

The entire process is based on first determining your exact location, then systematically locating the control through elimination, not just crashing around hoping to find it.

The only Canadian orienteer who has seemingly managed to overcome this problem is Gord Hunter, who just does not make big errors, (at least not in competition). Recently Gord won his third successive Canadian Championship when his closest competitor, Ron Lowry, spent considerable time searching for a control. Ron had held a comfortable lead but lost it all on one control, whereas Gord, in his usual manner, encount-ered no disasters.

Hopefully this article will give you food for thought and some ideas that you can put into practise at your very next meet. In the next issue I will discuss some suggestion that Meet Directors, and Clubs, can use to help all of our members become better and happier orienteers.

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Swedish Tour In 1971 a group of seven Swedes toured eastern Canada assisting with clinics, drawing maps, and offering technical advice to competitors and clubs.. The 1971 tour certainly further boosted Canadian Orienteering through increased participation and publicity.

This year the Canadian Orien-teering Federation was fortunate enough to receive an O'Keefe Sports Foundation grant to allow two Swedish instructors, Markku Sieppi and Gundrun Broman to travel throughout Canada giving clinics and meeting with provin-cial associations.

The 1974 tour was intended as a follow-up to the Leadership Development Course held in August, at Guelph, Ontario. This second Swedish input was once again outstanding, and solidified the success of the Leadership Course by further aiding local leaders and drawing large groups of potential leaders to clinics.

Pages could be written -- but a brief capsule should serve to point out the highlights of the '74 tour.

THE WEST: Markku Sieppi

British Columbia: - meetings with the press - meeting with educators and parks personnel

- a mapping clinic, 20 partic-ipants

Manitoba: - Markku participated in the

Bird's Hill Park "A" meet with 37 other runners

- clinic and small meet at Peguis School

- mapping field work at Spruce Woods Park

- second clinic & meet, 50 participants

Saskatchewan: - clinic; 30 people from

Regina - novice courses for partici-

pants

THE EAST: Gudrun Broman

Nova Scotia: - clinic in central Nova

Scotia, 64 participants - aimed at teaching novices - television appearances - high school session attracted

55 teachers and leaders - mapping field work

Newfoundland: - mapping work in rugged Newfoundland terrain

- instruction sessions for various groups

contld 20

Markku and Gudrun's tour was no doubt exhausting and we regret that little opportunity arose to take a tourist's look at the Canadian landscape and culture! But their input to Canadian orienteering was tremendous, and they were well received in all provinces both as technical advisors, and enthusiastic disciples of orienteering.

Technical Notes High calibre orienteering com-petitions usually conform to a basic set of standards agreed to in principle, but not actually regulated. However, during an autumn championship meet it was obvious that there had been no "draw" (shuffling of cards) for starting position. Indeed , in one example, seven club members started consecu- tively, and in another case three club members competing against each other started one after the other.

The purpose of a "draw" to assign starting times is to promote fairness of chance amongst all the participants. Each starting time is arbitrar- ily picked, thus eliminating unfairness to any given competitor.

However, if after the draw some club members are still starting consecutively, it is the responsibility of the meet organizers to edit the start times so as to better dis-tribute members of the same club. This methods discourages "team" work or hanging on".

Thus, Proposals for all meet Directors:

1. Shuffle control cards after all participants have pre-registered, and then assign start times.

2. Leave some blank spaces at the beginning of start lists, so that possible late registrations (if allowed) have the dis-advantage of starting very

early. This method shortens the total starting time for the meet, thus eliminating undue waiting.

3. Edit start times where necessary to separate members of the same club. Other tampering to promote advantage to any competitor is of course not considered:

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-7PrrTtl'

COURSE -SETTING COMPETITION Due to a series of unforeseen difficulties the 1973 Course Setters competition could not be finalized and results published until now. To all contestants who have been anxiously waiting to see the winning course please accept my apologies for the lengthy delay. Somewhere along the way some maps and judges results took a wrong route choice and wandered off the map.

The winning course was submitted by Hans Bengtsson of the New England Orienteering Club with Scott Robertson of Hamilton Kind Foresters finishing in second place. Congratulation to both of these contestants for their fine courses. Below you will find the Judges comments on the winning course.

Colin Kirk

In spite of the difficulties encountered on the above competition, the general opinion is that this is a val-uable type of contest to offer to C.O.F. members. Therefore, a new Course Setters comnetition will be held in 1975 with a different format for administra-tion and judging that will eliminate the delays. Informa-tion on this new contest will be published in the next issue of Orienteering Canada.

JUDGES COMMENTS

The overall standard of courses in the contest was better than those entered in the previous competition. Whereas in the first competition there were two courses that were definitely better than the others, this time there were a number of courses close to the winners.

As Lars Uno Rystedt wrote when commenting on the last contest, Judges of orienteering courses seldom agree completely and this was no exception, however, if you compare this year's winning course to those of Bozan and Hansen from the first contest, you will see that the best legs of all courses have some simil-arities. The best legs are the longer ones which have good route choice and compel the orienteer to use all his techniques if he wants to find the control quickly. On the best legs most judges agree, but as to which of the poorer are the poorest, well thats another story. Now on to this winning course.

Let us start with the number of controls. 17 controls is really too many for a 10 KM course, but the contest rules do not prohibit them. The number is also partly excusable in this case because the area is rather crowded and cut in two by a river, making the course setting difficult.

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Many people tried to set a course with only 7-10 controls, but this made it almost impos-sible to avoid having 2 or 3 very bad long legs. On the other hand many of the courses with few controls would be much more fun to compete on than those with many controls.

In the case of the winning course, the course-setter has managed to have functions for most of the controls. For example legs 1-2, 4-5, 8-9, and 11-12 are strictly to move the competitor to a new starting point for a longer leg and since they are short they need hardly be counted in the total number of controls. We can also mention that leg 16-17 fills the function of getting the orienteer closer to the finish without ribbons hanging from the trees to help the competitor find number 16. Thus we are down to basically 12 legs, which is not exceptionally high for an area which is cut in two. There are some improvements possible in this regard however. For example control 15 could be simply left out with no detrimen-tal effect to the course.

Most of the main legs are good, calling for lots of map-reading and small route choices.

The control points are definite points and small enough that the orienteer will usually need an attack point before the control.

The first leg is a tricky one to judge. It is an excellent leg for most Scandinavian orienteers, but most Canadians will probably take the trail around to the left which is much safer but slower for the good orienteer. This can be improved by moving the start further up the hill, preferably to S2. In this case this would probably be the best leg in the contest. However, if

the slope is too steep after the walk from the competition center S3 is another possibility which would improve the first leg.

The other interesting legs are 5-6 and 7-8 both of which demand the use of many orien-teering skills.

In contrast, a leg such as 10-11 is very uninteresting as everyone will probably run to the bend or the junction of the trails which makes the first 4/5 of the leg very easy.

As we mentioned earlier the river is a problem. Most contestants ruined a large part of their course in trying to cross it, especially if they crossed it 2 or 3 times. In this case, the river is crossed only once and quite success-fully with a short leg, which demands some precision map-reading for the last 100-150 meters.

cent'd

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We can finish by saying Congratulations to Hans Bengtsson for a good course considering the area, but try to use a few less controls next time.

Anders Timmer

Bob Kaill

AERIAL '0' by Allen Gravelle

Costa and I met at the Society of Flight Test Engineers' National Symposium in Anaheim California. I knew that the Swedish national sport was really not blondes,but orien-teering and so Gosta was naturally surprised to be asked about this sport. He probably never expected to be asked about orienteering in America where the sport is almost unheard of. Costa is an expert orienteer but not an athlete as I expected. He plays the game in the air where he flys his sport airplane and does his own navigation in orienteer-ing competitions. The idea of using orienteering as a means of testing navigators will be of interest to SOFT as well as the Canadian Orienteering Federation members.

A variation of point to point orienteering is known as line orienteering. In this version, the route is marked on the map but not the location of the control points. The competitor must accurately follow the pre-scribed course and whenever he locates a flag he must mark the location accurately on the map. His map is scored for the precision of locating the control points. This is the variation of the sport which is being used by the sport flying club in Sweden. Gosta says that 60 pilots are now participating in airborne orienteering. Since each aircraft will have a dif-ferent airspeed, depending upon aircraft type, the competitor must post his intended average course speed before the race. Judges rate the posted speed and award a point scale to each competitor. A competitor post-ing too low an average speed will naturally have more time to navigate and so the judges will downgrade his point score. Posting too high a speed will possibly overtax the com-petitor's navigation skill. The pilot must do all the navigating aided only by a magnetic or radio compass and a clock. More sophisticated navigation equip-ment is not usually carried by light aircraft in any event.

Some other features of the air-borne orienteering are unusual to the ground event. The air-

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borne competitor has three or four turning points to fly over. These points are manned by time-keepers who score the average time for each flight leg. A pilot must arrive at a turning point within plus or minus one minute of his posted time as computed from his average speed or he is penalized. Each leg of the course is marked on the map and, as in line orienteerine. the pilot must locate markers on the ground and locate their positions on his map. These locations will be judged for precision after the race.

Another interesting test is unknown to regular orienteering. The pilot is given an aerial photograph of some feature on the ground in each leg of the race. He must find this feature and mark if precisely on the map to earn scoring points.

Costa explained that his maps are 1:250,000 scale and are very often 10 years or more old. This is unlike the 1:20,000 scale, highly updated, special maps used in normal orienteering. Costa said that it is not unusual to find new lakes or lakes which have now dried up but are shown on the map. This complicates the problem for the navigator since turning points are shown on the map and are accompanied by a brief written description. The description may read "the stream and lake junction" but there may be more than one stream in the area and the pilot must find the correct one.

Race times are similar in both sports and competitors start at timed intervals to prevent fol-lowing one another.

A final challenge is thrown at the pilot. He must make three landings which are scored by the judges. Two landings are made at idle power and the second of these must be made on a short runway (1,000 ft.). The third landing is a simulated emergency landing over a barrier and land-ing on a spot marked on the runway. The stopping distance must then be made as short as possible.

This form of testing should improve the navigational skill of sports pilots. Perhaps it will catch on in North America. Interested pilots should con-tact Gosta for more information about the flying sport. The earth bound orienteering may be able to add some of these line orienteering techniques to his skill. For instance, a com-petitor could be given a photo-graph of a feature on a line course and asked to locate it.

(Gosta Niss, Fredricksbergsv 1, 58258 Linkoping, Sweden.)

--7q7rmrw.m. 111.11t

To Members of the C.O.F.:

On behalf of the United States Orienteering Federation, we wish to express our sincere appreciation to the C.O.F. for extending the invitation to the U.S.O.F. to participate in the National Leadership Devel-opment Course at Guelph.

The course proved to be of high calibre; very well planned and conducted; and taught by an expert instructional staff. It was a valuable experience for those of us in attendance.

Special "thanks" to the Can-adian Orienteers at the clinic for sharing their ideas and experiences with us and for making us feel at home during our stay in Canada.

Yours in Orienteering,

Ken Ackerman, Keith McLeod and Family.

Dear Sir:

My family are enthusiastic about orienteering and wanted to come along that weekend, so we left Saturday noon, planning to camp near the meet so we would be able to attend the short clinic beforehand. Following the markers in the morning we arrived at the parking lot a little early and not seeing any signs or cars, we continued on and consequently drove through the entire forest area looking for the site. We came out at the north end, retraced our path, and by that time plenty of cars were there to mark the spot. By then, however, we had missed the clinic, but managed to help us with some of the preliminaries.

The course was eventful, my girls treated it as a nature study, and we all enjoyed our-selves. But back at the finish line we hesitated to approach the many little groups who were enthusiastically discussing their performance on the course.

I must admit that our collective enthusiasm and assistance carried the day, but we did go home a little disappointed as we felt we had missed something.

I enjoy the competitive aspect of orienteering, but I share the concern of some people, that the recreational and fitness aspects -- the reasons why many families and individuals would intially come out -- were over-

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looked at that meet. If orienteering is to grow, then the initial contact must be as enjoyable as humanly possible.

Here are some ideas my family discussed:

1. direction markers should be obvious directing people right to the parking lot and then for the beginners, clear directions to the introductory clinic.

2. meet planners should arrange for qualified members (they could be rotated during the meet) to look after the novices and new families with introductions, familiar-izations, etc. Basically just to make them feel at ease, help them to meet people and generally enjoy the meet. Over this first hurdle, a family or individual, would certainly be aware of re-quirements for subsequent meets.

In orienteering, Warmest regards,

Gion Bezzola

CANADIAN CLUBS

NOVA SCOTIA

The Canadian Youth Hostels Orienteering Club (C.Y.H.) was originally responsible for organizing the orienteering association of Nova Scotia in 1970. The club has played a leading role in the province since 1969, and continues to host several meets per year. At present David Home holds the membership chairman's responsibilities, and reports 15 active members within the club. Aside from standard '0' meets, C.Y.H. has hosted canoe and ski-orienteering events. In general, the club is interested in all forms of outdoor activity, and has the advantage of operating from a Youth Hostel near Wentworth, in excellent orienteering country.

Marg James, 1974, Vice-Pres-ident of the C.O.F. is an active member of C.Y.H.

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CANADIAN CHAMPIONSHIPS The 1974 Canadian championships were held near Morin Heights, Quebec. The two-day total time competition proved very exciting as participants jocXeyed for the lead on the second day. Fine terrain, as well as good map and courses contributed to making it a memorable weekend.

1.

NAME

H 20 A Senior Men

CLUB TOTAL

-- 1. Aake Ericson Sweden 136.44 2. Per Haagenruud Norway 154.17 3. Gordon Hunter Ottawa O.C. 164.37 4. James McGee U.S.M. 174.30 5. Ron Lowry Clarke O.C. 179.21 6. Ted de St. Croix Niagara O.C. 179.22

2. D 20 A Senior Women

....-- 1. Sheila Mitham M.O.C. 224.34 2. Lorraine Gauthier Indep. 252.03 3. Mall Peepre Muckabouts 254.56

3. H 17-19 Junior Men

,- 1. Art Groot Clarke 0.C. 162.37 2. Tim Blaker Clarke O.C. 186.34 3. Alay Ruutopold Guelph 208.35

4. D 17- 19 A Junior Women

,-- 1. Susan Budge M.O.C. 152.30 2. Claudia Goldschmidt M.O.C. 170.40 3. Lorna Lowery Clarice 210.11

5. H 15-16 A Older Boys

,- 1. Robert Jenkins Confed. 151.56 2. Nick de St. Croix Niagara 163.22 3. Dave Fordham Niagara 171.00

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6. D 35 A Veteran Women

_.l. Helene Huculak T.O.C. 171.26 2. Pat de St. Croix Niagara 173.00 3. Ann Budge M.O.C. 179.40

7. H 40 A Younger Veteran Men

1. Alois Voitchovsky M.O.C. 198.17 2. Mike Day 0.0.C. 199.27 3. Otto Loesel B.C.O.A. 204.60

8. D 14 A Yonger Girls

1. Gail Adams Viking 185.04 2. Karen Gravelle 0.0.C. 223.25 3. Sharon Nichols Delhi 225.39

9. H 14 A Yonger Boys

,.... 1. Chris Kirk M.O.C. 149.18 2. Erik Gaarder Nordic 149.22 3. Jay Lugar O.A.N.S. 174.00

10. D 15-16 A Older Girls

Janet Allan 182.21 2. Claire Pelletier R.D. 236.41 3. Hilary Yardley Jones 240.55

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-L