Robert Williams

In last year' s meeting, I voiced my dissent against the ruling to divide the already miniscule RU class even farther into RU and HR. My concerns were validated during the 2003 World Championship fiasco where a grand total of 27 (or 28?) shooters made up the class, down from 65 the previous year. And it will be smaller next year by at least one. It just isn' t feasible to travel hundreds of miles and spend a thousand dollars and several days to compete in a class that doesn' t offers less to the winner than the $500.00 gift certificate the hunter class winners get. The reward of the first place winner knowing he beat all of about 2 dozen shooters doesn' t warrant the trip, either. Most of the remaining shooters are still the best recurve shooters in the country, but that' s little consolation. At least the IBO made it easy to pick their 3DI RU team representative since the number of shooters this year has been small enough that you can keep track of them with fingers and toes. Next year, they probably won' t even have to take their shoes off to keep track of them.

I feel a great sadness seeing the last remnant of the golden age of traditional archery agonizing in it' s death throes. Perhaps the Neo-Traditional shoot-off-the-shelf-at-short-yardage community will soon be all that' s left of it.

I never thought I' d see the day when the IBO had a large class of crossbow shooters and so few RU shooters that the class gets eliminated, but that looks like the way of the future. As the saying goes: All good things have to come to an end.

Bill Curlis

You have to be the most negative person that I have ever encountered. Instead of tearing everyone and everything down why don' t you try doing something positive? Try encouraging some others to come and shoot some IBO shoots. The only way any class will grow is by recruiting new people.

How many Wolrd shoots have you been to? You are hardly the person to declare the end of the RU class.

Robert Williams

It' s not tearing everyone down, Bill. I' ll admit I' m pretty negative, though, watching the recurve unaided class go down the tubes like this, though. 90+ in 2001, 65 in 2002 and with the addition of the new HR class, 27 in 2003. I don' t think we have to confer with Nostradamus to see what' s happening. Recruiting new shooters? Damn, I' ve been doing all I can. Jade Smith showed up after I recruited him into the class and took third place for his efforts but that bumped the class up from 26 shooters to 27 shooters.

Being able to say " I told you so" isn' t much of a consolation. And I won' t be the one declaring the end of the RU class. Ken will. That' s what happens when there' s no interest in the class and the rule changes in 2002 that I predicted would turn the RU class into a skeleton crew did exactly that and it wasn' t me that " tore it down" .

It doesn' t matter how optimistic and positive someone is. If they look at a completely empty glass and still insist it' s " half full" , they' re beyond optimistic - they' re deluded. I was considering taking vacation time and days of travel to compete in all three of the " triple crown" events as well as the Worlds next year. But after seeing that the RU class was reduced by 70 percent of an already skinny roster in the space of one short year, it simply isn' t worth it. And I know I' m not the only one that feels that way.

I guess I should be dancing for joy, Bill, but I can' t seem to find the rose colored glasses I need to see how wonderful this is.

Robert Williams

p.s., Bill.... Don' t be surprised to see some really high-tech HR setups showing up next year. Hoyt / Samick / PSE / risers with carbon/foam limbs tricked out to shoot off a legal shelf with ultra-light carbons and screw-in tips shot three-under with a gap system at targets within point blank range will most likely be shot by the guys spending most of the gift certificates next year. More than a few of the RU shooters have decided it' s the only thing left to do. That should liven things up a bit.

Bill Curlis

There was one this year.

Robert Williams

Good. The more; the merrier.

WFL\KY

Robert,

Sorry you' ve got such a sour tatse in your mouth. As long as we -shooters- keep screamin' about negitive things the number of shooters will keep droppin' ! I really feel that every person has a class to shoot in now with whatever equipment they shoot, and yardage' s that suit their equipment. We just need some good advertising to get more guy' s out.


Just my thoughts,


Bill Leslie

Robert Williams

WFL, I' ve been doing all I can but the numbers seem to drop every year. The way I figured it, people who wanted to shoot off a shelf had the MTRD class to shoot. Now for recurves, it seems there' s a hunter class and really nothing else for all intents and purposes. 1st place check for RU last year was around 700.00. It' ll be interesting to see what it is this year.

Maybe it' s the IBO, itself, that turns off the traditional shooters. Maybe it' s the distance that has to be traveled for so many shooters to attend this type of shoot, which is largely considered a " compound thing" . Maybe there isn' t as much interest in competition among the trad community as there used to be or maybe we need our own shooting organization... I don' t know. The changes didn' t affect the shelf shooters, but the only traditional class that was there when the IBO first started is now in jeapordy of dying on the vine and I don' t know what can be done to turn it around, now. The HR shooters don' t want to compete against the RU shooters, why they spoke out so loudly for a hunter (non money) class, so it' s not as simple as changing the rules again.

I really wish I didn' t feel like I just got through shooting the last 20 targets in a viable RU class but that' s definitely the feeling I' ve got. I watched the Recurve Aided class bite the bullet in much the same way.

JRW

Robert,

" Maybe there isn' t as much interest in competition among the trad community as there used to be..."

I don' t think that' s the problem. There were a well over a thousand shooters at Cloverdale this year--a few hundred alone in Male Recurve. Last weekend one of our local clubs had their anual traditional shoot. I haven' t seen the results yet, but I know for a fact there were a LOT more than 28 male recurve shooters. Heck, I saw more than that on one of the novelty shoots Saturday afternoon.

Next year, you should come out this way on that weekend. More competition, free lodging (campground at the club), cheap and GOOD food, and it won' t take until the second coming of Christ to shoot the course. If you win, I' ll even give you a belt buckle or something. [:-]

Robert Williams

You might be onto something, JRW. Where is Cloverdale? Hopefully not too much farther than the 11 hour drive to Snowshoe! It would be nice to attend a " big" shoot with more than a token representation of recurve shooters.