It's hard to keep a good sport down. Most sports like ours go through a build period, peak, and then fall back to some sustainable level. I saw this happen with Tennis in the 80s. After awhile the current generation of newbies will do their thing and either sustain or fall off. The next newbie generation will be a bit smaller, and the cycle will go until it hits the consistent level. The nice thing about having all of the races is that it's now getting easier to jump in on small venues. You don't have to race TriCal events and spend $200 in fees per race. There's plenty of great races out there for $60 bucks that are easy to get into (event day reg).

I for one am going to forgoe the big races for the forseeable future. Been there, done that.

Funny that you should mention it. I started rock-climbing at the age of 8 in 1980, and clearly witnessed the changes that came when climbing became a "cool" sport. I still love climbing but mainly for practical reasons I switched to triathlon as my main activity. I started triathlon around 1990 and since then, again, the same popularity that affected rock-climbing is changing the triathlon world. In a selfish way I hope that you are right in predicting that the sport will implode and become a small niche again, but I am not sure that it will ever happen. And if it does, then a lot of those races will disappear. For now, I still manage to enjoy the sport as it is. Even here in Northern California, there are alternatives to the expensive, popular, crowded, selling out races.

Hey! I used to bolt on rappel!

Then again, I also on-sighted 5.12, had a wall rack, soloed Bastille crack, lived out of a truck in Hueco Pete's parking lot, and didn't shower for three weeks at a time.

Those were the days.

The term is "Schwund" (I think I'm spelling that correctly) - roughly translated, it's when you are JUST past the apex of an era/movement/social phenomenon, and you are starting to watch it change/slide downward/ become something different.

MH

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Tech writer/support on this here site. FIST school instructor and certified bike fitter. Formerly at Diamondback Bikes, LeMond Fitness, FSA, TiCycles, etc.
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"The term is "Schwund" (I think I'm spelling that correctly) - roughly translated, it's when you are JUST past the apex of an era/movement/social phenomenon, and you are starting to watch it change/slide downward/ become something different."

I thought the term was "Jumping the shark"...

"I thought the term was "Jumping the shark"... "

Yeah, that too, but I need to pretend like I got SOMETHING out of my 10 year college career, and all those 20th century european philosophy courses (anyone want to discuss Hannah Arendt? Anyone?)

MH

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Tech writer/support on this here site. FIST school instructor and certified bike fitter. Formerly at Diamondback Bikes, LeMond Fitness, FSA, TiCycles, etc.
Coaching and bike fit - http://source-e.net/ Cyclocross blog - https://crosssports.net/ BJJ instruction - https://ballardbjj.com/

Thats pretty F**king impressive.

Every climb fointainbleu, Malham, the peak or North Wales in Europe?

Only 2 reasons I went to school in Manchester were the clubs and yorkshire gr

Just think about it, 2 of the most dominant athletes in both sports shared the same name and same country of origin............guess who.......

Hey I realize that Yorkshire grit isn't far away from Manchester(in Lancashire) but you'd have been better off in Sheffield.

Sithee !

not for the Clubs :) Sheffield has / had squat.

and its still only 60+ mins to froggat or stanage although we did not have the Foundry :(

Does the moniker "Blacksheep" have anything to do with Masham?

We, the Counsil of Trad Climbers find you guilty of the highest crime and worthy of the most extreme punishment: You must dulfersitz naked for a distance of 300 feet...

Great post.

First - a bit of history:

I did my first triathlon back in 1982. I took it pretty seriously for the next 15 years and experienced a modest amount of success. It's great to look back and the initial rise in popularity in the mid/late 80's then the plateuing through the early 90's and then the huge growth over the past 5 years. I am pleased to say that from my perspective the sport is very healty

I last raced seriously in 1997 and not in Ontario for 10 years. In a fit of madness I jumped into a race last year on a whim. It was the Orillia Tri/Du, put on by TriSport Promotions. A race managment group that in my partof the world has played a significant role in the growth and establishment of the sport of triathlon. Graham Fraser and subsequently his brother Mitch have done a great job in putting on well run races and have kept a core of key sponsors coming back year after year. There was 1300 people entered in a variety of races at the Orillia Tri last summer. I am pleased to say that other than a couple of old friends I did not know a soul at this race- 10 years ago I knew just about everyone at each race. It was great to see so many new faces - many of whom were new to the sport in the past few years. People kept coming up to me and asking me if this was my first race!!

As an old-timer I still recall the days when the "transition-area" was a patch of grass next to the beach where we just lay our bikes down on their sides. Those days are long gone, but you can still find the odd race that has that back-to-the-roots feel to it. The sport of triathlon has come a long way in just over 20 years. It's been a great trip.

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

Oh sheesh, now I feel sheepish... I've just taken up rock climbing myself this year. But only climbing gym stuff, have yet to do it outside (which I would LOVE to do, but have no time for, and besides I should probably try to get reasonably competent on these piddly little artificial walls first, right?)

But even just in the gym...damn, that's an addictive sport, isn't it? I kept telling myself, "I'm training for Ironman again this year, I don't have time to take up another sport." But there I am, once a week at the gym with my equally addicted belay partner. I was SO proud of myself this week--- made it up my first 5.10 route, woohoo! Of course, the rating system is kinda hooey; I've done some 5.9's that seemed harder, so maybe these weren't legitimate 5.10's. But I was still proud!

I agree with your evaluation of the triathlon scene. I remember when you could sign up the day before for Wildflower---just show up at registration. Ha! Among other factors, I honestly believe that the internet had a hand in expanding the growth and popularity of triathlon. Internet discussion forums and websites spread the word, and the proliferation of personal race reports made triathlon so vivid and very much within reach of the average schmuck.

A huge turning point in my life came in September 1996. A whole slew of triathletes returned from Ironman Canada and posted their personal reports of the event on rec.sport.triathlon. The stories of their individual experiences, shared with such passion and pride, made an enormous impression on me. I'm pretty sure that I never would have dreamed of trying an Ironman without that influence and inspiration.

Ah, the power of the internet!

But the growth of triathlon wouldn't be quite so hard to take if the increase in the number of events equalled the increase in the number of participants. Unfortunately, the realities of insurance and race venue logistics seem to make race production sufficiently daunting that growth in THAT aspect of the sport is SLOW.

So what winds up happening is that race directors of the precious few events out there allow their field sizes to increase to unsafe and unwieldy proportions. Wildflower is particularly guilty of this; the race has now become a logistical nightmare for participants, what with the lower parking lot being shut off and all. Creates a whole lot of hassle, that's for sure. And yet I keep coming back to Wildflower. That course is just SO worthwhile!

Ah well. Growing pains. Interesting to see which of your two scenarios winds up being the end-game.

Apologies for the babble!

TriBaby

... though I started in '84, and left after about 10 years to concentrate on bike racing, and I've yet to make my re-entry to the sport.

But I remember fondly my first several races which were the patch-of-grass transition. Space wasn't a big deal at all -- you had some! But the races got bigger. And even though my results got better, I became somewhat disillusioned with the entire movement. And I thought even then that triathlon had become mainstream!

It's amazing what's happened to entry fees over the years.

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I started racing in 1986 in Singapore. I then went to Ontario (late 80s, early 90s; fantstic race organization with Trisport and others), Philadelphia (early-mid 90s), Arizona (95 onwards), France for a summer (best organized race I ever did was in Lausanne Switzerland), back to Singapore/Malaysia (now) plus Nova Scotia in July/August. I have raced in all these places. Everything depends on where you race. I have raced in Malaysia and Sngapore over the past year and it is totaly retro - a few hundred people, often a nice pre-race meal, everybody knows everybody, a bit chaotic on the course. Nova Scotia is the same way - maybe 100 people tops in a race and lots of races. Arizona on the other hand has changed dramatically over the past 5 years. There are many races from Rocky Point Mexico to Flagstaff. On the whole I would say Arizona is better, although races are bigger and quality is a bit uneven. I have done big races like Wildflower and have no burning desire to do them again. The most fun events are ones that have esy logistics

I have also seen the sport of windsurfing go through boom and bust. n the late 80s and early 90s the sport collapsed in the US nd is only now picking up. The problem was an emphasis on high performance that left out newbies. The sport is very technical and quite difficult to learn. It is impossible to learn on a 12 pound waveboard. The sport is now coming back due to a few deicated companies that focus a lot of attention on products for new windsurfers.

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Andrew Inkpen