Discussion: Orienteering Opportunities

I am researching an opportunity to move back to the south King County area of the state of Washington. Is the orienteering community strong? Are there normally a lot of meets within 200 miles of Seattle? Here near Philadelphia I can usually find a meet nearly every weekend is this the case in the Seattle/Vancouver/Portland area? What about O training opportunities for teenagers?

No opportunities there. Zilch. You need to stay in the Philadelphia area for sure :)

I figure I can chime in on this one, since I live in Seattle, and I've attended events put on by the Portland, Spokane, and Vancouver area clubs, as well. However, I've only lived in Kansas City and Seattle, so I don't know how it compares to Philly.

There aren't meets every weekend in Seattle, but I'd say that over the course of the year, there's a pretty healthy schedule. Cascade OC organizes the eight-event Winter Series that runs November through February, the six-event Ultimate Series that runs March through July. We'll have an A-Meet in the summers of 2008 and 2009. Plus the annual Bog Slog, Vampire-O, National Orienteer Day, and Founder's Day events. There are usually about 8-10 urban orienteering meets throughout the year, mostly in the spring and summer. The smaller club here, Sammamish OC puts on a four-event series on Wednesdays in the summer, plus another one or two events a year. There's also a canoe orienteering event in Seattle this summer.

Regarding your question about training opportunities for teenagers, I think Seattle is an excellent situation. Organized alongside the Winter Series is the Washington Interscholastic Orienteering League (WIOL), which features eight events with leagues for Varsity, JV, and younger runners. Our largest events of the year are the Winter/WIOL events. Several of these WIOL kids are tops in the country in their age groups, and on AttackPoint, and I expect them to chime in any minute about Seattle's orienteering opportunities for kids.

Links for Seattle orienteering:
Cascade OC: http://www.cascadeoc.org
School League: http://www.WIOL.org
Street Scrambles (urban orienteering): http://www.streetscramble.com

I've been to some events hosted by other regional clubs.There are two clubs in Oregon (CROC and ORCA) and they seem to have a lot of events. If they ever have anything on the Dutchman Flats map, make sure to go. It's amazing terrain.

ORCA: http://www.forestrunner.com/cgi-bin/schedule.cgi
CROC: http://www.croc.org/events/Schedule2008.php

I went to a the Vancouver Sprint-O Training Camp a few months ago, which was an outstanding event. And there's more than just Vancouver. Victoria and Kamloops also host events, too. You can find the schedules for all BC clubs here: http://www.orienteeringbc.ca/

It's also worth keeping an eye on the club in Spokane (EWOC), too. They had a two-day event last summer, and that's an easy drive. http://www.ewoc.org

I hope this helps.

Thanks kupackman, this is exactly what I was looking for. I do hope some of the juniors or anyone else add to this with their experiences.

Another specific question about the WIOL - are home schooled children welcome to compete?

You're welcome. I think most of the juniors are still on spring break right now, so it might be a few days before they see this.

As far as WIOL is concerned, I think that home-schoolers can compete individually. I just looked through some WIOL results, and some students are running as "unaffiliated", instead of with a specific school.

Yeah most of the lakeside/bothell juniors are on spring break and traveling around seeing colleges so they won't see this for a bit. Sad that we are going to lose someone from the philly area though :(

Dan I'm torn here as a member of DVOA I really don't want to see you and Zach move but sometimes life just isn't always about what we want but rather what we need. So as the USA Junior team leader, I must say that there is a very good junior program in Seattle and there has been for years. Eric Bone is out there and involved in the program and he is also the assistance to Tom Hollowell the Senior team coach we hired who is also working with the elite juniors. One of the girls on the 2007 JWOC is from the Washington area. Also there is a school group of girls that has won at the IS as well. I don't know how many local events they have and how close they are but I'm sure that you will find it adequate. Also you can go to the USOF site to the map of the USA and click on Washangton and you will see all of the clubs out there and their website. I'm sure if you surf their sites you will find out more about the area and the orienteering opportunities.

Alison, we are not gone yet. I turned down a similar position two years ago because I just started grad school. I also have a lot of opposition from my family which is why I am fishing for good reasons for the move.

Ah well if you move or not you know you'll always be apart of DVOA.