ICSF

[Lee Cummings]

Personally I’d love to see the games move out of Europe in the next 4 years. You want growth then this is how to do it.

Cheers, Paul

Hi Paul

You may note that the next WC 2022 is being arranged in Belfast - Northern Ireland. You cannot have growth without people willing to put on these events.

Cheers
Lee

[Paul Arden]

Thanks Lee, that's great news. The beer will be excellent!

[Lasse Karlsson]

Sorry Paul, I forgot about Estonia. That would have been organised by Allan Lahi and the Estonian Casting Federation.

John

Lanes and judges courtesy of Norway though..

First FCWC in Norway was held on ICSF allowance as a test I was told, second was done anyway and we had a meeting to make our own Federation together with the surfcasters, third one was suddenly under ICSF again and so was Estonia and Cumbria.

Would have been great if in the meantime the rules had been adjusted towards fishing more, we've lost some competitors on that account, and it would have been easier to get more people interested if they had easier access to useable gear.

Oh well, if things work out I will hopefully attend too, dates just threw a spanner in the works

Cheers
Lasse

[James9118]

I received no funding from the ICSF for 2018 whatsoever.
Cheers
Lee

I think this situation has to change immediately if the ICSF are going to have any relevance in the fly casting arena. How can it be that we have a governing body, with 27,000 Euro cash sitting in the bank, relying on an individual to finance the world championships - that's a WTF moment for me Suppose there had been a loss, where would that liability sit?

At the moment I'm indifferent to the ICSF, however if they're going to have any relevance at all in fly casting they're going to have to seriously up their game. So far we've had the Norwegian Federation World Championships (Norway and Estonia) and the UK Fly Casting Sport World Championships, both have attracted competitors from far and wide and have been excellent. If it's to genuinely transition to the ICSF World Championships then they have to stop milking the cash cow and start acting like an organising body, at the bare minimum this means funding the WCs upfront. If they can't do this, then what's the point of them - it's already been proven that there's organisations out there than can do the job.

James.

[John Waters]

It would be great if the ICSF or one of these organisations out there could/would fund future WCs upfront. I assume we are talking about what, 50%, 100% or some other percentage, of what will be competitor contributions to accomodation, catering, facilities hire/acquisition etc in 2020.

I would love to have it explained to me how, and through which organisation, that objective can be sustained in the long term. Happy to put such a proposal to the ICSF executive and Board so that whatever immediate changes are required, can be facilitated.

That would be a huge step forward for us all. If that cannot be defined by interested parties or, if and when defined, not implemented by ICSF, over to someone new to move forward.

I am not having a go here, I would be asking the same questions of the new group which organises 2022 and beyond.

These discussions need to become a documented strategy and presented for action by those who can action them. Happy to assist in the formulation of such a strategy, budget and impact statement.

John

[Paul Arden]

I’ve been trying to think of how to set up Sexyloops for when I’m dead in about 50 years time Turning it into a vehicle to sponsor casting sport, (some environmental causes) and the world championships seems like a very good idea to me.

Give me about six years or so and I’ll start to divert some funds to the sport. We’re not out of the woodwork yet but we are getting there! It would be nice to think that Sexyloops will still be around in a few hundred years from now, promoting Casting Sport to future generations for people just like us. And there is absolutely no reason why this shouldn’t happen.

I have a 5 year plan that will see Ashly and I living on a sailing boat and then if everything works out in the way I intend, which it will, then I can start to part, or even fully, sponsor these championships. It’s something I very much believe in and I think it’s a natural extension of Sexyloops activities.

In the meantime we have to grow. I’ll organise a Malaysian Championships next year. We will get the experience and organise SE Asia championships after this. And ultimately I would like to see a World Championships held here at some point.

There is always a solution.

Cheers, Paul

[Torsten]

I agree John, if the WCs are fully funded by the ICSF wouldn't this be just a reallocation of money? Where is the advantage, in this case they need to raise the association fee - and there is not just the Fly Casting WC, but Junior Casting WC, Veteran Casting WC, world cups etc etc. all 100% funded? AFAIK all WC are organized by national organisations and they finance them by the participation fee (OK I've seen the ICSF gives ~1000€ for the Casting WC).
These money discussions are always a bit annoying for me, I know that from other board meetings (I'm member of a larger sports club)..

Because growth of the fly casting sector was mentioned: I'd love to see true numbers, how many active are in fly casting / "classic" casting sport worldwide? For casting sport I'd estimate still ~1000 people here in Germany (the german fishing association claimed 10% of its members or 50000 but this seems to me exaggerated).

It would be great if the ICSF or one of these organisations out there could/would fund future WCs upfront. I assume we are talking about what, 50%, 100% or some other percentage, of what will be competitor contributions to accomodation, catering, facilities hire/acquisition etc in 2020.
I would love to have it explained to me how, and through which organisation, that objective can be sustained in the long term. Happy to put such a proposal to the ICSF executive and Board so that whatever immediate changes are required, can be facilitated.

[Paul Arden]

1000 is huge! I doubt there are 1000 fly casters world wide who compete. I think we are talking hundreds.

Cheers, Paul

[Torsten]

In the 70ies/80ies were even much more people involved, our senior coach told me that. "Classic" casting has the greater potential because less then ~10% are actually fly fishing and it's easier to get the youth involved over plug accuracy. The only problem is in my opinion that the disciplines are too far from fishing requirements and too many redundant games, with slight gear variations only. I'd reduce from 15 to max. 5-6 disciplines, maybe 3 with spinning gear and 3 fly casting, but all with gear combinations that you would really use for fishing. Maybe my thinking is too radical ..

[Paul Arden]

The flycasting in the ICSF games is a bit nuts. Skilled but far removed from fishing. Unfortunately we have also moved away slightly with the usage of stiffer distance rods. It’s difficult to change that - but maybe it’s part of the fun too. If anything I’d like to see more games, for example presentation fly casting games - a Flycasting version of an assault course. Freestyle casting could also be fun. There are actually only two comps that I find interesting - 5WT distance and 5WT accuracy. More games would be interesting.

But it’s World Championship level. At national or club level we can do very much more. That’s where we generate the interest. It’s pretty clear to me that if you want to be the very best flycaster that you can be then you need to compete.

Everyone seems to be concerned about how to bring in more competitors. I think more important is how to keep those that compete happy and interested. Solve the second problem and the first should take care of itself. The games really are about those who attend not for those who don’t.

I would like to see two casters standing on a floating log trying to knock each other off by casting at each other. Lasse and Lee for example. I’d actually pay money to see that

Cheers, Paul