SLS skis

Can somebody in the know tell me how and when the rules regarding ski design for SLS came about?

And Rob, can you tell us why sometimes these posts turn up in announcements when we specifically write them up for general?
And on a related note, is it possible to get rid of the double general categories, it's just confusing.

The rules for SLS skis came about in the early 80's. The reasons were - keep costs down, safety, fairness (all on standard skis). Did it work? Well I do not think so - costs did not come down as "home builts" were pushed out of the sport due to admin of getting ski approved, various ski types came out all within the rules but all behaving differently - mainly in the surf zone, the safety aspect was achieved.

The sad thing is that with the rules in place innovation was restricted and perhaps a far better design would have developed - both for racing and beach patrol and rescue (which was the original reason for the craft!).

There is often talk (in ICF mainly) that all surfskis should fall into some parameters - weight and floatation being the common issues discussed. Ugh - no limits please!

Anton