SeanC wrote:Our keenest family have recently got into geocaching. I can't work out if geocaching is a threat to orienteering (by being another competing activity), or an opportunity (by getting more people into map reading/being outdoors who might eventually move into orienteering). It hasn't stopped them going to all our local events.
If a family just wants a walk in the woods, then maybe geocaching is more attractive to them and hence a threat to us, but if the kids want any sort of competition, then it can't offer that. I reckon it's more of an opportunity than a threat, since there are a lot of people doing it who might want to orienteer, if only they knew about it.
SeanC wrote:How difficult would it be to supply GPS co-ordinates of controls at a local event, and allow newcomers with geocaching experience to use their phones or gps gadgets to geocache round say a 45 minute score course?
Very easy. Just get the planner to take a handheld GPS to each site, and press the waypoint button. The device will record the co-ords, then just download the GPX file and you have what you need. Some devices will only get the accuracy to about +/- 10m in woods, but that's good enough for finding controls, especially on a "wayfarer" type course.
I know a controller who does just this with a GPS device when checking sites, so that he can more quickly confirm the site location again quickly on the morning of the event.