Eligibility

All athletes member of any lifesaving club in the World are eligible. Only competitors born before 21 Juli 1993 are admitted for the double oceanman. The sprint numbers are open to competitors born before 21 July 1999. There is no team ranking. Everybody can compete as an individual athlete. The number of male and female competitors is limited to 50 for the double oceanman, so be quick to sign up!

Security procedures

The Rescue Team of the Flemish Lifesaving Federation will take care of the competition’s safeguarding: there will be lifeguards in position on the beach and 2 or 3 boats at sea. The equipment must be in good state so that injury and danger is eliminated for the participants.

Events

At each location a double oceanman will be held. The race track can be different in each city. The order of the events (swimming, running, boarding and kayaking) can be different in all events. There will be no series or semi finals. The race is a direct final. At each competition day there will be an additional sprint event. For the sprint events we will work in series and finals. We will also work in four different age groups in each gender: 1999-1997, 1996-1995, 1994-1993 and 1992-1900.

Event-explanation

The oceanman will be according to the rules of ILS. The competitors have to complete the course of the swim leg, board leg, ski leg and running leg.
Conditions of racing of each leg are as generally required for the individual conditions of that discipline including the rules governing the component disciplines: Surf ski races, Board races, Surf races and Beach run.
The courses of the races will be announced at the first registration and at each briefing of the race. It will also be shown in a diagram.

The distances of the oceanman courses will be approximately:
Run: 600 m (x2)
Swim: 400 m (x2)
Board: 600 m (x2)
Ski: 1000 m (x2)

The athletes should place their equipment before the start of the race. A handler will catch the board and ski after the first race and replace it for the second heat.
The distances for the sprint events will be approximately:
Run: beach sprint 90 m + Beach flags
Swim: 200-300 m
Board: 300-400 m
Ski: 400-500 m

Classification and Point scoring

The Oxbow Lifesaving Beach Tour is an individual event. You gather points at each event. The first will get 350 points, the second 300,… (list below). At the end of the 4 competitions the best 3 results will be added up for the final score. The person with the highest score will win the Oxbow Lifesaving Beach Tour and will be the OCEAN MAN or OCEAN LADY. For each event the first 3 finishers will get rewards and the first 5 athletes in the overall ranking will get prize money.
In case of a tie, the following order of competition venues will be respected:
Oostduinkerke – Oostende – Middelkerke – Bredene
For the sprint events there will be a separate ranking. Everybody can compete in the sprint event. The athletes cannot gain points for the overall ranking. The first 3 competitors will get rewards.
For the three youth categories there will be an overall ranking of the 5 different events and a ranking per event.

Points:

Place	Points	Place	Points	Place	Points	Place	Points	Place	Points
1	350	11	150	21	70	31	30	41	10
2	300	12	140	22	66	32	28	42	9
3	260	13	132	23	62	33	26	43	8
4	235	14	124	24	58	34	24	44	7
5	215	15	116	25	54	35	22	45	6
6	200	16	108	26	50	36	20	46	5
7	190	17	100	27	46	37	18	47	4
8	180	18	92	28	42	38	16	48	3
9	170	19	86	29	38	39	14	49	2
10	160	20	78	30	34	40	12	50	1

Equipment

You should use equipment that is approved by the regulations of ILS.
Athletes should bring their own equipment. The equipment should be according to the rules of the ILSE “Competition Manual”, edition 2007. A small number of equipment is at the competitors disposal. The competitors don’t have any claim on the material. The charge for renting material is 10 euro per day.
You will be held responsible for any damage that was not previously reported to the rented material.