Competitive autostop
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Competitive Autostop is a (new) form of extreme sport, combining adventurous hiking, orienteering and exploration with autostop as a means of transport.
Russian hitchhiking clubs (e.g. PASL) are the pioneers of this form of sport, where specific distances have to be traveled by autostop as fast as possible in order to win a competition. This includes excursions of a few days up to several weeks, covering thousands of kilometers of hitching motorized vehicles, freight airplanes or boats. Next to that, elements of sport orienteering & navigation in (un)known territory off the road are an inherent part in such excursions and competitions, establishing a more adventurous form of autostop while asking the participant for more than just hitting the road.
Next to that, research and lectures are conducted regarding a broad range of topics, including e.g. training for giving first-aid on the road, survival training in specific conditions, perfecting night hitchhiking or strategical autostop, making traveling between long distances a piece of cake.
In 2013, there will be a third attempt for the World Championships.
While competitive autostop is currently mostly based in the Baltics and Russia, there are attempts to establish competitive autostop in Western Europe as well. A first German club has been established in November 2011, with more information to follow soon.
Regulations
In the past PASL created a document of competitive autostop rules & regulations, wich have been adopted and revised by other hitchhiking clubs, e.g. Vilnius based VHHC. The international regulations adjusted by VHHC can be found here (English).
Links
- TransGlobal Race, Website of the World Championships (English), (Russian)
- DTSG, German competitive autostop club {{de]]
- Alexey Vorov explains the idea of the TransGlobal Austostop Race (Russian)
- German TV about competitive autostop (German)
