There are certain words that you will come across orienteering that you will never need to use in your normal life.
Embrace your inner O-geek and learn them all!
Aiming off - using an obvious feature on one side of a control to direct you to the actual control site
Bearing – using your compass and two fixed points to determine the direction to run between them
BUCS – British Universities’ and Colleges’ Sport; also used for the National Championships that the organisation runs annually
Catching Feature - an obvious feature near to your target that will alert you if you have passed your target
Compass - an instrument with a magnetic pointer showing magnetic north
Contour - a fine brown line to show the gradient and the form of the land
Control – what you are looking for! A small orange and white box, marked as a circle on the map
Crag – sheer rock face
Dibber – slang for SI card
Download – putting the information of your race from your SI card into the race computer at the end of the race
Knoll - a very small hill
O- [insert word here] - abbreviation of “orienteering”, can be used for anything you want
Reentrant - an indentation into the side of a hill
Saddle - a low part of a ridge between two higher hills
SI Card - a plastic holder containing a micro-chip which is strapped onto your finger. The chip will record all information about each control that you visit.
Splits - a printout that will show you the exact time that you took to find each control that is printed out when you download
Spur - a projection from the side of a hill