 Poster: A snowHead
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GrahamN, Well done on the podium finish. Sorry to hear about Mrs ski.
A good day for us in that I achieved my goal of not coming last and my son got down into the low 200's points wise (and is improving fast). I have just about recovered from straddling the penultimate gate on the second run  A shame because it would have been a good run if I had controlled it a bit better and concentrated all the way down.
Next races for us are all ERSA's. No more CN's until Gloucester.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Just back from Southampton where 6 year old Okanagan junior bagged his first Club National podium finish, with a third in the mini boys  . It turned out quite warm and sunny in the end - in contrast to the wet, windy and cool conditions up at Pendle this weekend by all accounts.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Well done Master O - it's really great seeing the beams of achievement on their faces when the littlies have a good run. Looking at the results I'm even more gutted I couldn't be there (particularly as your guy who normally beats me by a few thenths went to Pendle) - I've beaten the Masters winner all but one race in the last year, although he does ski well with home slope advantage, and the points from similar skiers to me looked useful....grrr  .
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Well done to Okanagan junior! Indeed sounds like it was much nicer at Soton than Pendle, in more ways than one 
So, first plastic races of the season for me at Pendle at the weekend, home slope now so was hoping to get some good points scores in! In traditional Pendle race weekend fashion the beautiful weather of the past week disappeared  , although at least the monsoon didn't materialise this year! Just some rain in time for run 3 on Saturday and generally cold! CN course on Sat was nice (thank you Mr Wyatt!) - a couple of open gates at the top, then a verticale going over the rollers, a few more open gates and a harpin followed by a couple of offsets at the bottom. 4 female seniors (including me) in attendance, 2 competely out of reach at the top of the rankings and another unregistered so an unknown quantity - until we saw her first run, then I got worried! My first run was OK, starts noticably improved from last year, managed to attack the course much better than previously and really tried to drive fronts of the skis. Still lost some speed on arrival on the flat, and got told off by the OH for standing up at the bottom but time was not too bad, but about .4 off senior 3......grrr..... 2nd run was better, didn't stand up as much at the bottom and managed to improve by about .4 secs from first run, 3rd sen also improved, but by less, so now only about .15 behind - could be caught up by a good run 3 - sadly I messed up the start on run 3 then got a bit panicked on the top section trying to make it up and did a bit of skidding, and despite hard push through the flats only managed 1 hundredth faster than run 2 not enough to overtake sen 3 who also slightly improved on run 3, so I finished about .3 behind overall. However, once I had stopped telling myself off for the mistakes, I worked out my race points and was quite happy to have scored 117.9, penalty took this up to 129.summat, so a big improvement from the list points of 167 could have been better, but not bad for the first race and lots of noticable improvements from last year . Should also admit to massively embarrassing myself by managing to crash in free practice but my excuse is that I always crash on race weekend at Pendle so this time I decided to get it out of the way before the important race runs 
Following the relatively successful Saturday, on to the GP on Sunday. The first course was set by one of our coaches, so we were somewhat prepared for what was to come, a couple of open gates at the top, not very offset, designed to draw you into entering the hairpin on the rollers too straight! After the hairpin there were a few big offset gates, then a verticale right down on the flat section and another couple of offset gates to the finish. I have to confess at this point that I totally bottled this run  poor start, not enough attack at the top section, so no speed carried onto the flats and basically a series of pushes and skates to get to the finish but coaches did say I skied the hard top section really well, just not enough attack so some positives. Now, I really can't describe the second run to you as it was so horrible I have tried to wipe it from my memory! Basically, there were alot of gates! The section going over the rollers and onto the flats was amazingly tight, and caught out a large proportion of the field - the gate judge for that section ran out of paper! so again basically I didn't attack enough at the top, then didn't have fast anough feet through the tight section and almost came to a complete stop on the flats - but managed to push and skate my way to the finish. This was actually better than I did in any GPs last year as I didn't crash, DNF, or have to screech to a halt to walk round any gates was fun to watch the top guys trying to ski the course later on but there were a lot of very unhappy people complaining that the course was just too horrible. Picked up a 3rd place, seeing as only 3 in it today, not happy with my performance but still scored about 174 points so I suppose skiing to about last year's level. Lots still to work on before celtic cups at rossendale this weekend
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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No racing for us this weekend - next outing for junior will be the Gloucester race league on the 7th, then probably Pontypool the week after.
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word is that chemmy and ed drake will be at brentwood during the race 
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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skimottaret, As of last night I believe they are still going to be there. Are you going?
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| LSERSA website wrote: |
| Chemmy Alcott and Ed Drake will be presenting the prizes. Chemmy will also be selling all her 'team kit' from the last 10 years. |
Looking at the weather forecast though, I suspect we'll need waterwings as much as skis during practice/inspection and sails may come in useful during the race itself .
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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gsb, nope... was planning on it, but am now off to Aviemore for yet another BASI course.....
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Next report - and as I've not put it off for a week or two, you'd be safe in assuming I did OK this time 
Looking at the Beeb and Metcheck forecasts it looked like yesterday at Brentwood was going to be a rerun of last year's horror - cold, wind, rain - but with added rain for good measure. And as I got to the Dartford Crossing at 7:45am it started pelting down right on cue. Having parked up, and trying to summon up the enthusiasm to get out of the car I even considered jacking it in there and then and driving home straight away. Still, chin up and get on with it. The mood was not exactly helped when, while waiting for practice to start it became clear that knocking off the puddles forming on the top of the clubs gazebos was going to be a full time job.
Brentwood is quite a long slope, but the main slope is very narrow and after a barely adequately steep top 20 metres, it flattens out dramatically. So there's a definite premium in being able to ski smoothly to keep the speed up. In practice (still bucketing down) the rain did give the advantage of keeping the surface fast, but at the cost of very poor grip on the top section of the slope. After 45 mins of practice I was wet through (my ancient jacket I use for dryslope stuff having long since lost any water-repellency), but was feeling marginally less depressed - skiing is still skiing even if on 200m of toothbrush in the pouring rain.
Just as course setting started, mirabile dictu, it stopped raining! Given the narrowness of the slope it does tax the setter's inventiveness a bit, as there's so little width to play with. Watching the course setter going about his business, it became clear that the course was going to be a bit easier than we had last year (which had a pretty viscious opening half-dozen gates). This ended up being a very characteristic course from this setter - so much so that you could probably guess who'd set it "sight unseen" - top section starting pretty straight then widening subtly but definitely for 6 gates, luring you into being too aggressive, then into a three element flush and a final 5 gate 3/4 mat wide corridor. The forerunners did seem to be making a bit of a meal of it though, so it was going to be interesting how it skied. The secret of this was to make the turn at gate 6 so as you maintained speed into the flush and through the final corridor.
I've worked the system this year that I get a late start position, so I could see how my chief rivals did before I skied. The young hotshots were coming down in about 11.2 - 11.9. The series winner for the old gits agegroup last year hadn't skied at Aldershot, so I was very interested in how he did - and watching him from the side he looked pretty aggressive and fluid, but with a bit of a flounder around the flush - to finish in 13.60. My other rival - who won here last year, but I'd beaten soundly previously this year - I watched from by the start gate and he looked a lot choppier, and finished in 14.09...very beatable. In the event there had been a fair few ski-outs of the first run, particularly from some of the faster skiers...and I joined that illustrious company  . I'd been working hard the last few weeks on getting my body line more inside the gate - following from a comment made here by ski a few months ago "look inside the pole you're going around rather than at it". As you tend to ski where you're looking (as in "look at the gaps not the trees") this has a threefold benefit: 1) it makes your line closer to the gates - so you save time by not skiing as far; 2) you get better edge angles as your body and skis naturally separate laterally; and 3) your line is also easier as your CoM is not having to move so far in the offset from gate to gate. The downside is that you are more likely to straddle as you're trusting more to memory where the gate is and where your skis are. In Saturday's training session I'd also had some success in getting skated carves around the first two gates for a good, fast, aggressive start. So putting that into practice lasted....ooh....about a gate, as I felt my ski skid a tad running from 1 to 2, and much more so as I came out of 2. Then a bit of overcompensation in the recovery and my inside ski went pretty much straight over gate 3 . That's a technical straddle, but I've seen people get away with it before (and done so myself ) so continued with the course - it didn't feel too bad but was hard work keeping the skis moving on the flatter section. It was in the end called a straddle, but the time came up (which was what I wanted) as 13.96 (which was definitely not).
Second run and the course is definitely drying out - to the extent that the sprinklers are now on and we even get a bit of watery sun! All this water is playing havoc with the timing gear though - and there are frequent stops and the odd re-run required. I miss the run of rival no 1, but he's improved to 13.28, but rival 2 is no better at 14.11. My training partner (who, being a mere whippersnapper of 44 is in the next agegroup down - so any rivalry here has no relevance for medal positions, but huge personal honour at stake) has a timing failure and reruns in 12.85  - I think there must still be something wrong with the clock . Finally my turn, and I decide to back off the skating malarky a bit. So just as I pass gate 2 I hear the commentator say "And he got a DSQ in the first run, so needs to make this count" - exactly what I want to hear...NOT! But that's about all I can remember from that run - other than remembering just in the final corridor to try and project my body down the middle of it. Time comes up as....13.09 WOOT! (well I think that's probably a fitting expression...whatever the hell it means). Long way behind my training partner, but a nice cushion over the rivals that matter.
Third run and the wind is now picking up a bit more - although still not as bad as last year, and importantly from behind rather than a headwind. Rival 1 is really going for it this time, and gets 13.05. This is getting a bit nip and tuck. Training partner gets it all a bit wrong and goes back to chopping his turns rather than keeping a smooth carve and drops to 13.42. Rival 2 improves a bit but is still back at 13.84. So it's all to play for. I need something like 13.15 to retain personal honour () and not much slower than that to win the group. I did though somehow manage to drop 1.5 seconds on the last run here last year (still don't understand how), so there's a definite thought to play it safe and guarantee a silver. I don't really do cautious skiing though - take the foot off the pedal and it all goes to pot big time. So good push out the start, softpedal the skates (so it's probably still there in my mind only ), and take a fairly aggressive line around the top gates. OOPS - rather large slide around the awkward gate 6, but I still seem to be on line OK and can really drive through the flush and line up well for the final corridor. Oh dear - so how much did that slide cost me - must be at least 0.2 secs if not more. Time's taking an age to be announced.....12.91 YEE-HAH!!!!. And it has also beaten my training partner, who has won the next younger agegroup (I think, also like me, for the first time away from our home slope) - but once again he has the faster single time on the day. Now if only I had got that turn 6 right.....
As the afternoon's dual slalom is run down a different slope they leave the course up for the afternoon for anyone who wants a bit more practice. So I go back up and try to sort out the top half of the course. Being very careful to not twist the skis at all, good skated carves for the top two, turn 6 nicely carved and smooth and....way too low. Sort of make the flush (although may well have straddled the first pole) but hopelessly out of balance on the first gate out of it and end up A-over-T . Trying to hide my embarassment I head for lunch. After sarnies etc have another crack at it, and almost the same thing - so skip the middle gate of the flush and at least stay on my feet. In about 6 further attempts I only stay in the course once . Good job I didn't ski the top half all that well in the morning after all then!
The afternoon's dual slalom is also interesting. The course is a three gate corridor, fairly tight haripin and another three gates before the finish. There's one club way out in front - to the extent that their fastest skier actually takes one of his runs in a snowplough (much to the annoyance of his opponent - that is rather rubbing your face in it ). The next 5 teams are all much of a muchness though. We're actually a bit miffed that the superstars team has one definite ringer in it (who came second overall) and one who changes his club as often as his undies (who came first overal) - but it does mean there's a good competition for second place. We make it through to the semi-finals, against Bromley A (which without its ringers is nowhere near as strong as it otherwise seems). I'm running the anchor leg, and our two fastest are the first two in the team. So we lead them up until my leg - but my opponent is on paper over a second quicker than me. I hold him up until about the hairpin, but his class really pays on the entry and push as I may I can't stay with him on the final three. The 3rd/4th playoff, against the home side, plays pretty much the same - and I see my (much faster) opponent catch me at the hairpin and really push over the last three, ending up sliding out on my @r$e in the runout - but still to no avail . My team mates and the rest of the club supporters are pretty much unanimous that "we wuz robbed" by the (home team ) commentator calling the result before the flag goes up - but I have to admit I think they did get it myself as I could see the other guy fairly clearly as I crossed the line.
Still, it's a really good day for the club, despite not having any of the top 10 finishers overall (our older teenage males were missing today, and they're unfortunately still a tad off the pace in any case) - we top the medals table for the day pretty much any way you count it, and top the league points tally.
So two wins (out of two) for me in the series is looking promising. One more win from the next three races and the title's mine - and rival 1 is not at the next race (So'ton next Sunday), as he's in the MK Club National . First though we have a SRSA race at Bromley next Saturday, which is a much tougher proposition.
Medal ceremony was nice...Chemmy presenting me with my Gold medal.
PS. I got a kiss off of her too 
PPS. I did have to ask for it
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You know it makes sense.
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GrahamN, Well done, again ! Assuming Mrs Ski's knee agrees (ACL - still on crutches) I'll see you Sat.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Poster: A snowHead
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well done graham, did chemmy offer you any of her old race gear? pictures please of the chemmy presentation kiss.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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GrahamN, well done!! Your season has certainly got off to a great start!
Erm, have been very lax in not reporting on the celtic cup races at rossendale a couple of weeks ago -oops so in lieu of a highly detailed race report (cos I now can't remember the courses very well ) I shall merely say that the weekend was OK, gale force winds on the sunday made life a bit more interesting!! Yet again my main gripe with myself is for not attacking hard enough out of the start, particularly on the first runs both days but did get my act together for the second run starts, tho on saturday it did result in me making a right pigs ear of the top few gates! also starting to learn to time big pushes with the poles at the bottom to gain speed without tripping over the poles
so relatively chuffed, think I could have done better but I've always hated rossendale and never scored below 200 there last year, and now they have started to replace the matting at the top of the slope it is a bit of a nightmare - new matting at the top, which is actually the stuff that used to be on llandudno, is very slow and sticky (and apparently only went down on the friday night), then come off of that onto old mat with absolutely no grip, then a bit further down onto the brand new mat they put in last year which is nice and grippy and well sprinkled with water...... makes for an interesting run down.....
Anyhew, scored in the 140s on both days so points have come down to 135.18 in the new Barts list
off to indoor snow races at MK this weekend, then hopefully celtic cup at pontypool the weekend after, funds permitting (not helped by the fact I have managed to rip part of the edge out on my training skis so now need a new pair - eek )
good luck to all at their next races, whatever they may be
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Gone a bit quiet on here recently so thought I'd stage a bit of a revival (also am feeling very happy so wanted to share the joy )
Been a bit lax at posting race reports recently - to summarise events of last few weeks, indoor snow races I did absolutely shockingly celtic cup races at pontypool had one good run from 4, 140-145 points both days, so consistent (and it is a looong slope so not too bad), but no improvements did pick up a 3rd place in my age group on the saturday tho
So today was CN at Stoke, almost didn't go as woke up feeling rotten this morning but thought I'd paid for it so might as well - good choice!! Had target of 3rd place in age group for the day, 5 in it, 2 out of sight, 1 I have beaten regularly this season and 1 I have raced on a local level for the last couple of years and never beaten, tho I've been catching up gradually. Course was straightforward and pretty quick - 3 open gates then verticale set slightly on the diagonal followed by another few open gates then a hairpin and 3 more open gates to the finish. Offsets no more than just over a mat wide so a course to build and carry momentum and universal opinion was that start was all-important - need to get lots of pushes in the first few gates to build speed before the slightly slower section in the middle. So, first run felt pretty good, felt like I was carving well, no big skids, really managing to get forward and drive the skis as per coaches instructions! mistimed the pushes at the top slightly so didn't get as many in as I wanted and could have pushed at the bottom but still felt pretty good - and was quite happy with time of 14.57, quick run to check timing board revealed I was ahead of the age group rival by 0.08 so good start, but quite close. Fastest time went to another senior at 12.97, so points also looking good. Also happy to see I was beating another girl from our club who I have never beaten before (only by 0.03).
Set out for the second run determined to push harder and improve the time, rival had a crash so also good opportunity to get a cushion for run 3 - unfortunately the wind decided to get involved in the race and although I got in more pushes and felt like I skied really fast I got caught by a big gust at the top and time was slower, 14.75 but this happened to lots of people so no point worrying too much about it.
Third run then was pretty much all or nothing, too close for 3rd place in the age group to hang back and ensure a finish. Wind was still playing havoc with people's runs but I was quite lucky in just missing a big gust that came while I was in the gate and getting out in a less severe gale! This time felt really good, couple of big pushes in before 1st gate, one before each of next few gates and also further down the course, also got very forward and drive through the wind. Didn't feel any skids, felt like skis were on rails for most of the course and time of..... 14.00 happiness at time was swiftly followed by run to timing board to see what rival had managed as I thought I had vaguely heard 13.something....... but it was 14.01!! So third in the age group, and a first win over said rival also managed to finish as 1st female from my club as others had more problems with the wind I think (I would have a slight advantage with ahem, more help from gravity ). And to top it all off, points score today was 91.43 first ever sub-100 score closer inspection of results shows my third run was pretty competitive and also I managed to beat several people that I've never beaten before, including some of the boys 
so now achieved season target of reducing seed points to sub-120 (should go to 109 or 110 after this, tho probly not in next list due out tomorrow as this race unlikely to be included) target now reset to sub-100, still a few races to go.
Anyone else been racing recently? hope all the  s are doing well
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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| vivski wrote: |
| ... so now achieved season target of reducing seed points to sub-120 (should go to 109 or 110 after this, tho probly not in next list due out tomorrow as this race unlikely to be included) target now reset to sub-100, still a few races to go. |
The results are up on Britski, I think you did a bit better than you think.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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Well done vivski, I saw the posted results and thought you'd be crowing soon . I reckon the next list that includes this race should give you 110.42 (from this race + the Pendle CN). My training partner also had a good run there, and now I'm kicking myself for not making the trek oop north (for us anyway) - particularly as he will have now leapfrogged back in front of me in the rankings . I'm at Gloucester tomorrow, praying that a certain D Ryding comes up with another DNS. Should be a really keen race though, as my main rivals from SRSA are there, and a couple of others I'm chasing hard. The top two in our group are way out of sight though so it's a close 5-way race for third, although from the result the 3rd ranked guy got today at Stoke that's more realistically a race for fourth, and the form book says I should come off worst in that pack and get 7th. Should see NickW there as well.
I was meaning to report on my regionals, of which we had three at the beginning of the month, and they marked the halfway point of the season. Very interesting how I reacted to some mixed results. The Southern Region has turned out this year to be ridiculously competitive, with the L&SE less so. At the SRSA race at Bromley, after a ropey first run, I finally got some really good runs in, and got my fastest race yet (doing a pseudo-points calculation gave me around about 100 ). I finally beat the guy who'd pipped me at the previous two, but still came in 4th in group, only 0.08 behind the guy in second (the group winner, who normally comes in second, was way out in front with a blistering final run by about a quarter of a second). So frustrating losing out on league points again, but rewarding to feel I'd skied well. In the team race in the afternoon we also got to the semi-final, with some blisteringly quick starts in the quarter-final to knock out a regular finallist. Running the anchor leg, I was racing against the fastest girl from the morning, who was about 0.7 secs faster than me. She's also a dual slalom specialist and normally completely destroys the course - so starting with less than half a gate lead I was expecting to hear this steamtrain running me down all the way down the slope - but by half way down I could hear nothing...two gates from the end I could still hear nothing.....and it never happened! Joy unrestrained. They must have had an off day though, as the following week we came up against them again (they had the same team, we had a stronger one), and got destroyed.
The following day we had an L&SE race at Southampton. And as I sport stickers on my skis I got accosted by markyb - good to meet you mate. The course, run along the ridge and so including the hard left hand turn half way through, was quite ludicrous. The ridge was the usual verticale, but then there was a banana gate to make the big left-hander pretty easy, one open gate and then into a verticale pretty much straight down the slope, with a single offset at the end. So it was entirely dependednt on how you skied the bend (even more so than usual), with virtually nothing to do anywhere else. I really didn't get to grips with how easy the big left hander was and never really carried enough speed through it. As a result I got beaten by two of the young (12yo) girls in the club (who have been skiing really nicely this year) for the first time ever, and was also beaten by my training partner, also for the first time this year, by about 0.2sec. But I still beat my main rival in age group by about 0.7 secs a run. So having won 3 races in the series I cannot be caught and have now won the series trophy - the first goal I set myself at the beginning of the season. But I still felt really depressed as I knew I hadn't skied anything like the level I can - by at least half a second a run.
And then on to Christchurch the following Saturday for the next SRSA race. I clearly made best use of the practice time, as after the first round I was leading the group, by about 0.1 sec. Unfortunately the top three guys overtook me in the second run and in the final run I had another good one, but still ended up 0.02 secs behind the thrid place guy (and 0.13 behind the winner). So fourth again, but a couple of good runs and another sub-110 (pseudo-)point result, so pretty happy. Unfortunately I couldn't really get to grips with the head-to-head course, and lost all of them - unfortunately against the 2nd and 3rd guys in my group, so that was even worse for league points. So now it's a really tall order to even finish on the podium in this region this year, as I need to win both of the final two races even to stand a chance of catching the guy in third. That's really disappointing, but we've had some great races, so I'm actually feeling happier about this reagion than L&SE, which I'm sort of walking away with (to the extent that I've binned my entry for their race at Welwyn tomorrow to go to Gloucester instead).
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Gluttons for punishment we did both CNs this weekend - or at least Okanagan junior did, I just trekked up and down the slopes carrying his skis. He looked to have skied ok on Saturday, but as the youngest and lightest in the minis - he's only 6 - was at a disadvantage from the wind and got beaten by a few others he'd regularly been beating this year and ended up 10th. 4th in the mini boys at Gloucester on Sunday was better though - he was only beaten by boys born 3 years earlier than him. And an overall time below 150% of a certain D Ryding's time was actually his best result yet measured by time relative to that of the male winner (no actual seed points for minis). Off to Ipswich next weekend to do it all over again, then only two more seeded races left for us before the summer break.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Oh well, really enjoyable race at Gloucester, with a great view of the racing from our usual place halfway up the slope, 13 male Masters in the start list, and points better than could have been expected given the "Ryding effect". iblair took the less embarassing option this year of course setting rather than forerunning , and gave us a quite nice course (well once he moved gate 9 in from his first thoughts, as it looked from the forerunning like you'd only get around it if you had less than 90 points or so). 3 offset gates across the flat start area, starting pretty hard up against the start ramp, then a hairpin into 4 gates at just about a mat offset, then a flush into a final couple of offset gates for a nice dynamic finish.
My hopes of a decent placing were modified quite early on, as the clear second placed master took a big crash in open practice and wrecked his hand - so retired hurt before the race even began. But then third or so to run there was a grizzly bearded unseeded guy I'd not come across before, sporting a "Saga Ski Club" shirt - who proceeded to tear down the course in great style, and was clearly way out of my league. Turns out he was an ex-British team skier from yesteryear, maybe easiski knows him - Paul Lewis.
Watching the girls and early runners, it looked like the middle 4 gates were going to be the key - it was quite possible to carve it, but go ever slightly off the line and you need a bit of a speed-bleeding twist to get from 6 to 7. A lot of my training recently has been working on speed through combinations and rhythm changes, with some very short hairpin settings, so went for it on the first run to get nice and early out of the hairpin - and overdid it turning way too early and possibly straddling its exit , right by where our club were camped out. I did end up with a DSQ for that; the onlookers felt I'd been a bit hard done by, but I can't really have any quarrel with the decision. Still, the time of 13.57 was OK but there was clearly plenty of improvement possible on that - particularly as that straddle had thrown me out for several gates. This was looking quite promising though as the faster of my targets from SRSA was not too far ahead at 13.41, but the other (whom I was beating the end of last year but haven't been able to catch so far this) and the rest in our race for 4th were all above 14 .
Second run decided there was nothing to lose - Ryding was looking pretty impressive, at half a second ahead of his nearest rival with an 11.04 opener - so a safe run to just get a time would be useless. I did take the exit from the hairpin a bit straight and had to put a bit of a slide in from 6 to 7, but got a reasonable time of 13.24, but my target had just got 13.12. A bit of mental arithmetic at the end of the 2nd run showed that even despite the Ryding effect repeating the previous run would still improve my points - so there was something to play for. I got the line much better and cut a lot of the slide out, but was still overturning in the tight section and lost quite a lot of time there, and despite good form through the flush and finish ended up with 13.51. Shame as it felt a lot more controlled than run 2 - but I guess I was just too stiff and tight in the first half of the course, and way too passive in the first three gates. The irony with that is that I'd spent a good half of the previous day's training working on getting some good starts - but forgot just about everything once I got to the real thing.
Watching the remaining guys come down, the guy ahead of me got down safely, but the guy sitting easily in third (from Okanagan's club) straddled half way down and skied out! So I ended up with a 4th, significantly better than the 7th I was expecting - this is the first time I've beaten the second of the SRSA guys this year, and first time ever I've beaten one of NickW's coaches. And even with the slower third run and the Ryding effect I still got 147 points, which will improve my listing to 145. Redoing the calculation without Ryding would have given me 128.8 points and if I'd managed to repeat that faster run it would have been 118. That's way faster than I've skied before at CN level, and well within my target for this year. It also still felt about 20 off what I've been managing in practice, and in some of the SRSA races, so very encouraging - a good day away from the office .
Now if only I can just get the belief when actually in the start gate to allow myself the freedom to ski at that level I might actually start doing something. I've just finished reading "Inner Skiing", and despite it's evangelical zeal there may well be something in it (but that's for another thread). This is probably a bit too late now to hit my target for this year (130 points) - 6 of the top 10 in the country (including Ryding) are at Ipswich next week, and I've never yet skied well at Welwyn - but it's looking promising to hit 100 points next year.
Despite his deleterious effect on the points, it was great watching Ryding, whom I've never seen ski before. Interesting technique - he's on one ski most of the way down, described by one of our coaches as basically that of an ice-skater - and watching his face he's clearly working very hard. David Blackwell is also still very impressive, in his first race of the season, as the fastest regular Master - today finishing 6th overall. And possibly the most elegant (and clearly quite efficient, as he finished second overall) is Andrew "Smiler" Watson from Yoda's neck of the woods - who looks like he just floats completely effortlessly down the course.
It also looks as if the LSERSA race at Welwyn was well worth missing - complete carnage as over a third of the starters skied out on the first run, and several of the regular top ten didn't manage a single time all day. I've not yet spoken to anyone who was there, but it sounds like a failure of course-setting, with I understand no forerunners!
On to Ipswich for two races at the weekend, and including my first GP (gulp). Looks like the clear leader for the CN Masters group - another good crop with 14 on the start list - is from skimottaret's local club. If I can ski as well as last weekend, I could have a shot at 2nd, but 4th or 5th is more realistic, as that slope has genuine terrain, which is very different from our own and it took a while getting used to the one time I've been there before. Okanagan, please do say hello - you probably have more of a chance of finding me than I do of finding you, although I'm not sure if we'll have our usual gazebo as there are only five of us there this time.
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GrahamN, Sounds like you are doing well this year and if your getting close to Alex Green you are doing fantastic. I gave up on dry slope training a while back so Brentwood isnt my "local" any more. If i can handle the embarrassment i may have a go at some gates indoors but being a beginner it is tough to do it under the gaze of top skiers.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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You know it makes sense.
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GrahamN, Congrats !
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Hi guys,
As you may well notice I'm new and would like to know about ski racing in the alps. I'm from Australia and am thinking of doing another season in the Alps. In '05 I spent the season in Bad Gastein, Austria.
Can anyone suggest where I might be able to do some club GS, SL and perhaps Super-G racing? I'm probably not going to be into FIS racing, however back in Aus it was mostly FIS guys who beat me in the recent Australian University Championships, where I came 16th in the SG.
Maybe some British ski clubs do this kind of racing on a regular basis? I'm looking to arrive in late Nov so maybe the glaciers and then head down to the lower slopes in Jan-Mar?
What do you guys think?
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Poster: A snowHead
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Rusho, What kind of race licence have you got ? Most British organized races in the Alps are FIS races and you would need a full licence to enter them.
If you can get a Limited FIS licence then you would be able to enter Citizen races, the calendar is here.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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I have no race licence. Suppose I get a FIS registration through Ski & Snowboard Australia (National governing body), where and with whom could i train? I'm likely to be working somewhere so maybe I'd only end up going to the events that are "local" for me.
Also what about university ski racing? Would I be able to enter some uni games as a guest or something?
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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| Rusho wrote: |
| I have no race licence. Suppose I get a FIS registration through Ski & Snowboard Australia (National governing body), where and with whom could i train? |
How much do you want to spend ? There are a few groups that will let you pay to train with them for short periods at a time.
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| I'm likely to be working somewhere so maybe I'd only end up going to the events that are "local" for me. |
Which country are you planning on going to ?
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| Also what about university ski racing? Would I be able to enter some uni games as a guest or something? |
You could ask BUSC but I doubt it.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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to race at BUSC (biritsh unis champs) you need to be a member of a british uni ski club, you can't just race as a guest as far as I know, certainly not when I was still racing at uni.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Which country?
Not sure. could be anywhere. I'm probably leaning toward Austria, since I speak a bit of German and like it there - I like the sound of Ischgl. It would be one of France, Austria or Switzerland. With SUI, can a Britisher work there without a visa? I have a British passport. If you would pick a country which is ideal out of those 3 which one would you choose?
How much to spend?
Who knows. The Benni Raich school in the Pitztal (Austria) charge 415 € for a 5 day camp inc lift, tuition and lunches. Do you think that's good value? What would I be looking at to train say one day a week with a squad.
As for the citizen races they look good! I flicked through the rules and it only costs 18€ or so for the GS with lift access. That's incredibly cheap, about $AUD30. In Australia it costs from $AUD60-90 for a race and then u have to buy a $75-$90 lift ticket!
Oh and lastly, has anyone done those "guest races" for about 8€ at various resorts around Austria? I went to do one at Axamer Lizum (Innsbruck) and I rock up only to find it's a sh*tty 30m course that looks like it's meant for 5 year olds?
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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This game is quite interesting to watch. This game is entirely different from other games. But it involves risk in playing this game.
--------
Brook
Sreevysh Corp
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Has anyone managed to get effective and usable gates into any dry-slope surface other than dendix yet ?
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Sideshow_Bob,
Bracknell has taken delivery of some new bases and poles which will be trialled by the Berkshire Race Squad over the winter. Will keep you posted.
Summer 2008 races not quite finished for us. Still ESSKIA finals this coming weekend and possibly British Schools in November. No surprise the mileage on the car has increased this Summer, even without our usual trip to the Alps.
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Rusho, Every town will have it's own ski club - OK you have to speak the language, but I imagine you'd be able to join the local club once you got there and protstrated yourself in front of the club boss. That would be cheap. they'll also go to local races and will most likely have a minibus or others going. You do need to try to get a FIS licence though. So:
1. Get FIS licence through Aussie authorities
2. Decide on where and find accommodation
3. check out their local club and who to ask about joining them
4. find a job to help with the finances
Job done!!
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FAQ
