 Poster: A snowHead
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Hi all
Enjoyed the race kids thread last year so thought I would set up another one for this year!
So like everywhere Alberta Alpine restructured this year into new age groups but AA also restructured the way they want things run. There are three geographical zones in Alberta and you can only attend races in your Zone plus the three provincial races at U12. This is a shame as we will no longer be able to go to Panorama or Lake Louise to race; both were good races.
So U12 will race 6 races; three 'local' and three 'provincial'. Three local are Nakiska, Sunshine and Castle (castle is a team multievent race). Three provincial are Jasper (as last year), Norquay (as last year) and the skiing metropolis of Red Deer (which has most of us parents wide eyed and TBH slightly disappointed, Red Deer is a prairie type town between Calgary and Edmonton. We are assured its a great racing hill. Its river valley and has rollers etc. However I think we all remain a little skeptical, at least about the skiing fun for the parents that weekend!) Son is in first year of U12.
Daughter is in first U10 (one of the youngest as she's December born) and she will race the local races as the U12s.
So this year we switched clubs from NASA ( http://www.skinasa.org/) to Calgary Alpine (http://www.calgaryalpine.com/); for a lot of different reasons ( a lot of peeps also left) . So far so good but we haven't started on snow yet!!
U12 start today with a season opener at Sunshine (usually Sunshine skiing is free skiing). Then back to two days a weekend from next weekend at Nakiska. Then Lake Louise for Men's downhill, then LL for Wone's downhill; then Nakiska for world cup skier cross.
Boys set off for Sunshine at 6:40 this morning with son as ever up before we even had to get him up and rearing to go.
U10 start next weekend and is mainly just saturdays until Christmas. I will take her to COP today to get some ski legs before her first day with new club. Calgary has just had a major snow storm in last few days so the snow at COP should be OK (never seen so much snow this early).
Dryland has been going on since Sept; gymnastics once a week at COP and once a week training outdoors and now indoors (indoors is Bob Niven centre at COP and son loves fact that olympians of alsorts train there) l. Both kids have gone and have loved it this year. Much better than the very dry adult style intervals my son did last year.
Let us know about your seasons; although I appriciate that in UK its far less seasnal!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Wot no race kids?
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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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gryphea, as you mentioned it's a lot less seasonal here!! So most of the race kids will be done with the summer racing in the UK (end April - September) but not actually had the opportunity to do any snow races yet - you might wait till about January 
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gryphea, As viv says, no races here at the moment. Training continues though: sessions on the plastic at Pontypool both this weekend and next.
We go out to Austria in two weeks for training and racing over the Xmas/New Year period. Not decided what races we'll actually do yet - have to make a decision soon as the entry closing date for the Anglo-Scottish in Les Houches is 7th Dec - even though the race isn't until the first week in Jan.
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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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gryphea, First snow races for the UK kids will be early January in Les Houches , France ....and the snow has started to fall... http://www.ski-leshouches.com//cam.php ....hope it stays cold. Looks like there may be some fun freeksing in Scotland before the races...Cairngorm planning to open on the 1st of December....fingers crossed for an epic season..
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UK kids were racing two weekends ago in XC at Bruksvallarna
Below are the results from the final day:
Ladies Freestyle Sprint Prologue (Junior and Senior results combined in one list)
Rank Bib FIS Code Name Year Nation Time FIS Points
1 313 3505754 NILSSON Stina 1993 SWE 00:02:36.43 17.00
2 305 3505217 KALLA Charlotte 1987 SWE 00:02:37.27 23.44
3 308 3505449 SOEMSKAR Linn 1989 SWE 00:02:38.28 31.19
35 349 3225005 MUSGRAVE Rosamund 1986 GBR 00:02:50.94 128.31
47 360 3225004 YOUNG Sarah 1989 GBR 00:02:54.86 158.38
90 536 3225013 HOMYER Kate 1993 GBR 00:03:27.08 405.54
91 541 3225018 CATES Fern 1995 GBR 00:03:42.30 522.30
Men's Freestyle Sprint Prologue (Senior and Junior results combined in one list)
Rank Bib FIS Code Name Year Nation Time FIS Points
1 1 3500259 JOENSSON Emil 1985 SWE 00:02:15.99 18.56
2 5 3500409 EDIN Johan 1987 SWE 00:02:16.54 23.41
3 8 3500651 PERSSON Simon 1991 SWE 00:02:18.35 39.39
111 93 3220004 STANDEN Alexander 1990 GBR 00:02:31.43 154.8
170 703 3220033 CLUGNET James 1996 GBR 00:02:38.58 217.90
199 697 3220032 GRAY Stuart 1996 GBR 00:02:56.74 378.15
202 711 3220029 YOUNG Gregor 1995 GBR 00:03:03.95 441.77
203 726 3220034 NICHOLLS Harry 1996 GBR 00:03:08.78 484.39
204 717 3220031 HESLOP Rory 1995 GBR 00:03:10.28 497.62
So our juniors were racing against some of the worlds best.
More results from the weekend on the squad website:
http://www.bnds.org.uk/
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Thanks for all updates. Didn't really think about the seasons, I thought it was kind of all year in UK!! Keep us updated!
Our season is fun so far. Started early Nov so we are nearly a month in. Not settled into any routine yet as have had very few days on local hill, Nakiska. So it been mainly technical free skiing and free skiing. U12 starts at COP one evening a week from tomorrow. U10 does one evening a week starting Jan.
First races aren't until end Jan
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Still no updates?
U12 has just started doing half days of mini gates( brushes), with quite a lot of skiing to get round again. Coach does a lot of videoing.
U10 still doing drills to try and get them skiing better. She's loving it.
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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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oski starts winter training today - first race planned for next weekend.
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Okanagan,
ohhh, do let us know how it all goes.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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4th in age group, 6th out of 133 overall - 0.8 seconds (about 2%) off the winner - not a bad start to the season. This was an International (open) GS race meaning not regionally restricted, so a pretty good standard - mostly Austrian (but also Belarussian) opposition, I think he was the only Brit.
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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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| gryphea wrote: |
| U12 ... Coach does a lot of videoing. |
just curious, what does the coach do with the video of the U12?
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skimottaret,
Well its not always seemingly apparent, but I think the following.
He gives them detailed video analyses for sure. I imagine this has varying effect. Its useful for my son.
He uses it to compare progress of individuals over the season for sure
I think he and the other two U12 coaches discuss them and come up with training strategies and/or particular gate courses to halp them work on issue
I think they use it to communicate things to their coach heirachy and to set the kids going up for the follwoing year
the end of year club video
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You know it makes sense.
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Okanagan,
That sounds great for his first race outside on snow this season!
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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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gryphea, tah, I tend to find that kids U10 dont get much out of video review other than who got the most air, biggest crash that sort of thing and video review is a bit of information overload. Have done a little with U12's and toying with doing more so was curious... what does your son get from it ?
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Poster: A snowHead
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skimottaret, I video most of the races that our (club) racers do - from kids through to masters. Without exception the feedback I get from this is that love to see how they did, and how they did in comparison to others in the same race. Also the feedback I've had from others in the coaching team who couldn't attend a particular race is positive in that it enables them to see what went good (or bad!) in a race for an individual skier. I've even had feedback from racers in other clubs who say that they've looked at the videos I've done in the past to enable them to get an idea of what a particular slope is like for racing on.
But yes I do doubt the exact technical value that an individual young racer gets out of a video: the good/bad points are in the most just too subtle for them to pick up.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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RobW, yes i can see the point in doing races and I am hoping to do some dartfish type overlays for the kids to explain tactics and where it went right and wrong...
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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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skimottaret,
I think it varies what the kids get out of it. My son get a lot out of it; he is fairly focussed though and pretty coachable and enjoys seeing what he does wrong and what he could try and imporve upon. And my guess is like adults its quite informative to see yourself on video; its proof you aren't quite doing something you thought you were. Its not used at U10 at all presumably becuase they are too young to respond in the right way. In fact my son had the same coach two seasons ago when we was 8, at a differnt club and different programme. He didn't do any videoing then.
Its mainly gates they are videoed for and I also think the coaches use it to construct their feedback and plan new training as its easier for them to pick things out in slower motion and then design drills to help iron out issues
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Back to earth with a bump (literally) for his 2nd race of the season today. Soft snow (in the rain) and he was almost last to go - looking good until he caught a ski in a rut and pinged it off. 2nd time in 3 snow races he's crashed in similar fashion - some reassessment of his binding settings on the cards I think. Another race at the weekend though (the beauty of temporarily being in an alpine country with races not far from base).
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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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Okanagan,
Does sound like his bindings are a little off. Its a shame going so close to the end though. Do they not get two runs and then do reverse order?
Here, becuase we do so few races, a 'race' is actually 3 or 4 goes down a slalom or GS course with usually two times counting. They usually reverse the start order too.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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Somne of the races are 2 runs (and all the British races will be at least 2 runs, sometimes 3) - but a lot of these Austrian Races are only one run. Tomorrow's race will have over 300 kids there, so I suppose two or more runs would just take too long. All 3 of the racers who finished in front of him last weekend are there again tomorrow, plus a lot more we've not seen before, so it looks like a high standard field again.
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skimottaret,
So saw a little bit more of how the coach uses video. So this weekend he set up a gate course, videoed them. The kids then loop round and so at any one time there is one kid on the top of the course and he shows them the video individually talks them through it, uses it to illistrate points, ie. 'really good positioning coming into the turn , well done but as soon as you make this turn can you see your shoulders turn up the hill, can you focus on that bit for this run'. So no one kid got to see any one else's video; I think that was quite key as he has a range of skiers.
So the kids seemed fairly responsive and seemed to get what he was saying, whther it translated into actually changing habits I don't know but I think he is trying to get them to be more reflective. As he was down a coach for one session this weekend he had a radio set up at the top of the course at one time whislt he was two thirds the way down. Kids would then talk to the coach about their run on the radio to him and then do the run observed. His opening gambit seemed to be ' so bruno, how was your last run'. Intially all the responses were 'good' until he told them what he wanted and that 'good' was not enough and so then the next kid up said ' awesome'!!! But later I heard at least some fo the kids being quite detailed and his ersponses being quite detailed , ' so I thought the top of the course went really well but by the time I got to the bottom , it wasn't going so well' 'why do you think that James?' ' I think I was taking my turns not high enough' ' why do you think that was?' ' I think its becuase blah bah' ' right well why don't you try to work on blah blah on this run and here's what will make it easier'
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Only 15th (out of 34 in his year) on Saturday - but he'd finished ahead of this weekend's 1st and 3rd last week, so it shows that on his day he could have done better. Really high standard though - only a couple of seconds seperating the top 16, so it doesn't take much to make a big difference in the rankings.
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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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Okanagan,
So any more races then?
We are just back from a club free skiing weekend at Fernie. Went downa day early to get aday of skiing with kids in. Great weekend.
U10 starts mid week training at COP on Tuesday
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Hehe.. been away from Snowheads, but time to check-in on the kids racing thread.
Last week we arranged the first of our Friday Cup races. Its an informal, single-run GS, open to all comers, over three consecutive Fridays. We had 176 starters in classes from Under-8s to 16 - for some reason no adults signed up for the first race. We run all the pre-FIS classes as single ages groups (11, 12, 13 etc. classes). We don't have much width open on the hill yet, so the course was bit tight and pretty darned icy in the steeps. Which showed. Harald #10 of 20 in the 12y.o class, where some of those were DNF, so nothing spectacular, but pretty well skied until he lost his line towards the end. He seemed happy enough knowing where he had gone wrong and will be back in the ring to take another swing on Friday.
Sunday was a parallel slalom at one of our neighbouring hills. Supposed to be max. 64 entries in each class, they actually allowed 74 and ran 10 randomly chosen qualification pairs to whittle down the 64. So Harald got two test runs, or a chance to go home very early, depending how you look at it. As it happened he made it through the qual. and the next round winning all the runs - two runs per heat, red & blue courses. In the 2nd round proper he was 36 hundreds down in the first run. Second run was looking good - two thirds through, at the jump, he had a lead that looked good enough to win, then he got very late on the final, open section of the course and fell attempting to overcompensate. Irritating, but the race was great fun anyway, and he got interviewed and photographed for the local rag  Looking at it objectively, he got 6 runs under pressure in a tight, rutted and demanding course. Excellent training!
http://www.budstikka.no/bildeserier/volkl-cup-i-alpint-1.7711480/1.7711492
Saturday by the way, he was freeskiing with friends from 10am to 5 pm, and on Sunday, after the race, they kept going until 4:30 pm. Hard life
This week is SL training Tuesday, GS training Wednesday, SL training Thursday, race on Friday. But then we have the weekend off. Woohoo!
Next week is crazy. SG training Monday, SL training Tuesday, GS training Thursday, race on Friday, GS race on Saturday, SL race on Sunday. Phew!
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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squawker,
Cool photo, impressive jump for a slalom course! Thanks for the update; I was missing the norwegian slant!
Sounds like a punishing schedule, I presume your hill is open every evening? Bit of a bonus. CP is open every evening but getting lane space for gate drills is really tight. There are 5 tight lanes and loads of clubs with kids ranging from 8 to 18 competing for lane space. Clubs from all over train COP mid-week, including our club, NASA, Sunshine, Norquay, Lake Louise, Panorama and Fernie
I am always amazed they do SG training this young in Europe. Here, don't think they really start SG training until FIS, althugh in between they may do some speed camps, but no racing. I wonder why the difference?
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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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gryphea,
Parallel slalom is SL skis, but GS pretty much everything else. The courses are set with GS panels but very tight. A little jump adds to the fun.
Kolsåsbakken is open 17:00-21:30 Mon.-Fri. and 10:00-17:00 Sat. & Sun. Our club owns the hill along with two other clubs, but the others are a bit less race focused. The hill is effectively ours on Tue. & Thu. 17:00-21:00 and we have 3-4 lanes. We borrow a lane on the other clubs' nights (Mon./Wed.) or train elsewhere so that the 3 day-a-week kids get their laps in. Ordinarily Harald trains Mon/Tue/Thu. Monday training is 15:30-17:30 when the hill isn't really open and they have it to themselves, so the plan is to do some SG sets, even though the hill is really too short.
The first SG-lite competitions are for the 11/12 class. 13/14 and 15/16 run pretty serious SGs (e.g. parts of the Kvitfjell WC course) and 15/16 even have DH at the national championships. Scary!
No idea why there should be a difference between North America and Europe. I only really know how things work in Norway. There's definitely something to be said for honing your basic skiing skills (SL & GS) before hitting the long boards. But as long as its done safely, which really is quite a serious business, and the kids are enjoying it then I don't have a problem.
Its a lot of hassle booking a course with all the nets in place, or rigging them yourself, mobilizing an army of volunteers with walkies, yellow flag posts, keeping tourists out of the course etc. etc.... so from an organizer's point of view there's no rush to start holding SG races 
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Last night Avon Ski Club (just south of Bristol) held its first 'own run' club session with our wonderful new head coach Hedley Beavis. Previously the 'slope' ran the sessions but new owners have allowed the club to now set a structure to the sessions, and to bring in qualified coaches. Avon Ski Club is primarily for children and the range last night was age 7 to 16. Hopefully the club will now be able to greatly expand the club and the events that are held at the slope! www.avonskiclub.co.uk
apologies for the blatant advertising but anyone in the area is more than welcome to get in touch, and lets hope the futures bright!! (no jokes)
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You know it makes sense.
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Just back from Les Houches, France where I went out to surprise my Son as he competed with Telford Alpine ski race club at the Anglo Scottish and BSA Grand Prix races. He's had an awesome start to the 2013 Winter ski race season. Four races over four days 2x Slalom and 2x Giant Slalom.
Clean sweep on each day winning each race overall and was awarded the Chris Guest memorial trophy. Quite an honour! Well Done Robert Poth! .....next...... Representing GB in the Czech Republic in two weeks time. He can't wait.
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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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Gillian,
Sounds great. Hope it was fun! Good luck for the GB stuff.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Gillian, Congrats to Robert, nice one 
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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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Thanks sarah,
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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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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Gillian,
Sloe gin? Would never happen in Norway  Coffee if you're lucky but more than likely nowt!
Well done Robert Poth indeed. Sounds like a very talented and dedicated young man - had a quick gander at his website. Its a fabulous age for racing - becoming high performing athletes before the full pressure of FIS points and real life take over. Wish him all the best in CZ. Based on the NSF (Norwegian Ski Federation) website it doesn't look like Norway will be represented - no mention of it or any skier selections.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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Gillian,
Sloe gin monitor sounds like a much better job than gate judging, which here is usually freezing!!
I shall suggest it .........
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| Quote: |
Hey... I may well be at the Castle multievent race...so hopefully see you their.
I've been asked to help coach the Elkwater Race Club. I was also at Castle on Monday. A great little Mountain with some awesome chutes, Pow and Glades to play in. I'd never heard of it before...but what a great mountain.
Been getting loads of practice setting courses this last month. The Head Coach is fantastic and has years of experience...so i'm like a sponge soaking it all up
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Castle race is fun. Its a pure team event with no individual results and some funky events (think there are around 8 events). Last year a cop was there with a speed gun!
Unfortunately we have only skiied Castle twice. The first time was the race two years ago, whena wad or artic air descended half the lifts were closed and we stayed in Pinhcer creek and through we were in artic tundra. We couldn't get out of the hotel in the morning due to the drifts
The second time, last year, the snow was icy slush and too wndy for the top chair. So hoping for a better experince this year!!
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Psspud, Glad to ehar all the coaching is working out and great you are leanring things too! What's the hill like?
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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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spud,
All sounds great. Thought you would kind of get a different experience.
Watchout for the local wildlife..........
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FAQ
