Ski

I like this...found it surfin' around. It's a couple of years old of Sarah Schleper, but I thought I'd share:

El Sapo Malo! (The Evil Toad)

Yep. He was the Alberto Tomba of futbol...

What? Are you somehow suggesting this was not inadvertant?

The 10 Greatest Soccer Players in History: 1. Pele (Brazil) Got to see him play for the Cosmos. Amazing... 2. Eusebio (Portugal) Led Portugal to the third place in world cup 1966, made "Benfica" European champion, etc. almost entirely by his individual efforts. The best "attacking forward" ever lived. 3. Maradonna (Argentina) 4. Beckenbauer (Germany) The best European player (Eusebio was born in Mosambique) and the best defenseman who ever played. (Next to him as defensman probably comes Bobby Moore - captain of Enland, world cup champion of 1966) 5. Cruyff (Holland). Beckenbauer's competitor as the best Euroean socccer player. 6. Di Stefano (Spain) Born in Argentina, playd in Spain, made "Real" what it is. 7. Garrincha (Brazil). The best "dribbler". Another Brazilian - Jairzihno comes close to him but still not "up to". 8. Puskas (Hungary) The leader of Hugarian "dream team". 9. Zidane (France) Made France to be among leaders of world soccer. 10. Yashin (USSR) The best goalkeeper that ever played, simple but very reliable. Was like a wall to the opposite team. Transformed the entire way of how goalkeepers should play. And the Next Generation:

How pathetic am I to be surfing race schedules at 2am?

And the schedule is posted! Dec 5/6/7/8 Sugarbush © ASRA Race Camp Dec 9/10/11 Killington, VT © GS/GS/SL Jan 7/8 Tanglwood(T) GS/TBA Jan 13/14/15 Sugarbush © SG/GS/SL Jan 21 Roundtop© TBA Jan 22 Blue Mountain© Dual GS Jan 27 Windham, NY (T) SG Jan 28 Plattekill, NY © TBA Jan 29 Hunter, NY © TBA Feb 4/5 4-day Utah Trip© Email ASRA for info Feb 11 Mountain Creek(T) AM GS, PM SL Feb 12 Blue Mountain© Dual GS Feb 17 Belleayre, NY © Gate Training Feb 18/19 Belleayre, NY © GS / SL Feb 25/26 TBA(T) TBA Mar 4/5 TBA(T) GS / Go-Pro Dual GS Mar 9 -12 Killington, VT © Nationals (Invitational) Late March 7 to 10 day Western Trip© Email ASRA for info

Well, she sounds entirely misunderstood and is surely a very gifted and talented young woman. I used to live on E. College Ave. in Salisbury, just across from what was then Salisbury State College, back when I worked for the Salisbury Daily Times. Good for her that life on Delmarva hasn't made her completely insane. I don't think there are many worse places on the planet to spend a winter; two inches of snow and five inches of sleet. Pictures? Nah... But feel free to send some to Atomic, though. He'd never copy them to me.

Well, uh, any sisters Skifreak?

Oh, yeah, now that's a good idea...a really good idea...

I wouldn't have given him an okay if he was going to jump on a race course right away with them (they are indeed 21m)...but on wide-open cruisers, he'll have a blast. Even my wife can have fun on GS:11's off the rack. Put up some offset gates, though, and she'd be frustrated. I'm pretty sure he'll be happily rippin'.

It is indeed down under. My oldest had a best friend that moved there to teach. Amazing place...

Tell me it's not at Rainbow...

I look forward to rooting for Ridge in his opening USSA race. I hope schedules allow me---and a bunch of us---to see it in person. I have been involved in ski racing on some level for 27 years. My current goal is to be the best J4/5 coach possible; to be as good of a ski coach as I am a soccer coach. Because you don't trust my opinion, I can only point out some common knowledge: Austrian coaches change tactics on a daily basis to compete with Bode. The US Ski Team adjusts practices weekly to find the best line, angulation, and tactic for every condition and course set. The World Cup is cutting edge. The FIS as an organization moves slowly, but scouting and video analysis of World Cup racers make MLB look like little league by comparison. If you tell any of the top 100 ranked men or women in the world that there's a technique that will shave .001 sec off of a run, they will adopt it overnight. Coaches from the academies and camps love new ideas. There is no wall of silence. If something works, they do it. Right away. And they share it. Suggesting skeptics don't sign on to a new idea because it's "great but new" is either ignorant or a lie designed at promotion. Some new techniques (not named in this post) were tested at Hood in June. And some were tested by Eric Schlopy in Park City last March. The results were the same. I may tell grownups to go F themselves every once in a while, but I'd never do something to slow up a kid. There are 100 ways to ski a race course. There is ONE way to ski it the fastest. Talk of "quivers" is fine, but not practical at a high level of competition. Maier and Bode, for instance, don't suddenly change how they angulate or address steering out of a turn to meet certain conditions. They change their touch and aggression. ~~~~ Consider: would you want a junior racer to learn an inferior technique that works well on easy courses, but is detrimental on higher level courses? Would you teach a little league baseball player to wag his bat like Gary Sheffield? Do you know why not? Would you teach an 8th grade basketball player to NOT use the backboard for layups? Do you know why not? Just food for thought, Papa... We're ALL rooting for Ridge to think it's fun beating USSA kids up north.

Understood, but painful to hear.

Ridge doesn't need to be bothered with stinky, cootie infested girls anyway. Ridge needs to concentrate on making post season and showing some NY skiers what PA kids are capable of doing up in their house.

World Cup racers have their techs wax new skis more than 100 times when they come with that factory wax. The factory wax is just a protective coat, like a storage wax. It's like a new car that comes with a little bit of oil. It'll run and seem fine, but you're frying the cylinders just the same.

Ha, thanks, 'Mom. I've learned from my mistakes. Late one upcoming night, I'll try and put it step by step and try to be really clear, including using gummi stones, etc...and everyone else should chime in. I'm sure 'Dude will have some good things to add...

There are two surfaces that need sharpening: the base edge and the side edge. The base edge should be sharpened at the beginning of the season, then left alone. You won't have to worry about your base edge, since it'll come from the factory with a sharp 1 degree base bevel. Your side edges will be nice and sharp, set at Atomic's factory 3 degree bevel. GS:11's were designed to work great at 3 degrees. Now, does your FKS bevel guide allow for 3 degrees (AKA 93 degrees)? If not, you need to pick up a file guide and spring clamp like these (total of $35): http://race-werks.com/product.php?prod_num...01500&cat_id=16 The best tip I ever had for sharpening is to use a black felt tip pen and draw a line down your edges. Then you file away the marker. That's how you know if you missed a spot and teaches you to file evenly, with good strokes. More tips for side edge sharpening: Always pull the file toward you. Always set you skis in your vice with the edges AWAY from you. It DOESN'T matter if you sharpen tip to tail or vice-versa. In fact, with the edges always away from you, you'll have to. Your travel vice should work great, btw. You'd asked about waxes: look for a good hydrocarbon wax; you don't need low or high fluoro. Swix makes a great line of "CH" waxes. Just buy a CH7 and a CH8 and you'll be all set for different temps. I'm sure these answers have created more questions. Fire away....

Waiststeering is okay on the flats. It cannot be maintained on a steep course. Gary himself blew out of turns at Nationals when trying to push the limits of the technique. When Gary used his technique at Masters races, he either fell or finished 10 seconds behind. USSA coaches have looked at the technique and commented that if you remove the elements that MSRT added to currently taught ski racing, then you have a stable method with a good platform and better angulation. In other words, MSRT is the problem that needs to be removed from their video samples. These are facts, not personal attacks. Btw, Think, calling someone a wife and child beater doesn't get you banned?

Or you can attend a real camp with instructors trying to improve your skiing as opposed to just making a buck with a failed gimmick and ENDLESS lies. I guess it's good to have choices.

Ha, I snapped a fin on the shore break at dead high. If it is really gnarly in the morning, I'm going to boogieboard. There's just something about riding the shoulders of big waves uber close up; sort of like Superman the Ride.

Chest high waves without too much chop made for some good rides today on LBI...tomorrow AM should be out of control. Temps were in the mid-90's on the dunes, then 70's near the water. Irene kicked up some deep water and dropped the surface temp enough to be on the cold-side. Spent the day on a 5'9" Surf Prescriptions. How did I forget my wet shirt? Waves were too big for the kid, so she had some late afternoon balance practice in Barnegate Bay on my Custom X. Awesome day!

I'm pretty sure the calendars aren't up yet. I'm just going by when post-season races are generally held. If Ridge isn't interested in training, then USSA isn't going to be for him. Good coaches make training fun...and it isn't like football or wrestling, where workout are sit-ups, weight lifting, and running your butt off; they ski! But what youth sport isn't heavily weighted toward training? My U6 soccer team has 12 practices over a six week period before their first game. And, yes, there are no opportunities for points until 2nd year J3. There are a number of reasons. Consider: ~USSA strives for a uniform, fair point system that measures all qualifying racers in the US. ~J4/5 courses (for 12 yr olds and under) are much easier than J1/2 courses, so there can't be comparison or accurate handicapping. Since the easier the course, the more times would bunch together. In theory, all good J1 racers would ski a J4/5 course within the same 1/10 of a second. Therefore, there would be no "testing of skills" to separate the talent levels. ~Qualifying J1/2's may be eligible to race in FIS competitions. Based on their USSA points, which give them ranking among fellow US skiers, they can then begin to earn international ranking. It's important for USSA points to be meaningful because it's a stepping stone toward the world arena. ~J4/5 races are kept close to home for the benefit of the kids. There just isn't any accurate way to handicap a typical J4/5 race. NASTAR, for instance, is not accurate at all. Bear Creek, for example, never sent a pacesetter to Hunter for trials. Where did their pacesetters come up with their handicaps? They simply made them up. They decided from priors years what their handicap was "approximately". That's fine for recreational racing, but absurdly unfair for any comparisons to other ski areas. What if CB's Joe Messina decided he was a 5HC because he'd had a few 5's on Golden Days? So as a parent, it's really important to support the idea that training is fun. And it isn't as if J4/5's don't also race. If you are prepared to drive as far as Seven Springs and can convince Gus that Ridge will be better off racing than training, here's a sample of a past J4 race statewide schedule: race 1 Dec. 30 race 2 Jan. 6 race 3 Jan. 12 race 4 Jan. 13 race 5 Jan. 19 race 6 Jan. 20 race 7 Jan. 26 race 8 Jan. 27 race 9 Feb. 2 race 10 Feb. 3 race 11 Feb. 10 race 12 Feb. 17 race 13 Mar. 2-3 J4 PARA State Championships race 14 Mar. 22-24 J4 Future Stars Camp/2 GS races