Ski

Man, it's a 100 miles each way for us. You think they'd add a few gates if we asked nicely? The REAL reason you kept beating me, Jeff, was because I wanted my race runs to last longer.

Ty said she wants to beat Adam and Jeff, but never Miss 'Skimom'.

Yeah, she likes it better when I wear my yellow Atomis that match her's. And she can't wait to start using her red Atomics that look like mine and her mom's. It's really more about color than technology. But who knows, maybe I'm underestimating her grasp.

I just wanted to thank you all for making her feel a part of that. She had an incredible night. What I want for her to get out of racing is a mixture of the thrills with being with really cool people that cheer for each other. She got exactly that tonight. She has this normal day job life at school, then experiences things like that at night on weekends. Thank you again 'Mom, 'Dude, and Atomic.

Who are you to tell me I have made way too much of a deal over this? Skidude set into motion an event that two grown men on the NASTAR board carried out. 'Dude is a friend of mine, so I yelled at him. Then we made up. I yelled at him, btw, because of the reason he asked the simple little question: he was pissed at Atomic's results at Montage (which were deemed fair and left unchanged). And what gives me the right to yell at the NASTAR guys? Well, I invested a couple of thousand dollars taking familes to Nationals twice. So when two kids get into a fight over results and it causes our resort's races to be recalculated contrary to the rules followed by their premier resorts, then I'm pissed. "...no point ranting about it here." It STARTED here. It's something that happened between 'Dude, Atomic, and me. And this is a message board. And this thread is in "Racing".

Your not sure what MY problem is? It's too obscure of a concept that going by one rule at one resort, but not at others is wrong? As you said: "If the resort decides to ignore the warning, then NASTAR should either remove their NASTAR designation or fix things forcibly." NASTAR HQ took away medals of kids at our hill DAYS after a race, while awarding gold medal 26 HC to 4-year-old girls at their premier resorts. Have YOU ever skied a 26 HC? Can you picture a pre-k girl skiing a 26 HC? "Assuming, of course, that your arguments are based on FACTS and not this emotional ranting that you are doing here" Doesn't your computer allow you to click on hyperlinks? Or are you suggesting I rewrote the NASTAR html? Fact: our results were recalculated because our pacesetter didn't use his fastest time, according to NASTAR HQ. Fact: the Park City pacesetter uses his slowest time for pacesetting and gives himself a 1.43 HC. I don't care what happens at Park City and Crested Butte, or the strange results posted at nearly every resort. Do you get that, Sib? I don't care. I have always found NASTAR to be fun, but not something to compair yourself to other's with. Handicapping is flawed at best. But to go against their own rules and methods and to recalculate a race using a method THAT THEY IGNORE, is wrong. ____________________________ "But I doubt your 4 year old knows one way or the other -- unless, of course, YOU decided to tell her about it, which would be pretty stupid for a dad to do." I think it's stupid for you to attack my parenting. Ty didn't earn a medal that day. I'm arguing for the other kids. I believe she had a 171 and it converted to a 191, or something. If they follow the rule that took away those kids medals, then she'd lose her two bronze medals from earlier races. The pacesetter was faster in later runs in every race this year. Nobody is bitching to get medals back. Nobody wants a tainted medal. Some people, including me, were very upset that NASTAR applied a rule to us and NOT to their own Nationals host. We wanted to have our say. It's really ignorant of you to pass it off as emotional ranting. Here's the quote from NASTAR HQ: "Comments: This race has been recalculated because the Pacesetter did not use his fastest time." Sib, instead of mocking me, go surf NASTAR and see the resorts, including Park City, that the pacesetter doesn't use his fastest time of the day.

It's recreational racing. Are you suggesting a resort should lose NASTAR because they post "golden days", where a little 4-year-old girl that normally skis a 200HC but then has a 26HC? Well, there goes Crested Butte! Or a 4-year-old boy that normally skis a 150HC, but then gets a 50HC? At that resort, they have races where the pacesetter uses his slowest time, which makes his own daily HC a 1.43, down from his normal 6 HC. Boy, talk about providing a golden day opportunity! Okay, so warn that resort and threaten to remove their program. BTW, that one is Park City: http://www.nastar.com/index.jsp?pagename=r...40690&year=2005 NASTAR HQ killed our little ski area's results because our pacesetter "didn't use his fastest time of the day." Yet it's okay for the resort that hosts Nationals? And look who that pacesetter was! The Yoda of NASTAR himself! I'm NOT suggesting ANY results be changed. It's RECREATIONAL racing. NASTAR isn't capable of providing accurate HC results that their premier resorts. I'm sure they provide tremendous fun. But I'd like to see Gary Dranow email the father of the 4-year-old boy and tell him that the race has been recalculated and the medal is no longer valid. Better prepare the kid and be honest, since kids are getting pretty savy and will see the BRONZE disappear on his results page.

Ahhh, school without report cards, baseball without scores, and no bedtime, too! I bet you like Calvin and Hobbes, Missy? You either have rules or you don't. Since there's no possible way for a small kid on a 30 sec course to compete against a kid on a 16 sec kiddie course, then why not open Nationals to everyone that has raced, say five days? I don't really know when NASTAR became so cuththroat that headquarters would strip kids medals. As you know, Missy, the time difference between the fastest racers and the slowest grows in direct proportion to the difficulty of the course. The difficulty is related to course length, weather, and how off-set the gates are. It would be silly to compare Ty's times to a kid on a 16 sec course. A 16 sec course will have everyone bunched together between 20 and 30 sec. Even little kids. But make the course longer and steeper and the little kids will be over a minute. I'm GLAD we have a long course. It's more fun. I don't care about little one's in Park City getting golds. We don't have any interest in going to Nationals. I did that twice with her sister and, well, uh, she's 4-years-old! I know what you mean, Missy, but think about those kids you babysit. Tell one that if they clean up their room, you'll take them out for ice cream. After they're done cleaning, try explaining that they don't get ice cream. Now, how important in the big picture is ice cream? Not very. Nor are little pieces of metal.

Ridge will just be in the PARA region of USSA. No time for anything else. By the time he's a J3, NASTAR courses will only be useful if he needs to work on some basics, since they are neither steep enough or off-set enough.

The NASTAR HC system doesn't work. It failed completely when one rule was changed and another rule was made to apply only for some races and some racers. Our pacesetter runs first and sets the par time. Each racer then gets to know his HC and medal as he crosses the finish line. Our pacesetter (like CB's Brad Sweeney) often takes a later run. There are numerous reasons for the later run: for fun; to check how the course is holding up, etc... According to NASTAR rules, the pacesetter isn't supposed to be repacing during the day. It's not fair that medals be taken away or changed and it's not convenient for people to have to return at the end of the day to check their results. But then our mountain is pointed out as being some sort of cheat. That we aren't going by the rules. That our pacesetter's time speeds up later, so that later time should be used to set the par time. Under this method, every race at our mountain needs recalculation, because you either have a rule or you don't. The one race that was pointed out was quickly recalculated and a message on the page has this note: "This race has been recalculated because the pacesetter did not use his fastest time." All the kids that "earned" bronze medals now have meaningless medals. That's the rule of sport: you don't keep a medal or trophy you didn't earn fair and square. I think we learned that in kindergarden. Well, guess who has a faulty state ranking then? State rankings are based on a racer's second best HC. On the day this person laid down a blistering 11.88 HC, guess what pacesetter didn't use his best time to calculate the par time? Wouldn't be those folks at Bear Creek, would it? Oh, and by the way, as long as we're puting "fun, recreational ski racing" under the microscope, let's look at Bear Creek for just a moment: http://www.nastar.com/index.jsp?pagename=r...38242&year=2005 Hmmm....the pacesetter didn't use his fastest time to calculate the par time. I wonder if that unfairly throws off anyone's state ranking HC? ______________ Rlarick, after being involved in NASTAR since the early-80's, I was really offended by selective rule changing. We teach kids boundaries by setting rules. I've coached youth soccer for years and have quite a bit of experience with the importance of rules even in the most casual, recreational atmosphere. Even hop-scotch gets all screwed up without consistant rules. As a U6 soccer coach, I don't give out "participation" trophies at the end of the season. Every kid gets a trophy for the skill they were best at, even if it's "most improved" or "most potential". Showing up is easy; being "best defender" is earned. When a kid works hard, follows the rules, and reaches a goal, it is a dangerous thing to then change a rule and take away their 'prize'. Think about what that has taught them?

http://www.nastar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=610 I'll be back in a few days when I'm not so pissed off.

'Dude. I assume he was p*ssed at Montage that Atomic was fast, so time to take it out on our program? Montage does it right. Bear Creek is a joke. Montage goes by the rules.

You race at that f*cking kiddy length Beer Creek course, yet have to comment on Montage? You weren't at Montage and haven't skied Montage NASTAR and don't know how the course speeds up. Those f*ckheads at the NASTAR MB had to listen to YOUR request to use a recalculated pace time. They took YOUR complaint and HQ changed the pace time to when the pacesetter ran on the fastest track. NOW EVERYONE LOSES THEIR MEDALS. It's not fair that the course speeds up, but that's NATURE. It's an outdoor sport. It's even MORE unfair that the pacesetter just happens to get in his speed suit and rip down the course when it's at it's peak speed. Right after he goes in his speed suit, they allow the race tream trashes the course for an hour. F you and F JT Bear and Gary for that shit. Why don't you guys start sending out emails so everyone can turn in their meaningless medals. It was supposed to be fun.

Is there a difference? Hahahahaahahahah

The Iron Horse lift got pretty snotty for a while. Did you happen to notice two boarder chicks with braids? They were mostly on the cell phone while sprawled out next to jumps. It was really strange; they were laying down on their backs under the lift. Twice they barged across my skis in line, then pretended they didn't speak English. I hate that. Especially the SECOND time. I experimented with something new: talking to my imaginary friend. "Hey, what's up with these ass ugly boarder chicks?"

You better hit your wax just right, 'Dude.

Just a typical race entry error when CB did their upload. Errors are pretty obvious when there's three runs listed. That 30.54 is a GREAT time, though!

Ha, yeah, thanks, Atomic, but it was sort of like a swimming race between a kid that has a pool and kids that have never seen water. And can you picture 8-year-old NYC kids trying to trash talk a 4-year-old? A weird day, but a lot of fun.

Now we're off to hit some bars and maybe celebrate by beating up a few telemarkers.

Thanks, Wolverine, I like this one: http://www.paskiandride.com/forums/index.p...&cmd=si&img=184 That's where I usually stop and listen for anyone on the headwall. Great shot!

I was all prepared for some lift lines today at Montage. But I parked along the fence next to the lift at 9am for her to race, then we left to get her to school. I came back at 1pm to catch the afternoon course and parked in the same place. Not a big money start to the weekend... Man, was it butt freaking cold with that wind today.

That's a great shot. Listen, Atomic, I know the guy that owns the photo shop where your mom dropped off your folks "special" Valentine's pics, so I wouldn't be screwin' with me!

Yeah, and we have ASRA races there Sat/Sun.

There's a great shot of Atomic: http://www.photoreflect.com/scripts/prsm.d...bum=0&adjust=-1

Throw up some links.