sibhusky

It's a lot faster to do a print screen and paste it into an editor. Then the works starts. But not worth the work.

Well, I did that (saved them to my disk), but the erasing of the photo copyright was too time consuming. I figured if I was gonna leave it on there, best to send people to the site itself. But thanks. Plus, it might upset ski999 to know I steal pictures from photographers.

What does "clamshelled" mean?

Okay, found the pictures online, but too tough to swipe them, etc. Here are the links: Second Run of GS First Run of SL And another shot of that run The pictures aren't that great and they want a LOT of money for them.

Yeah, I remember Siblet had issues with the way one of the coaches used to set gates. Said his courses lacked the right kind of rhythm or something.

I wasn't there. I hear there are pictures somewhere, but she's out snowshoeing now and I can't ask her where they are.

I am dancing around like a crazy woman. Siblet cracked 100 points for the first time down at Big Sky in the GS. SL was also a record, but not quite as low. Yahoo!

Don't think I haven't noticed. And, oh yes, it does worry me.

New Pictures, but still in January. I highly recommend hitting your F11 key in IE to see the captions at the bottom of the pictures more easily.

In trying to see how skidude did at the Alumni races, I came across this link for the Skyland kids to warm up with: http://www.skylandsski.org/images/Warm-Up%20Excercise.pdf

Papasteeze, you must get SKI magazine or something because of getting season passes and doing NASTAR. We get like three copies a month here. There's been plenty of exercises in those over the years. There are also books that specifically discuss ski-related exercises. Siblet was a gymnast at one time in addition to being a skier, so stretching is something she does without prompting. In fact, many of the ski team members are involved in other sports out of ski season. Those sports usually call for various warm up and cool down exercises as well. Not to excuse the coach for not giving you a start on what to do, but maybe the point was that these other activities would work just as well for skiing prep and cool down. Didn't Gus give out handouts in the fall? He used to.

For what it's worth, Siblet's are set at 9 for racing. She's 5'3".

This lack of fall dryland training was a big issue when Siblet was on the team. They would hand out a list of exercises, but since everyone lives so far apart it was pretty much impossible to hold regular after school training sessions until the start of the season. The coaches had to rely on the kids to do it themselves. And we all know what happens then -- some kids come in ready to race, but others (probably the majority) think they are in fine shape without doing a thing. Then the coaches try to put the kids in groups, probably mainly by age class, and it's the slackers who are holding everyone back. I am sure there is some effort to fine tune the groups a bit, but there are only so many coaches. It's easier to run a program when the kids are all "locals". You get them after school everyday, take them to the local fitness center, or soccor field, etc. and put them through their paces. When the snow arrives, you put them through some early drills and as soon as Christmas vacation hits, they can take full advantage of Christmas camp. In CB's situation, they don't get all the kids together really until Christmas, so the start up is MUCH slower.

Actually, it's interesting that you bring this up. Mr. Husky has commented that he has so much respect for Siblet even though he rarely goes to races. He thinks that racing (and gymnastics) has made her so much tougher for her age than he ever was (or I for that matter). One of the race parents here (whose family goes back generations in ski racing, back to 10th Mountain Division, etc.) says that we should never underestimate the kid who stands at the top of a FIS course in the howling winds and looks down at the run ahead of them, full of ruts, or scraped down to boilerplate, and on the count, bursts out of that gate. He says, win or lose, that there is no substitute for it (of course he's a skier). This is not a team sport by any means. The kid that goes down that hill cannot toss the ball to someone else, it's all in their hands. Now, think again to that kid, in the gate. What have they got on? Shoulder pads, boxing mitts? Not hardly. They are there in a speed suit. They might have shinguards, their suits may have padding, but it's minimal. Do you know that Siblet took a slalom gate on the nose the first race we had here and finished, bleeding the rest of the way down the course? She was what I call a "pink girl" for years prior to taking up racing. Anyway, back to the gates bit. I know, everyone wants to do the gates. Lots of people complain about the lack of gates, but once the season gets going they will do gates again and again. And again. And again. Let the coaches work on his skiing. If at the end of the season, you think they've failed you, then by all means go to Blue, or Elk, or wherever. But I am pretty sure that by second guessing the coaching you won't give your kid confidence in the coach. And the racer has to trust the coach to make the right decisions for him. These kids are J4's. Now is the time to work on the fundamentals. CB doesn't have the best program in the country, we all know that. But, at least for the first season, I would frankly expect you to see INCREDIBLE improvement in his skiing, no matter what he's done in NASTAR. If he doesn't, then certainly sell your house at Northridge, buy one at Elk or wherever, and put him in that program. But since you freely admit you don't know a thing about racing, then you don't do anyone any good by second guessing the coach. I bet skidude, who was a NASTAR nut before he joined the CAT team, thought he was going to come in and wow them all. Guess what, he had a lot to learn, and if you check back over his race finishes over time, he really racheted up his performance once he was on the team. There will come a time, if Ridge is good, that it will be time to move on. But for where he is at right now, he is fine.

I guess as a parent who has to pay for coaching, I don't care if you are having fun when you are being coached. You are there to LEARN HOW TO RACE, not to play. If you don't care about learning how to do it right, then wait until you are mature enough to understand why you are there and save your dad some bucks. If you can prove to all of us when you start racing that you can finish "on the first page" then maybe you can talk about being bored. Until then from where I sit you have no justification for being too cool to listen to your coaches.

The normal routine here is dryland training in the fall four days a week to build strength, flexibility, stamina. Then the first few days, if Siblet had been home, would have been freeskiing to get used to skis again, especially if there is new equipment. Then gate training starts. But even so, the coaches take the kids off piste on occasion because if you can handle trees, moguls, etc. on the whole mountain at speed, then you will be prepared for ANYTHING a course throws at you. Freeskiing is an important part of race training. How would Siblet have fared at Mammoth with a course like that if all she skied was a hardened run of gates? She survived ruts around the gates that were about 2 to 3 FEET deep into the darn snow as racer after racer ahead of her dug the pits deeper and deeper. If all you ski on is a ballroom dance floor your skills will be sadly lacking.

Volkl Racetigers. They weren't ready for her at Thanksgiving and we didn't want to slap her on new gear for the race, so she will pick them up tomorrow. Naturally, two pairs of skis, two pairs of new bindings, two sets of plates. $1500. So, to Doug, we could be "rich" if we still had our old income levels, lived in the little townhouse we had back in NJ, didn't have to pay for college and didn't have this daughter with an expensive sport. Oh yeah, we just got a bill for $1200 for propane. Fortunately, our property taxes are lower here. None of this type I hope. The next set of races I don't have numbers for, but no flying involved. If I don't go, could stay under $600 for the Big Sky New Year's series. I seriously don't like to add things up it would mean confronting the folly of the whole thing. If you go to the Northern USSA site and click on the info for some of the races, you can get a feel for the expenses involved. http://www.northernussa.com We are going to get off easy this year as Siblet will not be cutting college to go to races, only attending "local" races or ones that occur while she is on vacation.

You can race as an independent, in which case either you have to attend all the coaches' meetings or you have to find a coach to represent you at those meetings. Siblet may go as an independent to one race where her team is not going. We'll see how that works, but I am hoping to use the Bridger Coach to represent her at that race. Normally the coaches do the driving, get the bibs and tickets, pay the hotel bill, coordinate meals, take videos of each day's racing and discuss it later that day with the kids. They may also (if no tech is there) assist with ski tuning and sharpening. You can see that a lot of that may fall on the racer if there is no coach. Going to a strange resort and handling all of this extraneous stuff in addition to the racing could easily be too much for some of these kids. And actually, since Siblet is only 18, most rental car agencies won't even rent her a car. For the one race where we have an issue, it may be ME going down to help her out. Which would cost just as much as having to pay for the coach. It was a LOT cheaper skiing back East, most of the places were within a day or a few hours drive and you didn't have airfares and rarely had hotel expenses.

Expense Per athlete cost Lodging $275.00 Coaches expenses 455.00 Race Entries 140.00 Lifts 200.00 Administration Fee 20.00 Total Due to Divison $1090.00 Airfare: 660.80 Walking around/lunch money: 200.00 Total so far: $1950.80 Doesn't include extra night in Budget Motel, or cost to switch vehicles. MIGHT get a couple of race entry fees back. Basically paying for the coaches travel expenses and their time is the killer. Our team sent only two kids, Siblet and her friend. Plus the coach. Now, he was acting as a "divisional coach", but there were two other coaches as well, plus possibly a ski technician for the division.

This is turning out to be the "perfect trip". The final race just got cancelled due to rain. Let's see, it was about $2000 for TWO races? And all the expenses aren't in yet. Oh, and the weather tomorrow is just perfect for a flight to land at some OTHER airport. That happened to her team mate a few weeks back.

I've used boot dryer sticks (those $25-$35 things) for years. I leave them in for days and days, keeping them warm until they go on my feet again. Never a problem.

This just in. She got within a point of yesterday. So far we only know the FIS points. The USSA translation of those points will take a couple of days. The combination of these two results from a FIS perspective could worsen her points by about 10 points. But she has a couple more big races coming up in January that could help and by then she will have loads more training in, PLUS NEW EQUIPMENT.

MSU has a race team, but she is not on it, she is still racing for Big Mountain. She needs to lower her points to be within the NCAA range. But, it would be a lot to be a freshman AND ski NCAA. She wanted to wait a year as well because she wanted to be able to keep up her grades. So, she is getting some training at Bridger when she is at school and training here when she is home. I forget what I ate when I was in Bozeman. That's what six hours of driving and three snow storms along the way will do to you. Then the same in reverse the next day on the way home. Update. Another SL today. Course was in better condition. She started in 68th place today, but midway into the course her pole fell off her hand and was dangling from her wrist. As you all know, they whack the gates in SL, so the precious knuckle protection wasn't there. It was two gates before she regained her pole so she lost a lot of time. We are still awaiting results at this point, but she thinks she finished worse than yesterday overall. She says the wind is horrible...so horrible that she actually LOWERED A BAR on the chair and was hanging on for her life. They had closed the whole mountain except the chair the racers were using. They discussed cancelling her race, but held it I guess as SL as not as impacted by wind as a speed event. Tomorrow is GS, thank goodness.

Well Siblet is out racing at Mammoth this week, as is another former CAT team member, Andrew Ginnelly. Right from the bat I knew in my heart that this was utter folly to send a kid who has been at college, with only a few days on snow and only two of them in gates, off to a major FIS race. Add to that the fact that we could not book air tickets at the time the coaches wanted without having to mortgage the house and well, the stage was set. Siblet arrived in Reno (closest airport to Mammoth) around 5:20 PM last Saturday. She was meeting other teams from across the division there (division includes teams from a wide geographical area, so they were arriving on other planes) so they could form up van pools. Anyway, she throws all of her stuff on the "luggage van". EVERYTHING. Money, underwear, cell phone, toothbrush...you get the picture. Van leaves. It turns out that the team they are sharing a van with HAS MISSED THEIR CONNECTION and they don't arrive at the expected time. It'll be four more hours of waiting for them to show. Finally, they arrive and they get their rental van. It has no snow tires. (Now you have to ask yourselves what kind of brains the coach had at this point.) They take off into the Sierras in a raging blizzard which was to drop three feet of fresh snow on Mammoth over the next two days. More on that later. Anyway, needless to say, their vehicle is not making it. So (thank god) they pull off at a Budget Inn for the night. (Of course, I've already paid for lodging in Mammoth. AND all of her stuff is IN MAMMOTH!) Next morning they are on their way BACK TO RENO for another vehicle. Of course the rental of two different vehicles was also not included in the initial estimate. Finally, they are on their way again and arrive in Mammoth about 24 hours after landing in Reno. Next day, the races are cancelled due to too much snow. They've been trying to pack the course with groomers and having the racers run over it and over it and injecting it with chemicals, etc., but the fresh stuff is too deep. So, here I am thinking that the training day she lost GETTING TO Mammoth (oh, yeah, I had already paid for that ticket, too) will be returned to her. BUT NO, the coaches don't want kids wearing out or getting hurt so they ski for all of three hours. Finally, yesterday, they run a slalom. Fortunately Siblet survives, but the course is still really too soft and she can't ski the gates, she can only ski the ruts and hang on. It's like a boblsled or luge run by the time she goes, 70-some people ahead of her. Her former SO, another team member, also finishes, but with a hike. For him it's a success, his first FIS SL race he didn't DNF. For her, well, she skied in her normal points area. Not bad for her first race of the season with no training. And she's in one piece. But from a budget point of view, no payoff since no points improvement. She has perhaps two more races before she comes home. We still didn't know last night if it was going to be SL or GS. Papasteeze, skimom, once your kids are racing FIS, this is the stuff you will sweat bullets about.

My understanding is as long as you stay in your region (as opposed to your division which is PARA) you can enter him in any J4 race. You should have received a competition guide which covers all that. If not, going to the USSA site and looking for Publications should take you to the comp guide page.