All,
Congratulations on a fine start to the nine week program. Here's the latest news!
This Weekend
We are training slalom. The GDHL race (slalom) is on Comet at 10 AM on Saturday, so our Saturday program will begin at 1 PM. We are on Birches. Our Sunday program will begin at 9:30 AM, not 1 PM as indicated in my schedule last week. A corrected schedule is attached. Sorry for the confusion.
Since this message is already very long, I'm going to circulate a second note with some slalom information.
Attendance
We are delighted by the enthusiastic participation in our program and wanted to let you know our thoughts about the unprecedented turnout for opening day. As of about 2 January, there were 30 people signed up for the Saturday class and 5 for the Sunday class. We had 39 show up on Saturday. Of those, 20 were on the 2 January list (i.e. 10 of the 30 didn't show), 2 were on the Sunday list, 2 were on the adult technical class list, 7 were added to the original list by hand and 8 weren't on anyone's list. So thanks to all of you for your patience and co-operation in slipping etc. On Sunday, we had 8 participants, 1 of whom was on the original Sunday list, 2 of whom were on the Saturday list but had not attended Saturday, 1 of whom also attended Saturday and 4 of whom were brand-new registrants.
Surprisingly, despite the numbers on Saturday, there were a few times when there was no one at the top of the course. However, we want to manage the line-ups and keep everyone moving, so this is what we are thinking now. We are going to cap each class at 30 people for management purposes. The Saturday class will be made up of the first 30 people who correctly signed up for that class. Everyone else will be assigned to the Sunday class. We will try to be flexible as we have been in the past and accommodate people coming Saturday or Sunday for a total of nine times as suits their schedules. If we find that high numbers are affecting the quality of a class, then those assigned to that day will have priority. Any additional spaces will be filled on a first-come basis.
Not having priority may mean coming back the next day, taking a free run or stepping out of line until people get spread out. We may also reduce lineups by having people work with a coach out of the gates for a few runs. We hope that these changes will provide everyone with the best learning experience. Last Saturday was unique and we expect that the problem will go away once we're past the panic of not having run gates before the first GDHL race. This Saturday's class is in the afternoon so numbers will likely be much smaller. However, we do have a bigger total enrollment than last year. If needed, we will ask Carrie to save her best outfits for Sundays and afternoons. If you have other suggestions, let us know. In the meantime, those who signed up early can be satisfied in knowing that they got a 20% discount rather than a 30% late premium and can go to the front of the line on their chosen day.
Friday Training
Here is the present schedule for coaches on Fridays. Training focus will be based on the next GDHL race, so this Friday's training is slalom.
Dan Hadley 13 January and 3 February
Mike Kristy 20 January and 10 February
Matt DiStefano 27 January and 17 February
TBD 24 February and 2 March
Timing
The ChronoSplit timing was up and running for both sessions last weekend. We plan to have it running for all sessions this season. Having a watch to allow comparison of your progress run to run will allow you to get effective feedback if you try different techniques.
The watches can be rented on a daily basis or purchased from Laurel Armstrong in the snow school administration office. To use the watches, in short, you need to press the "mode" button in the center of the watch, then press the split/lap button at the top left until the screen displays "auto split". If you use the same process to reach the "auto split rec" screen, you can use the top right button to scroll through all of your times.
GDHL E-Mail
GDHL results from last week will apparently not be released until the window for buyback of teams by their members is closed, so I can't comment on results, except that Carrie and Allan were neck and neck in their times and both were threatening to break into the top 10. I also have my eye on a prime candidate for ringer of the year.
Greg Lee / Track 3 Event
You will likely have received announcements concerning this event. Now that we are in the new year, it is suddenly NEXT WEEK (Friday, 20 January).
World Cup
I mistakenly referred last week to Martina Schild as cleaning up in World Cup slalom. Actually it's Marlies Schild, sometimes referred to as Benjamin Raich's girl friend, although she is winning much more than he is these days. Martina Schild is a member of the Swiss team and won the Super G at Lake Louise several years ago. (I rode the t-bar with her in Zermatt a couple of years ago, when she was one of the few World Cuppers who didn't have a coach or equipment rep minding them on the lift.)
Fashion News (last but not least)
Last weekend's colours were "Peat" (the dark, earthy colour of Carrie's fur-trimmed jacket on Saturday), "Heat" (Carrie's bright orange pants from Saturday) and "Sassy Pink" (Carrie's pants on Sunday, quite a different colour from Christmas Camp's "Pout" pink jacket). Sunday's jacket was a re-peat of Christmas Camp's white fur-trimmed jacket, but different pants made for a new look! Do we have any challengers for Carrie's fashion dominance out there? Step up Gord Stein in your ex-Nick McLeod downhill suit!
See you on Saturday,
JWM