You could ask that question about a lot of racers on Sunday. More about that below, but first

What You Need to Know for This Weekend

Friday training is slalom. Sessions are at 9:30 and 1:00 on Venture. A great way to get training in a small group and pay as you go. Contact Laurel to register.
Adult gate training is SL on Birches at 9:30 on each of Saturday and Sunday, and for the new 8:30 Saturday session (see more below)
Adult Tech and Fast & Female meet at the National chair at 9:30 on each of Saturday and Sunday
No GDHL race this weekend, but it's the opening race for Interclub at Devil's Glen on Saturday at 1:00 (see more below)

So, Who ... ?

By race time Sunday, we had 110 GDHL racers registered, of whom 22 are new to GDHL and 16 are returning after an absence of a year or more. Results are here. The top nine racers in the rankings filled those spots in the results, in almost correct order. They were led by Alec Libert and Phil Ruffolo, who led after the first run and, like many, improved on their times in the second run as the skies cleared a bit. Newcomer Duff Isberg put everything into a tumbling finish as last man down the hill, to claim third. Duff wasn't a complete unknown to your committee, having won the Club championship GS a couple of years ago, but fourth place finisher Keith Farnand was more of a mystery. Your committee's diligence disclosed that Keith is a past Craigleith coach and NCAA racer with FIS points in the mid-30s. The committee's allowance for a bit of rust proved unnecessary as it appeared that Santa had been good to Keith in the form of a new race suit and GS skis. Stephen Kurtz (10th place from 22nd ranking), Richard Usher-Jones (up 12 to 13th, Brook Dyson (15th from 29) and Brad McMullen (18th from 40) were the biggest climbers in the top 20.

Sarah Latimer, Kate Veer and newcomer Rya Prozes (who represented Canada in the 1988 World Junior Championships and raced against Kate at that time) were the top three women in what looks to be a wide open race for fastest female. Meanwhile, Chris Knight, David Henderson, Ron Statler, Alec Innes, Bob Waite, Michael DeAngelis, Roger Chiu, Bob Attrell, Samantha Cowan, Steve Power, Murray Sarafinchin (back from Zermatt and going again) and George Hayhurst were those improving at least 20 places on their rankings in the balance of the field.

Simplified Rankings (BBI)

Your committee had an onerous task ranking the 38 racers who weren't in the league last year. It was surprising how many newcomers compared themselves to Brad McMullen and Brad Sproule. They entered the GDHL in 2014 and have since been consistently climbing the standings. They are also inseparable to the casual observer, although they assured me when they arrived together to collect their GDHL jackets that this isn't strictly the case.

Not knowing much about them beyond the GDHL database, I was tempted to characterize the bigger Brad as the brawn and the other Brad as the brains, but must acknowledge that the bigger Brad displays a certain savvy when it comes to selling Gelato Fresco, house made pot pies and kale salad fixings to the citizens of Rosedale and Moore Park from Summerhill Market. In any case, the committee will in future ask newcomers to characterize themselves in one of the following categories of the Brad Boy Index (BBI):

Beat Both Brads (BBB+) - highly accomplished, investment grade racer (top 17 this week)
Beat One Brad (BOB) - solid middle class, upwardly mobile racer with potential (top 49 this week)
Both Beat Me (BBM) - room to improve, but an increasingly large group as the market makers continue to train hard (37 this week).

Below, See More

Here's a repeat of the message I circulated on Sunday from Alpine Programs regarding the new 0830 training sessions:

Due to the popularity of our Saturday & Sunday Adult Gate Training program, we have decided to add another opportunity to train on Saturdays, in an effort to help meet the demand.

We are offering an early morning option on Saturdays at 8:30am. This will be offered as a one hour session prior to our regular 9:30 session. This session will be capped at 15 participants, so there will be no line ups, and we can make the most of the shortened session. In addition, we will offer video analysis in real time on the hill via I-pad. This will allow us to make the most of the shortened time frame, and to ensure maximum time on snow, and high value training.

We will need a minimum of 6 participants to commit in order to offer this additional training opportunity. Please register by emailing Laurel Armstrong. (Laurel has been recovering from the high volume holiday season and won't be back in the office until Thursday.)

Cost $250.00 plus taxes

And now for Interclub. Craigleith is currently the five time defending champion after a long dry spell. Details of Interclub can be found here. New racers are welcome, especially women. If you're keen, or even willing, contact Captain Taylor and go to the nascent Interclub website to register for the Craigleith team. By the way, the new website is funded with the help of our GDHL sponsors. It will be adding content in the coming days, including a scoring and results database to help bring Interclub out of the darker ages and into the golden GDHL age!

More Not Above

Several people have asked about changing their addresses for receiving this newsletter. For GDHL newcomers, the first email address we get is from the Club records, and often belongs to a parent or spouse. Just go to any gdhl.org page and click on the black "Newsletter" button in the top right corner to add new addresses. Then click on the "unsubscribe" link at the bottom of any newsletter you receive at the wrong address.

The times for last Sunday's forerunners were 40.31, 44.37, 41.28, 45.48 and 37.12, in order of their descent, with Alpine Programs Director Dave Campbell leading the way from the back. If you're not racing and interested in forerunning, contact Carrie Lenauskas or Doug Jarvis.

Our Treasurer, Trent Winstone, and his team did a great job with team auction results. There were a few racers who didn't indicate whether they want to participate in the buyback of their respective teams. Would Leslie Sims, Alan Shaw, Mark Shillum, Darren De Ruiter, Vern Gomes, Josh Fraser Kester, Brad Sproule, Richard Usher Jones, Julian Pope and Mark Arthur please email Trent and let him know whether or not you want to participate. We'll assume you don't if we don't hear from you pronto.

The details of the preferred bibs won in the draw at the Calcutta can be found on the schedule page of gdhl.org here. These are transferable but no racer may use more than one per season.

MORE THAN ENOUGH! See you on snow.

James Mathers