Ski Racing Kids!

Some Video of my son running Super G something I have never done and looks to be one of the coolest things a young ripper can do.

Coach Z wrote

Some Video of my son running Super G something I have never done and looks to be one of the coolest things a young ripper can do.<br/><br/>

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WsFqi6sc9KA?feature=player_detailpage" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br/><br/>

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yZBA3572LTs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Great to see. That looks like a lot of fun. It would be nice if they had a speed camp for adults.

Coach
My buddy has 2 kids , that were big time racers during high school. They did the whole junior racing circuit etc...Once they got into college, they haven't touched their skis..
He admits he might have pushed them to much..
just saying...

JasonWx wrote

Coach
My buddy has 2 kids , that were big time racers during high school. They did the whole junior racing circuit etc...Once they got into college, they haven't touched their skis..
He admits he might have pushed them to much..
just saying...

Here is the other side of the coin: my son did not ski at all during high school due to playing 3 sports (soccer/basketball/lacrosse, no ski team). He is now a senior at SUNY Geneseo and this is his 4th year on the varsity ski team. He races both SL and GS and loves it.

GS at Labrador Mtn last weekend

I'm aware of the burn out factor but this kid just wants to ski fast.  He is loving it - the Super G was an absolute blast for him.  He is scoring well and almost has a states invite locked up after just two of the 5 races.  For a first year U14 that is a really great accomplishment.  

We are trying to make sure there is time for social events and he really likes being in band at school.  He really wants to go to Northwood as its a much better academic environment with more freedom for the teachers to teach for learning and in a more engaging style instead of teach for state testing. They are starting a robotics program that really interests him there.

I was just passing on a experience my friend had with his kids.. I come in peace..
I wasn't passing judgement on how anyone raises there kid..It just saddened me to see two great skiers walk away from the sport...


peace and love

I make sure I have a regular conversation with him to make sure he is having fun

I didn't race myself so I'm learning about this as we go

Harv I'm wondering if we should break this out into a kids racing thread

After my son got home from training at Pisagh tonight I checked to make sure he is having fun.  He told me skiing is THE thing that makes him happy.  

  Nice vids coach , ZZ looks fast. My son is in a race program at Elk. He loves and after the 5 hr program he still free skis some runs with me  .Good luck to his season.

Very awesome.  Congrats to your son, wife and you!

Great video Coach,
My daughter's favorite was the Super G Speed Camps.  She raced through Gore and High School and is now at a D1 powerhouse (but she does not race for them).  She will ski as many days as I do this year.  My other daughter raced in high school and then taught skiing and I skied with her today.  They both still love the sport...I just lost the wife (she used to ski with us but prefers golf now) For the love of skiing...

A strong 5th for my son at a intercounsil GS at Windham.  Tough field as Windham's race program has some fast kids.  he was the 2nd fastest 2003 birth year racer as U14 is a two year age group.





Windham made well over 10 grand on the race but really was not prepared to hold this.  They only had 10 inches of snow on the Why Not Trail.  The bottom of a GS gate that screws into the snow is 13 inches long so they were going into the ground which was not even frozen.  The ruts in the second run were showing grass. If you want to play with the big boys and make the money from the race they need to blow the snow in prep for the course to hold up for 130 racers.  There was one serious injury due the conditions and about half of the boys field that ran after the girls DNF'ed.  No sour grapes here my son finished a strong 5th overall and had to basically just survive the 2nd run after a good 1st run but it really was a joke.  Only thing I can say is it was better run than the races at Hunter and Bellayre I have been to but that was a low bar to clear.

This pretty much locked up his place to make U14 NYS Champs so we will not have to return to Windham for the Kandahar which is a month from now.  For a first year U14 he is having a fantastic season.  Not sure Windham will even be open at this rate then much less than a safe course for 200 kids to race on.

They'll be open, but definitely thin cover.  I don't think they'll make April.  An instructor at Hunter told me that Windham had brown snow and was skiing poorly.  Hunter had wall to wall coverage everywhere.

Quite a few trails were brown or the cover didn't reach the full width

To run a race for over 100 kids you need at least 2 feet of snow and you need to treat warm snow with urea to firm it up.

The Kandahar fest race will bring in over 25k for Windham in race fees plus parent lift tickets lodging and food to the area.  The impact for the weekend to that town could easily be $100k.  Blow some snow.

Venting here is great..
But did you complain to  the race committee, and  to the windham execs?

The specifics were not shared with the parents but I got the impression the coaches were not happy and they are not shy about expressing thier viewpoints thru the proper channels

The future schedule I take is the ultimate leverage but I have no idea how these things are determined.  WF and Gore both are Nysef and that makes up about 80% of the Mt Councils racers by numbers.

I spoke to my Grandaughter who is a racer, but not at Windham this weekend, she said she had heard there was one broken leg, a bad wreck through the fences and into the woods and at least one other sled ride. Two or maybe more serious injuries, not a good day for racing. Damn I hate when those kids get hurt. She also mentioned there was one bad injury on the previous weekend when the U16 were racing GS on that trail.  

And they are hosting U14 super g this weekend.

After the rain this week and no snow making temps until Thursday I doubt Windham can pull off a Super G this weekend.  You can't do that on fresh made snow you need firm hp or ice. And it will by too thin without blowing more snow.  Thankfully we did our super g at Gore two weeks ago.

WF kids start SL prep for the next couple weeks.  Seems to me our council has a much more thought out race plan than the others that skip around between disciplines.

Hopefully these kids start learning how to ski at a safe speed on an open run.  I was nearly killed by two West Milford Ski Team kids at Mountain Creek this evening.  I was going through the boardercross course on South Peak and passed 3 kids in race gear near the top.  One of the kids flew by me on my right at least twice my speed and was 2-3 feet away.  I turned to the left and another one flew by only 6 inches away from me.  Had I been one foot to the left, my season would have been over.  The third kid was going want too fast, but didn't cut it as close.  Worse yet, they did it when 3 of the 4 trails on Bear Peak are reserved for racing only.