So I have been back from Winter Park for about a week now and I guess it is time to inform the world how I fared. But first off I need to thank Mark Catterall of the Regina Alpine Adaptive Ski Program (RAASP) from Saskatchewan Alpine who graciously offered to sponsor my air fair for this trip, it was greatly appreciated. We got there on December 29th and I spent the 30th training Super-G with the National Center for Disabled Sports (NSCD) under the direction of Erik Peterson who also represented me for all the races while I was there, so a big thanks goes out the him and all their staff. The 31st the vast majority of the racers took as a day off since it was New Years eave but I took the morning to work in a few more speed runs and to try to get used to the hill a bit more and overall was a good relaxing day. January 1st was the Super-G and overall it went okay, there was a weird traverse half way through which tended to throw a few people for a loop and I really do wish I had a few more days to train on the hill but overall it was okay. I placed 9th in the first race and 7th in the second race, which was a second and a half faster than the first race despite a hip checking speed scrub at the traverse. The Giant Slalom and the Slalom could have gone better. I don't even want to talk about the GS but I will say this about the Slalom, if I had managed to hold it together at the last gate on the second run there was a good chance that I may have walked away with 4th, but ski racing wasn't built on what ifs and all I can really do is learn from my mistakes and apply those lessons to the future.
I was back home for all of two days and then I was off to Kimberly for three days of skiing with my Sask coach and a guy I skied with a little last year as well as a new guy who is just getting into sit skiing. From a training stand point it was bit light but the second day My coach set a full 60 gate course with tall gates which made the trip worth it. Our final day was suppose to be GS training but we got snowed in, so it turned into a powder day. The first few runs of the day I tried a HOC sit ski produced by an American manufacture and while it is a decent unit and there is one guy I know of who can really make it work and is near top of the IPC points lists, I maintain my previous theory that it is a sit ski that is better suited for double leg amputees and not for para's who have legs and a degree of leg function, but I digress. The rest of the day I spent on a nice powder ski which was a first and I have decided that I really need powder skis, it made cutting through all the chopped up and mounded snow on main runs so smooth, unlike trying to use a slalom ski in powder which is not ideal. It also provided allot of float through deep powder and actually made skiing deep snow fun.
So all in all the Winter Park trip was fun and Kimberly was a way to unwind a bit before getting back into full racing and training mode Next week.
