Masters Training – Canada
In early December 2010 I travelled with the family to Sun Peaks in Canada (http://www.sunpeaksresort.com/) for an early ski holiday. My oldest son was working as a ski instructor at Sun Peaks so a trip to Sun Peaks offered the opportunity of seeing him (his first time alone overseas), having a family ski holiday and getting in a bit of ski training. I had been told in March 2010 about 5 day race camps that were run for masters at Sun Peaks early in the season. In June 2010 I made enquiries with Sun Peaks and they forwarded me information on these camps, the relevant website is http://web.me.com/gearup3/Gear_Up_Masters_Ski_Race_Camps/Home_Page.html. The contact person is Jim Gear (j.gear@rogers.com) and he is very approachable and friendly. The rates for each camp was CAN$410 plus taxes (NZD634) and this looked pretty reasonable when you looked at what you got.
This year I am told it will be C475 plus tax. The plan is that the first camp from Monday Nov. 28 to Friday Dec. 2 and a second camp from Monday Dec. 5 to Friday Dec. 9. The second camp will run concurrently with a camp for younger racers age 7 - 14. They will be separate camps with separate coaches but parents will be responsible for their children for the evening hours. Participants can attend the second camp without having any children involved in the camp
Last year in the first camp there were only 5 in the group and our coach was Edith Rozsa who spent 7 years in the Canadian team and competed on the World Cup circuit. Can you get any better than that? As well as being a great coach Edith turned out to be an all round nice person. In the second week there were more people doing the camps and we had two coaches Edith and Anne Marie Le Francois another ex world cup racer, great coach and all round nice person.
While the snow in some parts of Sun Peaks was a wee bit sparse, being the beginning of the season, the snow (on the dedicated race hill there “OSV”) was in great condition (better than you ever get in New Zealand in peak season actually). Some of the great condition was attributed to the fact that the Austrians had been training there in November and I understand that the base had been injected etc. Whatever they did it was good – not a rock or a real rut (as we know them) in sight.
In the race hill we trained on (OSV) there were 3 lanes which we usually had booked for the early or late morning session. The race hill was closed to the general public when people were training on it (and clearly marked as being closed). The access lift was run at 8 o’clock so that people training could get up to the race hill. If you missed the 8 o’clock start you had to wait until 8.30 to get up another lift which provided access to the race hill. On some days the access lift ran earlier. Usually I made that lift. One day I made the lift but had a bit of first tracks powder skiing as my warm up (told the group I slept in!).
I won’t bore you here with the structure of the camp as if you go to the website the structure of the camp is pretty well set out as are the coaches’ qualifications. What I can say is that the practise courses that we had, particularly at the end of the week, were pretty substantial well set courses. In fact the practise slalom and GS courses were longer than most courses we normally race on in New Zealand. In addition, there was a lot of emphasis on videoing you in your training. At the end of training every day, and this training normally finished about 1.30, you had time to grab a bite, get yourself organised and go to the Calhity Lodge where the group that you were in sat round and watched the video of that day’s training. Each person had time to discuss their video with the relevant coach. Having only seen myself on small snippets of video in the past I found this extremely useful.
Never having been in a race camp before I found the 5 days gave you time to really focus on what you were trying to work on and see yourself improve. Usually when you have one day training here and there, you get something different proposed each day to work on. I found it particularly useful having the same coach and one or two things to focus on and actually watching the progression through the week. I would like to think that at the end of the 2 weeks I had made some progress and comparing the video analysis from when I started to when I finished it was obvious I had progressed.
I do not think you would have wanted the training in each day to be any longer than it was. 8am to 1.30pm on the snow was a good amount of time. In my view we had as much gate training as we could safely cope with. Video usually went from 2-3pm. In addition we all enjoyed a group morning tea session and cinnamon bun (often shared as they are famous and huge in the Sunburst Café at Sun Peaks). You certainly got to the stage at the end of each week where you were doing these full length GS courses in the training and they were hard work. After maybe 6 runs down the course you could see why even the top athletes limit the runs they do through full courses in their training. In this regard I note we did have a talk on one day from one of the young woman in the Canadian team (daughter of one of the coach’s assistants) about how she structured her training which I found particularly interesting.
There was plenty of opportunity to socialise with the group at night and the one organised dinner on the Thursday night was a lot of fun.
Because I was there for the 2 weeks I did two lots of the course which was good for the fitness. I must admit, however, I was pretty weary by the end though and if I had been offered another day of ski training after the last day, another course the next week or even a run through that monster GS course one last time I would have declined. When you get to that stage you really feel like you have got value for money and got something out of it.
Another good thing about the course was in each group there is usually one or two very experienced masters skiers (actually highly qualified instructors as well) who help the coach and as well as being great company they are good to watch (in terms of getting it right) and also helpful in their comments and feedback to you. Their role is to help the coach and learn a bit themselves. Everyone chips in and helps with the course setting up and taking down but this was not arduous or difficult.
The weather during the 2 week period was pretty good. We had days where the light was very bad but given the race course slope (OSV) has got large trees on it either side the visibility was never so bad that you couldn’t train. A couple of days with the slalom training the video analysis wasn’t that great because you couldn’t see that much however in the course you could always see 3-4 gates in front of you. The terrain was also pretty predictable and there were no unexpected lumps in the snow to worry about. The coaches were pretty particular about slipping the courses and everyone does their fair share of slipping so we never had any ruts of any significance. This is also helped by the good grooming and snow quality.
There was also another group of masters training there with a French Canadian coach and they seemed to be having a pretty good time as well.
Even without the masters training Sun Peaks is a very easy place to ski with ski in ski out and everything you need in the village (outdoor heated swimming pool, ice rink, bars, restaurants, shops, bottle store and mini supermarket). The Cahilty Lodge which is ski in ski out apartments/hotel accommodation in the centre of Sun Peaks village offers amazing rates to the masters skiers both in relation to early season training and the training before the Nationals (as it is in the low season for them) http://www.cahiltylodge.com/. Most of the masters stay there so it is pretty social as well. As I said that is where we meet to watch our videos. There is also a ski tuning area in the hotel.
In addition there was always the travel agency that is a sponsor of New Zealand masters (http://www.divefishsnow.co.nz) which deals with the Cahilty, gets good rates for lift tickets as well (I think) and can arrange airfares and transportation.
If you do go to Sun Peaks it is not the place that you need a car because there is a shuttle from the airport to the ski field (about 3/4th hour’s drive) and once you are in the village everything is there. There is a shuttle that runs through the village but I don’t think this starts until mid-December.
For more information look at the gear up website, email Jim or contact me at c.e.bibbey@xtra.co.nz.
Race Photos
View photos from the Coronet Peak NZ Skiing Masters events by clicking here.
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30TH OVER THE HILL DOWNHILL
On February 13th it was meant to be the final running of the Over The Hill Downhill at Silver Star in the Okanagan Valley, BC, Canada. The event has been held now for 30 years and during much of that time New Zealand masters have been involved. Ray Bradley, then resident in Canada, who had been at it for some years, persuaded Graham Somervaille and then Wiff Hunt to become the One Ski In The Grave team. I was co-opted in 2002. Eventually we morphed into TeamNZ. Due to increasing maturity, I retired this year and we took on Debbie Sigalet, a local from Vernon who has attended every OTHDH since inception.
The main event is a team’s race, 4 to a team, at least one to be female. Ages are added together and compete in 5 year age groups – it seems that forever the Kiwi team has had the greatest combined age. Having competed with vigor every year, we’ve been in the medals but never in the gold division. Race two that day has been for the Canadian Masters Downhill Champs – again some successes, some even golden.
During the week before the downhill there has been a training camp when all hopefuls are able to practice on the very well groomed course under the watchful eye of 5 coaches. This February there was much fresh snow to be dealt with so a lot of slipping went on. The snow on the sides of the course was very deep and difficult to maneuver in on downhill skis – so bad that one venerable competitor, Kenichi Toda, unable to turn, skied over the edge into a stream/tree-well and wasn’t rescued for an hour and a half. I was put to work guarding the Cross Country section where cross country skiers crossed the course – they weren’t all entirely happy about stopping for trainees – after all cross country skiing was invented before downhill racing…..
This year TeamNZ skied with verve to come 3rd in the 225yrs and Well Over The Hill class with Phil Clemow, Graham Somervaille and Geff Hall finishing within 2 seconds of one another: 1:24.47, 1:25.65 & 1:26.99 and Debbie in a much better time than I ever did at 1.34.57. Competition was fierce amongst the Kiwi boys in the championship race with Phil just beating Geoff for 3rd place in their age group. Graham got a pole stuck at the start which he had to drop - with a little extra time on the course he was well down the list.
Such was the fervent wish of the 200 plus competitors and supporters at the prizegiving “banquet” that I am sure this OTHDH won’t be the last. Their problem, as with other race organizers are having, is cost and getting sponsors. Geoff thinks he can get Qantas to come to the party – after all, Silver Star is owned by Australians and Qantas could bring them there by the dozens for the event. Hope springs eternal!
One Man’s Dream…
a skiers’ dream
By Bill Bartlett
Dad bought me cool things when I was young growing up in small town Bowmanville Ontario. I was the oldest of 4 brothers and sisters.
The first big thing I remember at about age 8 was a brand new pair of snow skis from our local Canadian Tyre store. The skis were state of the art in 1966, wood with screwed in metal edges at the tip and tail. They were navy blue with cable bindings that had a single action lever binding at the rear to hold your boot in tight. My boots were leather ankle high with metal loops around which you wrapped the nylon laces that you crisscrossed like ice skates to tie them to your feet. No one else at my school had skis, or even skied, so my skis were pretty special.
Another swish thing my dad bought me was a new bike at age 9. The bike was very unique‐ it had between the monkey bars a clear Perspex windscreen like motorcycles use to stop the wind from getting in your face at high speed. It also had a 3 speed stick shift gear lever mounted on the cross bar that you changed like a gearshift in a car. If this wasn’t enough the bike was finished with a custom gold and white metallic paint job, with matching gold and silver speckled banana seat that finished with a sissy bar at the rear of the seat so you could lean back when in cruise mode. This bike made me the coolest kid in the neighbourhood as all my friends ooed and awed at its magnificence and if they were particularly trustworthy would get a short ride on it under my watchful eye.
I guess what made things like this so memorable was that we grew up in an average blue collar working family where my dad was a shift worker at General Motors car manufacturing, never having an abundance of cash and while his time with family was irregular, we all took great delight when he would surprise us with special treats at unexpected times. One of our favourite times was all 5 kids and mom and dad getting into the Volkswagen Beetle and taking a drive down to the lakefront in Ontario. We would walk along the lake edge; throw stones in the water and dream of owning a boat one day to go for a spin in the Lake. In those days only the poor kids at my school lived at the lake edge in a small community. Now, I believe the real estate values have gone through the roof and only rich people live there.
Living close to Lake Ontario gave my dad the dream of one day sailing a boat from Lake Ontario to New Zealand. This idea seemed to everyone else a crazy one, as firstly my dad had never sailed in fresh water lakes let alone open blue water oceans with 5 kids and 2 adults. Such was the magnitude of my dad’s dreams and I think each one of his kids inherited a degree of this tendency to think and dream big, which brings me to my current project in 2009.
Early in my snow skiing days as an 8 year old I would catch the local school bus, which ran skiers to our local ski resort –Kirby, on Saturdays. I was the only kid amongst my friends who either had the inclination or the equipment to follow this sport. I was out on my own with this passion for skiing.
In 1968, I was able to meet a local Canadian skiing star, Nancy Greene who had done well in a World Class ski event and came to my local ski resort, Kirby Ontario to meet her adoring fans. I met and got her autograph along with dozens of other kids there that day. I think that this meeting triggered a dream in me that one day I could ski in a big International Downhill ski event and do well like Nancy had done.
Later, in 1970 my whole family immigrated to New Zealand and I was 13 years old when we arrived in Auckland. I started skiing again in New Zealand recreationally and I as I got older realized that shortage of time and money would probably not allow me to pursue a dream of World Cup victory in a skiing event. I have married, had three boys with my New Zealand wife and have lived for much of the last 38 years in New Zealand.
In 1977 to 1980 I worked as a ski patroller and ski instructor in British Columbia and loved the lifestyle in the mountains around Hemlock Valley and Todd Mountain.
Years later, as 2008 rolled to a close I started to investigate Masters Racing ‐ particularly the Downhill. I started working out in the gym in anticipation of being able to race and then I found that Silver Star ski resort in British Columbia held an annual event in which I could participate as a 52 year old. I got my plane ticket booked and now look forward to competing in this event and in some way fulfil a life long dream to compete in an international ski race event‐ in February 2009.
At the time of writing I am 1 week from the race. One of the exciting things in preparation of this event has been the sharing of my dream with family and friends. I hope that through following my dream that others will be encouraged to follow, plan and prepare their dream. January 2009