Who Are Those Guys?

Newcomers continued to impress in GDHL, although last season's battle for male supremacy continued with the almost narrowest of margins separating the main protagonists.  But first:

What's Coming At You This Weekend And Beyond

• Friday training will be SL at 9:30 and 1:00.  As always, contact Laurel to register.  Many of your competitors are finding that this is the best training opportunity of the weekend and no long-term commitment is required!
• All of the weekend training is on the usual schedule.  Gate training will be SL at 9:30 Saturday and Sunday.  Fast & Female is Saturday at 9:30 and Adult Tech is both days at 9:30.  Watch for Natalie's email to members and signage for hill space.  (Signs are now being posted in the new display cases around the lodges as well as at the National chair.
• GDHL is SL on Comet on Sunday.  Inspection from 12:15 to 12:45 and start at 1:00 pm.  Kate Ryley will apparently be back this weekend, giving the men another chance to step up their games.  Bibs 10 and 20 are held by Mansell Nelson and James Mathers for this race.  These bibs may be transferred by the holders, but no racer may use either of these bibs in more than one race each season.
• And looking a bit further ahead, remember the Track 3 ski day at the Club on Friday 12 February - training, racing, good sluicing and browsing - a great day, a great cause and a good bargain.  See here to register and get more details.
• Finally, save the morning of Saturday 5 March for the combination of Club Championships and the final GDHL race of the season, then save that evening for the annual GDHL closing dinner.  Celebrate your successes with your friends and rivals.  More details will follow, but we anticipate repeating the reduced rates for younger racers and their respective guests and hope that our caterer will agree to repeat the bring your own wine arrangements (paying only a modest corkage fee) that have been offered in recent years.

GDHL Race 3

The weather forecast on Saturday had J-F fretting about cancellation of Sunday's race, but we dodged the bullet.  It was warm, but fortunately the rain held off until the lifts closed.  The GS set from Sandy Nattress on Millennium was universally recognized as fast during inspection, but the reduced offset and great course maintenance from the Coyotes resulted in many racers being faster on their second runs.  And it was not only fast but close.  Alec Libert led the way on the first run over Chris Barber.  Both improved on the second run, but Chris slightly more so, as he won overall by just two hundredths in 27.47.  Jesse Shepherd was third, followed by Ian Malcolm in his season's debut and Trevor Jackson, with Jeff Sutherland finishing first parent and first over 50.  (Order is restored after Jeff twice failed to heed his own advice about the tricky finishing gate in last week's SL.)  On the women's side, Cheryl McConachie made her GDHL debut a short one, finishing in 30.00 on her second run and 19th overall, followed by Meghan Barber in 25th overall and Jayne Clarke in 40th.  Trent Winstone (14th) and Craig Shibley (15th) were second and third men over 50, while Leslie Morgan and Elspeth Gaukrodger were the leaders in the women's over 50.  The tight results weren't just at the top, as there were 19 racers between Cheryl and Ian Latimer (37th at 30.92) and another 13 between 31.03 and 32.05.  

As usual, some racers distinguished themselves in comparison to their rankings.  Those reaching the lodge monitor podium this week are repeaters Doug MacCon and Dougie Craig, tying for third with 33 place improvements, Bob Waite with plus 39 (didn't see whether he borrowed Cyndy's race suit in her absence) and Warren McDougald (again) with plus 42.  Ed Barnicke, Jamie Deeks and Sarunas Lenauskas were close behind.

Full results can be found at http://gdhl.org/results-database/ (i.e. in the database that you get to from the results dropdown on the home page), or just click here.  Remember they're available on live timing (click "live timing" on the same dropdown) and on the finish line monitor (although without the benefit of a touch screen to scroll through).

So Who Are Those Guys?

Cheryl McConachie and Meghan Barber, two of the new fast girls

Warren McDougald - expect to turn that 66 upside down next year!

Interclub

The second Interclub race of the year was contested at the Peaks on Saturday afternoon. There was a big field, although Craigleith now appears to be the only team populated entirely from one club.  Unfortunately, the population was short one woman needed to meet the minimum requirement, so we scored one fewer racer than the other teams.  Full results are here.  Our average score per racer was the best, but in the end it wasn't enough and we lost to Peaks plus by a bit less than the woman would likely have scored.  Captain TSB will be working feverishly to get people into enough races to qualify for the big finale.  

As it was, Craigleith finished 1, 3, 4, 6 in the largest age group of the day, led by Jeff Sutherland scoring 31 points, followed by Trent Winstone, Craig Shibley and Jeff Craig.  Greg Cavers, Glenn Blaylock and Paul Atkinson also scored at least 25 points, while Anne Mathers, George Hayhurst, Kate Veer, Scott McLorie and Justin Kowal all won their respective age groups.  Meghan Barber made her Interclub debut as the second fastest woman on the day, while Paul was the third fastest male overall.

Race Etiquette

Here are a few things to remember as we aim to get races completed quickly and smoothly.  We're working on having a better shot at two runs for the Super G next year, and these will make a big difference then.

• We want to close inspection 15 minutes before start time, so do your best to get to the course in plenty of time.  (We know there are kids to be dropped off and hopefully everything will fit in.)  Do your inspection efficiently and get back to the start.
• Although we have had some fine displays of backwards and one-legged skiing, if you lose a ski, please clear the course as fast as you can, and don't try to resume your run.  If you miss a gate, please don't ski through the finish line or if you can't avoid doing so, be sure to declare yourself to the finish hut.  We have officials watching for DSQ's, not just your competitors, but everything is smoother if we don't have to rely on them.
• Although we all enjoy watching the fastest guys with the final bibs, the price of having an early start is that you need to leave the finish area early to prepare for your second run, if you want one.  We have asked the Coyotes not to allow people to start in random order as that appears to have incited unseemly jostling on Sunday.  If you think about it, if you're a MAMIL, wouldn't you rather wait a moment in your assigned place while reflecting on life's innocent pleasures, instead of having all the young ladies behind you speculating on whether Spyder and Karbon include a bursting volume test in their product quality protocols?

Diversions

Here's another in Morgan Rubes's series of goggle-cam videos, from our 2016 Super G.

As no one has sent me any good jokes recently, I thought I would revive some that received popular acclaim in their first appearances.

Things that are difficult to say when you're drunk: cinnamon, indubitably, innovative, preliminary, proliferation

Things that are VERY difficult to say when you're drunk:  British constitution, loquacious trans-substantiate, passive-aggressive disorder, speciality

Things that are downright IMPOSSIBLE to say when you're drunk:  "Thanks, but I don't want to have sex."  "Nope, no more alcohol for me."  "Oh, I just couldn't!  No one wants to hear me sing."  "You are quite right, I can't jump over that table."

Some places have lots of natural snow right now!

And finally, a song for TSB in his Interclub recruiting role

See you in the starting gate!

James Mathers

Hello, Hello, Hello

Welcome to all of our GDHL newcomers after their first races.  More about their results and others soon, but first here's what you need to know about this weekend:

• Friday training is GS at 9:30 and 1:00.  Contact Laurel to register.
• Adult gate training is GS at 9:30 on each of Saturday and Sunday. Watch for updates from Natalie and signage at the Club regarding location.
• Fast and Female and Adult Tech meet at the National chair at 9:30 on Saturday.  Adult Tech is back at same time and place on Sunday.
• The Interclub team is off to the Peaks for a 1:00 GS start on Saturday.  Contact Taylor today if you're interested.
• The GDHL race is GS on Millennium on Sunday.  Inspection will start at 12:15 and close at 12:45, and the race will start at 1:00.

First Two Races

Handicapping GDHL newcomers is often a challenge.  Some are well known, but others haven't raced since they were 14 or 15, have skied in the park since then or have added a lot of muscle.  Seems to be less of an issue for women, but 20-something men are a challenge.  So, your ranking committee was eagerly anticipating the weekend's results.

With any luck, the monitors in the lodges at the Club will now display GDHL results, including those who have distinguished themselves by finishing farther above their respective rankings than the others.  Sadly for Brad McMullen, this comes after a hiatus in his two years of almost unbroken over-achievement.  Of course, the monitor will also feature the overall winners, who in our first race were Chris Barber, Alec Libert and Scott McLorie among the men and Kate Ryley, Meghan Barber and Kate Veer among the women.  (This distinction will become more important shortly.)  Kate took over the hot seat by almost two seconds from early leader Jerry Patten and held it until Scott finished a tenth faster in bib 106 and then Chris broke into the 68's.  Kate ultimately finished 5th in the overall overall.  Full Super G results are here.  Also among those in the top 20 were Patrick Pedlar (9th from 25th rank), Colin Gaffney (10th from 30, as it appears we were too generous in allowing for time on twin tips), Jerry Patten (12th from 28), Thomas Squires (16th from 44) and JF Courville (17th from 49).  However, those on the first list will be Warren McDougald (19th from 77, up 58 spots), Doug MacCon (up 42 to 24th, new skis) and Dougie Craig (up 39 to 51st).  

Moving on to Sunday's SL, Kate took the lead at bib 44 and on a deteriorating course Trevor Jackson at bib 107 was the first to come within five seconds of her time.  Phil Ruffolo and Andrew Athey got a bit closer, then Chris Barber came within a second, but no one did any better, except Chris who managed to shave a few hundies on his second run.  Chris was gracious enough to say that maybe the holes in the course slowed him down just enough so he didn't ski out.  I should have such a problem.  So, men's overall leaders were Chris, Alec Libert and Jesse Shepherd, women's overall leaders were Kate, Meghan Barber and Brittany Stainer and, for the first time in GDHL history (as recalled by me), the overall overall winner was a woman.  Congrats Kate!  Full results are here.  Biggest movers were Warren McDougald (up 53 to 24th) and Ed Barnicke (up 50 to 49th), followed by Steve Jarvis and David Arthur, each up 38.  Stephen Kurtz finished just off our virtual podium both days, up 38 on Saturday and 36 on Sunday.  

On to our first GS weekend.  Another chance to adjust our DIN settings and hope that we'll emulate Eric Guay on a good weekend, instead of the one where he skied out before the fourth gate.  Remember, as long as 4 out of 7 ain't bad, your teammates will be happy, and we've got 5 left.  There's a lot of video analyzing crashes at Kitzbuehel, mostly with German commentary, but here's a happier piece from Julia Mancuso via Morgan Rubes.  See you on the weekend!

Special Super G Edition

Quick Updates

• Friday training will be higher speed GS on Birches, morning and afternoon.
• Saturday's Interclub results are (actually) here.
• Pick up your GDHL bibs from Kylie in the race office if you still haven't done so.
• The Coyotes expect to provide live timing of all GDHL races.  To connect, go to gdhl.org, click "results" on the top ribbon, then "live timing" on the drop down.
• Adult gates will be SL on Venture at 1:00 Saturday and on Birches at 9:30 Sunday.
• Both Fast & Female and Adult Tech will move to 1:00 Saturday.
• The Snow School adult apres ski is at 2:45 on Saturday in the South Lodge loft.

Now for the Super G

The Super G is Saturday morning.  (Despite the juniors changing to a GS race for the Pod Cup, we still get Super G.)  The course starts at the top of the Funnel chair, runs along Cruiser to the top of the Comet chair, down Bowie to the bottom of pitch, then along the cross-over past the bottom of Porcupine to the finish by the timing hut on Comet.  Last year, we had over 90 starters.  The winning time was just over one minute, four seconds, the median time was about 1:12 and a few racers were approaching 1:30.  The previous year, the times were nearly 10 seconds slower.  Here is some video that Morgan Rubes shot during last year's inspection, which will give you an idea of what to expect. 

Remember that we need help from all racers in removing the netting that will be erected around the course.  The Coyotes can't do it all, and our big numbers can make a big difference.  We'll have hot chocolate and finger food in the finish area to reward those who help.  Many of these nets are courtesy of the NZ Foundation, so roll for Nik!  Someone suggested that we take attendance and not score the race for those who don't help.  We won't go quite that far, but that's the right spirit, and take your chances if you run into that guy and haven't helped out.

Now for some key special rules relating to this race:

1. You must have a helmet with full, hard ear covering.  It may not have a camera or camera mount attached.  Your ski poles must have baskets and may not have slalom guards attached.
2. You must inspect the course or you will not be allowed to race. Inspection is from 9:10 to 9:40, but you must start inspection by 9:30. You must check in with the appropriate race official at the start, who will check you off on the list.  Inspection ends promptly and early in order to allow sufficient time for final course preparation before the race starts.  We have at least one participant who knows this rule is for real.
3. The ski patrol must be on site before racing starts.
4. Only authorized people may be inside the netting that has been erected around the race course. This means racers, officials, coaches, ski patrol and Coyotes. It doesn’t include friends, family and other spectators.  The Coyotes will try to identify and announce an appropriate place for spectators who want to watch from above the finish line.
5. Movement on the course will be controlled by race officials using radios. If there is any unauthorized movement on the course, racing will be stopped.
6. Racers will be started at regular intervals. This will likely mean every 30 to 45 seconds, but will be adjusted as appropriate.  The spacing will probably be longer at the start, shorter in the middle and then longer for the last few racers to try to avoid waiting for reruns at the end of the race.
7. If a racer falls, the following racer(s) may be flagged down with a big yellow flag. During your inspection, watch for "yellow zones" where flagging may happen.  If you are flagged, stop racing immediately. You will get a rerun.  Even if you aren't flagged, you should stop if you come upon a crash, and you can ask for a rerun.
8. If you are watching the race and see a racer fall, don’t enter the course. The ski patrol and others will assist as soon as race officials have made sure that the course is clear, for the safety of those assisting. Please spread the word on this to spectators.
9. We hope to be able to complete two runs, but time is limited and this race takes longer to run than usual. Therefore, it may have to end without two runs for everyone who wants them. The ability to offer two runs depends on avoiding delays with inspection, being lucky in avoiding delays for crashes etc. and having the course stay in good condition.

This race is a lot of fun if you approach it properly.  We don't often get a chance to ski as fast as possible on a controlled course.  Just be sure to be on your toes at all times.  Here's another of Morgan's videos, this one featuring Maddy Irwin as a forerunner a couple of years ago.

See you on Saturday!

James Mathers

Get Ready to Go!

This Week's Schedule

• Speed-oriented gate and gateless training with Sandy Nattress, Wednesday through Friday, mornings and afternoons.
• GDHL first race - Super G on Saturday morning.  There will be a separate newsletter later in the week with special Super G details, but remember you must be there by 9:30 to check in and inspect, or you won't be allowed to race, you must have a helmet with hard ears and you must hang around after the race to help roll the nets.
• Adult gate training will be SL.  Saturday's session will be in the afternoon instead of the morning and will start at 1:00 pm or when the nets are all rolled.  Sunday's session will be at 9:30 as usual.  
• Fast & Female will start at 1:00 pm instead of 9:30 on Saturday.  Watch for a possible schedule change for Adult Tech on Saturday as well.  Sunday Adult Tech will be at 9:30.
• Snow School's annual apres-ski event for adult participants will be on Saturday afternoon.  I suspect it's in the President's Loft in the South Lodge at about 2:30, but I'll try to confirm details.

Last Call For Team Buy-in

Those who are on a team are entitled to buy a 5% interest in any season-end cash winnings from the Calcutta by paying 5% of the purchase price of the team.  Full details are in the recent Calcutta Wrap-Up edition of this bulletin.  BUT, YOU MUST DECLARE BEFORE RACING STARTS, i.e. before 10 am Saturday.  If you want to buy, send an email to our treasurer, Trent Winstone, including your member account number.

Weekend Results

Saturday afternoon saw the first Interclub race of the season.  Things looked a bit dire when only ten roster places were taken by midweek, but soon after the roster was full.  The Stairway slope at Devil's Glen was certainly firm, but not quite as precarious as at the time of the 2014 final.  Craigleith rolled to a decisive victory.  Full results are here.  Alec Libert and Phil Ruffolo made memorable Interclub debuts, finishing 1, 2 overall, with Alec winning by over a second.  They were followed by Paul Atkinson in third.  Captain Taylor Simms-Brown was fourth fastest man on his new skis and with little recent racing, followed by Jeff Sutherland.  However, Julia Roth of DG was fourth overall, just a few hundies behind Paul.  Kate Veer, at slightly more than twice Julia's age, finished as the third fastest woman.  Jeff Sutherland won the newly introduced MVP award by scoring the most points, i.e. winning the largest age group.  Jeff picked up 30 points, while Allan LaChance won his age group and scored 28.  Margaret Isberg was co-MVP on the women's side, scoring 24. Craigleith won all but two of the age categories in which we had an entrant, and finished second in those two.   Mary Riopelle, Tiana Boyman and Chris Shipton also won their categories, while Craig Shibley, Trent Winstone, Chris Fregren and Rob Burnes all scored 25 points or more.  Next race is Saturday 30 January at the Peaks.   P.S., if you have a bit of time on your hands, see whether you can find someone in the results who did rather better than his GDHL ranking suggests.  Stay tuned for recriminations!  And check out this short article on masters' racing from Escarpment Magazine.  The author might not have been so kind to Jeff S. had he known Jeff would beat him by 14.5 seconds at DG. 

Meanwhile, Kate Ryley took the opportunity of a vacant GDHL schedule to win both of the women's NZ Cup FIS slaloms at Craigleith over the weekend.  It seems traditional that a retiring star will participate in local races to bring the benefit of his or her low FIS points to help aspiring racers reduce their points.  (Julien Cousineau took this role on the men's side at Craigleith.)  Apparently the trick is to win, but not by too much.  Kate actually lost the first run on Saturday to Jackie Atkins of Craigleith, but won overall by 0.64.  Sunday, she took the first run by 1.40 and beat Jackie overall by 1.99, although I had the impression watching her last run that she remembered the "not by too much" rule about the fourth gate from the finish.

Fashion News

Regular readers will recall that these missives have frequently been graced by portraits of Carrie Grinter-Lenauskas (recently retired adult race coach, chair of the Ladies' Day committee, wife of the famous Lithuanian GDHL racer, Ironman finisher etc.) sporting outfits from her personal collection and the corporate collections of Spyder and Karbon.  One highlight is below.

However, Carrie has, at least for the moment, departed the ski industry and is now working with a swim suit and outdoor apparel company.  No doubt her wardrobe remains well stocked, but we may have to wait until next year to see next year's outfits.

FIS Points Porn

The Internet is a wonderful place for those wanting to exercise their imaginations.  (Gentlemen!! This is about ski racing.  If you can't read "swim suit" and "porn" in proximate paragraphs without losing focus, I don't know what the world is coming to.)  Alec Libert and Phil Ruffolo (1, 2 in last Saturday's Interclub and 1, 6 in last year's GDHL overall) were recalling before their matchup with Julia Roth that the last time they had lost to a female was when they were 13 and racing against Kate Ryley and Larissa Yurkiw.  Many are eagerly awaiting the first GDHL match-up between Kate and her many former Craigleith Nancy Greene and Mackenzie team mates about 13 years later.  But where can we go with handicapping?  Well, Alec beat Julia by almost 1.3 seconds on Saturday, or about 4% on a short course, while Phil beat her by about 0.3.  Then FIS tells us that the last time Kate raced Julia, about 13 months ago, Kate won by 2.50 seconds or about 2.6% over two runs and that Kate beat Julia by almost exactly 4% the day before that.  In the same races, Jackie Atkins beat Julia once and lost to her once.  And checking the results of last year's Club Championships on our own GDHL site, we learn that on the same course Jackie (who was beaten by Kate in the NZ Cup) finished less than a second behind Alec and less than 0.7 behind Phil in GS, and beat Phil by 2.1 seconds in SL.  (Phil may have overlooked this.)  Alec was DNS in the SL, but Jackie lost to Paul Atkinson by 2.6 in the SL and of course Alec beat Paul fairly handily at the Interclub GS.  Still losing focus guys?  This is awesome!  Show up Saturday and Sunday to see rather than speculate.

GDHL Forerunners

Contact Doug Jarvis if you know someone who would like to forerun at a GDHL race.  

Track 3 - A Great Event, a Great Cause and a Sweet Deal!

The Track 3 Friends and Family Race Day is on Friday, 12 February, just before Family Day weekend.  Tickets are $100 for members, and a charitable tax receipt of about $75 brings the net cost below $65, less than what most of us pay for a half day of gate training.  Here is what your ticket buys you:

• morning gate training
• a 2 run GS on Big John in the afternoon
• great food all day...morning, lunch and apres
• complimentary beer, wine and cider until 4PM (please...no RUI's...racing under the influence!)
• guided snowshoeing, morning and afternoon yoga, and lots more for your valentines who don't share your love of snow
• a fun apres and awards ceremony with cool medals
• the chance to support Track 3, and be inspired by the many current and former Ontario Para team members who will be special guests

Buy your tickets here.

Diversions

Here's a nice compilation of highlights from the Norwegians' domination at Wengen last weekend, as a reward for sticking it out to the end.

See you in the start gate!

James Mathers

Season's Schedule

The Interclub team is set to debut at Devil's Glen tomorrow.  As previously announced, our GDHL season will start on Saturday morning, 23 January with the Super G.  But it will be not just a bang, but a bang, bang start, as we will follow that with a SL on Comet Sunday afternoon.

Here's the entire schedule, including the remaining Interclub events:

Race #1             Sat. Jan. 23 AM – SG on Cruiser/Bowie

Race #2           Sun Jan 24 PM – SL on Comet

Interclub          Sat Jan 30 PM - Georgian Peaks

Race #3             Sun. Jan. 31 PM – GS on Millennium

Race #4             Sun. Feb. 7 PM – SL on Comet

Interclub            Sat. Feb 13 PM - Caledon

Race #5             Sun. Feb. 14 PM - SSL on Millennium / Venture

Interclub              Sat. Feb 20th Craigleith Big John PM

Race #6               Sat. Feb. 27 PM – GS on Big John (This could be switched to AM if the Interclub race proceeds)

Interclub              Tentative Sat Feb 27 PM - Alpine

We are investigating the possibility of using the Club Championships GS on Saturday 5 March as our seventh race.  More details will follow.

Train hard this weekend, think about some mid-week speed training, have fun at the Interclub if you're going, check out the NZ Cup on Millennium, and get ready to rock next weekend.

Cheers,

James Mathers

Calcutta Wrap-Up and Looking Ahead

Thanks to everyone concerned for a great opening to our season on Saturday evening.  Rip and Mary did a spectacular job with the auctions thanks to many enthusiastic bidders.  For better or worse, Sunday morning proved that the decision not to race was correct.  Let's try to appear nonchalant as we contemplate the prospect of the delayed start of the season and attend to some administrative details from the Calcutta.

The final start list is here. The final team list is here.  If you didn't get your bib on Saturday evening, you can collect it and your loot bag from Kylie in the Race Office.

The winners of the bib draw, often upon the default of those who weren't paying attention when their tickets were drawn, are as follows (bib 10 followed by bib 20):

Race 1 - Samantha Cowan and Jerry Patten

Race 2 - Andrew Athey and Tom Caswell

Race 3 - Jeff Sutherland and Ian Latimer

Race 4 - Mansell Nelson and James Mathers

Race 5 - Richard Lavery and Steve Jarvis

Race 6 - John Barber and Brook Dyson

Winners may use the bibs themselves or give them to others, but no one may use a preferred bib more than once in the season.  Don't worry about actually getting bib 10 or 20.  Just show up with your regular bib and the Coyotes will be expecting someone in those slots.

After the auction, team owners, with prices paid, are as follows:

Big John - FAB 11 consortium (Tony Ciccocioppo) - $1200

Birches - Team Futures consortium (Tom Dyson) - $1700

Comet - Bobbo (Bob Callow) - $1200

Landslide - Johnny B (John Banfield) - $1700

Millennium - Bobbo (Bob Callow) - $1800

National - Team Futures consortium (Tom Dyson) - $1500

Partridge - FAB 11 consortium (Tony Ciccocioppo) - $1700

Pen - Suds (Jeff Sutherland) - $1500

Team members may purchase a 5% interest in their respective teams for 5% of the price paid (drop the zeroes and multiply by 5).  By my unofficial calculation, the pot is $12,300.  GDHL takes 10% off the top, leaving $11,070 to be split $5535 for first ($276.75 per participating team member), $3321 for second and $2214 for third.  If you didn't speak to Treasurer Trent's Team while leaving the podium and want to buy your share, email Trent right away and let him know that you want in.  You must provide your member number for billing.

Finally, your committee is already looking ahead to the year end social event, which will be on Saturday 5 March.  This has recently involved a sit down dinner followed by presentation of GDHL awards.  Please speak to a member of the committee or send us an email with suggestions or requests concerning this year's event.

This Weekend and Beyond

• Friday GS training with Sandy Nattress is on Big John at 9:30 and 1:00.  Contact Laurel to register.
• Adult gate training is GS on Birches both Saturday and Sunday at 9:30.
• Adult tech meets at the National chair both Saturday and Sunday at 9:30.
• Fast and Female meets at the National chair on Saturday only at 9:30.
• Interclub is at Devil's Glen for GS at 1:00 on Saturday.  At last word, there was room for more team members.  Contact Taylor Simms-Brown today (Thursday) if you want to participate.

Unfortunately all of the Club's race operation resources are dedicated to the NZ Cup FIS races this weekend, so the start of the GDHL season will be delayed until Saturday 23 January.  (All the more reason to visit DG with the interclub team.) But the start will be with a bang!  It will be Super G day, along the Cruiser / Bowie course.  So you will certainly want to take the opportunity for speed training with Sandy next Wednesday, Thursday and Friday mornings at 9:30 and next Friday afternoon at 1:00.  Sandy will also offer gateless training on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons at 1:00.  Contact Laurel to register.

Diversions

Click here to watch an engaging interview with Mikaela Shiffrin concerning her injury and potential return to racing.  Also at the bottom of the page is a pic of her displaying impressive musculature while doing chin-ups.  The interview is from NBC Sports and includes a clip of an unsuccessful backseat SL run by Ted Ligety at Adelboden last weekend.

Meanwhile, the Women's World Cup tour took a page from the GDHL rule book and held a DH consisting of two consecutive runs over the same (shortened) course, with no re-set or second run inspection.  They didn't adopt our "best of" scoring and had a flip 30 start order for the second run.  Interestingly, although there were changes in the standings from the first run to the final, no one improved her first run time on the second.  Most were 0.5 to 1.5 seconds slower.  Places 1 to 5 on the first run finished in the same order on the second run and overall.  Watch here to see Larissa Yurkiw take second behind Lindsey Vonn.

Stay patient, train hard and we'll see you on the hill :)

James Mathers

Calcutta Reminders

Welcome to a number of new GDHL participants who we've added to the distribution list for this newsletter.  It's our main communication tool, but visit our website for much more information.  

Hopefully everyone has already grasped the key information concerning our opening social event, the Calcutta - it's Saturday at 5 pm in the South Lodge.  Here are a few more things to remember:

We have three pairs of skis and bindings and three Pratte training camps on auction.  All of the other things shown below are included in the draw prizes.

Full details of these great items and much more can be found here.  

A big highlight of the night will be the auctions of the teams.  Presiding over all of the auctions will be our long-time supporters Rip and Mary Riopelle, who are pictured below, Mary in a temporary capacity as member of the team under auction.

Bidding consortia must explain themselves to Trent Winstone before the end of the evening, including filling out details on the form he will provide.  Tom D, consider arriving a bit ahead of time to attend to this.  Team members, remember you can buy a 5% interest in your team for 5% of the auction price for your team.  It will be very helpful if you tell a member of Trent's finance team whether or not you want to do so before leaving the area.  All transactions are through member accounts, so please have your number ready.

Finally, for $20 a ticket, you can buy a ticket for our draw.  It gives you a chance to win the prizes shown above (not the skis and bindings) or bib 10 or 20 for one of the GDHL races.  Since our schedule isn't final, we will simply draw for races 1 to 7.  Winners may use their bibs themselves or give them to friends or teammates, but no one may use a preferred bib more than once during the season.  The bibs won't actually be circulated, but the race crew will be aware that people wearing other bibs will start in slots 10 and 20.

See you at the Calcutta!

James Mathers

Quick Update for the Weekend

I neglected to say yesterday that those of you who are featured in videos with a relevant theme are welcome to submit them for the consideration of the GDHL newsletter editorial board.  Having received none so far, not having a video titled Quick Update and not having heard any good jokes lately, this missive will be just an update of the facts first hinted at yesterday, without diversions.  

If you're surprised to be getting this, it's because we've managed to update the newsletter distribution list with the GDHL registration info before 4 AM Friday, and saved you the trouble of signing up.  If your friends are wondering why you got this and they didn't, it's because we haven't managed to do so yet, and they haven't been as quick to sign up at gdhl.org as you were.

• Training will be SL-oriented this weekend.  Bring SL skis (and protective gear if you have it) to Friday, Saturday and Sunday gate training sessions.
• Friday training is on Bowie.  Saturday and Sunday training is on Big John.
• CALCUTTA IS ON SATURDAY AT 5 in the South Lodge.  See here for details of all the good stuff that we've planned and that you can take home with you.
• Interclub is on again this year.  Craigleith is looking for a fifth straight title.  Scheduled races are GS at 1 pm at each of Devil's Glen (16 Jan), Peaks (30 Jan) and Craigleith (20 Feb).  You need to race in one of the first two to be eligible for a Craigleith start.  There may be more races added to the schedule.  Contact Taylor Simms-Brown to get into the loop for team selection.

Succinctly yours,

James Mathers

I'm So Excited!!

I get dissed sometimes for over-using exclamation marks, but I hope that you'll agree it's justified once you've read to the bottom.

This Weekend's Schedule

Decisions regarding hill space etc. are still being considered by the Club at my press time.  I will try to send an update Friday, and you should also watch for news in Natalie's email to the membership at large.  The thinking today was that conditions will be best for slalom rather than GS.

• Friday training with Sandy Nattress (our new adult head coach) will be at 9:30 and 1:30.  It will focus on "get in the groove" drills with brushes and stubbies as conditions permit.  Email Laurel to register and check in with her when you arrive to get details of where.
• Adult Gate Training starts on Saturday at 9:30.  Coaches for the program will be Sandy Nattress, Paul Atkinson, Chris Barber, Glenn Blaylock, James Mathers, Cheryl McConachie and Greg Roe in various combinations.  Meet at the National chair or look for a sign there directing you to the training hill.
• The inaugural session of Fast and Female also starts on Saturday at 9:30 at the National chair.  Coaches are Kate Veer and Andrew Peterson.  The first session will focus on "gateless training."  A few places are still available.  Email Laurel to register.  This program is Saturday only.
• The ever-popular Adult Tech program starts up again on Saturday at 9:30.  Meet Allan LaChance at the National chair.
• CALCUTTA IS SATURDAY AT 5 PM in the South Lodge.
• Sunday Adult Gate Training is at 9:30 at the National chair, or check the sign for hill space.  There are a few spaces left on Sundays although Saturday is full.  Email Laurel to register.
• Adult Tech also meets on Sunday at 9:30 at the National chair.  Space is available for Sunday and guess what?  Email Laurel to register.

So what about the race says the chorus of careful readers?  After much discussion, the GDHL committee and the coaches have agreed that, given everyone's limited preparation time and the less than optimal weather that is anticipated, it would be prudent to defer the start of racing for a week.  Better that we think than advancing the finish of anyone's racing season by eight weeks.  Watch this space for the full schedule as soon as it's set.

So Why Am I Excited?

Well, we now have 28 racers under the age of 30, 11 of whom are women.  The median age of the racers has dropped to about 46.  And the class of YOB 1989 that has been prominently represented at the top of the standings recently by Alec Libert, Jesse Shepherd, Phil Ruffolo and Trevor Jackson has had three more members join GDHL.  They are Cheryl McConachie, Alex Mathers (who I think would be favoured to win GDHL if it required skiing backwards through the course) and Kate Ryley (who beat all the boys when they were 11 and who is rumoured to be likely to do the same 15 years later).  

Back in 2013, when I was working on the GDHL website content, I amused myself by including the following:

Choose whichever of the following applies to you:

• I think that having more FIS points is better
•   I think that having fewer FIS points is better
•   I used to have less than 100 FIS points
•  WTF are FIS points?
• I used to race with Steve Podborski or Kate Ryley at Craigleith.  I was faster, but then ...
•   I used to race with Steve Podborski or Kate Ryley in Europe
• Who are Steve Podborski and Kate Ryley?
•  I'm Steve Podborski or Kate Ryley

This is the first time anyone has answered yes to the last question.  Kate and her sister Megan, who has also joined us, are the first of the distinguished Club members who have raced on the national team to follow that with participating in GDHL  Meg has been away from top level racing for several years, but Kate was racing Nor-Am last season and is currently shown as ranked 110 in the world in women's SL on the FIS website.  See this NCAA promotional video, which is all about Kate (and a bit about Meg)

So that's why I'm with the Pointer Sisters on this one

See you on the snow, and at the Calcutta!

James Mathers

Calcutta Special! All Aboard!

Last Call

Several people have indicated an intention to sign up, but it's time to turn words into deeds.  Go to the Club website, member log-in section, and get it done.  It really helps us if you don't wait any longer.  Even J-F has successfully registered, a feat that rivals the rescue of the Craigleith U-14's from the elevator at the Sun Peaks Grand Hotel for anxiety, calls for assistance and ultimately comic relief!

And After You've Registered

Check here for background reading on what the Calcutta is all about, and why everyone cares about teams and bibs.  Saturday 9 January, 5 pm in the South Lodge is when.  Here's what to do when you arrive:

• Pick up your bib
• Express dismay and disbelief to Woodhouse and Clark when you discover that you're not in the single digit bib numbers
• Learn that you're not the only proponent of an elder-centric hierarchy (although what they really want is a lowerarchy) 
• Have a beer and some tasty snacks while considering enlisting the aid of the AARP
• Put away your "smart" phone in disgust when you discover it takes you to the NRA instead of the AARP
• Realize there's a bright side to your start number when you find out who is starting immediately ahead of you
• Introduce yourself and casually mention aerodynamic benefits and sales at Squire John's when you learn she doesn't yet have a lycra race suit
• Pick up your swag, including a $25 gift card to apply to that race suit - more details below
• Enter the draw for chances to win bibs 10 and 20 in each race, plus other great prizes - more details below - $20 cash or member charge per entry - non-racers are welcome to participate and give bibs to their family members or those on teams they've purchased (see below)
• Listen respectfully to J-F's opening remarks, but reserve the right to have another beer if they drag on
• Bid enthusiastically for the fastest new race skis and trips to Michel Pratte's training camps (again, see below)
• Have another beer and try to convince people to join your syndicate to buy teams in the auction
• Think about seeking legal advice concerning whether insider trading rules and that unfortunate misunderstanding with the OSC affect your bidding in the team auction
• Have another couple of beers and bid enthusiastically for teams
• Realize just in time that it is futile to try to be more enthusiastic than our hero Bob C
• Claim your prize in the draw
• Go home by some responsible means of transport to prepare your skis for what will hopefully be the next day's opening race

Below, More Details

Here are just some of the gift cards (part of Squires' sponsorship) and ski straps (courtesy of our sponsor Locations North) that will be part of this year's swag:

And we have a great big box of high quality scrapers, also part of the swag from Squires.

Here are the skis and bindings that will be auctioned (mostly thanks to our sponsor Lange/Dynastar/Ron Warren, with a top-up from Squires), and the draw prizes (thanks to Squires for very advantageous terms, on top of their sponsorship). 

Details, Even More - Auction Items

• For auction, we have two pairs of the new COURSE WC PREMIUM from Dynastar, which is a "super-charged Masters GS racing weapon."  We will have the 175cm (Radius: 18m) and 180cm (Radius: 21m) on hand, but you can trade for a different size at Squires, inventory permitting.  These are the real deal for Masters GS and you don't have to have skis that say "Hero" like the Rossi version.  You are too under the radar for that.  And they come with high end ski straps too.
• We also have a pair of the OMEGLASS FIS R21 WC from Dynastar.  These are FIS slalom skis.  We will have the 157cm version on hand, but you can ask Squires for the 165 if you're feeling particularly charged up.
• The skis come with Look bindings, either the SPX 12 ROCKERFLEX or the SPX 15 ROCKERFLEX.  We have two of the 12's and one 15.  First buyer gets first choice.
• MSRP for skis and bindings is north of $1200, and they would cost around $1100 plus tax at Squires.  You can probably do better at the auction, and proceeds go to GDHL.
• Also available for auction is one trip to Michel Pratte's camp in Zermatt from 17 to 26 September 2016.  This includes single occupancy hotel accommodation, breakfast and dinner, coaching and lift tickets.  Training on the glacier beside World Cup athletes is a fabulous experience.  With the embattled exchange rate, this will be $3750 regular price for 2016.

This is the view from your hotel room when you're training in Zermatt!

• For those who would rather train closer to the start of our season, we have two trips to Michel's camp at Sun Peaks.  You can choose the first session, from 20 to 25 November 2016, or the second, from 27 November to 2 December 2016.  This is for coaching and lift tickets only, regular price $1200.  Lots of ski-in, ski-out accommodation options are available at Sun Peaks.

Details, Still More - Draw Prizes

• We have a Toko T8 Wax Iron.  Toko is another of Ron Warren's brands.  Gotta have an iron unless Chris Barber has talked you into letting him do your skis.  I have one, so I would be willing to trade if I win this, even though mine's not yellow.
• Also Rossignol shin guards.  My own shin guards are still in distressingly pristine condition, so again I would be willing to trade.
• And Oakley Canopy goggles with Prizm lenses.  I stood outside my back door and looked through these.  Amazing in dull conditions.  By the time you read this, I may already have bought a pair at Squires' Boxing Day sale.  But if I haven't I would definitely trade for them.
• Then the Leki World Cup slalom poles.  We have 125 cm on hand, but you can trade at Squires if you win.  I will be sad if I win these, 'cause I had to buy a pair after I broke my old SL poles a little while ago.  Very aero, and the hang tag has lots of pictures of their famous users.  
• Sticking with the Leki theme, very cool carbon fibre forearm guards.  Definitely would like to win these.
• And finally the Leki World Cup Ti S gloves, in black / cyan / yellow.  Cunningly selected to match the Dynastar skis, not to mention some of my jackets.  Come with titanium knuckle guards and built-in loops for connecting to your Leki poles.  Top of my list!

The Club will be working very hard to finalize schedules, and I'll let you know as soon as I have details.  Things look good for Friday training on the 8th.  Watch for more news!

Cheers,

James Mathers

Things Are Looking UP!

Finally (although I suspect sooner than our neighbours), we're skiing at least a bit at the Club!  Here's an update on things pertaining to adult racing chez nous:

• After consultation with the Club's management, the Calcutta is being delayed a week.  Same time (5 pm), same place (South Lodge), but now on Saturday, 9 January.  Come and enjoy Strange Potatoes at the Base Lodge apres on 2 January instead.  
• There will be no Snow School programs this weekend.  If the weather forecast holds up, gate training and the other programs will start on 9 January.  Friday training will be offered on 8 January if the Club is open that day.  Watch for more info from Natalie or next week's GDHL newsletter.
• The race schedule remains uncertain, but we hope to have our first race on Sunday, 10 January.  Likely GS in the afternoon if it happens.  Watch for more details in next week's newsletter.
• We continue to get more GDHL registrants, especially 20-somethings.  Online registration is still open for now.  It's not too late, but don't delay!  For registrants at this stage, being part of a team will depend on the numbers working in your favour, as we can make say 70 or 72 work, but then 80 is the next number that's good.  You'll be able to participate as an individual if you choose to or the team numbers don't work out for you.

Diversions

Aksel Lund Svindal working out - some interesting balance work to warm up!

Craigleith has had a drone policy for a while now - I guess FIS will be getting one soon!  The video below shows all of Marcel's nearly tragic SL run.  His concentration despite the sky falling behind him, not to mention his skiing, is pretty impressive.

And here Christof Inerhofer gets the line a bit low during a downhill, takes out a panel with his head, takes a jump while blinded by his displaced goggles, skis nearly 140 kph while trailing a breakaway gate and ultimately finishes fourth in the race.  Didn't manage to play the harmonica at the same time, but fortunately no animals were harmed.

Watch for more updates in the next newsletter.  Happy New Year!

James Mathers

Important GDHL News - What To Do When There's No Snow

So, the snow guns are on at the Club, but we're not there yet.  What's going on?  Although going to law school is generally conceded to make one an expert in everything, I will not offer climatological opinions.  I will tell you that the GDHL committee, like everyone at the Club, has been considering the options for the next little while.  Here's the story for now:

• There will be a GDHL race season this year.  It may not start as early as planned, but it will be great when it happens.
• We have almost 80 people already signed up, of whom 15 have either never been in GDHL before or have been absent for a while, which is a lot more than usual.  The word is getting out.  These include several under 25 and Howard Cole, who is a new member of the Club and was at one point on the national masters' team and was probably the fastest guy in the country in his age group (unless it was a year when Al LaChance was in his age group, in which case it was a good battle).
• We are going to move the start for the second group of women further up the list this year.  Probably around bib 30 instead of 60 last year.  The fastest women will get a bit of a ranking penalty because of this advantage, but the rest will just enjoy a smoother course and have a different group of admirers behind them. 
• There is going to be a lot of activity at the Club after Christmas, whether or not there's skiing.  There are over 500 people attending the family New Year's party and the Club is adding lots of extra events.
• We normally get a big surge of sign-ups at this time of year, when people get into the swing of things.  Getting into the swing of things will be a bit more challenging this year, so we really need you to sign up if you haven't and chase your buddies if you have.  Or if you're a guy who would otherwise be starting number 118, spread disinformation and hope that you'll move up to 85 this year.
• We haven't set a hard date yet, but if you want to be on a team, you need to sign up quickly, because we need some time to get teams organized.  No later than 28 December to be certain of being on a team if you want to be!  We can usually accommodate racers who will be scored as individuals only after that, but we would rather you just sign up now.  
• The Calcutta is scheduled for Saturday 2 January at 5 pm in the South Lodge.  We will have the usual good socializing, Dynastar race skis and Pratte camps for auction along with the teams, some nice raffle prizes as part of the preferred bib draw and a Squires gift card and other good loot for everyone.  It's possible that the Calcutta will be delayed a week, but that wouldn't be a good outcome, so please plan on being there on the 2nd and get your friends geared up too!
• If you have questions or suggestions, send us an email.

Diversions

So if you're feeling a bit dispirited by the anomalous meteorological situation, what can you do to alleviate your symptoms?

1.  Get jealous about friends and family who are skiing someplace else.  This is my son Rob (also the GDHL webmaster) at Big White a couple of weeks ago.  They have had quite a lot more snow since.

2.  Resolve to plan better for next year.  Those of you, like Jeff Craig and me, who bought Pratte camps at last year's auction, have already had great skiing in Zermatt or Sun Peaks.  The shot above is looking down towards the training hill in Sun Peaks during the last week of November.  A good base to start, 20 cm. of fresh on the second day and then four days of sunshine!  The adult coach this year was Jacko Gratton, recently retired head coach at Tremblant.  His cues included pushing on the outside ski while pulling gently up on the inside ski, "hooking" or tilting in the inside knee, co-ordinating lead change with edge change and clearing slalom gates to the outside when cross-blocking.  Always good to get new insights. 

3.  Play skill-testing ski related indoor games.  Visit the instagram page of Manny Osborne-Paradis and see how many of the donors to his helmet collection you can identify.  Thanks to Morgan Rubes and Paul Woodhouse for this.  

4.  Check out some good video.  Here is Larissa Yurkiw winning bronze in the Val d'Isere downhill on Saturday.  Here is Marcel Hirscher winning gold in the Val d'Isere GS last weekend.  And here is a 360 degree video taken by Bode Miller as a forerunner at Beaver Creek.  By clicking and dragging on the screen, you can rotate the image, but be warned that the video doesn't work with some web browsers.

5.  Do some dryland training with Lindsey Vonn.

6.  If nothing else works, put on your ski boots and have fun inside like Julia Mancuso :-)

See you at the Club soon!

James Mathers

The Worms Are Almost Gone!

Today, Sunday 15 November, is the last day for the early bird discount on GDHL and Snow School registrations.  Well over 50 of your friends have already signed up for GDHL.  Don't be in the bottom half of the class with those who paid full price!  Thankfully in the digital age you can go to the Club's website before midnight and enroll for all of your training and racing while saving yourself enough for a few ski tunes, maybe a pair of low-light goggles. Don't delay, act today!

Once you've done that, have a look at our friend Ted training and talking about it.

And if you've got a bit of time and are feeling inquisitive, watch this CSCF video with Matt diStefano :(also of the Collingwood medical community), who talks about boot fitting.

Some of us will be on snow soon, maybe at a Pratte camp, maybe at the Club.  Will you be there?  Sure hope so!

Cheers,

James Mathers

Today's The Day!!

The day that Lori meets Sally - Saturday at Hard Candy Fitness

• What?  A group exercise session led by Lori, with a sampling of core exercises, boot camp and power yoga, followed by a presentation from Sally on her techniques for activating under-performing muscle groups - see recent newsletters linked below for more details
• Where?  Hard Candy Fitness, on the fourth floor of the Aura tower on Yonge at Gerrard (College subway)
• When? Session starts at 1:45 pm, but get there early to sign in and get changed.  (HC will give you a card for their snappy lockers, but apparently there's a dryer problem so the usual supply of towels isn't available and you should bring your own.)
• Who? You and your friends!
• What else?  We'll be finished well before 4:07 pm.  Tout le monde chez vous J-F?

Diversions

Here's an interview with Dustin Cook, interspersed with some training footage.  Some interesting insights concerning the importance of fitness, training runs etc.

And just remember that Jose Bautista wasn't the first guy to flip his equipment.

See you Saturday afternoon - gonna be great!!!

James Mathers

The Countdowns Are On!

Hope you've had a great summer, but it's time to think skiing!  Read on for news about our special fitness event next weekend, signing up for winter programs at the Club, our new adult head coach and more.

Hopefully you're remembering about Lori and Sally from the last couple of newsletters.  (Check them out on our website here if you've had a busy summer and are fuzzy on the details.) Our event is on Saturday, 17 October at Hard Candy Fitness Toronto.  A special group exercise session will start at 1:45 pm, so arrive before then to get changed, or arrive even earlier if you would like to participate in Lori's Tornado class at 10, Hard Drive (cycling) at 11 or Electric Yoga at noon.  We will also have a special session with Sally Belanger, who specializes in helping athletes activate under-performing muscles.  Hard Candy is conveniently located in the very tall Aura retail and condo tower on Yonge Street at Gerrard (College subway).  There may have been a time in your life when you could ski to get fit, but those days are long past.  You need to get fit to ski, and this is a great chance to learn from some experts and check out your competitors.  Less than a week to go.  See you there!

The next countdown is to get the early bird discount for winter programs.  The Club has extended the deadline for the discount to 15 November, but that doesn't mean there's more room in the popular programs.  Sign up now for Christmas Camp and Saturday morning gate training!  And this year the calendar allows a three day pre-Christmas camp (should be mid-season snow conditions with a bit of luck) and a ten week weekend program, beginning immediately after New Year's Day.  And if you qualify, consider the new Fast & Female program - race training for women only during the Christmas Camp and the ten week program (or the ever-popular Adult Technical Training, especially if you aren't female).  Finally, the under-30 GDHL discount is now available to everyone under 35, and for only $79 for seven races, how can you go wrong?

And who's in charge of all these programs?  We are pleased to welcome Sandy Nattress as our new head coach for adult racing programs.  Sandy is known to many of you, having had two stints coaching in the junior race programs at Craigleith.  He has also coached adult and junior racers at Blackcomb, Bishops University and Devil's Glen and most recently served as head coach and program director for Kelly Vanderbeek Racing.  We look forward to Sandy building on the great foundation we have for adult racing at the Club, thanks most recently to the leadership of Jacques Reid, who has taken on new responsibilities as head coach of the junior extended programs at the Club.

And don't forget that time is ticking on signing up for a Pratte camp before skiing starts at Craigleith.  Three week-long sessions in Copper, Colorado begin on 25 October, two sessions at Sun Peaks begin on 22 November and a session at Tremblant begins on 6 December.  Click on Michel's logo to link to his website for more details!

Finally, another video visit with Ted.

See you at Hard Candy on Saturday!

James Mathers

Save the Date - When Lori Meets Sally

Thank goodness we're finally past the summer solstice, the days are getting shorter and surely snowfall and ski racing can't be far away.  No doubt you're all busy with your dry land training programs.  Hopefully some of you are planning a trip to a Pratte camp in Zermatt, Colorado or Sun Peaks.  Now, I'm delighted to announce a bonus GDHL contribution to your racing preparation.   

In the last issue of this newsletter, I introduced Sally Belanger (disrespectfully aka Sally the Ass Teacher), who has helped me and others learn how to better activate lazy muscles and improve their athletic performance.  Some of you have mentioned that you long knew I was a lazy ass and were just too polite to say so before I came out.  Others have suggested that a bit more work would be in order.  In any event, Sally's exercises aren't strenous, but are highly effective in, for example, getting your glutes to work so that you stay out of the back seat and in a position to turn much more quickly.  Conversely, Lori Kirwan, whose group exercise classes I attend almost daily, is all about action and sweat.  So what could be better than bringing these two together?

Lori is waiting for you! 

Lori is the group exercise director at Hard Candy Fitness in Toronto, as well as teaching at the Adelaide Club.  She has a Ph.D. in exercise physiology and I have never met anyone more devoted to anything than Lori is to running exercise classes.  And they are awesome!  Lori has agreed to open the doors of Hard Candy for a special GDHL training day with Sally as a guest instructor.  It is tentatively set for 1:45 pm on Saturday, 17 October.  Lori has said you can come early and participate in her regularly scheduled classes at HC.  These include the Tornado circuit class at 10 am, Hard Drive cycling at 11 am and Electric Yoga with a live DJ in a nicely heated studio from noon to 1:30.   Lori will also design a special exercise class for us, which will likely feature a combination of core work, plyometrics and stretching.  (One of the other HC instructors may lead it, given how much else Lori does every week.)  And to top it all off, Sally will lead a session in which she will explain the work she does for athletes of all kinds and give us some exercises to work on.

We'll confirm all of the details in the fall, but mark your calendars and let us know what you think.  Tell us if you're coming, or if we've forgotten some conflicting event.  These are top notch experts and it'll be well worth your while.  Lori's class will be tough, but if you can't do it, should you really be racing gravity down an icy slope?  And if Sally can unlock some unused power for you, I assure you it will be a revelation!  If you can't wait until October, click on the link above for HC, or visit Sally's website.

Since You're Here

Click here for the Wall Street Journal's explanation of why skiing is the secret to Novak Djokovic's success as a tennis player.

And more analysis of Ted Ligety skiing GS

Here's a nice compilation of people you know from Alpine Canada.

Finally, here is an hour long video of Candide Thovex free skiing.  The first nine minutes, after you get past the bears and mountain goats, are jaw dropping.  And HD!

Enjoy the summer and train safely!

Cheers,

James Mathers

Racing Wrap-up, Sponsors, and the Story of Sally

It has been pleasant to compose this without the pressure of having to announce something before it happens.  Among other things, I have been able to mull over at leisure continuing to razz Jeff S. about missing the Interclub finals.

Club Championships

As always, the Club Championships brought out a slightly different field from GDHL and Interclub and some new faces rose to the occasion.  Results are here.  Double gold medalists included Doreen Davenport, Jack and Cathy Weingust, George Hayhurst, Anne Mathers, Allan LaChance, Margaret Isberg, Jeff Sutherland (who didn't lose everything with his week off), Leslie Morgan, Tracy Britnell, Greg Cavers, Kate Veer, Jennifer Callow, James Callow (two of the many Callows in the starting gate), Paul Atkinson, Devon Clarke and Doug Jarvis.  Overall champions were Paul Atkinson and Devon Clarke, with Leslie Morgan and Jeff Sutherland taking the senior titles.

Good to see Doreen back racing!

Among other highlights, Milan Popadich showed fine form in racing to the second fastest combined time in the very deep men's 55 to 59 group despite an absence from racing and training this year.  Rob Bruce had a stellar GS run to claim bronze and join the still prestigious "I beat Al once" club, while Rob Burnes and Trent Winstone went 1, 2 in the 50 to 54 group and joined the "I beat Jeff" club.

Trent Winstone, Rob Burnes and Craig Shibley on the 50 to 54 GS podium

It was fun to watch Paul Atkinson, Chris Barber and Devon Clarke skiing SL on the weekend.  Like jumping back and forth from trampoline to trampoline all the way down the hill.  But you have to make sure that your upper body is leading the way, not popping up.  Devon also participated in Sunday's closing adult gate training Dual SL and was looking like a winner as she vanquished all comers.  (Devon didn't let a seeding system that was less formal than March Madness put her off.)  Jeff Sutherland was looking like the other finalist, putting his usual energy into many successful match-ups.  However, Jeff had handicapped himself by skiing on his GS skis and is never one to pace himself through the many opportunities to run the course.  In the semis against the sneaky fast descendant of L. Patten (aka Jerry Maguire), Jeff took the first round, but may have forgotten the maxim about keeping the upper body ahead of the momentum and as he approached the finish line in what appeared to be a winning second run, he blasted off like a Saturn rocket and returned to earth on his back without the benefit of parachute deployment, leaving Jerry to proceed to the final at his leisure.  Jerry then played the pity card in his first run against Devon, convincing Jacques that a giving him a two gate head start in the second run would make for a closer finish.  As it turned out, Devon was a bit slow out of the start on the second run, giving Jerry almost three gates, and Jerry hung on to claim the title.

Chris Barber and Paul Atkinson in their winning SL suits.

Sponsors

We are very fortunate to have a great group of sponsors for GDHL and I have been tardy in recognizing them this year.  Their contributions ensure that we have a financial cushion with which to operate, and enable us to often be in a position to make a contribution on behalf of the GDHL to the Club's capital investments in racing.  Their logos and links to their websites adorn our newsletter and website and we hope you'll reciprocate the support that they've shown us.

Budget Propane is a family business operating from Gravenhurst, Muskoka, Haliburton and elsewhere in central Ontario.  The patriarch has asked that he not be identified in this forum, but he and his family and embraced and supported ski racing at Craigleith in an epic way, and I trust that those of you who know him with thank him in person.

Pratte International is headed by Michel Pratte, a past national team racer and coach, who has developed an outstanding approach to running race camps over many years.  Many GDHL racers have benefited from Michel's camps in Zermatt, Whistler, Copper Mountain, Sun Peaks and elsewhere.  He has a large team of coaches to call on, including our own Jacques Reid.  The camps are not only great training, but great fun, and well worth a visit.

Squire John's has been a long-time supporter of GDHL and many other things at Craigleith.  They are the "go to" source of race and other ski equipment for many of us, and equally adept at outfitting you for summer cycling at the main shop on Highway 26.  Drop in to see Shane and company and check out the vast array of great stuff they stock!

Side Launch Brewery is a new sponsor of both GDHL and Interclub this year, and is making a big impression as a relative newcomer in the craft brewery space.  Their Collingwood brewery offers Wheat, Pale Ale and Dark Lager.  In addition, those of you who attended the closing GDHL dinner had an opportunity to sample the latest addition to their lineup, a clementine flavoured version of their Pale Ale.  Very nice, but be sure not to confuse it with the Stiegl Radler that some of us are drinking as a convenient way to get a couple of servings of fruit juice.  They come in similar big cans, but Side Launch's version is over 6% alcohol, rather than 2.5%.

Craigleith member Ron Warren is another long time supporter of the Club through his ski distribution enterprise, which features Lange, Dynastar and other top brands.  Lange race boots are ubiquitous, and justifiably so, and the Dynastar master's GS ski, among other Dynastar race skis, remains at the top of every GDHL racer's wish list.

Last but not least, Royal LePage Locations North is a big part of the local real estate scene and a big part of Craigleith.  Led by Craigleith member Desmond von Teichman, the team has ski country covered from offices in Collingwood, Thornbury and Meaford and looks forward to meeting your real estate needs with personal, professional and progressive real estate services.

Diversions

Some of you may have noted Marcel Hirscher winning a World Cup GS at Garmisch in early March by 3.28 seconds, a margin not seen since the days of Ingemar Stenmark.  See here for details and video. Not as elegant to watch as Ted Ligety, but he's trimming the line in a way that was perhaps predicted by Bode Miller when he commented on Ted's dominance at the time of the Sochi Olympics.  Notably, the day before in the shortened Garmisch downhill, if you were a second out you were in 34th place and DFL (49th) was but 1.71 seconds out.

See below for a neat video of Marcel skiing SL in a special setting, with special effects.

The Story of Sally

In writing these missives, I've tried to avoid things that might be characterized as self-aggrandizement.  This hasn't actually been too challenging, as my results have not often offered up much to aggrandize.  So I hope you will forgive this bit being a lot about me, despite the title.  

When I've struggled with my skiing over the years, as improvement hasn't come as quickly as I might hope, I've often attributed it to not having started skiing as a child.  I don't blame my parents for this.  They were born in Scotland and Santa Barbara, not exactly hotbeds of skiing, and church on Sundays was a professional obligation for the Reverend Principal Dr. Donald Mathers.  But recent developments suggest that my gene pool might have included an inferior posterior.  

While attending a Pratte camp in Sun Peaks a year ago November, I suffered a recurrence of the jammed sacroiliac that I've had from time to time in the past.  On going off to see my usual medic, I was passed along to her mat leave substitute.  She didn't actually fix the problem very quickly, but observed that the problem could be due to my gluteal muscles not working properly and failing to provide the desired support for the spine.  This is apparently pretty common.  My fitness guru referred to it as "gluteal amnesia."  Fortunately it wasn't the dreaded buttocks dementia.  

But there was treatment to be had.  I was introduced to Sally Belanger.  (I have come to refer to her as Sally the Ass Teacher, which is a disrespectful way to talk about an accomplished and attractive person, but I think it's kind of catchy.)  You can read her website for the full story of what she does, but in short she taught me to turn down my hip flexors and turn up my glutes for stabilization and other purposes.  This was about a year ago, but the big dividend came when ski season started.  I had asked her whether this training might help to keep me out of the back seat when skiing, by helping me to push / keep my hips forward.  Her cautious optimism proved to be well founded.  No longer did I have to explain to Jacques and Carrie that I wasn't deliberately turning late and skiing low.  

Not having to spend time retrieving oneself from the backseat opens up a whole new world of being able to start implementing all of the things one has been learning about for years and had only occasionally been able to experience.  My story would be even better with a few hundies at the right time, and inconsistency is still evident, but big points at Interclubs and two Club Championship medals are unprecedented in my little world.  Better still, I know that I can now go looking for speed that was previously way out of reach.

I'm not quite sure what the moral of this story is.  All the years of getting ski coaching look like they may finally pay off as I had always hoped, and I look forward to taking advantage of even more coaching, but I think the key to my little jump ahead was Sally's lessons.   So maybe the moral is that if you're frustrated at seemingly not being able to do something, you need to look for an explanation outside the box and then go to work on fixing the problem.

Sayonara

This will be the last "regular" newsletter for a while.  I am hoping to be able to announce an off-season GDHL event in the next little while, but need some committee blessing.  (If you see JF or Byron, tell them I'm looking for 'em.)  If you have suggestions for next season, send us an email. We are particularly keen to keep up the growth in participation by the younger generation and increase the number of female participants.  

Thanks for making it a great season!  Happy Easter, and happy end of season skiing.

Cheers,

James Mathers

Champions All Around

Lots of winners and potential winners to talk about.  Start with the Club championships on Saturday.  Anyone in GDHL is automatically signed up.  Bib pickup is in the South Lodge loft at 8:00.  One run of GS at 10:00 on Big John.  One run of SL at 1:00 on Comet.  Instant gratification with awards on the Base Lodge deck at approximately 3:00.   Last chance to salvage your season or confirm your cred!

Interclub Finals

Craigleith went into Saturday's interclub finals at home, but without Jeff Sutherland, Bebe Zoricic, Glenn Blaylock and Trent Winstone, all of whom were big scorers in last year's championship win, and Jesse Shepherd who was merely the fastest racer overall.  But the team's depth has been such this year that the team filled in, stepped up and won by 34 points, finishing as champions for the fourth straighth season.  In fact, the win was sufficiently decisive that, had the team's top four scorers on the day not shown, the four scores that were dropped under the rules would have been sufficient to keep the team in first place if they'd counted instead.  Results are here.  As in recent years, the team's victory was founded on big results in the heavily populated men's baby boomer age groups.  The return of Allan LaChance after last year's injury resulted in him being the day's high scorer, taking 28 points in winning the 60 to 64 age group, with James Mathers adding 26 for a third place finish.  Jeff Craig and Chris Fregren added 26 and 25 for second and third in the 55 to 59 group, Rob Burnes, Craig Shibley and Ian Latimer were second, third and fourth among the 50 to 54's and Greg Cavers (26 points) and Jerry Patten were first and third in the 45 to 49 group.

Margaret Isberg, Tiana Boyman, Kate Veer, Scott McLorie and Paul Atkinson (26 points) all won their age groups. Paul was also the fastest overall, winning a visit for 12 to the Side Launch Brewing Company.  One imagines Side Launch will offer a more sophisticated experience than the classic O'Keefe brewery tours that provided wheelbarrows for the convenience of visitors who were no longer OK.  George Hayhurst, Mary Riopelle, Daina Dunlop, Paul Woodhouse, Chris Clark, Steve Gailits, Chris Shipton and Pat Brown were the remaining team members.

Thanks to TSB for the following picture of the winners and some young admirers.  Someone from the Glen took some on my camera, but the poor quality suggests a lack of experience photographing winners :)

Four Time Champions!

Many were surprised to learn that Jeff Sutherland, who has a reputation of being willing to go to Calabogie to race in a rainstorm, was away for the weekend.  It was reported that he was visiting museums in New York, perhaps also getting a pedicure after a long season in ski boots.  Suggestions of trading him to Caledon for young talent and future considerations (like never having to drive to Caledon) were, however, quickly dismissed.

The Rest of the Schedule

With the Club championships on Saturday, the final sessions of the nine week program will be wrapped into one big package on Sunday at 9:30.  The day features paneled dual SL for both Saturday and Sunday gate training programs and Al's adult tech group.  Check the board at the National chair for the location.

Before that, Friday training will feature SL in the morning and GS in the afternoon.  Contact Laurel to sign up.

Your coaches look forward to seeing you one last week!

Jacques, Paul and Carrie

See you at the Club!

James Mathers

The End is Nigh!

Lots to talk about before the screen goes dark on racing in just a couple of weekends.  The first order of business is to get your tickets for the GDHL awards dinner right now!  It's this Saturday at 7:00 for 7:30 in the Base Lodge.  Get them before Thursday to be sure the train doesn't leave without you.  Online or at the front desk.  Once you've done that, here's what follows:

• Friday training will be GS at 9:30 and 1:00, subject to enough people signing up instead of going to Men's Day.  Contact Laurel.  
• While you're at it, sign up with Laurel for the Saturday afternoon technical freeskiing ("gateless training") session with Jacques Reid.
• Week 8 of the 9 week program brings GS gate training at 9:30 on each of Saturday and Sunday as well as adult technical training with Allan at the same time.  Check the board at the National chair for gate training locations, and meet Allan there for his sessions.
• The winner take all interclub final is at 1:30 Saturday on Big John.  Cheer on the team as they seek the championship for a fourth straight year in their only home race of the season.

Last Weekend's Racing

Results from Saturday's interclub GS race at Alpine are here.  Conflicts, injury and illness left the team a bit shorthanded, but they put together enough points to clinch the regular season title.  Allan LaChance was the winner in the day's biggest age group, scoring 28 points, while Jeff Sutherland won his age group, got 27 points and was third overall.  Margaret Isberg, Greg Cavers and Chris Shipton all won their age groups, while James Mathers, Jerry Patten, Chris Fregren, Mary Riopelle and George Hayhurst all scored 23 points or more.  Bring on the finals!

The Brads, Sproule and McMullen, get ready to nail the Millennium GS!

GDHL Saturday SL

As noted in the early edition this week, Alec Libert beat the field by almost four seconds.  Greg Cavers and Jeff Sutherland missed their first runs in the service of the interclub team, but finished second and fourth on the strength of "second" runs, while Phil Ruffolo was close behind Greg in third.  Alex Jansons continued his late season return to form with a fifth place, while Dave Raymond and Doug Macmillan tied for sixth and Morgan Rubes continued his run of solid finishes in eighth.  Samantha Higgins was a new face at the top of the women's standings, finishing 17th overall, followed by Brittany Stainer in 19th.  Among the big climbers of the day were usual suspect Brad McMullen (27th from 72nd ranking), Sarah Latimer (33rd from 63), Paul Henschel (34th from 97), Dean Beallor (40th from 85), Brad Sproule (50th from 89) and Tom Cronin (52nd from 92nd).  Gino Gentile, Mansell Nelson, Gord Stein and Brian Athey were hard on their heels with similar sized leaps.

GDHL Sunday GS

It was back to the Millennium start hut on Sunday, but this time with the longer skis and the early left turn.  Alec was only 0.2 seconds ahead of second (Jesse Shepherd) in claiming the win he needed for a second consecutive overall season's championship.  Scott McLorie was third and Phil Ruffolo fourth.  Trent Winstone returned to racing after a nagging injury (that's to say persistent and irritating but not serious, rather than resulting from nagging) and recorded a fine 7th place to match his best GDHL finish in recent years.  Nonetheless, it looks as if the Trent v. Randy trophy will go to Craig Shibley this year, as the two title protagonists have had disappointing seasons.  Jeff Craig had his first GDHL top 10 in 9th place while Jayne Clarke finished 11th overall and first female, to take the women's overall title for 2015.  Kevin Gust, Bryce Conacher and Chris Fregren were big climbers into the top 20.  Brad McMullen (again), Rob Cassels and Rob Bruce were gainers in the next 20 and most of the others mentioned as big climbers on Saturday repeated on Sunday.  

Surfing Opportunities

Sunday also brought out photographers.  Here are samples of Debbie Gust's pics.

Carrie Forerunning in Her FIS-Approved Fur Collared Jacket

Jayne Watched the Forerunners and Got the Line Too!

But the Last Shall Be First (Alec Libert)

A giant box of Debbie's pics from three races can be found here.  And we have a collection of shots from Sunday's race taken by Al Stelnick, that can be found here.

All in all, a lot to keep you occupied between now and Sunday evening.  See you at the Saturday celebration dinner!

James Mathers

Dinners and Winners

Results are now posted on the GDHL site here.  A bit more detail below and much more later in the week.  But key for now is GET YOUR DINNER TICKETS PRONTO!   We need to let the caterer know how many people are coming.  After Thursday you may lose out!  And it's a great evening at a great price:

• Saturday, 28 February (THIS WEEKEND!) at 7:00 pm for drinks and 7:30 for dinner, in the Base Lodge.
• Tickets available online or at the front desk now.
• $45 per person, except $30 per for GDHL racers under 30 and their guests.  HST is extra.
• Coyotes and other non-racers are most welcome!
• Bring your own wine if you pay a $10 corkage fee.  
• Racers who have returned their bibs will get a Squire John's gift card.  This doesn't mean you have the option to keep your bib.  You will get billed some punitive sum if you don't bring it back.  Kylie and Steve will accept returns in the race office.  Consider whether a rinse or a shot of Fabreze is in order.
• Tasteful live background music during the evening.
• Concise but witty remarks from our leaders and awards presenters.
• Complimentary taxi and shuttle service after the event to help you get home safely.

As our treasurer pointed out, if you're 25 or so, you can get a ticket for $30 that comes with a $25 gift card if you've brought your bib back, so that's $5 net.  And as some cynic pointed out, your parents may not notice the bottle missing from the wine cellar or the corkage charge on their Club account, so what could be better than celebrating on Saturday?

Final GDHL Races

The GDHL season ended with a double header bang on the Millennium chair.  Alec Libert sealed the deal in the absence of Chris Barber by recording the needed back to back wins.  He won Saturday's SL by almost four seconds, more than the margin between second and fourteenth places, but won Sunday's GS by only 0.2 seconds.  The result was a one point margin of victory over Chris, four firsts against three firsts and a second.  Meanwhile Jayne Clark went head to head with Brittany Stainer in the women's division.  Jayne's 30th place on Saturday didn't help much, especially compared to Brittany's 19th (after a first run DNF), but Jayne came back with an 11th place on Sunday to take the overall win.

Meanwhile, some racers were able to take advantage of the time in a child's life when watching Dad hurtle down the hill is sufficient entertainment for a Sunday afternoon.

Scott McLorie and family after a big 3rd place on Sunday.  Gord would be pleased!

More later in the week.  Get those ticket orders in!

James Mathers