Whitetail BX

We're home from Whitetail and the BX weekend. We had fun, although it was a long, cold weekend! Sweet Pea and I drove up to Hagerstown Friday night, which was a good thing since they got 2" of snow then freezing drizzle. It was not much fun driving to Whitetail from there, it would have been so much worse (and stressful) trying to get there from home. She did great on Saturday (see yesterday's post for details). They changed the course overnight. The tight curve at the top that caused many crashes yesterday was smoothed out a bit but they added some jumps/bumps further down. I think both courses were a challenge for her, especially since she's never done this before.

Today there were three girls in her age group. The first run was not bad, although she fell. She had a pretty spectacular fall on the second run today and ended in third in both races. She received a second place medal yesterday, the pretty snowflake, and a third place medal today, the bronze circle.

It's back to practice this week. Now she knows what she needs to work on, landing jumps and speed among other things. Her coach has some video to watch so he can help her. I think she's decided to use this experience to build on, get in more training this year, and wait on more competitions for next winter.

Awesome job, Sweet Pea!!

Boarder cross at Whitetail

Today is what all this driving has been about. Sweet Pea competed in her first boarder cross competition this morning. She joined USASA and is a member of the Appalachian Series. This weekend is the only BX in the series. There's others in different series, but they're not really very close to us.

Today was a good experience. It was her first time racing and it sounds like she learned lots! She now knows the things she needs to work on - rollers, big jumps, the corners. I got some o.k. video of her so hopefully it'll help her coach see where she needs help.

There were two girls in her age group. Since Sweet Pea fell twice on the first run - once at the top on the curve and again going over the big jump and once on the second (big jump), she came in second both times. Since this is her first time doing this, good for her. Plus she got a really cool snowflake medal for second place. I'll post a picture tomorrow night when we get home. We're doing this all over again tomorrow, only this time Rosie Jane and Bob will be here to watch.

Injuries, Every Mom's Fear

As a mom, I worry about my girls. Every mom worries about their kids. Since my daughter has decided to take up a couple of sports that can cause serious injuries, I try really hard not to think about it too much.

She has had a love of horses since she was little, really little. Sweet Pea wanted to start riding lessons from the time she was 2 years old! We found a wonderful farm when she was 4 and she started taking lessons in the spring when she after she had turned 5. She was so little when she started! Her feet couldn't reach the stirrups unless they were super short; her feet didn't come below the saddle when she first started. Now she's on a much bigger horse, rides well and enjoys being a recreational rider. In the back of my mind I see Christopher Reeve, first as Superman, then riding, and later in a wheelchair from a serious riding accident.  I don't think of him often. Too scary to think about something like that happening to my daughter.

So as she got older we encouraged her and her sister to try snow sports. Although I grew up in Virginia, I learned to ski in high school at Massanutten (funny how things work out) and also at Ski Liberty in PA. When I got married to a man from New Hampshire who had never skied, I took him to the slopes. He's really enjoyed it as well so we encouraged the girls a few years ago to give skiing a try. Sweet Pea decided that she wanted to try snowboarding and Rosie Jane decided to give skiing a try.  They both like their chosen sports. One thing Bob and I have always required from them when biking, and now skiing/snowboarding, is they must wear a helmet. No ifs, ands, or buts about it, no helmet, no bike. To be on Massanutten's ski and snowboard teams, the athlete must wear a helmet, not optional there either. And again, as a mom, I see the famous people who have died or been seriously injured skiing, most not wearing a helmet.

This was brought to the fore again recently with a snowboarder and a freestyle skier in the news. Kevin Pearce was a competitive snowboarder with Olympic dreams when he hit his head on the lip of the half pipe just over a year ago and suffered severe brain injury. He is well into his recovery but won't be doing any more competitive snowboarding. He just recently was allowed to get back on the slopes. Two days ago Sarah Burke, a Canadian freestyle skier, was injured training for the X-Games and is in a medically induced coma. We are praying for her recovery.

These kinds of injuries, while rare, prey on a mom's heart, stuff I try really hard not to think about. When Sweet Pea was getting more serious about snowboarding and we started talking about it more, I told her that the half pipe was out. She actually has no interest in that or even in the trick parks at the ski areas. She's all about speed, so it's boarder cross for her.

Since we live in Virginia and this has been the winter without snow, the ski areas are covered in man-made snow. This is not the nice powdery stuff you sometimes find in New England and always have out West; this is, especially this winter, more icy bits. Fine for skiing, not so fine when you fall, your shirt comes untucked and you slide down the hillside. Sweet Pea now has a nice "snow burn" on her hip from when she fell Thursday night at practice. If this is the worst thing that happens to her, I'll be one happy mom.

Another day, more snowboarding

So it's another day and we're at Massanutten for practice again. We didn't come yesterday since it was raining. Not a fun day for snowboarding! Today it was about 65* when we left home but it is much cooler down here at the mountain. It's also overcast, a sign of the cold coming.

Pretty darn quiet here in the lodge tonight. I'm sure the weather has something to do with it. Rain all day yesterday and very warm today...not a good combination for keeping snow on the slopes.

So while I'm killing time here I was looking at Facebook and saw all sorts of reports of the snow they're getting in New Hampshire today. Sure wish we'd get more real snow. We had some nice snow the other day but it's gone now, been way too warm again. It's going to get really cold over the weekend so they'll be able to make more snow and cover the grass. Again. Hopefully sometime soon it'll get cold and stay cold.

Coming up is Sweet Pea's first opportunity to give boarder cross a try. This is what all this driving and the practices are for. There's a competition at Whitetail Mountain in Pennsylvania in two weeks. She's going to enter and we'll see how she does. No big expectations for this year; it's more for the experience of it.  That's the only boarder cross competition that's close to us this year. Maybe next year, after she's had a year of the team and teaching under her belt and the Whitetail competition, we'll venture further out and head to the Poconos for a couple of the boarder cross comps there.  Or maybe we'll time our NH trip to coincide with a competition up there.  We'll see.

At the lodge

Here I am, hanging out at the lodge again tonight. Both girls came down yesterday - Sweet Pea had practice and Rosie Jane came down to ski and test out her new ski pants. It was one of the coldest days we've had this winter and very windy as well. They were bundled up enough that they were fine but they were still happy to stop at Panera for hot chocolate. Tonight, it's just Sweet Pea for practice.

It sounds like she had a good time last night, although I didn't hear much about what they did. More slopes are open now, so they can do more. She said that she got to ride the lifts up once with both coaches and they got talking about boarder cross competitions. One of the coaches is going to send out a list of local ones, but the only close one I've found is at Whitetail. There's a couple that are a bit further away but we may save those until next year. Or maybe we'll see how the one at Whitetail goes and make our decision then.

Twenty more minutes then we can hit the long road home.

Baby, it's cold outside!!

We've finally got the cold!  Sweet Pea had her second practice on Saturday, New Year's Eve. It was a shortened practice since it was still warm and they only had a couple of slopes open.  From what I heard it went well, she learned some new stuff, was teased by the boys (she's one of two girls on the team), and had a good time.  She boarded for about an hour after practice then decided that the slopes were just too sloppy.

Since then, it's gotten COLD. They've been blowing snow since Sunday night and plan to continue at least through Thursday. After that the weather is going to warm up a bit again. They should have quite the base by now and will have more slopes open by tomorrow. Unfortunately, the next practice is tomorrow night. It's supposed to be about 25* with some nasty wind chills. Glad I'll be waiting in the lodge!  So practice tomorrow night, again Thursday night, then Saturday morning.  That one should be much better, it'll be cold in the morning but I think all of them are going to head down.  Bob has to work at the grill and Rosie Jane is going to ski. It's supposed to be nicer later in the afternoon so they should have a good day.