Today was a pretty day, but colder than yesterday. Yesterday there were pretty flurries falling almost all day; snow that didn't really amount to anything. Today was bright and sunny; not quite bluebird skies but close. Problem was that it was colder and windy. Not much fun when you have to stand on the side of a mountain to watch racing.
Sunday
Today there were fewer racers than Saturday, not by a lot but enough to change brackets around. One reason for fewer racers was that a few athletes were headed to Colorado for a Hole Shot race. Whitney wanted to go but she has to be in NH for a race on Saturday and with travel from Colorado she wouldn't get back in time to get to NH. The other reason was the injuries on Saturday which took out two skiers along with a snowboarder on Friday.
They ended up putting Whitney with the other Open Class rider, a guy, and with a Jams woman, so it was a good race. The guy was bigger and heavier so he got out first and was ahead. Whitney said she had a poor start and was behind both the other riders, almost caught the Jams woman but didn't quite have enough real estate. In any case she got another first since she was the only one in Open Class.
Today was also Senior Recognition Day, which was nice. I'm glad I could be there for her (even if it was kind of lame just because of the venue/race). She's been named female Student-Athlete of the week twice this semester which is very cool. Getting close to the end of the season and her collegiate racing but there's still a month to go and lots of racing between now and April.
Sunday, February 17, 2019
Saturday, February 16, 2019
Sunday River BX
This weekend is the Sunday River BX, otherwise known as the Rumble at the River. I realized today that I don't usually come up for the race but it never crossed my mind not to this year. I guess because it's Whitney's senior year and I want to get to as many races as I can (that make sense to get to).
I drove up to Maine on Thursday. The drive wasn't too bad, not too much traffic, and it took just about 12 hours on the dot. Friday was practice day so while it was an early morning to get to the mountain it wasn't too bad. We had time to swing by Java Joe's for coffee since neither Whitney nor her roommate drink coffee. She had a good practice, I hung out in the lodge and watched it snow. I was quite surprised when I went outside and we had gotten about 6" during the day. Whitney had a good practice day and got some help from a Gould coach she knows. She was feeling pretty confident when we left.
Saturday
We got to the mountain this morning and found out that the series directors' son, who was in a crash yesterday had a broken leg and was having surgery this morning. Thankfully we found out at awards his surgery went well and they're on their way home. Fortunately they have co-directors and the day went on mostly as scheduled. They had the usual course inspection, practice runs, riders meeting, time trials, then got on with racing. Whitney did really well in time trials and was over five seconds faster than the other open class rider.
When it came time to racing, Whitney did well and stayed on her feet. There was a moment of fear, she said, when she was airborne and her board was perpendicular to the slope and not heading down it. She managed to get things under control before she landed and was on her way. She finished in first, far enough ahead of the other rider to make her happy.
We hung out on the slope to watch a friend of hers from Massanutten race; he was up here for a bx camp at Gould. There was a bit of a tussle and riders were tumbling in front of us during the heat that had the open class men/jams men/jams women riders. On a not good note, a freeskier was hurt in the same area that the series directors' son was hurt yesterday. The skier goes to UMF but isn't on the freeski team this season so Whitney knows him. He was also taken down by ski patrol and straight to the hospital. From what we heard he's likely got a concussion, something wrong with his wrist and his hip. Hopefully he'll be ok, but I think it's likely a bad concussion. When he was asked if he had anyone there with him he said no, but thankfully the UMF coach was there and said his dad was there.
Tomorrow is another race day, hopefully one where no riders get hurt.
I drove up to Maine on Thursday. The drive wasn't too bad, not too much traffic, and it took just about 12 hours on the dot. Friday was practice day so while it was an early morning to get to the mountain it wasn't too bad. We had time to swing by Java Joe's for coffee since neither Whitney nor her roommate drink coffee. She had a good practice, I hung out in the lodge and watched it snow. I was quite surprised when I went outside and we had gotten about 6" during the day. Whitney had a good practice day and got some help from a Gould coach she knows. She was feeling pretty confident when we left.
Saturday
We got to the mountain this morning and found out that the series directors' son, who was in a crash yesterday had a broken leg and was having surgery this morning. Thankfully we found out at awards his surgery went well and they're on their way home. Fortunately they have co-directors and the day went on mostly as scheduled. They had the usual course inspection, practice runs, riders meeting, time trials, then got on with racing. Whitney did really well in time trials and was over five seconds faster than the other open class rider.
When it came time to racing, Whitney did well and stayed on her feet. There was a moment of fear, she said, when she was airborne and her board was perpendicular to the slope and not heading down it. She managed to get things under control before she landed and was on her way. She finished in first, far enough ahead of the other rider to make her happy.
We hung out on the slope to watch a friend of hers from Massanutten race; he was up here for a bx camp at Gould. There was a bit of a tussle and riders were tumbling in front of us during the heat that had the open class men/jams men/jams women riders. On a not good note, a freeskier was hurt in the same area that the series directors' son was hurt yesterday. The skier goes to UMF but isn't on the freeski team this season so Whitney knows him. He was also taken down by ski patrol and straight to the hospital. From what we heard he's likely got a concussion, something wrong with his wrist and his hip. Hopefully he'll be ok, but I think it's likely a bad concussion. When he was asked if he had anyone there with him he said no, but thankfully the UMF coach was there and said his dad was there.
Tomorrow is another race day, hopefully one where no riders get hurt.
Sugarloaf GS
Last weekend was the first GS race Whitney had the chance to go to since the ones at Massanutten were rescheduled (due to not enough snow), then the ones in New Hampshire were rescheduled (due to a winter storm coming in). She was up and to the mountain early as per usual on race day only to sit and wait. In general there's a lot of hurry up and wait in snowboard racing but this was worse. It was a windy morning at Sugarloaf, the chair lifts weren't running, and the USASA organizers were in a meeting with the mountain operations people. They were hoping to wait it out and see if the winds would die down but they shortly decided to postpone the race until Sunday. The mountain closed for the day it was so windy.
Back again on Sunday and this time things were a go. While GS isn't Whitney's specialty she does really well at it. There were two open class women and Whitney came in first both races they ran. She was happy to get the race under her belt since she has USCSA Regionals Feb. 23/24 and has to race GS and SL there. She's not sure what kind of competition, if any there will be but she wanted to get at least one GS race in before Regionals.
Off to the next race!
Back again on Sunday and this time things were a go. While GS isn't Whitney's specialty she does really well at it. There were two open class women and Whitney came in first both races they ran. She was happy to get the race under her belt since she has USCSA Regionals Feb. 23/24 and has to race GS and SL there. She's not sure what kind of competition, if any there will be but she wanted to get at least one GS race in before Regionals.
Off to the next race!
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