Rankings

What do the national rankings mean? This is something I've been thinking about the last few days. The regional/series rankings make sense - for each age group it ranks the snowboarders based on how they do against the others in their series. Each series holds 3-5 races for each discipline and they earn points based on how they finish. The riders are then ranked based on their points. This makes sense, they race against each other then are ranked.

What doesn't make as much sense, or at least doesn't provide much useful information, is the national rankings. Based on the points earned at each race, the riders are ranked nationally. The problem is that you don't know how good the other riders really are (or aren't) since you're not riding against them, it's strictly based on the points earned. What that means is that if you're the only one in a race, you earn 1010 points (1000 for first plus 10 for each racer, so if there were three racers first place would earn 1030 points). Surprisingly, at least in Whitney's age group, there wasn't a bunch up towards the top. There were several girls who were the only ones in their series, the only series that had more than one girl racing was the Western New York series, the Great Lakes series and maybe one out west. I'm a bit surprised that there weren't a bunch of girls with 3030 points, Whitney was only tied with one other girl at the last rankings.

So, while on the one hand I was super excited that Whitney was ranked 1st for a week earlier in the season and finished tied for 3rd, what does that really mean? There's no way to really compare her to the other racers until they get to Nationals. The other downside is that not all the racers go to Nationals. Whitney will be the top ranked girl in her age group there and to fill out the numbers, they eventually ended up inviting all the girls and only 12 accepted.

We do have a pretty good idea of how good she is though. At several of her races this year she  had the opportunity to race against guys who were in her age group or older. She was able to either beat them or keep pace with them. These were guys who were competitive, not slackers, so for her to keep up with them was really good; she can also keep up with her coaches. She's a strong rider and should do really well at Nationals, no matter her ranking.

Nearing the End of Another Season

The end of the season is getting closer and closer. We were down at the mountain on Wednesday and it was definitely spring skiing. If you can ski in Virginia, you can ski pretty much anywhere. We had decent man-made snow conditions for a lot of the winter, but we also had some awesome powder, not so awesome ice, and then the spring slush. I think we'll only make it down there once more, over the weekend. The resort is planning on Sunday being the last day of the season so this week/weekend will be it. Whitney and I had talked about going up to NH again so she could get in some more time on the slopes before Nationals, but neither of us was looking forward to the 9-hour trip. She'll just make do with what's here in Virginia while it lasts and also spend some time focused on school.

We're looking forward to our trip to Colorado in a couple of weeks. As of now, Whitney is the top ranked girl in her age group going and there's only 12 registered. There's still some invites out so we're not sure of the final numbers yet. It looks like she could reach her goal of making the podium this year. And she'll have a couple of the crazy boys from the Massanutten team to hang out with, cheer on, and board with while we're out there.

Although this season isn't quite finished yet, she's already looking towards next year. She's decided to go to college at the University of Maine at Farmington and has been talking with the ski and snowboard team coach there. When we were up for a visit, she had a chance to talk with a couple of guys on the ski team; they could tell her general details about conditioning, practices, and things like that but not much about snowboarding. She emailed the coach and has also been in contact with another snowboarder who is already there and is looking to build the snowboard team. I think this will be a good fit for her, she's already had experience building a team up and is excited about going there. The team competes in both USASA and the USCSA so she'll be able to keep working towards her snowboarding goals.

I can't wait to see how things go at Nationals this year and where she goes with snowboarding next season.

Nationals

USASA Nationals are getting closer! The invites have started going out and Whitney got hers on Thursday. She's registered, ready to go. I booked our rooms a month ago to make sure that we could get something in Center Village at Copper, near the action (and the lifts). The flights were taken care of this morning, now I just need to book the shuttle from the airport to Copper and I think we're set.

For a while Whitney was ranked 1st in her age group but currently she's tied for 3rd. A pretty good accomplishment for a girl from a small mountain in Virginia. I'm not sure that really matters though. She's had some awesome coaches this year, done really well in her races, gotten stronger and faster, races smarter, and expects to do well at Nationals.

She was talking with Chad last week and he encouraged her to move to the Open Class next year. She had been thinking about her plan moving forward and was planning to do her age group for another year then move to the Open Class. After this weekend I think she'll be moving to Open Class next year. We looked a bit at the Maine Mountain Series, which is where she'll be competing next year while she's in college and they have no one in the 18-22 age group, but four or five girls in the Open Class. She was also talking with one of the guys who competes in the Appalachian Series in the men's Open Class and he also said she should move up next year, that she's definitely ready for it. Guess it's been a good year for her!

Holiday Valley

Although I was really trying to avoid the trek all the way up to Holiday Valley we went for two boardercross races yesterday. The main reason I didn't want to go there was that Whitney wanted to go to the last practice of the season at Massanutten and the team picnic on Saturday morning, then head to HV. That meant a very long day for us and also a long day yesterday to get home after the races. I was really trying to get her to go to Blue Mountain again for the bx races there on Sunday, but she won out and we went to Holiday Valley. It was actually a good decision even though it made for a very long weekend with lots of driving.

Massanutten had gotten about 8" of new snow on Thursday (which cancelled the last weeknight practice) so the snowboarding/skiing was great on Friday and Saturday morning. I really wish we could have stayed longer to ski on Saturday, but the drive was still ahead of us. We left the picnic, packed up our stuff at the house, then hit the road north. The good thing about Holiday Valley is that they have a tougher course than Blue Mountain and they also have a start gate like they use at Nationals (which one of the competitors broke!). Whitney said it was worth going, she had a good time. She had hoped to finally have competitors in her age group to race against and two had preregistered but they didn't show up. Initially she wasn't too thrilled to race them (they're ranked 1 and 5, she's tied for 3rd) but when they didn't show, she was disappointed. It would have been a good preview of Nationals. Even though she had no competition, she said she felt race 1 and 4 yesterday were her best of the season. It's good that she's peaking right before Nationals. Now if only the snow will stick around long enough for her to keep working out on it.

Last Practice

It's hard to believe how fast this season has gone! Tomorrow is the last practice with a picnic following after at the grill. It's been an amazing season, Whitney has gotten so much better; she's faster and stronger and much more confident. This weekend might be a good test of that. We're heading up to Holiday Valley, NY, for a boardercross race in the Western New York series. We looked at the rankings in her age group the other day and the top ranked girl and the fifth place girl are both in the Western NY series. Right now Whitney is tied in third so if they both come to the race it will be a good challenge for her and give her a preview of what she'll face at Nationals. She's looking forward to it though, finally a race with true competition.

Speaking of Nationals, the invitations have started going out and Whitney got hers yesterday. She accepted her invitation and is ready to go. I already made our room reservations but still need to book our flights. The best news about Nationals this year is not only is Chad going again to coach her but there will also be two other boys from the Massanutten team going as well. Actually, three boys will be going but one is a skier so he won't be there until after we leave (the free ski Nationals are the week after snowboarding). It will be great to have teammates out there.

Yesterday we had another good snowstorm, about 8". We couldn't get out to the slopes yesterday, it started snowing in the morning and continued all day. The storm started with sleet so there was a coating of ice underneath the snow. We went out this afternoon after Whitney finished school and the conditions were awesome. The sun was out, there was plenty of new snow, it was great. The only problem was that one of the lifts was broken and shut down so on the expert slopes there were plenty of people who perhaps shouldn't have been on those slopes and wouldn't have been normally. This is probably the last big snowstorm of the season. The weather is supposed to warm up a bit in the middle of the week but hopefully the snow will be around for several more weeks, at least until closer to when we head to Colorado.

Massanutten, Day 2

After a day of all day snow and a foot of new powder on Saturday, the day started off with a bit of fog on the top of the mountain then cleared up to be a sunny, beautiful day. The groomers worked hard on the course to have it in shape for day 2 of racing. It seemed like a very different course today because of the snow conditions. I helped again at registration and Bob was a gate judge again.

Whitney was the only one in her age group but she didn't get her chance to race with the boys. There was a girl in the open class so Whitney was paired up with her. It was nice to have someone to race against since on Saturday Whitney was the only one to race by herself. Racing against someone in the open class was good for her, gave her a chance to see a small piece of the competition if she moves up into the open class next year. Whitney beat her in three of the four races so that was good. She'll have to spend some time on the course at Nationals when the women's open class is racing to get a feel for what she wants to do next year. There's been some changes to the rules about open class and now she's not sure if she should move up or not.

All in all, it was great to have the races at Massanutten. We only heard good things about the time and effort they put into building the race course. There was nothing anyone could do about the snow (which was actually pretty awesome) or the power issues that cut Saturday's races short. Hopefully there will be more races at Massanutten in future years even if Whitney won't be competing there. Maybe if her college schedule works out right she'll be at home for Massanutten races, otherwise she'll be up in Maine racing.

We're moving into the in-between time now. We're in New Hampshire for our February vacation and there's only one week of practice left once we get home. After that we'll be at Massanutten as often as we can be and as long as it's open for more practice before we head to Nationals at the end of March. Then it will be time for rest and recovery before moving on to spring and summer pursuits.

The weekend we've been waiting for is here!

We're finally here, the weekend of the Massanutten bx races. We've been waiting for a long time for this and it's totally been worth it! According to Whitney the course is awesome. We got almost a foot of snow today which made things really interesting.

This morning I helped with registration, a small peek behind the scenes. Bob was a gate judge and had a good view of part of the course. For the second race I helped at the start. Ellen, the series director couldn't make it back up the mountain because of the snow, so I did her job.

As usual Whitney was the only girl in her age group but today she ended up racing by herself. There were four older guys who were grouped together but they said tomorrow they would put her in with them since they were only expecting three of them.

From talking to one of the other competitors, they really liked the course. They said it was the best one the Appalachian Series has had in years. I know since Whitney has been competing the courses have ranged from pretty bad to good, but this is one of the best she's been on except at Nationals.

As for that crazy snowfall. Wow! It started and just didn't stop. Early it was fun to ski in, but later it was almost too much for me. Our house lost power early in the morning but later in the day the resort was having problems. They finally shut down the chair lifts because of power surges; they didn't want to have anyone get stuck on the lifts. I'm not surprised, the wind was kicking up pretty good as well; it would not have been fun to either be stuck up there or have to use plan b to get down. Because the lifts shut down they only got through part of the second race. They are going to finish in the morning then move on to the next two races. Hopefully tomorrow will have better weather.