Racing at Norfolk Snowsports Club

Catchup report number 2..... Swadlincote

Last weekend saw our skiers have a choice between the indoor ERSAs or the Midland and UNIQ club nationals at Swadlincote (or a weekend off!?!?). Swad always attracts a high quality field, so those hunting for good seed points found the right place.

Saturday was Midland CN and a nice challenging course. Speed at the top then a turny section over the sole roller required good set up out of the combination and correct body position (anyone in the backseat with ceramic on their skis soon went shooting out of the course).

The Bucklees had signed up very last minute, but thankfully arrived very early and set up the world's largest gazebo to house the Norfolk crew (plus Viking Maddie W). Wilson award went to the Cheongvees, though some Bucklees were still having breakfast at the Golden arches when we left it 🤔

For the minis we had Madeleine and Felix (it was skiing with Elliot or ballet with Charlotte for him, he made the sensible choice). Madeleine skied clean if a little safe into 6th place in a competitive field and Felix 12th but improving every run.

Only a handful of big gates skiers. A single female, but Betsy had the bit between her teeth back on her trusty 149 skis after a disappointing "home" weekend where longer skis hadn't quite worked. Aggressive if slightly messy skiing saw her into 3rd place overall in run 1 which she maintained at the end - despite being chased down the hill by a gate she demolished - to happily join two Putmans on the overall podium 👏

Zack skied clean lines into 6th place. Charlie skied out run 1 and inexplicably skied into the lift pillar at the bottom of the slope, clearly a bit of red mist clouded his vision. Isaac also joined in with the 28 males who skied out run 1 😵‍💫. No such problems for Elliot who put in a very nice run into 6th overall. Run 2 saw improvements for all the boys. Charlie completed. Isaac held nothing back and stormed into 2nd place overall with some very aggressive skiing. The 3rd run saw an agonising last gate straddle for Charlie and strong runs from Elliot and Isaac to lock out the top 2 U16 positions with Isaac falling just off the overall podium in 4th overall and Elliot 6th.

Midland CN
U12 girls
6th Madeleine
U12 boys
12th Felix
U14 girls
🥇 Betsy (🥉overall)
U14 boys
6th Zack
U16 boys
🥇Isaac (4th overall)
🥈Elliot (6th overall)

Sunday: rinse and repeat for the UNIQ CN. There were some familiar faces running the show..... Joel Marsh (mini coach extraordinaore at UNIQ) was the stubbies course setter and Ben Clubb was on MC duties for the day.

The Wilson award went to the Wilsons who had shot across country after racing Hemel ERSA on Saturday in a move that was becoming Henry Hale's signature.

Joel set a very fast, flowing course that the minis seemed to enjoy. Madeleine was still warming up to start with but reached her aggressive mode by run 3, skiing into 6th again but very close to the podium. Felix also got faster every run and was very happy with his time at the end. No problems with the superfluous banana gate for either mini.

The full gates had a diagonal verti that needed care both in and out before once again a turny, technical section over the. roller though not quite as tricky as Saturday's course (the course setter had been told to be nice). Betsy took the win in U14 and 6th overall.

Zack and Charlie were closely matched throughout, with Charlie just coming out ahead. Thomas had an incredibly scrappy run 1, which included nearly stopping, followed by a ski out run 2 which led to an early trip home. Isaac and Elliot were after the top guys again, both in the top 3 overall after run 1! They kind of stayed there, with Isaac joint 2nd overall, very pleased to share the podium step with Monty B and Elliot declared 3rd overall on a crowded podium - prizes were handed out by Billy Major at the end of the day!

UNIQ CN
U12 girls
6th Madeleine
U12 boys
15th Felix
U14 girls
🥇 Betsy (6th overall)
U14 boys
6th Zack
U16 boys
🥇Isaac(=🥈overall)
🥈Elliot(🥉overall)
U18 boys
7th Charlie

A strong weekend from Zack who improved on his seed points in both races 🤩, with Isaac, Elliot and Betsy all improving theirs marginally too.

Not many more reports to catch up on now........

It appears we are a little behind on race reports. It hit me while at Vikings ERSA there hasn't been a report from the Vikings CN a fortnight ago...... so......

Following on from the Norfolk CN, Vikings the next day was another hot one. The Wilson award was taken jointly by Thomas Wilson and his chauffeur Charlie (who recently passed his test), which allowed their parents to have lie ins.

After watching Luke do and amusing shuttle runs drill to set both stubbies and full gates we had a handful of minis racing. Harry was the only boy from Norfolk, but laid down the fastest run of the day on his first go (essential on hot days when the slope is drying out) to win U10 boys and be the fastest mini overall. There were plenty more girls and we had a podium lockout for U12s with Sia taking her maiden win at Club National level with some superb fast skiing after a DNS run 1. She was followed by Daisy, Elsie and Madeleine in a very close race. We also had 2 minis on the U10 podium with Clara 2nd followed by Isla in 3rd. Those girls made up 6 of the top 9 🤩

The full gates course had a very well set hairpin at the bottom where you could either ski "normal" or reverse if you were willing to dance quickly afterwards. Only a handful braved it run 1, but that increased once everyone saw it could be done. In the women's race we had 3 competitors with Jemima and Betsy sharing a DNF each run 1&2 but all 3 including Georgina made it to the end with 5th places in category for Georgina and Jemima with Betsy taking the category win.

The Men's race had quite a handy batch of Norfolk skiers. We unfortunately lost Thomas to illness before he could start run 1 🤒. Charlie has been determined to lose his "tidy" reputation and followed some DNFs at Norfolk CN with another one in run 1 on the turny section over the roller. Fortunately he tidied up his line for run 2 & to make the finish this time. Zack got caught out on the same section both runs 1 & 2 but provided excellent race support for Madeleine after he had taken his ski boots off. Henry skied aggressively into 2nd place U14. Lewy and Isaac had strong runs to make it on the U16 podium together. Sonny and Marley put down very similar strong times, matching each other's Run 2 DNFs but finishing the other runs only a tenth apart - 2nd and 3rd overall just behind the experienced Will Manns. Its great to see our Norfolk U18s challenging right at the top end of races now.

U10 boys
🥇Harry (fastest mini)
U10 girls
🥈Clara
🥉Isla
U12 girls
🥇Sia
🥈Daisy
🥉Elsie
5th Madeleine
U14 boys
🥈Henry
5th Ollie
14th Beau
U14 girls
🥇Betsy (8th overall)
U16 boys
🥇Isaac (6th overall)
🥉Lewy (9th overall)
6th Sam
8th Harrison
U16 girls
5th Georgina
U18 boys
🥇Marley (2nd overall 🥈)
🥈Sonny (3rd overall🥉)
6th Charlie
U18 girls
5th Jemima
Masters
4th Mark
6th Richard

Well done to all! I didn't get round to collecting podium pictures, so instead you get a photo of a very well parked pick-up.

This weekend saw the Cardiff & Dragons CN and Welsh GBR1 held at LLandudno (how close is Llandudno to Cardiff????)

The majority of the team who travelled excused themselves from school to make it in time for the Friday training session - always useful on an unfamiliar slope. Reports came back of bemusing course sets that the setter had to walk through to show the skiers a correct route through, but that will have been a helpful for Sunday's race...... There was a surprising winner for "first person to arrive at the training session", but that isn't an official award so they don't get credit for it 😉

Saturday's club national was jam packed with 180 entries. The scenery at Llandudno is spectacular, but the lift speed is not and anyone who was counting how many skiers the lift could push up the track per minute could work out that 180 skiers x 3 runs each was going to mean a LONG day (especially after starting with 90 minutes of open practice). Many skiers decided to walk rather than wait for the lift which helped proceedings a little. The course set was pretty generous with space on the steep starting gates followed by the only challenge of 2 hairpins in close succession over the ridge/uphill section and a simple corridor/verti to finish. Very attackable on a nice slick slope thanks to intermittent drizzle.

We had 3 mini girls with Daisy, Sia and Isla all skiing nice clean runs and getting faster each time as they got braver with how much they could push at the start heading down the steep section. In a close battle Daisy just pipped Sia as they finished 6th and 9th in a tight bunch of skiers. Isla had a little moment on run 1 where she seemed to change her mind about 3 times as to which way she would head round a control gate, but got it correct and made it down safely, finishing an impressive 3rd U10 on debut in Wales.

In the big gates we had Betsy and Georgina racing with adopted Hemel racer Sia S joining the Norfolk tent village around the Hale gazebo. Georgina continued her good form by just beating her list seed points as she fninshed 8th U16. Betsy lost her outside ski over the ridge in run 1, but improved in the following runs to win U14 and finish a respectable 7th overall, no obvious after-effects of an early start in the morning as her brother had to be dropped off at Manchester airport on the way to this race 😵‍💫.

There was decent bunch of boys skiing this weekend. Ollie G was first out of the gate - bib 68 (amongst the unseeded racer draw) in a huge field of racers. He impressively beat his bib by 20 places with aggressive skiing. Henry's first run had a questionable booting of a gate, he did the right thing and carried on skiing the course, and on video review saw he had indeed straddled and turned himself in to the officials 👏. No such problems with runs 2 & 3 with some excellent drive out of his skis into 3rd place U14.

Our older male skiers seemed determined to make life difficult for themselves. Lewy used his training skis for run 1 before skiing out run 2, while Thomas, Sonny and Charlie all got a decent run 1 and skied out run 2 trying to improve. Only Marley got both runs in, managing to improve his 2nd run to join Sonny in the "under 15 seconds" club. Sonny's run 2 looked incredibly fast before he got out of balance, surviving more gates than he should have but ultimately skiing out and (just) avoiding splatting himself over the slope. No wonder Lou can't watch him race!
Run 3 saw some different approaches.... Charlie skied safely, perhaps too safely, down while Lewy really went for it at the top, tripping himself round gate 2 and performing a sad somersault and breaking a pole. Despite grazing his arm badly he ignored the first aiders right next to him on the slope and skied straight down to Nina, who patched him up ready for the next day - no swimming in the sea for him! Thomas was a little rusty having only recently returned to training following a thumb break and run 3 was a little sketchy (though at least he didn't sit on his tails like run 1), while Marley and Sonny put in clean runs both finishing in the top 10 overall.

Saturday:

U10 girls
🥉Isla

U12 girls
6th Daisy
9th Sia

U14 girls
🥇Betsy (7th overall)

U14 boys
🥉Henry
8th Ollie

U16 girls
8th Georgina

U18 boys (not yet men)
🥉Sonny (6th overall)
4th Marley (9th overall)
5th Thomas

Saturday evening saw customary visit to the arcades on the pier for most of the skiers - a warning for future trips, do not stand anywhere near the air hockey table when our skiers play - the puck will often leave the table and occasionally hit you in the face if you aren't paying attention.

Sunday's GBR went back to the more exciting format of 2 courses, 1 run on each course for the big gate skiers. The minis were down to 1 as the Bridges were taking in a long birthday weekend full of activities for Isla. So Daisy had 5 people helping her course inspect 😂. Too many cooks did not spoil the broth with Daisy attacking the course (she got 2 goes on course 1) and getting nearly half a second quicker on run 2 despite apparently pushing her pole onto her ski halfway down.

Course 1 was surprisingly simple for a GBR race - the instruction was to ensure most skiers made it into run 2. In fact it was easier than the previous club national with a spacious corridor down the steep leading into a verti on the uphill section and then a long corridor along the flat bottom half with rhythm changes (including a diagonal hiarpin that just continued the corridor). Those hoping this would make for a fast time in run 1 had their hopes dashed by the Welsh sunshine drying out the slope, with a particularly sticky patch on the uphill section, just where you don't want it. All Norfolk skiers made it through cleanly to run 2, pick of the bunch being Sonny who blasted down into 2nd place overall!

Course 2 was much more interesting. A more swingy top section followed by a banana style entry/exit to a diagonal verti (which had been practiced at Wednesday training as its a firm favourite of setters at Llandudno) was followed by a very tight diagonal corridor into a reverse entry hairpin with delay gate on exit that demanded a shimmy rather than a big turn. Skiers needed to know what they were going to do and remember their plans as it was certainly not a "standard" course. Betsy hiked up and round 3 times at the tricky section to ensure she knew what was going on - excellent focus - and everyone went round more than once to inspect.

Georgina skied through correctly into 7th U16, then Betsy got backseat and late in the diagonal corridor and just made it through the tricky section to repeat Saturday's 1st u14 and 7th overall.

Ollie provided the entertainment (not just through his 3D printed toys). Many people will have seen the Carrick-Smith video over the Winter where Zak (?) ended up skiing backwards round a gate before continuing after a quick 180 to correct the direction - imagine that on dry slope! So not the fastest time for Ollie but an impressive bit of improvisation. Henry is making final run charges a bit of a trademark. He skied a brilliant line through the tricky section allowing him to drive through and move up to 2nd place U14. Lewy had a tough time today, bashing his already injured arm on a double gate in the verti with the pain stopping him from remembering to turn properly and getting another DNF - just one of those weekends for him! Charlie and Thomas made it through safely with varying degrees of lateness in the tight corridor and Marley put together a very clean run for 3rd U18 and 7th overall. With many of the skiers either going out of the course in the tight section or getting confused in the reverse hairpin section it was an impressive finish rate from the Norfolk skiers - lets put it down to excellent coaching. Last down the course for us was Sonny and though he pushed so hard at the top he nearly fell round the 3rd gate he kept it together and finished with speed through the tight section for an excellent 1st U18 and 3rd overall 🙌

The drama proved too much for Nic who needed a change of trousers after the race (it was just drink apparently), and the final drama came when Henry was at the top of the toboggan track as the podiums were being done. No problems though, he sped down (applauding the girls U14 podium as he went past) and sprinted back up the hill in time to make his spot.

Sunday GBR 1:

U12 girls
6th Daisy

U14 girls
🥇 Betsy (7th overall)

U14 boys
🥈 Henry
9th Ollie

U16 girls
7th Georgina

U18 boys
🥇Sonny (3rd overall)
🥉Marley (7th overall)
4th Thomas (9th overall)
9th Charlie

So next weekend people have the choice of Hill End for GBR 2&3 - whoever in GB thought 2 long weekend treks in succession around the country was a good idea?? Or a trip to Manchester for Ambition's indoor club nationals. Or.... a weekend off to start half-term! Skiers can tune up over half term at the Team Evolution camp held at Norfolk before the Norfolk/Vikings Club National at the end of half-term.

INDOOR GBRs 1 & 2

A small Norfolk contingent made their way up to Manchester to spend the first two days of the bank holiday weekend contesting the opening two indoor GBR races in the fridge. Saturday is the civilised early afternoon start, enough time to wake up at a sensible hour in Norfolk and still be at Chill Factore in good time for bib collection. Or go up the night before and have a relaxed morning at the Trafford centre 🤷, thrash around the crazy golf or take on the clip and climb - each to their own. If you want to make more of a weekend of it best check what the Hales have found to do.

On paper these indoor races don't look great value for money 2 runs down 2 different courses for the bigs and the same course for the minis. However the warm up slope is open throughout the race and some younger skiers get more than their moneys worth lapping round eternally - just give way to the racers getting to the top please or you'll be there all weekend. Our attendees have varying degrees of snow experience from 'quite a lot' to 'we mainly ski on dryslope' and we are always impressed by those who step outside their comfort zone to challenge themselves on indoor snow - whatever the result, they are improving as all round skiers 🙌 The photographic skills of their chaperones are a whole other story 🤦🏼‍♀️, the minute amount of photos compared with a dryslope race (sorry no long reel) hopefully says everyone was too busy enjoying the moment to capture it - which we say is no bad thing.

We had no ladies this time but to make up for it all our minis were girls 🙌 with Daisy stepping up into the competitive U12 category this year and Ida somehow still in stubbies. Debuting at U14 were last year's minis Henry H and Oliver. No points means you start at the back of the field in the ruts (and there were ruts for the later starters of the top 15) so hats off to these two for gritting in and completing both runs both days 🙌 Seasoned U14 Fred C knows you have to go for it to get the reward but that pushing it can mean DNFs which sadly was his fate both days this weekend. We had two U16 boys Alfie C and Elliot in the top 15 both pushing hard in a very competitive category, showing great skiing although Elliot was kind enough to keep Fred company, finding himself the wrong side of the penultimate gate on the Sunday race. Fine margins - but luckily there are team-mates to cheer on and a driving simulator to distract them

Saturday results
Ida 5th U12 Girl
Daisy 18th U12 Girl
Henry H 10th U14 Boy
Oliver 18th U14 Boy
Alfie C🥈 U16 Boy and 7th Overall
Elliot 4th U16 Boy and 10th Overall

Sunday Results
Ida 🥈 U12 Girl
Daisy 18th U12 Girl
Henry H 8th U14 Boy
Oliver 17th U14 Boy
Alfie C 🥈 U16 Boy and 6th Overall

Finally big shout out to adopted Maddie W who is Viking to the core but as a fellow ERSA member can often be found camping with Norfolk at the bigger races. She took the win both days in the U18 girls on what we believe is her first foray into the indoor GBRs.

So that's us up to date - next up one of the highlights of our season, the Norfolk ERSA this coming Sunday, hope to see you all there.

While the majority of the team was in Welwyn, there were also seeded races in Pembrey and Stoke (what a crazy calendar we have this year). A handful of Norfolkians decided to brave the longer journey to and steeper start ramp of Stoke in search of a lower race penalty.

On Saturday the course was open and attackable. Isaac and Elliot couldn't quite match the bigger boys (although they arent quite so small themselves these days) and had a very tight battle in the U16 category - both were tied 1st but only 0.14s ahead of 4th in a close race after run 2. Elliot delivered the goods on run 3 to take the U16 category win, with Isaac close behind in 2nd, both someway off the evergreen Will Manns who cruised to victory. In the Ladies race Betsy found herself in an unbelievable 2nd place overall after a very aggressive and well executed 2nd run. Unfortunately a slightly messy turn on the final run dropped her down to 4th overall, but 0.01s off the podium and 0.17s behind impressive winner Chloe Holland. She was consoled by an impressive seed point score of 17 (and the U14 win)👏

U14 girls
🥇 Betsy (4th overall)

U16 boys
🥇Elliot (7th overall)
🥈Isaac (10th overall)

Sunday saw a completely different course with a very tight middle section that caught out many skiers, and minimum drops in the final combinations and offsets that caught out plenty more. The Hales decided that driving up to Sunderland the previous weekend hadn't clocked them enough miles so decided to split their weekend between Welwyn and Stoke and joined us for the Sunday race (as well as heading to Manchester for some snowdome training after the race!!!)

Betsy was 4th overall after run 2, but DNF-ed on run 3 after losing balance in the tricky middle offsets.

Henry improved every run. He was 5th after run 2, and when asked what he was going to do differently on run 3 his response was simple: "send it, but don't ski out" - if only it was that easy for everyone! Henry did send it, and he didn't ski out, moving up to 2nd place U14. Meanwhile the U16 boys were cooking up something special - they shocked the field by producing only runs under 12 seconds to sit 1st and 2nd going into the final run. Being the last 2 down the course didnt phase them, with aggressive all-out skiing from both. Elliot put down a smashing 3rd run (fastest of the day) to take the lead and overall victory, just ahead of Isaac who finished 2nd overall. Seed points scores of 13 and 18 a reward for some ferocious skiing from the pair of them 👏

U14 boys
🥈 Henry

U16 boys
🥇Elliot🏆(1st overall)
🥈Isaac (2nd overall)

A strong showing from the small but mightly team - with everyone getting a podium. Next race report up soon.......