It looks like a bomb went off in my garage: slalom skis over there, GS skis over here, a stack of various ski poles in the corner, some broken, some usable but all battle-scared from contact with gates.
Speaking of gates, there is a stack of broken ones somewhere around here, too. Ski boots still on dryers, a tuning kit that needs a serious organization session and a ski tuning bench covered in drops of melted wax, filings and scrapings鈥攁re those my socks or Saje鈥檚?
If you are a skier, your garage must look similar. Maybe you even have my other sock.
But what a season we had.
Like any sport there are highs and lows, and as athletes get older and more competitive those highs and lows somehow seem to be more intense. Alpine ski racing at its root is perhaps one of the most unforgiving individual sports, where often hundredths of seconds split the top five athletes and tenths of seconds split the top 10.
For some frame of reference: I was recently told that the blink of an eye is 0.003 of a second.
This season saw our older athletes, U14 and U16 age groups, travel a fair bit, both for training and races, and I鈥檓 sure I鈥檓 not alone in realizing I basically had a bag packed from November to April.
A great group of parents prepared home-cooked meals and I never grew tired of the soothing sounds of U14 Coach Marek Revai鈥檚 snoring on the long drives to and from events. We all traveled safe and managed to keep between the ditches.
Some of our U16 group qualified for Can-Am races held at Apex and of note was Jackie Proc鈥檚 ninth place Giant Slalom finish against some of North America鈥檚 finest. Sam Wall of Jasper (although now racing for Banff Alpine Racers) also had a ninth place in the Slalom.
Walter Ostrander from our U14 group had a few top 10 finishes this year and many of our U12 and U10 kids did, as well.
There were a lot of highs: going 鈥渟hack wacky鈥� due to extreme cold and windchill at Castle Mountain; watching the Alberta Winter Games or having a great time at the Bozo and Kinder Cups; rubbing elbows with Cary Mullen, Thomas Grandi, 1994 Olympic Bronze medalist Edi Podivinsky, several members of the Canadian Ski Cross Team and the always lighthearted and friendly Panda himself, 2014 Olympic Bronze medalist Jan Hudec.
The lows seemed short lived in relation, but then I鈥檓 not throwing myself down icy slopes in nothing more than a plastic hat and a speed suit, nor am I recovering from reconstructive knee surgery like our own Kala Schleppe from Edson鈥攇et well soon, Kala!
It wasn鈥檛 that long ago that our club was鈥攕hall we say鈥攍ess then competitive against the rest of the province, but over the past 4鈥�5 years we have seen great improvement across all age groups, all the while keeping this sport as affordable as possible for as many families as we can. Accomplishing that makes it a bit of a tight rope walk for our executive, to say the least.
The Jasper Ski Team held its annual year-end ski day and dinner on April 27. Kids enjoyed a radar gun speed trap on the hill, hosted by Jasper鈥檚 finest (RCMP). Walter Ostrander reached the fastest speed of 97 km/h. Even some of our younger U12 and U10 athletes clocked in at around 70鈥�80 km/h. Not to worry, each athlete was issued a speeding violation at the dinner.
Following this a fun dual slalom was held so kids could race each other, their parents or coaches. The warm sunny day sure capped the season off.
An excellent dinner, awards and our annual slideshow were held at the Sawridge Inn and Conference Centre later that evening with over 120 people in attendance.
A heartfelt thanks to all of our coaches, parent volunteers, supportive local businesses and hardworking executive for another action packed winter.
At the end of it all, it鈥檚 about having fun, doing your best and achieving your goals鈥攌ind of like life.
Now, back to the garage. See you next winter.
Alex Rayner
Special to the 51暗网
