Racing Kids

[Erik Timmerman]

LOL that he made the flip after that. Were there only 30 starters?

Get that on video and you could make slalomtokyodrift - one of the highest aspirations for the kids in my daughters program.

 

[Erik Timmerman]

Racing on Main Street yesterday. This was moments before getting super late and throwing the run away.

 

[Erik Timmerman]

A couple more kids from yesterday.

 

[pj415]

Mine as well add my U12 daughter racing in the Tahoe League! First year of alpine race and she’s having a blast. So much so, her older sister wants to switch from freeski park to U14!

 

[razie]

Racing on Main Street yesterday. This was moments before getting super late and throwing the run away.
View attachment 92665

she's way late... and barely gripping... if it's the same turn as the others, she needs to remember or do inspection better - there was some terrain going into that turn, which she bounced off of... typical setter's trick.

good coaching though - "when the going gets tough, the tough get on the outside ski!!!" I love that!

 

[Brian Finch]

 

[KeystoneGulch]

We are a Texas family but my son loves to ski. After a little urging from a friend, signed him up to train and do a few entry level races this year. We hasn't gotten the same time on the snow as he'd get if we lived closer, but 15 days on snow, 7 training days and 1 race day (2 GS races in the same day) isn't too bad for a North Texas kid so far this season. Picture is from the 2nd GS race at Keystone a few weeks ago. He was supposed to race last weekend but we ended up staying home, so it looks like he'll race just 1 more time at Breck in March. The time and dedication moving to U16 next year may mean this is his first and only season of racing, but I'm glad to have been able to give him this experience.

 

[Erik Timmerman]

Daughter's friend grenading her knee. Sound off if you are squeamish.

 

[AlpsSkidad]

My U10 and U8 in Slalom action Tignes this week. Eventhough they had a good sized fields, in each age category they mixed the boys and girls, it was our first race where they weren’t separated. I’m super proud of my girls- they both took second place- both lost first to a boy. Was a long day though. Most of our races are two runs, so inspection was at 10, first run at 11, second run at 1:45 and we finally left the podium at 4:30.

 

[hbear]

Always be faster than the boys!

Words my daughter does her best to live by.

 

[QueueCT]

Wow, first run at 10am. What a luxury! Our first run last weekend was 8am, inspection at 7:15. Was final race of the qualifying series so after the ... extensive ... announcements of podium, season top 10, post-season qualifiers, etc, we were also done at 4:30. Ran 200+ kids through 2 runs of GS.

Congrats on the great showing and I hope they're having a ton of fun. Love that you can get such great photos on the course.

 

[AlpsSkidad]

A couple Slalom pics of my U10 daughter in Val D'Isere this week.

 

[Erik Timmerman]

Looks like she is getting good use from that chinguard!

No pics from my kid this week, but she's been killing it over at Whiteface, moving up 50-60 places each day in the GS. SG today.

 

[AlpsSkidad]

Looks like she is getting good use from that chinguard!

She is! She doesn't usually want to wear her shin guards though. She has some knee bruises that might change her mind soon. The chin guard is required though.

 

[AlpsSkidad]

Can't leave out my U8- slalom (TIgnes) and GS (Val D'Isere)

 

[QueueCT]

A disappointing post-season for my 1st year U14 daughter. Had a respectable 5th place in GS in the division championships, straddled during her first SL run, and skied out trying to send it running #60 in the second run knowing she needed a top 3 finish in the last run. Just missed out on Eastern Championships this year. Although upset and sad, she said it was because she wasn't good enough yet rather than the fact that she wasn't going to Easterns and she's already thinking about how to improve.

The good news is she held her own against the older girls with a tenth of a second each run making the difference between qualifying and not qualifying. Off to the consolation of Piche's ... at least she'll get to hang with her friends all weekend.

Wishing good luck to everyone's kids in the upcoming races.

 

[Pdub]

A disappointing post-season for my 1st year U14 daughter. Had a respectable 5th place in GS in the division championships, straddled during her first SL run, and skied out trying to send it running #60 in the second run knowing she needed a top 3 finish in the last run. Just missed out on Eastern Championships this year. Although upset and sad, she said it was because she wasn't good enough yet rather than the fact that she wasn't going to Easterns and she's already thinking about how to improve.

The good news is she held her own against the older girls with a tenth of a second each run making the difference between qualifying and not qualifying. Off to the consolation of Piche's ... at least she'll get to hang with her friends all weekend.

Wishing good luck to everyone's kids in the upcoming races.

Not so disappointing, you should be proud of her! Just missing Easterns as a 1st year U14 is pretty impressive. As a 7 year Tristate veteran parent I've rarely seen any first year 14s or 16s make Easterns. And there are a lot of strong skiers in the current U14 crop, so she must be pretty damn fast. Enjoy Piche, it's lots of fun.

 

[QueueCT]

Should make clear that she's the one who's disappointed ... I'm always proud of her and how she supports all of her teammates.

 

[QueueCT]

April is usually the fun time for kids ski racing. Hitting Sugar Slalom, taking the last few trips to the mountain for spring snow, scouting discounts on new in wrapper 2020 skis, planning fall camps. It's a bit of a challenge now and my daughters didn't get to stretch their spring snow legs when they typically make good end of year skill progress and get the skiing bug out of their system until the fall.

I found a good deal on 2020 GS skis and still debating on pulling the trigger ... will we be able to race this season? Can my daughters use the skis the following season? If not, can I get good resale at some point on unused 2020s? Yeah, but it's a good price and you should just do it. But what about cash flow?

We count ourselves lucky being healthy and employed, and ski racing is truly a luxury, yet the girls are still sad, as am I, about losing the post-season races and post-post-season ski adventures. What's everyone else planning for at this point?

 

[OnEdge]

Great topic. We're going through a similar process here - sheltering in place at the ski house for the last 8 weeks, but with no skiing.

Our older daughter is moving to the U12 age group next year, so there will be a push for SL and GS equipment (she's been on multi-event/kombi skis in prior years).

I've also been giving some thought to buying some close out equipment, but have previously relied on the shop at the mountain to outfit the kids pre-season in the fall (who do a great job and offer a discount).

How different are the junior offerings between the manufacturers in the 120 to 140 cm range in terms of flex? Kiddo is lanky and more finesse than power so I don't want to put her on a plank and impede her progress.

Also, how to folks deal with summer/fall growth spurts with a spring ski purchase?