Racing
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FAQ: What is the Racing Team All About?
The WSSOC Racing Team is one of the top teams in the
Crescent Ski Council. We won the Crescent Cup in 2008 and placed first or second in regular season team points the last three
years. We accomplished this through dedicated participation by racers having a wide range of racing ability and because every
racer's results count within their flight (see below for more). You can race, too! It's fun, it's a challenge,
it's a great way to improve your skiing and you'll enjoy competing with racers matched to your skill level. Each season
starts in early December, so now is the time to consider racing.
NO AGE RESTRICTIONS. FEW ABILITY RESTRICTIONS.
The WSSOC Racing Team is open to members of all ages and every ability level. As a practical matter, racing experience shows
age 4 to be the minimum, with the dedicated involvement of a parent. Beginners may join the team and take as long as necessary
to get qualified (see below). We welcome snowboarders, too! You will race on the same course as everyone else and your Crescent
racing handicap will be determined just like everyone else's: it's how fast you get to the finish line.
GET
QUALIFIED. In order to race in the regular races, and for your points to count, you need to establish a qualifying
Crescent handicap. Your handicap determines which Division and Flight you will race in. It's based solely on your performance
on the race course without regard to age or gender. Your handicap is adjusted after each time you race. Depending on how you
do, you might move up or down in the flights for the next race. Racers who do not attain the threshold qualifying handicap
(most racers above beginner level can beat the threshold) may continue to try as long as it takes by racing in the qualifying
Flight 21 or 22 of each regular race. Opportunities to get qualified include the Development Races, held at Appalachian
Mountain in early December, the Crescent Steamboat Race & Ski Camp held the second full week in December, and NASTAR races
at other ski areas.
THE DIVISIONS AND FLIGHTS. The fastest racers race in Division I, Flight 1. Racers
who meet the minimum Crescent handicap race in Division II, Flight 20. Divisions I and II are divided into a total of 20 flights,
usually with 8 to 12 racers per flight. The Division I course is usually more difficult on the slalom day (Saturday) and is
usually longer, and sometimes steeper, on giant slalom day (Sunday). A NASTAR course that you might have seen, or raced on,
at many ski resorts would be about like the typical Division II course. Everyone gets two runs.
SCORING.
10 POINTS IN FLIGHT 1 = 10 POINTS IN FLIGHT 20. That's right! Everyone helps the team. Each flight scores its
own points, 10 for first place, through 1 for 10th place and all points are added to determine the team total. There are a
few technicalities, but generally a point scored is a point counted. Individuals can also go for the season Points Championship.
in which the men's and women's points leader each win a trip to Steamboat, CO. There are prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd
place in each flight and trophies for the regular season and Crescent Cup. All participants in a particular race, including
those in the qualifying Flight 21 and 22, are eligible for valuable door prizes.
JOIN THE TEAM.
See Ken or Kyle at any W-SSOC club meeting, call or email (see link below) Ken, or come to the Racing Team Meeting. Cost for
new team members is $45.00 per person, payable to W-SSOC Racing. Returning racers pay $35.00 per person. W-SSOC pays $35.00
per racer annual racing fee to the Crescent Ski Council for each qualified racer who races in at least one regular race.
GET IN SHAPE. You don't have to be a tri-athlete to race, but the better shape you're in,
the better you will do. Jogging, jumping rope, bicycling and roller-bladeing are all excellent ways to improve your aerobic
fitness. Roller bladeing is particularly useful because the skating motion translates directly to useful skills on the race
course. Strength training will help, too. Machine-based workouts, free weights and body-weight exercises are excellent choices.
NOW, COME ON AND COMMIT! After you join the Team, the only commitment is to show up and race when
you say you will race. You only need to decide by the Monday night before the following weekend's races whether you will
race. You may register to race on Saturday, Sunday or both days of the weekend. We welcome all, whether you can participate
in one or two races, or every race.
WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? Contact Ken at ken@wssoc.org or Kyle at kyle@wssoc.org for details.
JOEL REICHENBERGER/STAFF
Brad Bilfelt, of
Winston-Salem, N.C., flies down the NASTAR course at Steamboat Ski Area on Friday. Bilfelt was one of about
250 skiers in town from the South for the week and one of about 50 who spent that week working on their racing.
South by Northwest
Carolina racers head to Steamboat to fill need for speed
Steamboat Pilot & Today, "Sunday Focus", page 4A, December
11, 2011.
Story by Joel Reichenberger. Reprinted with permission from Steamboat Pilot &
Today. Michael Schrantz's original page design transcribed and reformatted to fit the SKIER by Ken Lumsden.
[SKIER Editor's note: All Crescent racers mentioned by name (Brad Bilfelt, Deb(bie) Hood,
Greg Sowers, Caron Sowers, Michael Stern) and shown in all photos (Brad, Greg, Debbie) in the original article are members
of the Winston-Salem Ski & Outing Club. Want to go to the Crescent Steamboat Ski & Instruction Camp? Watch
for details available in May 2012 for the December 2012 trip.]
It was all there.
From the tuck to the turn, everything screamed "elite ski racer."
It was the twang, however, that signaled
this was something a bit different.
The Crescent Ski Council is an organization of 21 ski clubs in North Carolina, South
Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee and West Virginia. The group boasts 3,500 members, and every year about 250 of
them make the trek to Steamboat Springs for a week of guided skiing. About 50 of those don't come for the food or
the drinks, the sights or the springs.
They come to race, and Friday afternoon, the streaks of skiers tearing down Mount
Werner and through courses of gates did so just like so many others will this winter. But these racers did it with a
distinct Southern drawl.
Best way down
The week's skiers were split into
JOEL REICHENBERGER/STAFF
Above: Greg Sowers eyes the giant slalom
course in the Bashor Bowl on Friday. Below: North Carolina skier Deb Hood tucks as she nears the finish
line of the NASTAR course Friday.
groups of about eight, and everyone in the
top group hailed from either North or South Carolina. They bore several significant traits in common with their Ski
Town USA Brethren. They love the snow, and they love the race. Friday marked their sixth day of work on the Steamboat
slopes. They started early with a few practice laps on the Bashor Bowl course, ran two "official" timed laps
for the Crescent Ski Club (sic. Council) on that long giant slalom course, then decided to make one more run through
the gates, this time on the NASTAR course.
They all met at the bottom, assessed their times and agreed one more trip
through was in order. That turned in to two more, and finally, one last time "before lunch." One skier got
separated from the group at that point and headed for the cafeteria, but his classmates reneged on their word and all went
back up to the top of the course again.
Four members of the group finally skied down to the gondola, on their way to
eat. They probably wouldn't have, however, had they seen their three final classmates slip one last time back into
the Bashor chairlift line.
"I still didn't get him," Greg Sowers said when he finally ambled into the
Thunderhead cafeteria, at least momentarily giving up his attempt to chase down classmate's Robin Hood's NASTAR course
time.
He didn't seem content, though he gave in to a smile that seemed a mask for his disappointment and at the
same time a hint that he'd probably get over it.
The group represented the fastest of the Crescent skiers, and in
many ways, they were similar to Steamboat's dedicated racers. They weren't alike in every way, though, and the
differences were greater than opinions on Tarheel basketball and where the country's best barbecue hails from.
Each
drives at least two hours for a single day of skiing, and they often can make that trip in short-sleeves.
These weren't
former racers who spent their childhoods racing to the slopes with the sounding of the school bell. The sport didn't come
ingrained in their way of life. They all had to seek it out, to add it, and together they make for a uniform bunch.
We'll
usually have a Christmas party with all of our friends," Caron Sowers began, "because we know we won't see them
again until March."
They discovered they loved to ski, and in their minds, racing is the best way to do it.
Where
they're from, temperatures are warm, resorts are small and lift lines are long. Powder days are so rare that they
border on being a figment of the imagination, right there in the netherworld with backcountry access and extreme terrain.
Racing
offers a whole new way to experience the sport.
""We just got bored with skiing so we started racing,"
Deb Hood said. "Now we enjoy the people, the camaraderie. It's a great group."
Time
to race
They love the workshop's consistency. They love that they can take a 20-year break
from it, as Greg Sowers and Caron Sowers did, come back and have the very same instructor.
"When you have the same
one over and over again, they can really work on something with you," said Michael Stern, who took no such break and
still has little trouble finding portions of his form that he'd like to tighten up and improve. "That really
brings a lot to it."
For most of those years, the man behind the technique and trips has been Kris Hagenbuch, who
long ago earned a coveted spot in each racer's cell phone directory. Throughout the years, he helped guide through
the transition from straight to shaped skies, from fast to scorching, and up, down and all around Mount Werner.
Hagenbuch
actually got hurt early in this year's camp and Steamboat instructor Erik Trabka stepped in to be bombarded for points
and tricks by a group eager to shave even just a fraction of a second from its times.
The camp has remained much the
same, the regulars concluded. The schedule has varied little in nearly three decades. Many of the faces are the
same.
Most of the change has come from Steamboat, which has exploded in those years, and in the technology of skiing.
"I
don't think we'd be skiing any more if it weren't for shaped skis," Stern said. "At least we wouldn't
be racing."
That comment drew some long looks from his classmates.
We'd still be out there racing each
other on shingles," Caron Sowers said. "We'd still be yelling ‘I'm gonna get you!'"
She
seemed right as the crew got up from lunch and prepared for its final afternoon on the mountain.
Trabka asked what they
had in mind, where they wanted to go.
"Group freeskiing?" he asked to several nods and affirmations.
The
idea didn't seem to take, however, and an eager voice cut through.
"Maybe we could run some gates."
