What Skis Will Be Fast Next Season? - US Alpine Masters -

Race skis for World and Europa Cup racers willbe different for 2012/13. Ski racing’s governingbody, the FIS, under the apparition of safetyhave increased the minimum radius of GS, SG,and DH skis.

Although this radius change does not affect Masters’ skis, it does raise several ques-

spring 2012www.ussa.org

These companies support Masters Ski Racing…

…and we support them.

tions—specifically, could these new, largerradius skis be faster? This question, with re-spect to radius, has been floating aroundthe World Cup for some time. Back in 2007,when Aksel Lund Svindal won the overalland GS titles, he was skiing on a GS ski thatactually had larger radius than the mini-

mum required. Meanwhile Ted Ligety hasbeen racing very successfully on a 29m skiwhen he could be legally on a 27m ski.While controversy continues to surroundthe FIS decision to increase the radius onGS skis, Ted Ligety, at the World Cup finalsin March 2012, skied the new larger-radius

(35m)skis to the

fastest secondrun. Even though it

was only one run and hewas skiing with a perfect

course, one has to wonder, how canthese “new larger-radius” skis be so fast?

RadiusWhen viewed from the top, the ski has anhourglass shape. The curve on each side of theski can be thought of as part of a circle. The ra-dius of this circle is theradius of the ski.All race skis havethis hourglassshape and it is theamount of radiusthat has been thetopic of concern.It was proba-bly an 18-year oldBodeMiller

that made radius an issue and eventually astrategy for racing. In 1996, using a produc-tion model K2 Four, the young Bode wonthe Junior Olympic GS and SG titles. After-wards a third place in the U.S. SL earnedhim a berth on the U.S. Ski Team. Racersstarting following Bode’s lead and the skis’radius got smaller and smaller… until theFIS saw otherwise.

CarvingWhen a ski is tipped up or edged, the tighter radius on the ski will assist the ski racer in carving a tighter

arc in the snow. Tighter with less skiddingaround the gates creates a shorter path withseemingly less friction, and because of this,they are usually regarded as faster. This par-tially explains why racers “like” the smaller radius ski… it can carve a tighter arc.

What Skis Will Be Fast Next Season?

Continuedon page 8

Ted Ligety at Adelboden, Switzerland, a steep race hill thatsees a lot of stivoting. Photomontage by Ron LeMaster.

Racing for the Futureby Steve Slivinski, Masters National Chairman

It was a dark and stormy night. Unfortunately, wedidn’t seem to have enough dark and stormy nightsin some parts of the country this winter. Skiing isone of the only sports dependent on what somewimpy people call bad weather. Ski racers, however,are passionate about their sport—some say de-mented—but we persevered under adversity, and

had some epic Masters racing this winter. The season culminated intwo awesome competitions with back-to-back national, and theninternational FIS races at Park City and Mammoth Mountain, respectively.

This year’s national committee meeting at Park City was fo-cused on the future of Masters racing, and how can we grow it. Weall recognize that Masters ski racing, and ski racing in general, hashad a smaller and smaller portion of the public’s eye. There are

some things that are beyond our control: we can’t make it snow, wecan’t stop from buying stuff from Fuxi, and we can’t get snow-boarders to pull up their pants. However, there are plenty of otheractions we can take to reenergize this sport we love. With the helpof Walt Evans, head of USSA Sports Development, your nationalcommittee formed a working group to formulate some new initia-tives to help us move forward. The group is headed by our residentraconteur Bill McCollom, and consists of Lisa Densmore, NadinePrice, Ryan Fuller, and Thunder Jalili. They will be presenting pro-posals to Bill Skinner, Walt Evans and myself this spring. If any ofyou dedicated racers have any inspired ideas either inside or out-side the box, please share them with us. In reality, the best asset wehave to promote and sell Masters racing is you, our racers. Tap intothat fanatical energy you have for the sport, and share your enthu-siasm with dedicated beer leaguers, wild and crazy Nastarites, orjust somebody who has been chewed out by the Ski Patrol forgoing too fast. Have a great summer. Remember, staying in shape is365-day proposition, so park that golf cart a little farther away fromthe green. As always, keep your ski tips pointed downhill.

News & Info of the Alpine Masters

Masters Membership Newsby Bill Skinner, USSA Masters Manager

2012 was a challenging snow year in most regionsof the county. Unfortunately, our overall Mastersmembership was down. We had close to 400 pastyears members that did not rejoin us. But fortu-nately, we picked up 259 first-time Masters—whichstill resulted in a loss of 141 members. Some of thenew member recruits were a result of sending our

fall newsletter and an invitation to join us to NASTAR platinumand gold medalists. Pass the word on the enjoyment and chal-lenges of Masters racing and get our membership growing again.

Our National Committee Meeting was held during our Na-tionals in Park City. Walt Evans, head of USSA Sport Developmentattended. There was a real emphasis on strategies to increase Mas-ters race attendance, which has struggled this year across most ofthe country on the local level. A working group has been formedto address these issues and the cause. Bill McCollom, Nadine Price,Thunder Jalili, Lisa Densmore, Ryan Fuller and Steve Slivinski volunteered to lead the effort. Our National minutes can be

view in the Masters section of ussa.org.Web site: I apologize for a lapse in our web site

early in the winter. Access to membership renewaland information changed when USSA updatedthe total site. We are working to get back on thedashboard and make access to Masters

information easier.We had near-record attendance at the Eastern Championship,

Nationals and Criterium. It was decided that when Nationals arein the west, we’ll drop the Western Championship event. The East-ern Championships, which are very popular, will continue. For thecoming season reserve these dates.

Major events for 2013:Feb. 8–10Eastern Region Championships Killington, VT SG/GS/SL

Feb. 28–Mar. 3FIS Master Cup, Mammoth, CA SG/SG/SL/SL

Mar. 18–23Skier’s Edge National Championships, Big Sky, Montana,DH/SG/GS/SL

Have a great summer!

Eastern again claims the Division Cup!They may not of had much of asnow year but the 26-member Eastern team put it to the rest of thecountry’s racers. Leading every day,they held it together and flew homewith the Cup. This year, the SC eventcounted toward the overall title, tothe enjoyment of all.

Edge Masters team doubled their medal winning from the 2011 season earning 2 Gold, 4 Silver and 6 Bronze medals.

The Skier’s Edge Company has been the Title Sponsor for Masters racing for eight consecutive seasons. Skier’s

Edge is proud to be involved with this wonderful community of ski enthusiasts from all around the world. We are fully

Racing at Your Best!™

Expect Extraordinary!™

ANOTHER GREAT RACE YEAR!SPRING 2012

Park City Mountain Resort established a great environment for Nationals this year. The open house at the Center of Excellence was the perfect start with an exclusive tour through one

.dlroW eht ni seitilicaf gniniart tseb eht foOnce again the Skier’s Edge Masters team dominated with 18 Gold, 16 Silver and 15 Bronze medals!

Mammoth Mountain welcomed Masters World Criterium with open arms, providing ef cient courses and a hard working race department. The weather was evidence of ‘spring-skiing” with a powder-day thrown into the week. 330 racers from all over the World participated in this exciting event. Racers from Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, United kingdom, and the United States gathered to compete in GS, SL, and SG. The Skier’s

committed to helping racers achieve their goals. We continue to improve our products so you have the perfect training tool to reach the podium, year after year.

Congratulations to all who participated in this year’s Masters events, it truly was an outstanding year!

To get training tips, sign up for our eNewsletter!

Plus, get special Master’s Discounts! Sign up at

SkiersEdge.com/669

Steve Nyman, TJ Lanning and Ted Ligety at the Center of Excellence Womens GS at Mammoth Mountain

Masters open house at the Center of Excellence.

800.225.9669 ext.669www.SkiersEdge.com/669

resource when on snow training isn’t

but my Skier’s Edge is. I couldn’t have made my comeback without countless interval sessions, single leg, double leg and core on my Skier’s Edge machine.”

S Ski

Team Member, 2010 Olympian,

3-T National Champion

-


Keenan, Densmore, Karjalainen are the topspeedsters in 2012 Masters National SpeedSeries. The NSS is going on eight years of gather-ing the top speed specialists for a season-long series of the best SG and DH venuesin the country.

Keenan and Karjalainen have won theMolecule trophy in the past. For Lisa Dens-

more, this is the first time winning the sea-son award for the ladies. An easternercome west to the heartland of speed ven-ues, she traveled to Schweitzer, Big Sky andPark City to amass enough to take the titlefor the first time.

Luke Keenan wrote an article in ourfall newsletter outlining the strategies andlogistics choice speed venues, then fol-

lowed his own ad-vice with thisthird overall title,smoking runnerup Don Johnson.Rauli Kara-jalainen amassedthe most pointsin Group D (menover 60 years ofage) and re-turned to theleader status, fol-lowed by WiebeGortmaker.

The cherishedMolecule custom

belt buckles were handed out to class win-ners at the final SG at the Park City Na-tionals. With continued sponsor support,the Series should continue into 2013.


This past Mar. 27–31,2012, over 300 Mastersracers of all ages andnationalities werethrilled to come toCalifornia’s Mam-moth Mountain forthe FIS World Cri-

terium. It has been six years since theMasters Criterium has been held inNorth America. U.S. entrants num-bered around 175, while 150 morewere from all over the globe. Coun-tries represented were: Austria,France, Norway, Czech Republic,Sweden, Canada, Germany, Italy, Hol-land, New Zealand, Switzerland, Finland,Russia, Great Britain, Japan, Croatia, andPoland.

The USA proudly claimed 90 totalmedals in top-level international competi-tion. U.S. medal highlights included:Duffy Dodge of Eastern Division whoswept the 85+ men’s category; VirginiaReed of Inter-Mountain Division who

swept the women’s class 11 category; Mam-moth locals Marietta Frinell and SandyHogan of Far West who swept women’s

classes 10 and 9 respectively; and PepiNeubauer of Eastern Division who wonthe SG in men’s class B and was also theFastest Man of the Day.

More American medal winners in-cluded: Mike Shklovski, Ara Papazian, An-nette Mirviss, Ingrid Braun, Mihai Filimon,Chris Adams, Marcie Pettigrew, LindaCrowell, Jim Dugan, Gaet DeMattei, Eliza-

beth Booka Smith and Deb Lewis all of FarWest Division; Bob Skinner, Keith Thomp-son, Craig Norton, Beth Sarazine, DanaAlexandrescu, John Bloomberg, Rauli Kar-jalainen, Jonathan Jessup and Carl Full-man all of InterMountain Division; TimHill, Knut Olberg, and Willi Schmidt, allof Pacific Northwest Division; BrocThompson, Steve Perrins, Michael Walsh,and Jennifer Kaufman, all of RockyMountain Division; Alphonse Sevigny,Kathy Hurdcarrillo, Stephen Foley, PaulRich, and Mark George, all of Eastern Di-vision; Lisa Densmore of Northern Divi-sion; Lilla Gidlow of Central Division;and Barbara Bryant, Richard Cesatti and

Rowland Lohman.Pierre Jeangirard and the course crews

worked very hard keeping the runs in ex-cellent shape in spite of a wide variety ofweather conditions.

Next season, Mammoth Mountain ison the FIS Masters Cup calendar for Feb.28–Mar. 3, 2013.

Return of FIS Masters World Criterium to US Soilby Bob Davis

Molecule F National Speed Series

2011 Speed Series winners Luke, Lisa and Rauli make waves

in the world of speed.

Overall Molecule F Trophy standingsA/B – MEN (AGE 20–59)1 Keenan, Luke (M01, PN) 1842 Don Johnson (M06, RM) 883 Robert Cravens (M05, PN) 77

C – ALL WOMEN

1 Lisa Densmore (W06, NO) 952 Jennifer Kaufman (W03, RM) 753(t) Dana Alexandrescu (W03, IM) 503(t) Jessie McAleer (W04, EA) 50

D – MEN (AGE 60–90)1 Rauli Karajalainen (M09,IM) 1702 Wiebe Gortmaker (M09, RM) 1443 Pepi Neubauer (M09, EA) 125

Complete season results may be found athttp://ussamasters.org/2012/nss

FIS World Champions Balthasar Meissl,Mike Walsh and Broc Thompson.


Class 6 racers up the competitive spirit atthe 2012 Skier’s Edge Masters NationalChampionshipsThe Skier’s Edge Masters National Cham-pionships is always a big deal, but the2012 edition was even bigger. Sited at thehottest of hotbeds of Masters ski racing,Park City, Utah, the 2012 Champs featuredapproximately 800 starts, five deluxe par-ties (with all the fixings), 100 podium pre-sentations, and an infinite number ofexperiences for the 250 racers who madethe trip. The event also fostered ski racingfriendships. Some were new in the mak-ing, and others, such as those in Class 6(ages 50–54), have spanned decades.

Most of Class 6 started racing as Class1s and 2s, and they’ve been butting headsever since. Some have missed an occa-sional championship due to injuries orfamily contingencies, but they were therein force at Park City this year to comprisenot only the largest class at the event, butalso one of the most competitive.

“As we move up a class, we drop a fewand pick up a few,” said Willy Scrogginsfrom Mount Hood, OR. “We never get abreak. But that’s all right. We’ve knowneach other for years and years, and the ca-maraderie is unbelievable.”

March 19, C/D SCOn the first day of competition, Class 6had the day off from racing while the C/Dgroups (60-plus men and all women)raced the SC. Racers coming to the moun-tain that morning were wary of even get-ting out of the car. More than a foot ofnew snow blanketed the mountain, thewind was howling, and snow squalls lim-ited visibility to a few feet. Athletes soondiscovered, however, that the races werenot only happening, but there also wereno changes to the original timetable.

Legions of course workers slipped thecourse as the snow gradually dissipated,and by start time, visibility was rapidly im-proving. Class 9 ace Pepi Neubauer set thepace for the men in the fast, smooth SGportion of the combined, while exception-ally fast runs from Dana Alexandrescu(Class 3) and Jenny Badger (Class 2) ledthe women’s field.

Many racers were skeptical that theone-run SL could be run in such soft con-ditions, but once again, the Park City racecrew worked magic by providing the C’sand D’s with separate courses and impec-

cable side-slipping. After putting up first-run leads in the SG, Alexandrescu andNeubauer crushed their respective fields,leaving Intermountain Class 5 ChrisKatzenberger and Class 7 New Yorker BobAndree in the runner-up positions.

March 20, A/B SCAfter a cold and clear night, the snow setup into hard packed powder for the A/B(men 59 and younger) SC, and the open-ing SG was a bullet. “Someone setting thiscourse was feeling their testosterone thismorning,” said Walt Evans, the event’stechnical director. But with the race on therelatively benign Payday trail, speed wasone of the few ways to increase difficulty.

In the battle of the 6s, Dennis Wil-helmsen took the lead after the SG, put-ting down the fastest run of the morning.In a display of class depth, 13 of his class-mates were stuffed into the next three sec-onds. Wilhelmsen, a wide-bodied rancher,builder and jack-of-all trades from themountains of Trout Creek, Mont., admit-ted that mass mattered. “I might not bethe prettiest on the hill,” he said, “but Isomehow manage to carry speed.”

Rich Slabinski, who works with asatellite communications company in SaltLake City, lurked in second after the SG.“Slabby” typically leaves little to chancewith speed events. “Wax and aerodynamicswere important,” said Slabinski, whodidn’t seem particularly impaired by hisartificial knee. “I skied well with no mistakes.”

And let’s face it: The big boys, such asWilhelmsen and Slabinski, can also lightup a slalom course. In this case Slabinskinosed out Wilhelmsen by a scant 0.02 sec-onds to take the win, leaving Bobby Skin-ner in third. “I knew it was close, but Icouldn’t do the math in my head, so hadto check the scoreboard,” said Slabinski,who then pointed out that the fastest manof the day, after a jaw-dropping run ofslalom, was actually Tim Hill, the Class 5wiz from PNSA.

March 21, SGAnother cold night kept the snow fast anddry, but the temperatures started climbingin the afternoon under a cloudless sky. Afew more turns were added to the SGcourse, but it still presented plenty ofspeed and challenge. The C/Ds took to thecourse first with the most senior racer of

the championships, Class 13 (85-plus)Duffy Dodge from St. Johnsbury, VT, set-ting the early pace. Another octogenarianEasterner, Alphonse Sevigny, upped theante, which held until Class 11 RockyMountain doctor Charlie Hauser choppedoff another six seconds.

This lead didn’t last long as AnnaDroege, the elegant and ageless Class 10racer from Sun Valley, nipped him by asecond. Another veteran Sun Valley resi-dent from the ranks of Class 10, KeithThompson, dropped another second offDroege’s time, which held up until Mon-tana Class 5 racer Lisa Densmore crossedthe line with a two-second advantage. Fi-nally, local Class 3 racer Dana Alexan-drescu put down a time that wouldemphatically remain on top of the leaderboard, and would only be topped by PepiNeubauer — and even then by only a fewtenths.

“It was a good day for me,” saidAlexandrescu, a software developer withUSSA, who came to the U.S. from Roma-nia when she was 17. “Because the hill isso flat, you have to be clean all the way.One mistake and you’re finished.” Sheought to know, since she trains severaltimes a week on this hill under the lightsafter work.

After moving a few gates onto astraighter line, a thorough redressing ofthe course, and a last-minute flurry of flu-oro overlays to the bases, the A/Bs wereready. After USSA Masters manager BillSkinner had taken the early lead and a winin the 7s, the 6s kept lowering his time. Fi-nally, it was Slabinski who put up thefastest time among the 6s. Willy Scrogginsstill can’t bend his knee much beyond 90degrees after breaking his femur and mul-tiple ribs last year in a car accident, but hehung on to second, with Bobby Skinnercollecting his second bronze of the series.

The only racer to top Slabinski wasMatt Savage, a Class 1 racer from Mam-moth Mountain. Savage coaches on theweekends, but his “real” job is with NorthSails, where he is a materials engineer. “It’sdifficult to separate yourself from the fieldon this hill,” said Savage. “Usually I lookfor places to carry speed. Here I was seek-ing to generate speed.” As for the subtletiesof waxing, Savage said, “I’m just a wax-your-skis kind of guy, but I’m staying withthe Swix rep, and he’s taking good care ofme.”

The Battle of the Sixesby Bill McCollum

Continued on page 6

We are sharing this article with SkiRacing.com, the go-to site for ski racing news.


March 22, A/B SL; C/D GSAnother cold, clear night left the rapidly-receding snow cover hard in the morning,as the C/Ds remained on Payday for theirGS, and the A/Bs moved over to the lowerportion of the World Cup venue, CBs.

For the C/Ds, the cold night even pro-duced what some of the Westerners called“ice,” but that did not deter the usual sus-pects from dominating their respectiveclasses. Anna Droege exploited her glidingskills to perfection in getting by best friendand rival Nancy Auseklis in Class 10. BarbSettel and Nadine Price racked up wins forthe East. Easterner-turned-MontananDensmore put down the third-fastest timeof the day to take control of Class 6, andAlexandrescu looked like a 20-year-oldWorld Cup athlete in taking the women’srace by four seconds.

Once again, Neubauer was the onlymale to come out in front of Alexandrescuwith a win in the 9s, while Bob Andreecontinued his romp through the 7s with aseven-second margin of victory.

Things weren’t going as swimminglyover on the A/B SL venue. The eastward-facing hill had turned to mush. It was arough ride with bathtub ruts forming onthe steep top portion of the course, andholes appearing at the bottom. Wilhelm-sen showed some agility in winning bothruns in Class 6. “In that first run, I felt likea rag doll,” laughed Wilhelmsen. “But theydid a great job. Now I have to do some se-rious healing for tomorrow’s GS.”

Mike Falk, a Park City local originallyfrom New York, squeezed by another NewYorker, Greg Sarkis, to round out thepodium.

The fact that the eventual race winner,

Tyler Chandler, started second-to-last of-fered proof of how effective the coursecrews were in keeping the slalom skiable.The lanky 23-year-old Chandler, who ex-udes the innocence of Opie Taylor, wastalked into coming to the races by theMasters racers he coaches at Sun Valley.They even helped with the expenses. “Theyare so helpful and supportive,” said Chan-dler. As for the course? “Oh, it was rough,”he said. “It was a bobsled on the first pitchwith holes all through the bottom. I wasjust holding on — it was great fun.”

As for the ongoing rivalry betweenTim Hill and Toby Chapman in Classes 3and 5, this round went to Tim Hill by one-tenth; the pair finished second and thirdoverall.

March 23, A/B GS; C/D SL; BanquetWith temperatures staying above freezingthat night and another day of bright sun,the race venues were in full meltdownmode for the final day. That necessitatedmoving the A/B GS from CBs to Payday,where the group would share space withthe C/D SL. The salt was flying on bothcourses, and the three-ring circus atmos-phere provided great viewing for fans.

The C/Ds certainly got the better endof the deal, as the courses stayed smooththroughout the day. In a few of the tighterraces, Mammoth’s Deb Lewis snuck by Na-dine Price to pick up her second win. East-erner Steve Foley earned his first medal ofthe series with a gold-medal performance,as did Intermountain’s John Bloombergand Victor Roy.

Roy, a longtime standout in Mastersracing, had been watching the races onlinefrom his home base at Snowbasin. “I just

couldn’t stand it any longer; I just had tocome down and see all the guys,” said Roy,who upended Bob Andree for the first timein the series.

Neubauer was particularly pleasedwith his win in Class 9, as it marked his100th Masters victory, and his first win inthe series over Alexandrescu, who has agood start on accumulating at least asmany gold medals.

Bobby Skinner had the hot hand thistime around for Class 6, marking the thirddifferent gold medalist in the four races.“There was no catching Bobby today,” saidSarkis. “He just skied too well on his homehill.” Slabinski made a strong second-runbid to overtake Sarkis for the silver, butcame up 0.13 seconds shy of the mark.

Like many in his class, Sarkis hasskied with this group since he was in his20s and even earlier in one case. “I grewup with Mike Falk and we used to traveltogether as J4s around New York,” saidSarkis. “It’s fun that we’re still going at it40 years later. But I love competing at thislevel of competition and it only makes usall better.”

A spirited banquet put the exclama-tion mark on an outstanding nationalchampionship. Most were headed homewith goggle tans and stories, while thosewith gas remaining in the tank wereheaded to Mammoth Mountain for the In-ternational FIS Criterion. But the futurewas put on hold on this night. No one wasquite prepared to say goodbye to Park City,their friends, or the 2012 ski racing season.

Al and Paul’s Big AdventureIn a ritual that has spanned the past sevenyears, four days before the start of the na-tional championships, 81-year-olds Al Se-vigny and Paul Rich packed up Rich’saging Chrysler Pacific in New Hampshireand headed west. Just like Thelma andLouise, they were bound for Utah—onlytheir story had a happy ending. Sevignyswept the Class 12 gold medals, while Richcollected two silvers and two bronzemedals. When asked how he managed tostay so spry after all these years, Sevignysaid: “You know, I didn’t start skiing until Iwas 50 years old. So I’m like a good carthat’s been parked in the garage for a longtime.” Sevigny was last seen with a groupof snowboarders dancing to a grunge bandin the base area village. He couldn’t havestayed too long, however, because he stillhad to join Rich to pack up the car for thetrip to Mammoth Mountain for the Inter-national Criterion races.

The Battle of the Sixes (continued from pg 5)


The 2012 Masters National DownhillChampionships were held once againat Ski Cooper in Summit county Col-orado. This year had a smaller fieldwith only 43 competitors. Though thiswas most likely due to western region-als, nationals, and worlds each takingan entire week to complete. I alwayshear a few complaints about the lack ofpitch and difficulty at Ski Cooper.However for what it lacks in pitch anddifficulty it makes up for in insanelyclose racing. Another bonus to racingon moderate to easy terrain is the qual-ity of the racing. No one jumps outwith a 2 or 3 second win. Nobody isholding back or stepping on brakepedal. All the competitors had theirfoot on the gas the whole way down

and it showed! The top 3 skiers start-ing with your 2012 national DHchampion were Franz Fuchsberger(M06, RM), Luke Keenan (M01, PN),and Richard Briggs (M06, RM). Theywere only separated by .12 Seconds!I’m pretty sure Fuxi would like to givea shout out to Colorado waxing extra-ordinaire Bill Tomcich, (M04, RM)who nabbed a top 10 of his own afterpreparing both his and Fuxi’s ex-tremely fast skis. He had snow condi-tions and temps dialed all weekendfor the ski prep which is always crucialin DH. I once heard waxing is only 3%of the race, well in a 60 second racethat’s 1.8 seconds!

Report by Luke Keenan.

2012 Masters National DH Championships

2012 Skier’s Edge National ChampionshipsPark City, UtahThe 2013 Spyder National Masters team isselected from the top finisher in each ageclass at the 2012 national championships,based on total world cup points in the 3-event SC-SG-GS-SL combined.

NOTESM11 (75–79): tie on 85 points betweenJohn Bloomberg (IM, 1-3-2-1) and com-bined winner Charlie Hauser (RM, 2-1-1-3). Both racers are still tied after applyingthe best-finish tiebreaker criteria (1-1-2-3).Spyder team selection goes to CharlieHauser based on the best (lowest) race-points total in the 4 events (Hauser 42.63over Bloomberg 51.73).

W10 (70–74): tie on 90 points betweenNancy Auseklis (IM, 1-2-2-1) and com-bined winner Anna Droege (IM, 2-1-1-2).Both racers are still tied after applying thebest-finish tiebreaker criteria (1-1-2-2).Spyder team selection goes to Anna Droegebased on the best (lowest) race points totalin the 4 events (Droege 27.03 over Auseklis42.37).

W9 (65-69): tie on 90 points betweenSarah Lemire (IM, 1-1-2-2) and combinedwinner Marcie Pettigrew (FW, 2-2-1-1).Both racers are still tied after applying thebest-finish tiebreaker criteria (1-1-2-2).

Women MenClass Competitor Competitor13 David Duffy Dodge (EA, x-1-1-x)

12 Virginia Reed (IM, 1-1-1-1) Alphonse Sevigny (EA, 1-1-1-1)

11 Marietta Frinell (FW, 1-1-1-1) Charlie Hauser (RM, 2-1-1-3)

10 Anna Droege (IM, 2-1-1-2) Keith Thompson (IM, 1-1-1-5)

9 Marcie Pettigrew (FW, 2-2-1-1) Pepi Neubauer (EA, 1-1-1-1)

8 Barbara Settel (EA, 1-2-1-2) Robert Andree (EA, 1-1-1-2)

7 Nadine Price (EA, 2-1-1-2) Bill Skinner (IM, 1-1-3-2)

6 Lisa Densmore (N, 1-1-1-1) Rick Slabinski (IM, 1-1-3-4)

5 Chris Katzenberger (IM, 1-1-1-1) Timothy Hill (PN, 1-2-1-1)

4 Dasha Kadulova (IM, 1-1-1-1) Thunder Jalili (IM, 2-1-1-2)

3 Dana Alexandrescu (IM, 1-1-1-1) Craig Norton (IM, 2-3-1-2)

2 Jenny Badger (IM, 1-1-1-1) James Thoman (EA, 1-2-1-1)

1 Emily Davies (IM, x-x-1-1) Matt Savage (FW, 1-1-2-2)

2013 Spyder Masters National Team

Spyder team selection goes to Marcie Petti-grew based on the best (lowest) race pointstotal in the 4 events (Pettigrew 44.89 overLemire 49.08).

W8 (60–64): tie on 90 points between com-bined winner Rosemary Moschel (IM, 2-1-

2-1) and Barbara Settel (EA, 1-2-1-2). Bothracers are still tied after applying the best-finish tiebreaker criteria (1-1-2-2). Spyderteam selection goes to Barbara Settel basedon the best (lowest) race points total in the4 events (Settel 17.95 over Moschel 38.87).

Luke Keenan, Franz Fuchsberger,and Richard Briggs.

For example, to carve a 17m arc, the currentmen’s 27m ski needs 50 degrees of edge ,while the new 35m ski needs 60 degrees ofedge angle to make the same turn!

So it would seem to be a “no brainer”:pick the smaller radius ski, and carve a tightarc for a tighter turn. But let’s revisit thegoal of ski racing—and that is not necessar-ily to carve arcs but to achieve the fastesttime.

Disadvantages of CarvingA carved turn is where the tail of the ski fol-lows the tip in the same path. We have allseen that groove left in the snow by a clean-carving ski. We sigh, drool, and beg thegods to allow our tracks look like that.While a picture of beauty, this trenched-outgroove may not be all that fast! As it turnsout, the deeper the groove, the more snowthat had to be excavated, and like the snow-plow in your driveway revving up to pushthe heavy snow, it takes energy. And utiliz-ing that energy slows the ski down.

While most of us are trying to pressurethe tip of the ski, the World Cup elite havenot only mastered this elusive skill buttaken it a step farther and learned to notover-pressure it. Yes, they get the tip intothe snow—and then once a groove is estab-lished for the rest of the ski to follow, theyback off. Establish the groove and then letthe rest of the ski take over. With a larger ra-dius ski, this will be more challenging. Theability to pressure fore and move aft will bemore problematic with this reduced tipprofile…and length.

LengthIn 2012/13 the elite women’s skis will beno shorter than 188cm, up from 180cm,and men’s skis add another 10cm, up fromlast year’s 185cm. With this longer length,the tip will be more difficult to pressure be-

cause it will be farther away from the skier’scenter-of-mass. Even when pressured, thistip with less width on the longer, narrowerski will not grab or want to slice into thesnow with the same aggression as theshorter, wider ski.

There may be a silver lining to thislonger length. With more ski surface areathere will be less pressure directed in to thesnow, resulting in less friction. Whileneeded to turn, the reduced pressure doesresult in less energy dissipation and there-fore faster skis. The 1970s logic of “thelonger the ski, the better” is still valid.

WhatSkis

Redirect and StivotSkis performing a right turn start outpointing to the left. So for the first halfof the turn, the skis are actuallypointed the opposite direction theywill end up going! This makes the curi-ous mind wonder about coachingclichés like “early pressure.” This iswhere the ski is edged and pressuredabove the fall-line in an attempt tomake an arc-to-arc carve. If the pres-sure is truly early, and we know thatpressure can create friction, and fric-tion is slow… is this a good conditionfor going fast? Sometimes we becomea prisoner to these platitudes and as-sume that they are the goal. Whileearly pressure is a vital criterion forarc-to-arc carves, is early pressure thekey to the fastest time?

Carving is only one way to initiatea ski turn, and skiing arc-to-arc is defi-nitely an exciting and fun way to ski.Although it may not always be thefastest. For the last half-dozen years,World Cup racers on steep sections

have utilized a ski reorientation methodthat consists of hucking the skis sideways tostart the turn. The neologism “stivot”evolved from “steer” and “pivot”; critical as-pects of this innovative turn entry tech-nique.

While the extreme rotary actions ofstivoting is easy to observe, the less percepti-ble “redirect” at the top of the turn is thetraditional method to reorient the ski, albeitrotated to a lesser degree. This slight rota-tional guidance of the ski prior to edge andpressure increases the likelihood that the skiwill “hook-up” or hold the resultant turn. Aturn that is re- directed or stivoted is onlyfast when the ski racer has the edging skillsto minimize the friction between the ski

U.S. Ski Team’s Ted Ligety, 2011 World Cup GS

Champion, demonstrates flexed, tensed, and equal

ankle angles while winning the first GS of the

2011–2012 season in Sölden, Austria.

Continued from page 1

Will Be

Ted Ligety bending both

skis. With 35m skis, Ted will

direct more weight to the

outside ski in order to bend

it to get the same arc.

With larger radius skis,

expect to see more

athletic moves

like Ted Ligety

here in Sölden

last year.

Bottom LineThere are positives and negatives to a skiwith any size radius. Don’t get World Cupenvy and assume just because Ted and thegang are skiing a larger radius ski it will begood for you. Sasha Rearick, the U.S. SkiTeam Men’s Head Coach summed it upwell when he said, “fundamentals-wise,some things are going to be more impor-tant than others on the new skis.” If youhave good edging skills, as in ability to gosideways, the larger radius may be faster foryou. This is especially true if you can dothis on steeper terrain and will find yourselfracing on steep terrain. If you are weight-challenged, the shorter ski might be a betterchoice.

sired radius, will put themselves into “awk-ward body positions,” which can limit theircontrol. This will be exacerbated by the lackof tip profile and encourage the ski racer tofind the radius “while leaning ,” accordingto Ted… obviously which can lead to bal-ance and, ultimately, control issues.

Since side-cut will not be available, theelite ski racer will need to rely more on theski’s flex characteristics. More weight willneed to be directed toward the outside skiin an attempt to bend it into reverse cam-ber. This will reduce the foot-to-foot pres-sure control strategy that is prevalent withthe smaller radius skis. Pressuring the skiwill become a bigger issue with the new,less-sidecut skis. One wonders if the heavierskier will have an advantage with these35m skis?

By Ron Kipp Photos: Getty Images

Ron Kipp is the USSAAlpine Sport Education

Manager. He has workedwith the U.S. and

Norwegian Ski Teams.

Julia Mancuso controlling pressure with the inside ski.

Ted Ligety

Alexis Pinturault

Marcel Hirscher

With the new larger radius skis it will bemore difficult for the inside ski to take over ifthe outside ski fails.

Julia Mancuso on a soft ski. Without as much sidecut, the new

skis will need to be easier to flex toachieve the desired radius of turn.

Fast?and the snow. The key then is not so muchin the radius or length of the tool, but howthe jockey is able to interface the ski withthe snow.

Stivots were not invented by astutecoaches, but by athletes that had supremeedging and pressure control skills (in spiteof the coaches scratching their heads andattempting to discourage this strange side-ways sliding behavior). Bottom line: prac-tice sideslipping and edging-type drills(check out SkillsQuest from USSA).

ControlThe increased sidecut may have its greatestissue with just controlling the ski. Whilethe longer length makes it easier to crosstips, Ted Ligety points out that the racer, inan attempt to get the ski to achieve a de-


New England MastersNadine Price, chairwww.nemasters.org

After a really challenging au-tumn of recovery from thedevastating flood unleashed

by Irene, of rebuilding homes, roads,bridges, base lodges and ski area parkinglots, northern New England was finallyready for a great winter season! And anearly snow storm at the end of Octoberpresaged just that. And then we waited,and waited, and waited, for more snow.But when it was cold, it was dry. When itwarmed up, it precipitated. Fortunatelythere was enough cold for most areas tomake enough snow to have somethingthat more or less passed for a ski season,although most would probably call it askating season. It was the winterthat wasn’t. Interestingly,Mother Nature has decided shewasn’t going to give up the “stillwinter” season and decided toprove she has a really twistedsense of humor by producingthe biggest snow storm of theyear here in central Vermont inmid April. So for those whodidn’t completely give up andput away the skis after the weekof summer in the middle ofMarch, there is now some re-ally good skiing out there anda chance to ski some of thosetrails that weren’t open allyear! But I digress, it wasn’t agreat year for powder hounds,but it was pretty good if youlike pond ice. The ice kept thetrails skiable (I use the termloosely!) and we managed topull off most of our races.

We started our pre-season once againwith a booth at the Boston Ski Expo, madepossible in part with the help of USSA. Itwas, as it has been in each of the five yearswe have had a booth, very worthwhile andwe are working on ways to turn it into aneven bigger asset. It is still surprising howfew people, and all of them skiers, knowmuch about us. We are on a mission tochange that!

New to New England Masters this sea-son were the husband and wife dynamicduo of Kip and Lucy Blake as race admin-istrators. In a true trial by fire, they werethrown right into the thick of things anddid an absolutely awesome job of runningour races and working with the venues and

USSA to make sure everything ransmoothly and according to Hoyle!

Our mid-December season opener atKillington was a huge success. In our sec-ond joint venture with ASRA, a ski racingorganization with races in Vermont andvenues a little west and south, we held twoGS races on the limited amount of snowthat the mountain’s incredibly talentedgroomers had managed to turn into a racetrack. And the Saturday evening party atMountain Meadows Lodge was a realcrowd pleaser. Unfortunately, we lost thefollowing weekend’s races at Cochran’s,the area owned and operated by the leg-endary family of the same name, but theydid still have a role in our season as weawarded quarts of their maple syrup to allwho podiumed at the Eastern Regionals!We lost only one other race to the cruel

weather and we had full season of rac-ing. Attendance was up at some of ourmore popular races and held fairlysteady at most of the others. The fewdisappointing turnouts seemed tocorrelate directly with particularly

hideous weather conditions.January took us to some traditional

venues, one new one, and an old favoritewe haven’t visited for too long. We had tosettle for two SL’s at Middlebury as the al-ways-thrilling upper pitch of the GS wasbarely negotiable, thanks once again to allthe liquid snow we endured all seasonlong. Our first-ever visit to Blackwater,home to the strong ski program of ProctorAcademy, turned out to be one of ourmost popular SL’s. It was followed by a re-turn, after a long hiatus, to Sunapee, atruly great GS hill and one of our mostpopular races in years past. This season’sfirst Rockport Mortgage Corporation GSrace didn’t disappoint. The venue attracteda great field, including Ben Drummond

who trounced the men’s field and walkedaway with the overall in his only appear-ance of the season. We look forward to vis-iting again next year. The ever-popularJaneway Cup GS Race at Stratton, a venera-ble tradition of many years, was hotly con-tested. A couple of Stratton coaches cameout to do battle but overcoming a first-rundeficit, Ben Green vaulted from third tothe top spot for the overall. With his fifthplace overall finish, fast and ageless NewYorker Pepi Neubauer handily took themen’s Janeway Cup, awarded to the fastestman and woman over 40. With her sixthplace overall finish, Katie George convinc-ingly bested the women’s field for theoverall. With the defection to Northern oflast year’s women’s winner, Lisa Dens-more, there was a tough battle for thewomen’s Janeway. Lori O’Brien, in a very

welcome return to rac-ing after a long, longrecovery from injury,laid down an excellentfirst run, and Julia Hor-gan, skiing exception-ally well all season,had a terrific secondrun. But with two solidruns, a very gratefulNadine Price managedto seize the women’sCup.

An eleventh-hourscheduling snafu re-quired some seriousscrambling and fancyfootwork by the sched-uling committee tomove the Loon Moun-tain GS to CrotchedMountain in southern

New Hampshire. As it turned out, thechange of venue was very appropriate.After the loss of the beloved HaroldWescott, we elected to dedicate that race asa memorial to him. Crotched was the siteof Harold’s first Master’s victory and hisson Will, and his son, were both able to at-tend and forerun. It was a great day and afitting tribute to Harold. It also markedour first coordination with a college circuitwhich is looking for more races to do. Wewere joined by about 20 college racers. Itworked out very well and we laid someground work for future collaboration.

February’s schedule included a doubleGS weekend at Ragged, always one of ourmost popular weekends. The B-fence was alittle narrow at one point due to the lack

Division News

Lisa Densmoredoing that

dominating thing.


of snow but the finish corral was full ofsmiles and more than one racer was over-heard expressing the desire to do it again!This year’s Regionals, a bit earlier thanusual, were held at Killington in early Feb-ruary. The events included two SG’s, a GS,an SL and a couple of fabulous parties.Highlights of the parties included visits bytwo of New England Masters’ granddames, Anne Nordhoy and Wendy Hill.Both have been fighting back from injurieswith complications but are on the mend.It was terrific to see them both and wehope to see more of them again in the fu-ture.

Okemo Mountain hosted our Finalsthe second weekend of March. The sched-ule included two SG’s, a SL, a GS, a ban-quet and a final awards party. The weatherthreatened all week leading up to the racesand continued to be a cause for nail bitingthroughout the weekend. But for once,Mother Nature cut us just enough slack topull off all the races, though it did meanstarting an hour early on Sunday after los-ing an hour to the change to daylight sav-ings, a net of two less hours of sleep after areally fun banquet on Saturday night.There were some bleary eyes, but no com-plaints. Sunday turned out to be an impor-tant day for a couple of folks. Thoughmost of the battles were settled by Satur-day, the men’s overall Rockport MortgageCorporation GS title was on the line.Adam Weiss, skiing better than ever, hadbeen gaining momentum all season long.

He needed a mere 30 points more thanBen Green to capture the title. Adam putup a good fight but when the dust settled,Ben was on top. Proving that last year’sknee surgery was only a minor set back,Ben also won the SG title, the SL title andthe overall men’s Sise Cup.

The women’s Speed Series title wentto the faster-and-fitter-than-ever Lisa Mar-ion in a hard-fought battle that was de-cided at Finals. Katie George, who justkeeps getting faster, easily captured the SLtitle, winning all but one of the races sheentered in the process. In the GS Series,she won every GS she started and handilytook the GS Series. And with a perfectscore of 900, she walked away with herfirst women’s Sise Cup.

The Tobin Award for outstanding con-tribution to Eastern Masters ski racing wasawarded to Pepi Neubauer. A former Aus-trian team member, Pepi has been partici-pating in Masters ski racing for manyyears. A consummate competitor, he is astrong supporter of the sport, and of NewEngland and Eastern Masters racing in par-ticular. He has volunteered in many capac-ities, recruiting members and especiallysponsors. He has given generously of histime and his service has been invaluable toEastern Masters.

The George Anderson Spirit of Mas-ters Award was established four years

ago to honor and remember George,one of our best-loved members. It

is awarded each year to theNEMS competitor who exem-

plifies the spirit of Masters skiracing. This year, in an emo-

tional presentation, theaward was given to one

of George’s dearestfriends, Patti Lane.

After all theracing was done inthe East, a smallbut committed

group of Easterns headed to Park City forNationals. At first it looked like shades ofthe New England winter with lots ofbrown and even a torrential downpour thenight before the C/D SG. But the Eastern-ers persevered and reclaimed the DivisionsCup that they had so proudly earned lastyear. And with it, another whole year ofbragging rights!!

As always, our series is made possibleand enhanced by our sponsors. Our GS se-ries has been generously sponsored byRockport Mortgage Corporation. We wishto thank them most sincerely. Our endur-ing gratitude goes to Artech, for its gener-ous and continued support. And we thankSkier’s Edge, Booster Strap, Swix,SkiChair.com, Denby and EasyOn for theircontinued support. When you have needor use for any of the products or servicesour sponsors provide, we hope you willvisit them first.

AlaskaBy Gary Randallwww.alyeskaskiclub.org

I know for most of the Mas-ters around the country theski season is just winding

down, but here in Alaska we still have anover 200-inch base. So we will be skiingthrough May and maybe into July. We hada great season for snow, but not the bestfor training. Our power skills have im-proved with 4 to 5 days out of seven withface shots.

Alyeska Masters this year sent 10 com-petitors to Nationals and a good time washad by all. Park City did a great job ofpulling off the races under difficult condi-tions. Next year, we are hoping to send aleast fifteen to Nationals and improve ourUSSA membership by 15%. This is a goal Ihave set, and with the help of the existingmembers I think we can make the goal orexceed it.

Our Annual Masters banquet andawards is Apr. 13, with beer and wine pro-vided by our sponsor, the Odem Corp.This banquet wraps up the year with funvideos of great falls and tumbles and vari-ous awards for our members and sponsors.

I hope all my Masters friends andcompetitors have a fun, safe summer.Hope to see some of you at the SummerFun Nationals!

Division News

Bob Davis racingSG at the Worlds.

John Bloombergwaxes poetic.


Division News

Rocky MountainJennifer L. Kaufman, Vice President and Division Chairwww.rmmskiracing.org

Despite a difficult snow year, Rocky Moun-tain Division wrapped up a successful yearof racing with the DJ Tengdin MemorialTri-Combi event on March 31. This fabu-lous day of racing was sponsored by theTengdin family in honor of DJ and in-volves three race runs (Fast GS, GS and SL)as well as costumes, contests, prizes, foodand a lot of fun. Congratulations to all ourwinners, particularly Franz Fuchsbergerand Lauren MacMath for outstanding per-formance in the overall men’s andwomen’s fields and to everyone thatworked hard to make the day very special.We expect this tradition to continue intothe future so if you missed it this year,make plans to check it out next season!Check out pics from the event.

We also congratulate all of our racers

that competed in Masters Nationals andMasters Worlds this year! Results fromthose events can be found on the USSAwebsite. Results from the regular RMM sea-son can be found on our website atwww.rmmskiracing.org.

Our Sponsor a Race Day programcontinues to support our racing habit anda big thanks to everyone that participatedthis year including: Kevin Ward, MarkGranger, Laura Weninger, Bruce Wienke,John Davis, The Treat Family, Lori Hamil-ton, Jonathan Wolf, Chuck Tower, RolfFunk, The “Minnesota Connection” (Char-lie Hauser, Bob Benson, Lila Gidlow, Win-fried Raabe, Tom Patterson, JerrySorenson), The “Old Guys” (Bob Benson,Charlier Hauser, Lee Kaufman, BruceWienke), Peter Monson, Jeanette & ScottSaylor, Steve Furtner, Bruce Whitesal andthe Tengdin Family. We sponsored 100%of this season’s races thanks to thistremendous support from our member-ship!

We also thank our corporate sponsorsincluding: Greenlight Collaboration, FUXISki Racing, SKS, A Racers Edge, and SaucerWax. We could not do this without yourgenerous support and prize donations.

As many of you know, we will begoing through a board transition now thatthe season is over. Graham Smith will betaking over as President and Wiebe Gort-maker is joining the board as VP. We antic-ipate additional communication regardingthe new board composition once Grahamhas had a chance to get in the saddle!

Thank you to everyone for a great sea-son and we look forward to seeing you onthe slopes next year!

NorthernNorthern MastersToby Chapman, Chairman

The 2012 race seasonwas successful onceagain, thanks to ourneighboring divi-

sions, PNSA and Intermountain. WithPNSA and Intermountain’s help, Northernwas able to have a full schedule of races.Thank you!

Highlights of this year’s Regionals atBig Sky included Toby Chapman and LisaDensmore winning their way onto theWestern Regional Team. Lisa and Tobydominated at Regionals, with Lisa winningthe SG and SC overall, and Toby winningthe GS and SL overall. Other notables atRegionals were Ralph Lemke getting 3rd inclass 11 SG and SL, Brad Leonard earning3rd in class 11 GS, Roger Lemke 2nd inboth class 4 GS and SG, Ken Bailey 3rd inclass 6 SL, and Jack Ballard earning 3rd inthe class 5 SG.

Nationals highlights included LisaDensmore winning the SG, SC, SL, and GSin class 6, Dennis Wilhelmsen winning theclass 6 SL, and Toby Chapman winningthe class 3 SC and SL. Additionally, LisaDensmore finished 3rd overall in theladies’ SC, 2nd in the SG, 3rd overall inthe GS, and made the U.S. Masters SpyderTeam. Dennis Wilhelmsen finished 3rdoverall in the SC and Toby Chapman fin-ished 3rd overall in the SL.

Hopefully, Northern can have even abigger contingent of racers next years atNationals!

Gate training opportunities for North-ern racers are available around the divisionwith Lookout Pass, Big Sky, and Red Lodgeall having masters programs. Contact TobyChapman for details: 406-370-8052.

Look forward to seeing you all nextseason or at Summer Nationals.

Far WestBy Mark Mirvisswww.FarWestMasters.org

Far West racers were challenged byweather, as were all of the other divisionsthis season. We did manage to host a verywell-attended FIS Masters Criterium atMammoth. This event featured racers from31 countries including Japan, and most ofEurope. While there were some weatherchallenges, everyone enjoyed the cama-raderie and had a good time.

Summer fun at the Summer Fun Nationals.

Beth Sarazine leaves her own pigtailin the dust.


Far West also did very well at the Na-tionals, hosted by Park City. We finishedsecond overall among all of the divisionsrepresented. As I write this article, we areless than a week away from concluding ourseason with a season finale series consist-ing of a DH, two SG’s, a GS, an SL, and ourfinal race of the year, a fundraising dual SLfor our scholarship fund.

We would also like to invite all of ourother divisional rivals and friends to com-pete next year in an FIS Masters Race, ten-tatively scheduled Feb. 28–Mar. 3.

Have a great summer, and see you inthe fall.

Intermountain Masters—It’s a wrap! By Amy Lanzel, chairwww.intermountain-masters.org

Wow, what a year forIntermountain Mas-ters. One of our best

ever actually. Even though the weather didnot cooperate as much as we would haveliked, it was still a fabulous year for thefolks in this division. The race schedule in-cluded a great variety of races and at someof our favorite resorts—and all within 6hours of the home base, Park City. We hadsome real standout racers in our groupwho pushed the envelope and capturednot only national titles but also FIS WorldCriterium medals. This is an excellent trib-ute to the hard work and dedication of thecoaches at our various training programsin Park City, Snowbasin and Sun Valley.

This summer we encourage everyoneto get out and move as much as possible.Like Bode Miller said “races are won de-pending on what you do in the off sea-son.” The Intermountain Masters folks arefortunate to live in a beautiful place thatmakes getting in shape and staying thereeasy to do. I’d like to quote Jake Milenhallwho did some great research on the agingathlete. “People who are fit at age 40 andcontinue to exercise show a lesser decreasein many of the physiological functions re-lated to fitness than do those who seldomexercise. A trained 60-year-old, for exam-ple, may have the same level of CR fitnessas a sedentary 20-year-old. In short, regu-lar exercise can help add life to your yearsand years to your life.”

So enjoy the summer and stay active.We have another wonderful ski season justaround the corner. Special thanks to all the

great volunteers who help make our pro-gram the best in the nation.

PNSABy Ann Ozunawww.PNSAmasters.org

PNSA Masters wrapped upanother race-filled seasonunder the sun at the PNSA

Championships in Bend, Oregon overEaster weekend with SG, GS and SL raceshosted by the Mt. Bachelor Ski EducationFoundation. This year we offered 14 raceweekends at locations ranging from almostCalifornia (Willamette Pass, Oregon) tothe Seattle area’s Snoqualmie and StevensPasses, all the way east to Lookout Pass onthe Idaho/Montana Border. We weresnowed out of the SG races at Stevens Passand the GS/SL races of the Schweitzer se-ries as the Pacific Northwest got moresnow than the rest of the country—usuallyon a race day. Can you visualize a cat stuckin 32 inches of new powder in the middleof a run which ran an SG the previousday? Needless to say, the racers got someof the best powder skiing of the year in-stead of racing!

This year’s “Road Warrior” award goesto Larry Konstacky of Seattle, who, alongwith his non-racing wife, made every racesingle weekend. Former winner Brad Scotttried to give him a run for the title, butmissed an event when his daughter gotmarried.

The Division welcomed a number ofnew racers this year, who came out totry racingwhen therace seriescame to theirhome areas.We look for-ward to seeingthem on thecourse in com-ing years. Sev-eral areas haveprograms wherethe parents ofJunior and MiteyMite racers areencouraged tojoin local train-ing and race

against their kids who forerun the masterscourse. SEASON-LONG CHAMPIONS BY CLASS

LadiesClass 12 Janet VincentClass 10 Carolyn PhillipsClass 9 Ann OzunaClass 8 Jeannie HummelClass 7 Sonook MorrisonClass 6 Linda Shallow and

Lauri ReutimannClass 5 Sarah PeshkinClass 4 Jennifer AspassClass 3 Lori FrucciClass 2 Melissa DettmerClass 1 Katherine Haese

MenClass 13 Kristian BergClass 12 Odd VaarvikClass 11 Willi SchmidtClass 10 Rich RobertsonClass 9 Knut OlbergClass 8 Larry KonstackyClass 7 Brad ScottClass 6 Dave KornishClass 5 Tim AidClass 4 David SchreitmuellerClass 3 Tad DobsonClass 2 Tad Zavadski and Matt TorrieClass 1 Luke Keenan

The 2011/2012 season brought a change inhow PNSA Masters register for and pay forski racing, as PNSA joined other divisionsusing www.skiracereg.com. We finally havejust about everyone registered in the sys-tem so they can sign up for races in ad-vance and pay by credit card without anyextra processing fees for the racer or the or-ganizer. Racers can even see in advancewho else is attending. Good news is thatwe won’t have to sign up again next year;just sign in and pick races to attend whenthe schedule is posted for next year.

Division News

Chris Maxwell (PN) smokes the field in Western region SG.


CentralRyan Fuller, chairwww.midwestmas-ters.org

What a season! We’vehad many challengesthis year, with boththe weather and a loss

of a surprisingly large percentage of ourmembers due to injury. Despite these chal-lenges, Midwest Masters has ended theyear meeting our financial goals, and onlyhad to modify one event due to weatherdifficulties.

Unlike many divisions, Central takeson much of the responsibility for not onlymarketing for our races and managing di-visional membership, but also running theevents. Central owns its own equipmentand trailer, has a dedicated race directorand race crew, and provides its own offi-cials and jury members at all events. All weask of the venue is a start and finish timerand the use of the timing system. Our re-sults system is independent of the timingsystem used by the hill.

We are now in our 5th season usingour own divisional points system, whichmimics FIS point calculations, completewith race points and penalties. We gener-ate updated seed lists weekly after eachevent. It is working quite well and is thebasis for our ability class awards each year,

which recognize different levels of abili-ties, regardless of age or gender. We alsocontinue to award our racers based on tra-ditional age classes.

We are also in our 3rd season usingSkiRaceReg and are very happy with thesystem. We have com-pleted many other effortsrelated to organizing the“back office” over the lastfew years, and look for-ward to focusing on ourMmembers even more inthe future. Katy Martin,our program director for2012, played an importantpart in taking on the on-site Race Registration du-ties and we happy that sheintends to continue work-ing with us again next sea-son.

We are losing partici-pants at a far greater rate that we are gain-ing them; most notably, we lost 32 fullmembers year-over-year (41 were lost butonly 9 were offset with new members). Al-though membership is down, utilization isnot down to the same degree—we onlylost 4% in starts versus a loss of 14% inmembers; this helps to explain why our fi-nancial position has remained stable.

Although we haven’t closed our finan-cial books yet, we fully expect to see the

average cost perrace for ourmembers to staythe same or dropfrom the approx-imate $15 markin 2011 due tofinding other ef-ficiencies tomake up for lostrevenue.

Our contactlist has grown,and our outreachand marketingefforts have beenrelatively success-ful as we haveseen many morenew faces thisyear than in pastseasons (as wit-nessed by the 26

completely new Temps gained this year).We will continue to use Facebook andmore boots-on-the-ground marketing byplacing posters and flyers in shops and atthe local ski hills, and working hard to re-cruit locals near the ski areas we hold

events.We are putting efforts

into growing our division,via recruitment, local expo-sure, college racers, and so-cial networking. Facebook isa very low-cost method formarketing and we plan touse it to the greatest degreewe can next season includingmore video and photo posts.We would also like to targetlocal woman racers, NASTARmembers, parents of local J1USSA racers and USSAcoaches to remind themabout Midwest Masters and

the great racing we provide.Our preliminary plan is to go back to

the basics and hold fewer, but larger,events. We also intend to hold the firstUSSA-sanctioned “City Event” as a dual GSrace elimination-style race complete withcattle gates. This race would be scoredboth within the NASTAR system andwithin USSA Masters. What will reallymake these events “bigger” is that we in-tend to focus more on our members dur-ing these events with more awards, morerecognition for great performances, andmore recognition of new members.

We plan to continue to expand on thesocial aspect to our races. This year, we or-ganized two different post-race eventswhich were received well. We intend to ex-pand this to most all events next year.

Thank you to all of our loyal mem-bers for another successful season! Wehope that you are finding that MidwestMasters is improving every year. We wouldalso like to thank our outgoing BoardMembers: Ken McAdam, Marty Fox, PatHiller, and Casey Weiss for their invaluableservice. We’d also like to thank our outgo-ing Race Director, Mike Auge, for his excel-lent service over the past several seasons.Keep your eyes out for the Midwest Mas-ters Fast Times Newsletter over the sum-mer for lots of updates on our plans fornext season. It won’t be long before we seeyou on the hill once again!

Division News

Gene TimmonsGene gave it all to Masters racing, including a stint as Masters national chairman and multiple-time Nationals champion.

We miss you guys.

Harold WestcottA longtime Masters legend,Harold passed away doingwhat he loved most, whilecompeting in DH at SkiCooper, Colorado.

C O M P L E T E D C A R E E R S. C O M P L E T E D C A R E E R S ,

Ryan and Mitch


Join The Fun! This is year #24 at the annualSummer Fun Nationals at Mt Hood, Ore-gon. In addition to Masters classes, we in-vite racers to bring your family to join the

fun with the Fastest Family Award andJunior classes. Family members must alsohold current USSA licenses (2013).

Masters Summer Fun Nationals isright in the middle of ski race Mecca. MtHood is action central for the ski industryduring the summer. Race camps and skireps with all next season’s gear gatherhere from all over the world. This is THE

time and place to be to get the scoop onnext season’s gear as well as try it out atthe Summer Fun Nationals. Halfway be-tween last season and next, it is the per-fect time to remind those old muscleswhat to do on skis. Sign up for a few daysof race camp (www.skiracing.com) priorto the race then race on the weekend.Summer Heaven for a ski racer!

2012 USSA Masters Summer Fun Nationals • Timberline/Palmer Glacier, Oregon • July 20–22, 2012DNS refund requests must be in writing.

Name USSA #

Address

City, State, Zip

Phone: Day ( ) Evening E-mail

Birth Date / / Class: Sex: ■ Men ■ Women

Events Cost Enclosed

Full Weekend: GS, SL, BBQ $129 ________

Sat only/GS, BBQ $89 ________

Sun only/SL $59 ________

Late Fee if received after 7/14 $20 ________

Guest BBQ $35 ________

TOTAL PAID $ _________

For More [email protected](541) 490-5888

Entries/check payable to:Masters Summer Fun Race3624 Lois Dr., Hood River, OR 97031

T-shirt Size:

■ XS ■ S ■ M

■ L ■ XL

24th Masters Summer Fun NationalsJuly 20 –22, 2012 • www.SummerFunNationals.com

Friday, July 20Racer welcome • Check-in

Saturday, July 21Giant Slalom • BBQ • Awards

Sunday, July 22Slalom • Daily & special awards

Register Here!

This year, we dedicate theraces to 20-year Summer FunNationals veteran Jim Estes(1931–2012).

USSA Masters Contacts . . . . . . . . . . . .

The VISION of the USSA AlpineMasters is to provide adult skiers with alifelong opportunity to enjoy the chal-lenges and rewards of alpine ski racing.

The MISSION of the USSA Alpine Masters is to make this vision a reality by developing,promoting, organizing and coordinating the highest level of alpine ski racing throughout

snow country in the United States and internationally, and to fulfill our passion for and loveof nature, the outdoors, mountains, freedom, self-challenge and accomplishment.

P.O. Box 100Park City Utah 84060

National Masters ChairmanSteve Slivinski

tel: 208.726.3442email: [email protected]

USSA Masters ManagerBill SkinnerP.O. Box 100

Park City, UT 84060tel: 435.647.2633fax: 435.649.3613

email: [email protected]

DIVISION CHAIRPERSONS

Alaska: Gary Randalltel: 907.243.4259


Central: Ryan Fullertel: 612.501.3268


Eastern: Bill McCollomtel: 802.234.9561


Eastern/New England: Nadine Pricetel: 802.746.8850


Eastern/New York: Jack Eisenschmidtel: 585.288.4554


Eastern/Southern: Horst Lochertel: 540.856.2121fax: 540.856.8567


Far West: Mark Mirvisstel: 530.583.6971


Intermountain: Amy Lanzeltel: 435.649.5751


Northern: Toby Chapmantel: 406.541.0866


Pacific Northwest: Ann Ozunatel: 509.455.7944


Rocky Mountain: Graham Smithtel: 719.510.0747


2013 Major EventsSkier’s Edge Masters Nationals

Big Sky, MT, Mar. 18–23DH/SG/GS/SL

Eastern Region ChampionshipsKillington, VT, Feb. 8–10

SC/SG/GS/SL

FIS Masters Cup Mammoth, CA, Feb. 28–Mar. 3

SG/SG/SL/SL

Franz Fuchsberger, 2012 national DH champion

Non profitU.S. Postage

P A I D4753

Salt Lake City

What Skis Will Be Fast Next Season? - US Alpine Masters -

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