Go Ski Racers

The kids had fun up on the slopes yet again this year. They're turning into amazing, competent, slick little skiers, thanks to the Mt. Ashland Racing Association and six hours of instruction with accomplished instructors every week for 12 weeks.

They each raced in one race this year.

Dane earned his best times, meeting his goal to come in under a minute on each run. In fact, I think he got like 50 seconds each run, missing 3rd place by a second, and first place by only a few. It was super exciting.

Aubrey had one solid run with a little over a minute, and then one run that took her quite a bit longer than she'd hoped. She had a great attitude, though, and knew it was just part of the experience.

 Aubs there in the black mittens, waiting to race.

 Dane tired, and tired of waiting.

 Aubs out the gates.

 Aubs headed down the hill.

Aubs earning her participant ribbon.

I didn't get a good picture of Dane coming down the hill, because I waited at the bottom both times and was beside myself as I watched him just cruise. Didn't take a good picture, but loved reveling in the moment!

A COUPLE OF CUPS

Dane and Aubrey are downhill speedsters! They've raced in two Cups this season, The Shakespeare Cup and the Keiser Cup, which take place up on Mt. Ashland.

In the Shakespeare Cup, Dane came in 12th out of 13 for his age group with a time of 1:01 and 1:00. His two times last year averaged to something like 1:45. Out of that, he made a personal goal of getting down that slope in under a minute -- "in the seconds," is what he called it.

Well, this year, while his Shakespeare Cup times were still not "in the seconds" for his 12th place finish, when he skied The Keiser Cup later in the season he made his goal! His first time down was 1:01 and he knew he had to shave 4 seconds off his second run to average under a minute. He raced his second run in 57 seconds!!! This earned him 8th out of 13!

Aubrey's Shakespeare Cup times were 2:16 and 1:21 for 7th out of 8 in her age group. Her Keiser Cup times were high, too, both at about 1:30 and earning her 13th out of 13, so she wasn't super excited about the results. However, with slow times like that, you have the chance to wave at your parents on your way down the course. (Mick and I were bowing our heads, trying not to encourage it -- of course, we couldn't quit laughing.)

The Sloan Cup is coming up in March. If the kids race then, I'll get video footage, so you can see how faaasssst they are...


Click here for Keiser Cup race results, and here for Shakespeare Cup results, so you can get an idea of how fast some of these kids can fly.

Sunday Summary

Two things to report:

1 - Hired a babysitter this afternoon and went with Mick to the OSF production of Death and the King's Horseman. Excellent play. The playwright, Wole Soyinka, is an African who won the Nobel Prize. This particular play is rarely performed outside of Africa, but this year it's being performed in two places: London and Ashland. That makes me happy.

The play takes place in the 1940s and "is based on a real incident that took place in Nigeria during British colonial rule when the ritual suicide of the Horseman of an important chief was prevented by the intervention of the colonial authorities.^[1] In addition to the British intervention, Soyinka calls the horseman's own conviction toward suicide into question, posing another problem that throws off the community's balance."

There were many poignant moments, highlighting the conflicts of colonialism and change, but one line stands out for me, affirming what I understand of colonialism. A young African man who has studied medicine in England returns to Africa and reflects on the current crisis in light of his experience abroad, saying, "Your people disrespect what you don't understand."

I love that. What a brilliant way to point out the presumptuousness of dominant nations and their citizens.

Anyway, Mick and I liked the play, liked getting out, and liked our prawn nachos at Tabu afterwards. We also liked coming home to two jumproping kids in the living room, who now call for my attention - so I have to cut this short.

But one more thing...

2 - Went skiing with our family and Kai and his two girls yesterday. Sweet powder. Evidently there was some sweet chubby-chick-snowboarder-butt-crack, too. But it gets better. Kai pointed to said crack as Mick was skiing down the hill. Evidently, the chick sitting was on the hill adjusting her boots, and had a pretty deep crevice atop her drawers. Mick flew down and stopped right before her, spraying her backside with a perfect whoosh of powder that filled the top of her pants and her crack. Then he had the nerve to look uphill when she turned around, miffed -- and act as if he was looking for me. Kai took off skiing and laughing to himself. Later he told me Mick made a perfect little cone in her crevice. I thought maybe we should coin the term "snow coning."



Watch out!

A SHAKESPEARE CUP RACER

Guess who raced in his first downhill competition?

Saturday was the kids' third day of a 6-week introductory course with MARA (Mt. Ashland Racing Association)--and look who chose to race the first race of the season!

Dane was excited to participate and ready to learn what had to be done. He got to race the giant slalom course twice, each time earning a 1 minute 50 second time. The second time he even took a big spill, but got up and stuck his ski back on in order to finish, which means he was cruisin'!

His classmates, who mostly chose not to race, stood on the sides cheering Dane on, shouting out how awesome he was. And, just so you understand the joy and generosity of that: the winner raced it in about 26 seconds and the average racer came in under a minute.

So, given that Dane had a great experience putting forth his personal best, you'll probably agree that he's pretty freakin' awesome, too.

SKI WEEK

It might be northern California's ski week right now, but our ski week was back in December at White Pass, thanks to Mike and Jan. We stayed at a condo on the slope for two nights with them, and Kai and Dana and their family.

The kids took lessons and then skied the bunny hills with their cousins; Mick and I got a couple runs in together; and Mick and Kai got a few runs in together. (Jude sledded with Uncle Garth, and Weston stayed at the condo, getting ready to turn ONE.)


Hot POOL at the condo! The kids were ballsy enough to do snow angels over and over and over again before jumping back into the pool.


Aubs hit the slopes with an enthusiastic attitude, "wee-haw"-ing like a crazy girl and crouching like a pro.


Dane exhibited some new traits with an approach Mick and I hadn't seen before and had to adjust to: he wanted to do everything his own way, even when sliding mad and backwards down a hill away from the rope tow (now a "magic carpet") with no idea what to do. What happened to our compliant, easy little boy? (Oh, that sounds pathetic, doesn't it?)

Turns out, he really, really wanted to ski -- his buddy Marcus does black diamond runs, and his cousins had lessons last year, so they were already on the slopes. Dane was just antsy to get started, thought it looked easy, and didn't want to take the time to learn from his parents (even though his dad's been a snowboarding instructor!).

Rather than get caught up in a power struggle -- we wanted this to be fun -- we immediately signed both kids up for 2 hours of ski school and hit the slopes on our own. It worked out well: they were up and running, confident and happy, by the time we got back.

Dane even had a sweet little rash at the corner of his mouth that lasted the next few days, where he'd fed himself snow out of his glove while skiing down the hill.

"Dub-Dub turned ONE!"