I tend to use a lot of hyperbolic adjectives in my emails. Words like…”amazing”, and “awesome” are used often. Maybe even overused at times. But for this review, they are completely accurate. I’ll need to add “spectacular”, “incredible”….”awesomely amazing”, I’ll just start making some up.
There were 63 of us in Keystone. The best turn-out that we’ve had in years. So many new faces and the return of several familiar faces. Thank you to everyone who made it to our first NAASF Ski Week of the season. You helped to make it an …”amazing” Ski Week.
Although we were scattered throughout the resort in different lodging locations, we had our reunion at the Monday night Welcome Party. Tuesday saw the kick-off of our competitions with the Snowboard and Newcomers races.
We kicked butt!!
Our very own dynamic duo of Kameron Troy and Traci Farley took third and fourth in the women’s race. In the men’s race it was a near sweep of the podium with Danny Caccia taking second, first time competitor Phil Hoskinson third and Matt Anaya fourth. Just a little further down the list of finishers was another newcomer, James Oncu then Kevin OBrien and myself in no particular order.
On that very same race course, Amy Clark…who is a near shoe-in to win the “Amy Clark newcomer of the year award” (I just made that up) beat all posted times by nearly two seconds with her top finish for the ladies in the Newcomers race. Despite its name, the newcomers race is stacked with talent. It sees skiers and snowboarders competing head to head. Brian Miller took 8th overall, with Dave DeNormandie, Phil Hoskinson and another new face, Fred Landau finishing out the roster. Fred also made a great video for any potential racers showing just how fun and easy the course can be.
I think that I had been looking forward to our Tuesday night Team Dinner most of all for the week. We honored 4 of our long time members with a new award. Don Carillo, Doug Frost, Ken McKean and Bruce Powers received our new “Member Emeritus” challenge coins. Please join me in congratulating these 4 men for their dedication and continued support of our Ski Club. Thank you, gentlemen for being the Heart of our Team!
Wednesday was slalom day. She’ll readily admit that the slalom race isn’t her forte. However, Amy still took 9th in the women’s B slalom. Jason Prickett and Don Carillo were 3rd and 4th for the men.
On the big hill, Kameron Troy and Kelli McDonald finished 5th and 7th in women’s A slalom. For the men, Kris Novak and Bruce Powers grabbed 10th and 20th.
The Wednesday night theme party was an A-list of rock stars, pet rocks, and any other “Rock” that you could imagine.
Thursday had us up bright and early again for the fast and furious giant slalom races. At this point, my computer is simply auto-filling her name…Amy Clark was our lone B women’s giant slalom competitor. She easily took the top of the podium with her first place finish. Don Carillo handed the competition an astonishing 2nd place finish.
Kameron and Kelli joined up to take 7th and 8th for the women.
What does all of this mean? I’m glad you asked.
The Shredder’s Cup is the total combined team points for all snowboarders. We’re currently in first place holding a slight lead over Delta Airlines.
The NAASF Cup, which is all combined team points for both A and B, men and women, slalom and giant slalom has Delta off to an early lead. We’re in the 4th spot with plenty of time to catch up.
The Bob Powers Cup is for bragging rights of all A racers. It’s Delta again holding the early lead. But, we’re in a close race with our 3rd place spot.
I’m about to sound repetitive here. But, it’s important to remind us all that these “friendly but fierce” competitions between Airline Ski Clubs is the reason NAASF exists. There’s something that I call “sitters regret”. It occurs during the last Ski Week of the season. It’s when we’re all seated and applauding the Teams that win these season ending awards. We definitely have the potential and talent to be the Team taking these trophies home this April. Let’s harness this early momentum and continue to raise the collective eyebrows of our friends in these other clubs.
Before I wrap up this review, let’s all keep Camille Griffin in our thoughts. You’ll notice in the picture above that she still has a big and bright smile even after sustaining a knee injury. Camille, we’re sorry to learn that your ski season is over just as it was beginning. We hope that you have a speedy recovery.
The Steamboat Ski Week is right on our heels. It’s just the way the schedule worked out this year. While I don’t expect our turnout to be the big numbers we saw at Keystone, I do expect that everyone who attends will have fun.
Be sure to register on http://naasf.com so that I can plan our Team Dinner accordingly. The Wednesday night theme is “animated characters”. That in itself is reason enough to attend.
I hope to see all of you again very soon. Thanks for reading.