2013 USASA Nationals Review #1

Copper Mountain was once again host for USASA Nationals.  As in previous years, we arrived early to take advantage of the extra SBX Practice Days and to try and better acclimate to the altitude.  In fact, I had been living in Breckenridge for a month prior to Nationals, coaching in the Ski& Ride School and had adapted fairly well to the high alpine environment.  Ale showed up a few days in advance and put in some gym time in an effort to acclimate to the altitude too.  We were both excited to get some quality practice runs in on a full-length course.

2013 USASA SBX Racing Year-end Review #4

Be sure to read Part #1, Part #2 and Part #3

We used the final practice and race day at Holiday Valley as a ‘mock’ Nationals.  Most of the video is from the practice day.  The start section on practice day was not quite groomed out and shaped for race conditions, which created some interesting features to handle right out of the gate.  The rest of the course was in good shape and would give us a solid warm-up for the Copper course.

2013 USASA SBX Racing Year-end Review #3

Be sure to read Part #1 and Part #2

Practice…practice…practice; we finally had time and decent conditions to put in some real solid on-snow training.  There was one race day left at Holiday Valley and then the next event would be Nationals out at Copper Mountain, CO.  The idea was to focus on a few technical riding skills that needed improvement and use the upcoming New York races as a ‘mock’ Nationals.  Even though everyone was excited to gear up for Nationals and do as much racing practice as possible, it was important to maintain some level of balance and keep up with the gym training too.

Coach Jb With Some TGU Action

2013 USASA SBX Racing Year-end Review #2

Be sure to read Part #1

The next competition was in our home region, the Appalachian Series, with Wisp Resort in Maryland hosting the 2 re-scheduled races (postponed earlier in the season due to bad conditions/weather).  Besides steady improvement with technical riding, our other main goal for the event was to qualify for Nationals.  If each athlete could win gold in both races they’d get an automatic bid for Nationals by being the Series Champion.

Gray Was a Big Raffle Winner Too