Snowsports GB: 14827

Dry Slope: Suffolk Vikings

Snow: The Snow Club

Other Interests: PS2, Gym, Cycling

Hopefully you will find it interesting my take on the ski race scene. I've come into this at a fairly late stage, when I was 13, but I feel that I have made a huge steps over the first year of racing.

I first had a ski lesson at Bristol dry slope in 2002 and then the following year for my 12th birthday, my mum and dad bought me a set of lessons at Ipswich ski slope. That was the time I really got hooked on skiing and wanted to learn more. So I started going to their Saturday morning workshops and got the hang of it fairly quickly.

In July of 2003 I was invited to join the Suffolk Vikings race team, which meant I started training first thing Saturday morning. At first I went to a few sessions and eventually convinced my mum and dad I was serious about staying with skiing and in October of that year they bought me my first pair of skis and boots. It was great and that improved my skiing a lot. It was also the time that they let me start training more.

I also got more involved in the monthly Blue Ribbon races from that time onwards and was determined to make an impact. I was enjoying it loads and my dad spent ages finding out about what to do and what races to enter. I am now one of the best at the club and have the third fastest time in the club, and I will get better!

April 2004 we went skiing on snow for the first time with some friends from the club, and we went to Tignes. It was brilliant and I really enjoyed it and it was really good. When I got back from there I then spent the rest of the summer going to various races around the country.

I started going to the ERSA races and by the end of the season I was one of the best ones in my age group. I also went to quite a few of the nationals and found them totally different and harder to do, but they were great fun. Because I did well my mum and dad let me join The Snow Club and at Christmas they let me go away with them to race with the DHO at Wengen, Switzerland and then onto the BARSC races at Austria. It was the first time I raced on snow and I had a load of things to learn, but it was excellent and really great.

I now am looking to take part in more snow races, but finances are the biggest problem. Also during the 2005 dry slope season I will be attending the ERSA, Nationals and Grand Prx events throughout the country. The one downside is that I will have to sacrifice the club Blue Ribbons, as I have to take part in at least nine of them and I will miss a few because of the national races. But if I want to improve then I have to go to the harder events.

So watch out on here and I will start updating the information over the next few months. Let me know what you think, or if you would like to sponsor me then please email me at craig@skibits.co.uk.

Thank you for reading my web site.