SSE Indoor Race, Landgraaf

Thank you to Andrew Upton from Welwyn for the following report. More to follow. A few photos can be found here.

At first I really wasn’t sure if this event was worth doing, I couldn’t have been more wrong.

How glad I now am that I posted the entry for Ben and made the trip, a superb facility, with friendly helpful staff and an excellent weekend of ski racing thanks to SSE and the volunteers on the days.

So yes another tick on Ben’s long list of to do’s.

I dislike being indoors behind the glass but at Snow World the viewing area had a buzz, the conversation amongst those watching was loud and lively and the relentless Tyrolean music along with GP’s brilliant commentary with a Zumba class running in the background just seemed to work.

Good to see so many ERSA racers make the trip, the usual shinning lights of ski racing from the Eastern Region were there and they all skied superbly well with medals heading in their direction, but I was equally impressed by those that do more dry slope than snow slope, some of whom had to borrow or buy longer skies to comply with the race rules, around 4 hours of introduction to longer skis and a 500m long race paste when many of the racers are only used to a 130m slopes is a recipe for disaster.

Nothing could be further from the truth, everyone appeared to be beaming, a certain individual who shall remain nameless…. Alex Reidy… Ooops must have skied relentlessly for around 8 hrs solid on Saturday all because he could and because he loves to ski.

This is what skiing is all about, ski as much or as little as you want but love what you do.

Maybe a key point is the size of the facility where there truly is room to ski.

There were some tumbles and straddles but that is racing, also a certain relatively unknown young racer sent out a message loud and clear that he is up for a race regardless of his contemporary’s track records, he earned himself a Silver Medal on Sunday and then a Gold Medal on Monday brilliant and well done Dominic.

Listening around to the usual pep talks and in some case dressing downs, all we asked of our racers was…. Just go for it and give it your all, and they all did just that and more.

For some entering was an achievement as it was for those racers that dealt with their nerves on a steep start ramp so far up the slope that you can’t tell who is who down at the bottom, or had to adjust to longer skis all of you are stars in my eyes along with the excellent medal winning skiers of our region.

Would I recommend the event …… definitely?

Would I camp again at Camp Sunshine….. yep, as long as the weather is good.

A good weekend spent with good company.

Andrew