Birke Tour: I'm signed up for the Birke Tour on the 23rd of Jan.  Everyone who plans on doing it or watching please e-mail me so we can do a little organization.  If you need a place to stay over on Fri or Sat night let me know.  I've got sleeping space at my cabin south of Hayward.  I've heard from 4 or 5 people so far.

Personal Attention: I hope everyone has been getting the personal attention they need.  I want everyone to have the chance to get some direct feedback from a coach.  Hopefully a coach pulls you over during the session and makes some suggestions.  If you haven't had much interaction with a coach maybe it's just because we don't see anything wrong.  But feel free to corner one of us when appropriate.  Especially after class when we're milling around in the practice area by the parking lot.  I ask that the coaches please come back through that area and hang out for a few minutes before going home in case there are students looking for a little help.  Don't be afraid to ask for help.

Casual Clothing: This Tuesday we will have some samples of casual clothing with the R&G logo on them.  Orders will be taken over the next two weeks.  See them at class Tuesday night and I'll have info on the website later in the week.  The items will be very attractively priced.

Lots of skaters took advantage of the Classic Night. Hope everyone good some good information. The Classic for Skaters was meant for people who already do both techniques. I find that I can use the same concepts from skate instruction when teaching classic. It makes it easier to get my point across when the student already understands the concept from his or her skate instruction. We had lots of classic instructors so again it was private/semi-private lesson time. My group had 4 to begin with but we lost 3 of them by the time we got over to the Lexington Hill. Sorry if we took off too fast. I hope you hooked up with someone.

There were lots of classical coaches last night, and I overheard lots of good pointers and instructions. I got a few questions about kick waxing. The temps were really low, but the track was hard packed. People were concerned that cold weather waxes wouldn't work. I'm not a wax guru, but my experience is that when the temps are below 10 degrees, the snow becomes crystalline, and very slow, even if it's hard packed and otherwise icy. Just about any kick wax will be equally effective under these conditions. However, a softer wax will quickly get scraped off your skis by the abrasive snow.

I recommend using a binder wax melted into the base to help hold the kick wax on. If conditions seem really icy, you can use multiple light layers, with a slightly warmer wax on top. I used Toko white last night, which has an advertised range of 19 to 9 degrees, and it worked quite well.

Note that this doesn't necessarily mean that kick will come easy. You need to really get on top of your skis in a hard packed, icy track to get a good kick. If you tend to kick late, or if you don't keep you posture upright, you'll have trouble with your kick under these conditions no matter what wax you use. But if you're careful with your technique, you'll be rewarded with great glide and fast skiing, even if conditions are cold. And you'll have the satisfaction of being able to climb even the steep hills without resorting to herringbone.

Ben and Todd took a group of approximately twelve skiers to the Lexington Hill where we enjoyed near perfect conditions for celebrating Classic Night. Ben began by talking about a proper body position that closely resembled a good skate skiing position: good forward position, driving knee in front of the toe, arm not over-extended. Next, we spent some time discussing the proper timing for our classic kick. Because many of us were kicking a little late Ben emphasized the kick must initiate with the forward motion of our trailing leg to generate the greatest amount of kick. We then skied over to the steep hill adjacent to the ski hill to practice our steep hill technique. Ben showed us how to shift our weight back, bend at the knee, lengthen our stride, and to avoid the temptation to make a complete weight transfer (aka sneaking up on someone or our crouching tiger position) to avoid resorting to the running herring bone up the hill. To conclude the night we finished our lap around Como. Ben and I were both happy to see so many skiers shake the dust off of their classic equipment, and we believe that many advanced skiers's technique benefits greatly by incorporating liberal amounts of classic skiing into their training.

24 Hours of Telemark (by Shad Holland)

Last weekend I went up to Telemark to Ski Patrol (on a bicycle of course) the 24 Hours of Telemark. It was a pretty cool event. Quite a different crowd, they seemed a lot less serious, than what I am used to seeing at ski races. There was a best costume award, which certainly was interesting to see. One guy skied in shorts with bare legs when it was about 5 degrees out. The temps were pretty cold, but they stayed above 0 all night and actually got warmer, up to about 11 or so, throughout the night. Glide seemed to be the thing the skaters complained about most. I was having a hard time getting glide too, so I rubbed some green wax on my wheel bearings and I was good to go....;-).

Results:

Award Winners (PDF)
College Cup Results (PDF)
Detailed Results (PDF)
Summarized Results (PDF)

Words from the editor - Shad Holland

Weather is really good. This coming week is going to be some of the best conditions of the year. This winter is turning out to be awesome. Get out and ski!!!