Gordon Skiers AGM 2017, 7.30pm Wednesday 21st June At The Broadstraik Inn Westhill

A final reminder that our AGM is this Wednesday evening at 7.30pm at the Broadstraik Inn at Westhill.

It is really important that as many members as possible attend.  This is your opportunity to shape the future of the club.  We have some important changes to the constitution of the club to be voted on and there are also a number of the current committee who are standing down so this is your opportunity to be involved in shaping the future direction of your club.

We would appreciate it if you could make time in your busy schedules to come and join us.

Gordon Skiers Committee

Final Wednesday Training

A brilliant final night of racing tonight at the Alford Stade.

We had 16 members racing with 2 coaches joining in and it was red hot. We even had a dead heat for second place, with first place only 0.14s ahead (over 2 runs) Impressive skiing from all, but the biggest difference was, definitely, from coach Andrew Campbell. What a difference a sharp pair of skis can make. Even Andrew was impressed by the grip he was getting round the gates.

New to Under 14’s, William Lennox was showing some class with less than a second splitting him from first place (again, over two runs)

As has been the pattern over the Spring and Summer season, the courses have been becoming more difficult. Tonight we set a bigger offset with a difficult exit from a banana into a hairpin finish (Parents :- all questions and interpretation requests welcome) We saw some real drama in the last gates with near misses.

It’s been amazing to see the improvement in the skiing. As the difficulty of courses has increased we have seen the difference in times, from fastest to slowest, decrease drastically.

Our youngest female racer, Jera, continues to impress the coaches with her determination and skiing. Let’s watch the competition between Jeera and Finlay Smith, our youngest male racer, develop over the coming seasons.

Kathleen and Andrew ran great sessions before the racing tonight. Kathleen’s group was working on Body Management, focussing on keeping the hips forward to help the skis engage the turn earlier. Andrew was working the racers hard on race starts. He had set up a split timing system, so the racers could see where they were making and losing time in the race.

The final times will be issued once James updates the master sheet and publishes to the blog.

Many Thanks to all that have been attending the sessions. They’ve been a great success, with improvements for all. Also great to see so many new racers and parents.

I really hope Kiera Henderson is OK after her her tumble tonight and back ready to race soon.

See You All Soon, Gary W

Braehead Weekend

For those entered to and racing in the GBR Indoor Race 3 and Scottish Indoor Championships next weekend, please find below the plan for the weekend.

Here is the timetable for the weekend.

Unfortunately there will be no dedicated Gordon’s training on the Friday night, due to a communications failure between Snowfactor and Gordons.

The indoor races are always exciting to watch and take part in. The racing is fast and the whole course can be seen from the spectator’s viewing balcony.  As ever, please ensure skis are sharp. Indoor races tend to be on a firm surface. Once the soft snow has been pushed aside the race course will be firm and grippy.

The Bairns will race on stubbies, following the first race of the Children. Typically the Bairn’s race will be on the same course as the children, with the full gates replaced by stubbies.

Parents, if you’ve never skied in the Glasgow indoor slope before, please note helmets are compulsory. They must be worn even if walking out onto the snow to watch from the bottom of the slope. Typically it’s -6 in the dome, so wrap up warm.

Both races will be supported by 2 Gordon’s Coaches.  Please let me know if you have any questions, or if anything is unclear for next weekend.

Gary W

GBR National Schools Championships

NE Scotland and Gordon Skiers head south to the cold of Chill Factor and run red hot in the GBR National Schools Indoor Champs.

William, Kieran and Paul were reunited for their first race together since the "Dream team" that cleaned up at SSSA Indoor Champs last Autumn. The boys blitzed the GB field and won the Junior school prize and another trophy for Newmachar Primary. Jonny Marshall also raced representing Meldrum Academy and to assist the younger guys with course inspection.

Results from the fearsome four were as follows;

• Meldrum Academy - Boys Senior School champs
• Newmachar Primary - Boys Junior School Champs
• Jonny - 1st U16 boy, 2nd overall 
• William - 1st U14 boy
• Kieran - 1st U12 boy
• Paul - 3rd U12 boy

All four will be racing again indoors at Braehead for Gordon Skiers next week. Hope to see a great team turn out!

Twin Peaks 2017 Report

Last weekend a team of Gordon Skiers travelled South to race in the Annual Twin Peaks Event.

As the name suggests, the race takes place on 2 separate hills.  Saturday’s races took place on the Tillicoultry Artificial slope at Firpark and the Sunday races took place on the legendary Hillend artificial slope, at the Midlothian Snowsports Centre.

Firpark

As with all points races, the skiers must complete 2 separate courses, set by different course setters. Course 1 was a great warm up to racing with a fast Slalom. This is also great for the spectators.

Course 2 was set by Olympian Alain Baxter, which certainly threw up more of a challenge to skiers. Of the top 6 Males, only 2 managed to finish which is indicative of the level of difficulty.

Saturday’s race was part of the GBR series, so racers from all over the UK had travelled to take part, resulting in some very competitive races and a low points penalty.  Gordon’s had 11 racers taking part. 1 x U18, 7 x Bairns and 3 U14’s.

We were off to an impressive start with almost all of the Bairns racers completing both runs.  Young Michael McIntosh raced very well, in his first race, taking 14’th place in his age category.  Seasoned Racer Daisy Cowie was showing the younger Gordon’s girls the way with an impressive top 10 finish, in age category.

The U14 boys weren’t quite so lucky with a couple of the boys not managing to complete both runs. However, Nathan was showing the other clubs that we have talented racers in the NE, taking 7’th place, in age category, for Gordons.

We only had one entry, Beth Whatford, in the U18 category. Beth had a very strong performance in the second run to take first place for Gordon Skiers.  Well done Beth

Hillend

Racing at Hillend is always a challenge for the non-locals. There’s a huge advantage to training on the (almost) biggest artificial slope in Europe. Our skiers always surprise me and do very well, with most Gordon Skiers only managing to attend 2 races there a year. We did make it onto the hill for a short training session on the Saturday evening, following the Firpark, race.

The race start at Hillend is very steep and worth a look if you’ve never been to the top. Well done to all of our U14’s and above for competing and competing there.  We had 8 racers taking part on Sunday. 4 x Bairns, 3 x U14’s and 1 x U18.

Once again the racers must compete on 2 courses. This time the Bairns had their very own slope to race on, with the best 2, out of 3, runs counting to their final time.

Michael MacIntosh, once again, should his talent by skiing into 14’th place. Racing has really brought Michael’s skiing on, so well done to him.  Solid performances from the U14 boys with Nathan Smith skiing well into the top 10, in 8’th place, with Ben Whatford being just outside in 12’th place.

Another impressive podium for Beth Whatford at Hillend, this time taking the Silver Medal.

The next races are the British Series and Scottish Indoor Championships at Braehead. Entries have now closed for these races.   If you are thinking of entering a race and feel a little unsure. Why not speak to one of our experienced coaches, or speak to some of the racers and their parents. I’m sure they’ll be able to put you more at ease.

Entries For Scottish and British Dry Slope Champs Now Open

We have just been notified that the entries are now live for both the Scottish Dry Slope Championships on September 2nd and 3rd and  the British Artificial Slope Alpine Champs which are being held at Hillend on September 23rd and 24th.

Saturday will be Slalom and Sunday will be GS for all U14 and older skiers.

There will also be unseeded races both day for U10 and U12 skiers.

Please see the link below for entry forms.

• Scottish Dry Slope Championships 
• British Artificial Slope Chhampionships

  

Given the Indoor events next weekend have filled up we would suspect that entries for the above event will be large too and therefore recommend those wishing to attend make their entries as early as possible.

AGM, Further Proposal for Constitution Change

We have had a proposal for a further change to the constitution from member Margaret Brown. Margaret has suggested that under Section 13, Procedure At the Annual and Extraordinary General Meetings, Section v) Every member of the club over the age of eighteen years shall be entitled to vote should be amended to read “Every member over the age of sixteen years shall be entitled to vote.”

This proposal will be voted on at the AGM along with the proposed changes already publicised.

Wednesday Night Training, 7th June

Wednesday morning saw a lot of rain fall and flooding around the area. Luckily during the day, the rain stopped and water levels subsided and the sun even came out for us during our mid-week training session.

Coaches for the night were Andrew C with Performance Squads and James in control of the Race Development groups. We had a good turnout of 18 athletes training, with a couple others off injured this week.

Andrew was working on agility with the performance team culminating in a tight set course to finish their training session. James was assisted by Andrew S who was shadowing for the night whilst giving the development squads some good feedback. The aim for the race development skiers was to work on upper body management, this was developed through various drills before putting it all together through a stubby course.

For the timed runs a very challenging course was set under the watchful eye and guidance of Gary with two hairpins and a tight Banana gate. 5 skiers from 20 were unable to complete the required 2 runs last night. Neil S lead the pack just ahead of his older brother Andrew, Nathan was holding his own and took 3rd place a fraction ahead of Beth.

Great skiing and times from all last night, the challenging courses are paying off when it comes to races with Gordon Skiers performing well last week on some tough courses at the Twin Peaks races.

One more Wednesday to go (next week) where everyone will be looking for the all-important points to finalise the standings for the Summer Mid-Week Series.

AGM Wednesday 21st June

Further to our last posting the committee has now had a further meeting and has been reviewing the club constitution. We feel that there are two sections that require updating.

• Firstly, leading on from our last posting we would propose updating the section 9, vi on ordinary members sitting on the committee to :- "Section 9, vi) In addition to the members so elected the Committee may co-opt up to four further members of the Club who shall serve until the next Annual General Meeting. Those ordinary committee members may serve up to two consecutive years and may then stand again after a one year’s break from the committee. Co-opted members shall be entitled to vote at the meetings of the Committee."
• Secondly we would propose updating the roles on the committee in section 9, i to reflect the current structure. "Section 9, i) The committee shall consist of the Chairperson, Financial Controller, Club Secretary, Communications Convener, Training Convener, Racing Convener and Sponsorship Convener"

We would very much appreciate if members could send expressions of interest in these roles to admin@gordonskiers.com. Members of the current committee will be happy to discuss what these roles entail.

Scottish Summer Series 2017

Please see below the email we have received from Snowsport Scotland regarding the 2017 Scottish Summer Series. There is a link to their attachment at the foot of this posting.

"Please find attached the rules for this seasons summer series. There are no major changes in the rules from last year. The Firpark leg of the Twin Peaks on the 3rd of June  incorporates round 2 of the BSA GBR outdoors series. There is a big entry with a number of athletes with low points attending. Many are also attending the Hillend leg. Hopefully this will help to bring the points of Scottish athletes down to more realistic levels.

BSA are also sponsoring the indoor series with race 3 at Braehead on the 17th of June followed by the Scottish indoor on the 18th.  In addition to the Scottish Outdoor, Craig MacFie and Bairns and Lassies, Hillend is also the venue for the British out door championships on the 23rd and 24th of September.

Points will be awarded to the top 30 entrants in accordance to World Cup rules. Additionally everyone who starts will receive 0.5 points in each event to qualify for series points.

If all 9 events run (10) for those eligible for the Bairns and Lassies, the best five results will count.

The SSS website is being updated and thanks to James Paxton the Points Series results will be update ASAP and POSTED ON THE WEBSITE.

Two events are the minimum required to constitute a series.

A start at Firpark and Hillend this weekend qualifies competitors for the series.

I have attached a copy of the rules. Please note that the links are not live on the document but hopefully this will all be live on the SSS website next week.  A big thanks to all of the sponsors giving prizes for individual events and BSA and  the Craig MacFie Trust, MAD, LSRA and SSS as main event sponsors and organisers."

Rules of Summer Series 2017

Twin Peaks

Twin Peaks is this weekend, so I hope all entrants are ready to go and the skis have been sharpened.

Most entrants have been attending the Wednesday Training and Race sessions so will, by now, understand how important it is to have sharp skis

The goal of the Wednesday training has been to increase the difficulty of the courses and drills, in preparation for the Summer race series. The advantage of this is that we can see the difference in the times between the skiers is narrowing as the skills improve and the courses become tighter. Last Wednesday's course being the toughest yet with 2 Performance Squad, 2 Race Development and 1 coach failing to finish.

Train Hard, Race Easy !!

Hard work pays off and I'm sure, with all the training we've been doing, our skiers will perform very well this weekend.

Remember we have the additional training session on Saturday evening, straight after Firpark, at 5pm. This will be an excellent opportunity to ski on Hillend and become familiar with the set up and the different surface and gradient.

Coaches this weekend will be Gary W and Callum S and we'll both be there for both races. We're looking forward to a successful and positive weekend, so let's be ready to race and have our race faces.

Race one is at Firpark Ski Centre Fir Park, Tillicoultry, FK13, Scotland. I hope the below link to the location works.

Firpark Ski Centre

Firpark Start Time : Provisional start time is 10:30 with course inspection between 10:00 and 10:30. Bibs will be available for collection between 08:30 and 09:00. The slope is available to warm up between 09:00 and 09:45.


Race 2 is at Hillend Midlothian Snow Sports Centre Biggar Road, Penicuik, EH26, Scotland

Midlothian Snowsports Centre

Hillend Start Time.Bib collection 12:30 with warmup from 13:00. Course inspection 13:20 with the race starting at 14:00
The Bairns will race on the tow slope, with U14 and above racing on the main slope. Both races will take place concurrently.

Gdn's will have an area for parents, spectators and ski servicing set up, so feel free to bring a folding chair.

Coaches will be on hand this weekend to help out with the servicing of skis, so if you have a travel bench and some basic service kit, please stick it in the back of the car.

Wednesday 21st June – Gordon Skiers AGM Broadstraik Inn, Westhill.

It is now only 3 weeks to our AGM at the Broadstraik Inn Westhill on 21st June. We would like to invite and encourage as many members as possible to attend. It is a members club and your views and opinions matter.

The procedure for the AGM is for the current committee to stand down and then all roles are up for re-election. Some of the existing committee will be looking for re-election but other roles will be vacant and we are looking for new members to join.

There are some procedural matters that we need to advertise. A copy of our constitution can be read here.

Firstly we would like to propose a change to the constitution to be voted on at the AGM. Currently the constitution provides for the committee to co-opt two ordinary members on to the committee however they have to stand down after one year and cannot be co-opted back on to the committee until a further year has elapsed. We would propose that this is changed to allow these ordinary committee members to be co-opted on to the committee for a second year.

Secondly the constitution also states:- “Nominations for elections of members to any office or for membership of the Committee shall be made in writing by the proposer and seconder to the Administrator (admin@gordonskiers.com) not less than seven days before the Annual General Meeting. Notice of any resolution proposed to be moved at the Annual General Meeting shall be given in writing to the Administrator not less than seven days before the meeting”. We would therefore encourage any members considering joining the committee to contact us via the admin@gordonskiers.com so that we can ensure the necessary paperwork is completed.

Training Wednesday 31st March

Wednesday night saw another glorious evening with 18 trainees turning out to train in the sunny weather.

Coaches for the night were James, with Performance, and Andrew C working with Development  with Andrew S shadowing and assisting with the Performance squads, giving them some extra tips throughout the session.

With the Twin Peaks looming this weekend it was decided to do some warm up drills before taking everything we have been working on all season into the gates. Development were skiing a ‘suicide; style course whilst the performance squads started on an open corridor working on accelerating out of  the turn, before the course become tighter later.

For the timed runs the trainees requested a technical set, in the hope it might replicate the style they may face this weekend. A challenging course with left footed hairpin exit and banana gate was set with open gates before, between and after. The course caught quite a few of the faster skiers out as well as losing some of the younger ones due to confusion.

Beth W took top honours overall to take 100 series points with Andrew S closely behind. Torin was mixing it with the older kids and rounded off the top 5 and taking the honours for fastest U12. Ollie took a nasty fall on Run 1 and retired from the racing but we hope to see him back in action again next week.

Reminder- the Sunday sessions have now finished for the summer. We have 2 more Wednesday sessions with the AGM the following week (21st June)

We wish all the racers competing this weekend at Twin Peaks the best of luck and hope to hear all about it at next Wednesdays session. Good Luck.