MJB

We just returned from 3 weeks of competing. Here is the 3rd episode of our 7 part carve series from Winter 2011. Hope you enjoy. Episode 1- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmqDUTBTwLk Episode 2- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjZ-FF5cLto Episode 3- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zlPCR1qM5c

Here are the first 3 episodes of our 7 part carve series from Winter 2011. Hope you enjoy them. Episode 1- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmqDUTBTwLk Episode 2- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjZ-FF5cLto Episode 3- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zlPCR1qM5c

CARVE (Episode 2) - the search for the perfect turn http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6DcEPGS92k. Based on our training block back home between Europe and Quebec trips. Enjoy!

Here are some blogs/websites from team riders for your viewing pleasure. Team CSC riders websites: Hilde Katrine Engeli (NOR) www.hkengeli.tk Matt Carter: http://www.mattsnowboarder.com/index.html Marianne Leeson: www.marianneleeson.com Ekaterina Zavialova video: www.ekatsnow.ca Steve Barlow: http://www.brimacombe.ca/story/brima...t/steve_barlow Rich Evanoff: www.richardevanoff.com Darren Gardner: www.darrensquestforgold.com ALUMNI Mike Robertson (alumni): http://www.vancouver2010.com/olympic...1012921Wm.html Masaki Shiba (alumni): www.masakishiba.com Michael Lambert (alumni): http://michaellambert.tumblr.com Kory Wright (alumni): http://www.korathsnowboarding.com/ Chris Robanske (alumni): http://www.chrisrobanske.com/

CARVE is a mini series available in HD. Its hosted in Canada on SHAW CABLE. (satellite, HD and cable channels). The show chronicles the adventures of the Calgary race team. CARVE Episode 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmqDUTBTwLk

I wanted to try something new at this Calgary Cup. So 2 things that were new 1. Soft boot categories. 2. Best 2 out of 3 runs. Get to throw out your slowest run. Review It ended up being a good day. It was a laid back approach, the whole goal was just to get racing back in Alberta for everyone. Sure, always things we need to do better, but the intent and spirit was done well. Its been since 2004 since a provincial level race was hosted. Some delays in the morning, but we were done by noon. Thanks to all the great volunteers. Almost all flags were knocked off every run in pro hardboot category. The volunteers had their work set out for them. Mike Robertson, Olympic silver sbx medallist provided ongoing funny starts. Richie Evanoff had the best costume of the day, Darrens pink pants were too tight. Julia, fresh off the plane from Maui and 6 years since her last race was impressive. Upcoming Alberta races We had another race planned for Feb 5th, but Burton open is same weekend, so we are looking for another weekend. March 5th is still a go for the 3rd and final race of the season. Check back with Alberta Snowboard or Calgary Snowboard for upcoming events. Weiners results here PRO HB Category results (taken from each persons fastest 2 out of 3 runs) 1. Pattycakes 2. Steve "goes straighter than you" Barlow 3. Richie "his uncle from marriage is Jamaica, so he thinks hes Jamaican" Evanoff FIS results (determined by seperate race, 2 runs combined time) 1. Pat 2. Richie 3. Fred

Hey Allee, sounds like a few Calgary folk will be down there that weekend. Have fun!

Hey Alberta carvers SLALOM RACE There will be a 2 run Slalom race at COP on Dec 4th. Course inspection at 9 am. There will be a hard boot and soft boot category. As well as a pro and amateur category. We are trying to keep this really affordable. Registration fee will be $20 plus lift ticket. VOLUNTEERS WANTED I would like to invite you to try out a slalom race, or if you are not so inclined, we are looking for some volunteers to help out. Please let us know at info@snowboardcoach.ca if you can be of assistance. You would be required from 7:30 am (set up time) to 11:30 am.

Snowboard racing is doing just fine thank you. If you look at FIS participation numbers in alpine snowboard racing between 2002-2006, participation dropped 5% worldwide, but between 2006-2010 its participation grew over 15%. Part of that growth is the inclusion of these non-traditional winter Olympic countries getting involved such as China, Kazakstan and Iran. Alpine Snowboarding has the widest international diversity of any winter alpine sport, just look at the variety of countries represented at the last world championships, compared to the other disciplines or snow sliding sports. It is cheap to prepare the facility (compared to hp, ss, sbx), and it can be done on the smallest of hills (50 vertical meters can produce world cup winners). Grassroots numbers within traditional snowboard countries need help (Can, US, Sui...), but the overall numbers are on the way up. As well as quality of events. I have a feeling Parallel is a detriment to grassroots development, because of the constant delays and timing challenges. 2 run formats may be better. USA doesnt want to invest in alpine right now, because of their ROI compared to sbx, hp and alpine skiing. If US can reorganize and build depth to their field, I will bet it would receive an increase of support again. There are more performance board options than ever before. And R&D at a rate that we haven't seen for 10 years. Alpine has always been a rarity on the hill, and gladly will continue to be. Its similar to early days of riding, you see a fellow rider and you went and talked to them.

flyguy; We dont run the program during the holidays. But feel free to sign up for our regular monday night masters of snow sessions that run the rest of the season.

Hey you guys, Team CSC is stoked to announce that we have 2 dedicated alpine coaches lined up for Monday nights at COP gate training for Masters and those interested in trying gates. There is a small price, as there was last time. Hope to see you out there this season!

Team CSC training camp - Mt. Hutt, New Zealand We just finished our first week of our 3rd annual training camp at Mt. Hutt, NZ. It was the first week in 3 years where we had 5 days in a row without weather related hill closures! Although the forecast is calling for 50 cm of powder tomorrow. Monday may be a great day... Team Riders The team riders at this camp consist of 10 rippers from Team CSC and Team Quebec. We are testing a few new designs in plates and boards as well. I have been freeriding on the Apex plate this week. It takes a couple days to adjust to the different feelings you get on the plate, but I am starting to trust it. And in turn its really works well. Its a reasonable learning curve for any strong carver to adjust too. New Zealand Races Most of the team will attend Junior World Championships in 3 weeks in Wanaka. We will finish the camp with a FIS race on August 20th that we organized at Mt. Hutt. This is the first FIS snowbaord race in 8 years in NZ! There will be a non-FIS category as well. The view from the top lift here at Mt. Hutt is fantastic, looking west at the Southern Alps (see pic), and east towards the fields and Pacific ocean.

If you want to look like the snowboarder to the right, you will need to look something like this... :lol:

Its good news that energy is being put into trying something new and to promote alpine riding and racing.Wind tunnel testing appears to indicate due to the speed and duration of our race speed suits provides negligible benefit anyway, as opposed to just a comfortable fitting goretex coat or top. Its important that snowboarding and racing has a free spirit, and adapt and changes with the zeitgeist. That is what sets snowboarding apart to start with, and what attracted many of us too it. So I'm happy to try new things, and who knows how this will work out? Someone will work around this rule though, its in many riders nature to.

US JWC team announced here 6 weeks ago. Canada Snowboard may have increased numbers, with a consideration to the extra costs athletes would have in attending JWC in NZ this year (more riders help offset costs).

K-Snow Japan is the distributor for Kessler Japan, as well as offering freecarving lessons and sessions. Japan (SAJ) has an equipment pool for snowboard and ski competitors. Competitors cant ride that product at events unless its imported to Japan. The company has to pay annually to the Federation, and support specified high level competitors. Fine for ski and freestyle snowboard, but its quite an expensive challenge for KSNOW and other distributors because of the small numbers of boards they have to sell just to afford this, but they do it so that Japanese riders can be competitive on the world stage (3 years ago, Kessler was not in the pool). So good on Koji Sasaki, (KSNOW owner) who also runs Japan Factory snowboard team, and has an awesome snowboard school in Japan and runs freeride/freecarve sessions in New Zealand. ps: I think its Koji Sugimoto that imports SG's. He for sure provides very cool freecarve sessions at his Japanese snowboard schools, and in NZ as well.

Just finished our 3rd bi-annual Comp Dev coach course at Blackcomb. Its for coaches stage 5 and 6a riders (see CSF LTAD) We tested new boards, trained SBX and PGS, had a coaches race, on top of non-stop sharing and learning and riding. An amazing 25 style coaches and 10 speed coaches took part this time, including able bodied and adaptive coaches from national, Dev and provincial teams, as well as many other talented people. Learning Facilitators included 2 days with Mark Fawcett. Sport psychologist and SFU prof - David Cox, who worked with some of basketball and tennis's greatest and Snowboard Canada, had a 3 hour presentation that was outstanding. Worth the whole course, just to hear him speak! Now there are a whole group of supercharged coaches that are on their way home stoked to share what they got from the course with the riders they work with. Cant wait to see what the next couple years holds for competitive snowboarding. facebook group - Canadian Snowboard Coaching Program (CSCP)

Hi hardbooting brothas and sistas, I will post updates from twitter acct - snowboardracing (teamcsc) today, as I will be standing at the top of the pgs coaching. When I get a chance. I'm coaching forerunners and there for team CSC alumni Lambert and Morison.

Richie rich is famous. I think a couple of the other team riders (or parents at least) were jealous. He was training in Calgary, any of the other team riders that fit the bill they were looking for were racing in Europe at the time. He ruined a board on a rock in the course, that they took care of replacing for him.

Hi Bob, Eric Haskins, recently retired US racer, has a few sets of custom hangle brackets machined last season. He had a variety made, some are made for old and some for new Kessler inserts and plate systems. We had issues with our brackets not fitting the Kessler inserts last season. I currently have his box of brackets here in Calgary. He is willing to sell them, he has enough brackets for at least 4 boards. Let me know if that would help. you can contact me and I will give you his contact info.

I suggest www.impacttest.ca.

TEAM CSC racing will be tweeting live updates of our team riders and alumni results and happenings as we follow the Europa, Nor Am and world cup tour through the season. Tweets will include news and gossip from other teams and events worth posting. Please join us as we head to Europe on December 26th for 5 weeks of racing at twitter/Snowboardracing And Merry Shredding to all of you this holiday season!

hmmm, wwrsd? what would Rob Stevens do? he would probably take the bindings off, then there is no risk of them breaking bails then. ps, Rob, still have those Koflachs at my house. if you are heading in, drop me a line (# is on my facebook)

Hi Neil, I sent you an email. But here is my opinion: 1. Mike Lindsay, who operates in the basement of Unlimited snowboard shop in Banff, does an excellent job. He creates a good structure always makes a flat base (unless it means taking the base down to nothing) and does a nice job on edges. We have never had to bring a board back to him, its always excellent. In addition to being a good guy, he is a top notch pro. Let him know I sent you too. 2. In the past, 17th ave Ski cellar did a good job with tuning the boards. And I always like them there. We have never had any issues with them either, except they didnt have a good stone grinder wide enough for our boards in the past. not sure if so now. Jean, one of the part owners was a tireless volunteer in provincial snowboarding for many years. 3. I think there are a couple other good shops around, but I dont have any experience with them. We did have issues with Coulouir shop in Canmore a couple years ago, the owner did a great job, but his employees did some damage to the base/edges to a number of our boards. not sure if they have fixed this yet. Its too bad that skaters doesnt do a consistently good job, cause those guys have been such an important part of provincial snowboarding too. email me if you would like to discuss this more.

One of the areas has agreed to try it this season for 1 month, waiting to hear back from the 2nd. Now to work out the logistics and details.