SuperBee

Others news releases from CSF: http://www.csf.ca/en/about/news/?id=466 Cristelle Doyon is not anymore on the list. This would have been surprising since she didn't enter a PGS/PSL since 2 years and is on the injury list since almost a year. Last news I heard about her, she has retired from any racing, due to too many head concussion... COMPLETE LIST OF PARTICIPATING CANADIAN ATHLETES Parallel Giant Slalom (PGS) – 15 athletes WOMEN (7 athletes) Caroline Calvé (Aylmer/Montreal, QC) # Alexa Loo (Richmond, BC) # ^ Kimiko Zakreski (Calgary, AB) # Constance Boisvert (Sainte-Foy, QC) & Ariane Lavigne (Mont-Tremblant, QC) & Marianne Leeson (Burlington, ON) & Ekaterina Zavialova (Calgary, AB) & MEN (8 athletes) Jasey Jay Anderson (Mont-Tremblant, QC) # + ^ Patrick Farrell (Oakville, ON) # Michael Lambert (Toronto, ON) # Matthew Morison (Burketon, ON) # Kristin-Joseph D’eon (Middle Sackville, NS) & Cody Ratcliffe (Mont-Tremblant, QC) & Dylan Riley (Calgary, AB) & Steve Barlow (Calgary, AB) - Snowboardcross (SBX) – 23 athletes WOMEN (9 athletes) Ziggy Cowan (Banff, AB) # Dominique Maltais (Petite-Rivière Saint-François, QC) # ^ Maëlle Ricker (Squamish, BC) # + ^ Sarah Hunter (Athabasca, AB) & Amy Iredale (Mont-Tremblant, QC) & Karleen Barlia (Vancouver) Carle Brenneman (Comox, BC) Robyn Honsberger (King City, ON) Carly Thorp (Nakusp, BC) MEN (14 athletes) Jasey Jay Anderson (Mont-Tremblant, QC) # + ^ François Boivin (Jonquière, QC) # + ^ Simon Bonenfant (Mont-Tremblant, QC) # Robert Fagan (Cranbrook, BC) # Ryan Hickey (Corbeil, ON) # Drew Neilson (Vernon, BC) # + ^ Mike Robertson (Canmore, AB) # Derek Wintermans (Burnaby, BC) # Jake Holden (Caledon, ON) & Adam Livingston (Whistler, BC) & Matthew Tunncliffe (Vancouver, BC) & Pat Tunncliffe (Vancouver, BC) & Dan Csokonay (Calgary, AB) Christopher Robanske (Calgary, AB) # denotes Member of the Canadian Snowboard Team & denotes Member of the Canadian Development Snowboard Team ^ denotes Olympian + denotes World Championship medalist = denotes Olympic Winter Games medalist

Your choice could be based on quality versus price. I personnally would not go for a third party other than Nikon or Canon. You need to evaluate your requirement vs your budget. Recommandations: - 70-200mm lens on a crop body is a very good choice for actions shot ( 1,6X crop factor on Canon = 112-320mm or 1,5X crop factor on Nikon = 105-300mm ). I wouldn't consider bigger since you may miss close range actions. - 70-200mm f/2,8 aperture give you great pics and allows more light in and greater range of ajustment. - Vibration Reduction / Image Stabilizer is not recommended for action shot like snowboarding, car racing, etc. It freezes the background and doesn't produce an action-motion effect. So, if equipped, you will have to turn off for sport photo. Then compare your need. I personnally went on Ebay and bought NIB lens from renowned dealer, so you can check between Nikon & Canon vs budget. PS: I'm a happy owner of a Canon 50D w/70-200mm f/2,8 non-IS. But Nikon 300D would have been my second choice: budget decided. http://www.bomberonline.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=24187 Pics from Le Relais Noram, 2 weeks ago Superbee

PGS: Saturday was cold ( probably -20F early morning ) and windy before the start of the race. Race timing couldn't start properly so the girls had to wait for long minutes because of the delays. Most of the boys stayed inside since you could see the race from the chalet. Once started, temp was up slightly, winds dropped, everything went fine. Finals were on time. Unfortunately, Madeline fell in the semifinals and hurt lightly herself so she couldn't race the PSL. PSL : Sunday was as cold but no wind. The race was more challenging and mistake happened more than during the PGS. Everything went fine, on time, finals started at 12h00 and finished by 1h30. Great team effort by race committee. By 2h30, the place was cleared and everybody were driving home ( or taking a beer ). Cold weather advantage: the snow was very firm, slippage crew were efficient and the course stayed in great shape all day. Le Relais, who held NorAm races since few years has a very easy access for public. This last pic was taken Sunday 2h30 from the parking lot ( off focus are parking lot fencing... ) You could see "shadow" of the race.

Other pics from Saturday PGS - Trappy - Benjamin Fairchild

Some "airtime" for SEB

Some BOL members: - Trappy - Deon - Seb

Those were 15 Mpix ( 5 Mo ) that I had to reduce to 98k... I will try later to post other Pics.

Jean Marcel against Cody Ratcliffe for 3rd place

Cold conditions both days. Long PSL with 35 gates. The PSL results was a crowd pleasure: Men: Jean-Marcel Dumont, local racer from Quebec city took the 3rd place for the men in front of Cody Ratcliffe from Tremblant For the women, Ariane Lavigne from Tremblant finished first ( as in the PGS the previous day ) and Constance Boisvert, also from Quebec city took 3rd. Pics from the podium:

Wear something very similar to the Thorac Vest, but an older version. I have seen World Cup PGS racers wearing similar stuff. I would think that boardercross racers would wear them also.

You could look at your "Head" dealership. I have seen a lot of racer using a unit similar to their "Thorac Unit". I know POC and others are also manufacturing similar protection ( Dainese has a complete line also ). I have a Head protection since few years and am happy with the level of confort. http://www.head.com/protection/#body/0 http://www.pocsports.com/products/products.asp?id=20-Ski

In Korea, PGS results for the World Championship: Gold Medal : Jasey Jay Anderson, CAN Bronze Medal: Matthew Morrison, CAN 8th place : Michael Lambert, CAN 10tlh : Tyler Jewell, USA 16th: Adam Smith, USA 23th : Patrick Farrell, CAN 26th: Zachary Kay, USA DNF: Chris Klug, USA http://www.fis-ski.com/pdf/2009/SB/7008/7008RLR0.PDF Women 11th: Caroline Calve, CAN 12th: Alexa Loo, CAN 29th: Andi Stump, USA 30th: Michelle Gorgone, USA 32th: Kimoko Zakreski, CAN 38th: Ekatarina Zavialova, CAN DNF: Erica Mueller, USA http://www.fis-ski.com/pdf/2009/SB/7007/7007RLR0.PDF Jasey Jay was on the news as I woke up.

You're right Chewy Nadine used to train the Race team at Ste-Anne. She is now coach of the boardercross provincial team. But she live at Ste-Anne. Hairywater, if you want her email, please email me. Superbee

You can try to call David Ruel at his restaurant. http://www.troisbecs.com/ ( sorry, I think his link is only french ) David was the ski/snow school director at Mont Ste-Anne up to 2-3 years ago. I was former coach for France National Snowboard Team and he was one of the best hardboot coach you could find. David should be able to give you tips on who could teach you plates.

altough some info are not totally fresh, this is a good starting point for info: www.alpinecarving.com

on their "Protocol", they were saying 4 men + 4 women in PGS/PSL , 4 men + 4 women in SBX ? Names please...

Strange ? The races start on Saturday and they have not posted the selection ?

On trouve décidément un peu de tout sous cette bible : "Carver Almanach". J'y retournais pour répondre à une question piège d'un ami et j'ai trouvé une rubrique "Station pour le snow". http://www.alpinecarving.com/resorts.html Ça vaut la peine d'être consulter, ça peut donner des idées.

Pour les billets d'avion, il faut être patient. Air Canada et WestJet offre très souvent des rabais. J'ai réussi à payer aller-retour $410 pour Calgary ( toutes taxes inclus ) et $525 pour Kelowna avec transfert à Calgary. Mais il faut de la patience. Va directement sur le site d'Air Canada et de WestJet. Là, il affiche leur prix selon la journée ou tu veux partir. Par la suite, tu peux t'amuser à regarder les prix changer. Souvent, plus il est tard le soir, plus les prix sont bas. Le lendemain matin, les prix ont remonté. Pour Kelowna, ça m'a pris 2 soirs, les prix fluctuaient d'heures en heures, des fois jusqu'à tripler en 30 minutes. A toi de décider, mais je n'ai pas trouvé de période idéale: 2 jours avant ? 2 semaines ou 2 mois ? Note: Ça revient au même prix de prendre des vols Aller seulement puis retour seulement que des vols Aller -retour. Par contre, ça peut te permettre de geler des prix plus facilement. Si tu veux aller aux USA, Burlington est en effet très intéressant, mais pas si tu veux aller dans l'ouest canadien. Pour les agences: Bernard Gendron est un incontournable, au moins pour les conseils. A certains endroits, ils ont même un guide sur place ( au Utah, un certain Normand est là depuis 15 ans au moins ). C'est de l'expérience que ne s'achète pas. Mais attention au Utah, il y a encore des places ou les planches sont interdites ( Alta ? ) Dans l'ouest canadien, il y a full des Québécois qui y travaillent, ça peut être intéressant pour avoir des tuyaux. PS: Prendre toujours soin en achetant les billets d'avion de déclarer un sac d'article de sport ( board bag ), ceci évitera des surprises $$$ à l'aéroport.

Will they go to RTTC Steamboat race ? I hope so, there is nothing like real races...same time zone than Norquay, AB

There is no minimum restrictions on GS lenght. Seen Noram winners ridding 181 Prior in the past. There is a lot of young boys racing Noram with "women" version. In March '07, François Boivin, SBX WC racer, finished 13th ( out of 51 ) at the Noram finals...with his SBX softboots setup...

I rode a Head AX 163 which is a Elan Ballistic under Head trademark. I'm still riding a 155 Elan Ballistic from time to time ( spring conditions with moguls ). They both were turny board with a lot of "pop", very lively. Elan is known for their good constrction ski, using wood. I has a "progressive sidecut", 9-10-11 m, it varies according on where you put pressure on the board I would recommend buy it for a fair price.

Je te réfère à un autre "thread" d'il y a 3 semaines: http://www.bomberonline.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=22639 Avec la météo d'hier, vaut mieux avoir de bons edges...

Yes at RDS ( Sports News TV ) they just the same clip with the run of Matt, some from JJay & Kimiko. Probably the most since last year WC in Stoneham.

On CSF site, complete results http://www.csf.ca/canadianopen/en/pgs-norquay.php