Here's a photo of our Jamaica Ski Team with host country's flagbearer -- carrying the Jamaican flag. The Opening Ceremonies at the World Championships were awesome. Inawashiro put on an incredible show, with music and traditional dance. We finished 10th at the World Championship Ski Cross finals -- the best finish of the year. Next week we depart for races in Switzerland.
Jamaica Ski Team member Errol Kerr, pictured above, at a Red Bull sponsored
party in Truckee for the Silver Belt Banzai celebration Saturday
night. After placing second at the Silverbelt Banzai qualifiers, he
had every reason to smile. Kerr would not finish the race on Sunday
after hitting a mogul and popping out of both bindings failing to
complete the course.
The fiercest storm of the season slammed into Lake Tahoe over President's weekend making
the trip to the home of the 1940's born Banzai a feat in and of itself
worthy of commendation. The race has evolved into a six-man wide, big
mountain skicross, as local professional skier, Trevor Ricoli (Reno,
NV), called it in a recent interview.
"
I have never gone that fast down double black diamonds with moguls,
ever. I have never trained for this. I never thought there would be a
race like this."
Question: In the future, how would you train for a race like this?
Trevor:
I guess, when it is a powder day, go as fast as you can down every
black diamond run, straight line. That is about all I can think of.
Check out the ski cross course at Cypress on the training day. Qualifying day, I finished 7th, which was pretty good considering that the snow was slushy, and I started 43rd. Race day I finished 17th.
?NEWS ALERT
On Thursday, January 15th the Jamaica Ski Team arrived at the Lake Placid Freestyle World Cup. ? Lake Placid is located about 5 hours north of New York City and was the site of the 1932 and 1980 Winter Olympic Games. ?This weekend's events will include moguls, aerials, and ski cross.
History of FreestyleIn the early days of freestyle skiing the sport was named for the "free" and creative element introduced by athletes who resisted traditional alpine and nordic skiing. Competitions included an all-in-one-run event where skiers were judged on a run that included ballet, moguls and a spontaneous aerial maneuver. Today the evolution of freestyle skiing is made up of six different disciplines; aerials, halfpipe, moguls, dual moguls, ski cross and slopestyle. Each discipline is judged and scored to their own points list. Freestyle skiing was added to the Olympic program in 1992 for moguls, aerials in 1994, and ski cross will debut in the 2010 Olympic Games.
Schedule at Lake Placid; and TV Schedule?The international ski cross teams are staying at the town of Lake Placid and will compete at Whiteface Mountain. ?Ski Cross practice begins on Friday, January 16th, with the qualification on Sunday, and the finals on Monday. ?For a complete schedule, please visit:
http://www.fis-ski.com/pdf/2009/FS/8037/2009FS8037PROG.pdf
Ski Cross Schedule (East coast time/Jamaica time)9:45-11:15 ?Qualifications -- Sunday, January 1811:00-12:00 FINALS ? ? ? ?-- Monday, January 19
For television coverage of the event, according to USSA..."NBC will air the Nature Valley Freestyle Cup ski cross competition Sunday, Jan. 25 at 1:30 p.m. ET. Versus will air the Nature Valley Freestyle Challenge aerials competition that same day at 2:00 p.m. ET as well as?the?Nature Valley Freestyle Cup?ski cross show on Saturday, Jan. 31 at 3:00 p.m. ET.UniversalSports.com?and TV will also carry coverage."
Among those attending the event, will be...Jamaicans from Toronto and Jamaica will be attending the event. ?Mr. Richard Salm, President and Founder of the Jamaica Ski Federation, will be flying up from Jamaica to encourage and support the team. ?
Members of the National Brotherhood of Skiers will be driving from New ?York and Vermont to watch Kerr compete. ?The NBS is an African American organization that promotes winter sports among African Americans, and grants scholarships to worthy African American youth to assist in their expenses in ski racing. ?In February 2008, NBS members were present at the Deer Valley Freestyle World Cup, and showed strong support of Errol.
Racing and Training: Jamaica Ski TeamThe Lake Placid event will be Kerr's second World Cup of the 2008-9 season. ?At the first World Cup in St Johann, Austria, Kerr finished 30th among a field of 78. ?During the past week, Errol, along with his coach and technician, returned to California to train at Alpine Meadows. ?Said Kerr, "Those were the best days of training I have had in 2 years," referring to the hard snow surface and excellent training conditions at Alpine.?
For further updates and information, please visit?errolkerr.com
Check out the snowmaking at our yard in Glenshire. We built a ramp and ski cross course, and welded up the start gates so we could get in some good training.
