a love story

A love story

Each year a small diverse group of people meet at 4 or 5 different venues around New Zealand for one reason - they are in love, with the sport of skiing, but it is not just the skiing but also the competition.

Masters ski racing draws this diverse group to compete from all different parts, from Hong Kong, from Winton, Auckland and Chch. Everyone comes for the skiing and also for the competition.

We all love the competition, we love the winning, and hate a bit the losing, but we enjoy the race and the company.

We enjoy the family of skiers, the quarrels, the tribulations, we pick each other up when we fall down and feel for the skiers who miss a gate, cheer for the competitor when he or she has a good run, regardless if their time beats you in the end.

We race in a sport that is very unique - the course is laid down a steep icy mountain side that has hugh variation in pitch angle and consistency. In slalom maybe 30 gates drilled into the snow (or more lately the ground) in what appears to the outsider a absolute confusion of red and blue poles.  Even to the racers it requires some ‘course checking’  to establish the line, and then to figure out the fastest way to ski the line - the magic route between the gates that will get you down the mountain first.

34 gates in less than 30secs and to win it means that you will beat the opposition sometimes by only 2 / 100ths of a second over two runs. Yes in 60secs the result can come down to less than the time it takes to tap a key board, or blink a eye. 

To be beaten by a second is enormous in one run of 30 secs, and if you are more than 1.5 secs of the pace then then run is analysis in the mind over and over to see where on earth you were soooo slow. We are talking just 1.5 secs. here.

Its the same in other sports isn’t it. In swimming and athletics the winner is often fritters of a second part. The same - I think not. Athletics - a running surface that is exactly the same start to finish, in swimming - the pool here is exactly the same as the pool in Barcelona, but in skiing every inch of the course is different every time, but I get lost . . … . .

This group of racers are in love . . with the sport of ski racing and the sport of skiing. For most it began from the very first time they slid down the hill - can they remember the exact moment - perhaps not, but many will.