AASI-NRM Snowboard Chair Reports

Shred Spread - October 2007 - by Rock Reman, Snowboard Chair

Do you ever just have a feeling about something? Well, I have a gut feeling that we are actually going to get some good snow this season. So, if my gut feeling is right, we better be ready to get all we’ve got coming to us out of this season! One way to get prepared is to attend Fall Festival, and take advantage of all it has to offer. Each year we try to keep the popular clinics from the previous year, and replace the ones that didn’t work so well.

Here is how the clinics and events are shaping up. (Check out the actual descriptions in the Fall Festival section of this newsletter, for the full explanation.) We will be offering the following clinics:

1. TRAIN THE TRAINERS, this is offered absolutely free for 1 trainer from each member school.

2. LEVEL ONE, this went over so well last year that we decided to offer it again.

3. BASIC FREESTYLE, this is fun, but don’t forget, it is very basic.

4. ALL THE MOUNTAIN HAS TO OFFER, this should be very popular, we’ll try to hit all the best spots.

5. TEACHING INTERMEDIATE RIDERS, hopefully we can work on ways to get you through that dreadful plateau.

6. EXAM AWARNESS CLINIC, for those in question of what to expect as they go for an exam.

All of these are on snow clinics. And we will do our best to see that each person gets as much use out of their lift ticket as possible.

You will also notice on our calendar that we are bringing in a D-Team member in January for our Freestyle Accreditation in Big Sky. This should be awesome, and a great opportunity for all you guys to ride with best of the best in the park and pipe. We are also going to do our official DCE training 2 days prior to that event. This is a new idea, and we are hoping it will work as well as it looks on paper.

For anyone looking at doing the Level II or III exam this season, consider getting started on the written
test before you take the prep clinic. It would be very advantageous for you!

I’m darn near done so hang in there! It is very cool that the Rider Rally will be held in Mammoth, California again this year. And even cooler that DTeam tryouts will be the following week. Now if you really want cool, that would be, having some of NRM’s own DCE’s try out, and from there…the sky is the limit!

Thanks for taking the time to read this!
- Rock

Shred Spread - January 2007 - by Rock Reman, Snowboard Chair

Well jump in and hang on, 'cause here comes the“Double knot seven season!”

The 2006 Fall Festival is behind us now and we are off and running, with a whole new season. For the most part, it sounds like a lot of areas were spinning their wheels a little to get started. But by now hopefully everyone has hooked up and are on track. We have quite a few events coming up between now and spring. Some with dates set and some with dates on hold because of the slow arrival of snowfalls this year. Check out the calendar for the dates for each event. It is always up to date. (Thanks to Karin!) As you will find out, you can now register for all these events online, this should really make it easy for you. (Thanks again, Karin!)

Don't forget if you would like to have a Snowboard clinic at your area, we can probably make it happen. Just contact me and we'll see what we can do. We are also working with schools, which received educational grants from MSSA. (Thanks to Neil!) This is a great opportunity for those areas to receive lower cost Level I's, or some great educational & training clinics.

Now for a little summary of the Fall Festival: This year we were very fortunate to have D-Team coach Randy Price lead our DCE training. I was very impressed with his style of presenting information and his ability to instill enthusiasm. He also did a pretty good impression of a Secret Service Agent! (Makes you wonder what he does when the snow doesn't fly!) Some of the topics we worked on were comparing ideas and formats from other divisions, different forms of feedback and so on and so forth! But one of our main focuses was really getting down to the nitty – gritty on how to get as consistent as possible on scoring during exams. We feel that we have offered a pretty fair product in the past, and can now do an even better job.

Randy also led the Train-the-Trainers on Friday. It was great to have some of the trainers from other areas get the opportunity to ride with Randy. Hopefully they picked up some great ideas to take home and share with their own people. He had tons of information to share, I know I added a few more tools to my toolbox! Over the weekend we had several great clinics, Randy took out a group of enthusiastic riders and worked with them on a variety of things. They went for “All the mountain had to offer.” Sounded like fun was the key factor!

Chad took a group out on Sunday and worked on teaching intermediate riders, it was successful and everyone left with a bit more knowledge than they came with. We pulled off a Level I, these are sometimes hard to do, because it's the beginning of the season and sometimes the riders have not met the requirements. This was not the case this year! Callie and Brian had a great group of riders demonstrating their riding, teaching and technical abilities for 2 full days. So all said and done, we had an awesome Fall Festival. For those of you I got to ride with, great to see ya……For those of you who couldn't make it this year, you missed a really good ride. See you later this season or next Fall Festival!

You might have noticed all the hunters on the slopes this year during Fall Festival. Turns out they were actually the Snowboard DCE team. Yes, we got new uniform jackets! They are not quite the color I voted for, but majority rules so, there you have it! From all the comments, it seems you can sure pick us out on the hill!

As usual, it seemed like the Snowboard crew had a little more fun at the banquet than most! I wonder if it has anything to do with our general attitudes?! Well that's it for now, hope the rest of your season is steep and deep!

Later, Rock