NASTAR Speed Demon? Not Quite

Each year I participate in a meeting of people who write about skiing and snowboarding. Since nearly everyone in the group is a skier, our group activity is to run a NASTAR course. We split into teams of 10, and the top 3 scores of each team are used to determine the winning team.

In a NASTAR race, you typically race past and through the kinds of gates that they use on a GS (grand slalom) ski race. Those are the kinds with two poles placed close together, joined by a flag.

The races are handicapped for age (older = a higher handicap). You also get a handicap for being blind, using adaptive equipment, or … being on a snowboard.

Two years ago, at my first such meeting, one rather enthusiastic and persuasive member of the organization cajoled me into participating. “John, you’ve got to try it out. Besides, you get an extra handicap for being on a snowboard.” So I tried it out, taking two runs, just like everyone else. I think I fell (not badly) one time but not the other. My extra handicap help didn’t amount to much, as I was near the bottom of the pack (perhaps AT the bottom!) of our team’s scores.

Last year I tried the course again, and enjoyed it. In March, I’ve got another meeting coming up, so I thought it worthwhile to get in some practice runs before then. It couldn’t hurt, could it?

Actually, it could, if I slammed into one of the gates. Fortunately, I’ve never done that, and I took a few runs the other day and came away unscathed.

But it wasn’t pretty. I had a DNF the first trip, since I took a bad line and ended up downhill from a gate I was supposed to pass. I suppose I could have continued down the course just to get some practice with the other gates, but I had two more tries so I rode off.

I started out the second attempt fairly aggressively (well, aggressively for me) and ended up biffing while making a turn. Though I fell down on my butt, I stood up and was able to properly navigate the next gate.

At that point I took a break, and then returned for more. I was more cautious on the third trip, as far as speed, but tried, more than the other two times, to stay in the lines created by the skiers. That was probably a mistake, given how I was riding. I was on the verge of losing control several times, and had to slow way down to stay up.

I got to the bottom of the hill, where someone in the race house announces your score. I’ve always had trouble hearing my scores, and this time I heard “gold medal.” I figured there was no way that I earned a medal. I checked the NASTAR site later that day, and sure enough–no medal. So the announcer probably said something like “5 seconds behind a gold medal.”

I’m thinking through what I need to do next time out, and hope to try again at least one other day before the meeting. I don’t expect to “win,” but hope to do better.