A New Season Underway

It's now January 2009 and Cory has already enjoyed several days on the local slopes. A very good season so far with plenty of snow on Vancouver's North Shore, and some unusually warm temperatures.

Cory continues to train in 2 programs: with Special Olympics British Columbia - Delta on Monday nights on Cypress Mountain and with the Vancouver Adaptive Snow Sports Racing Team - called The Blue Streaks - on Thursday nights and Saturdays. As well as weight training on Friday nights and 5-Pin Bowling on Sunday mornings.

Since last season, Cory has added a new pair of Volkl GS Racetigers to his ski arsenal in addition to his Slalom Racetigers that he bought at Mount Hood in 2007.

Here we are in our new VASS Blue Streaks jackets:

And Cory in action training on Tyee Chute at Grouse Mountain: (with a pair of rented boots, since we forgot his boot inserts that day - fortunately just training, not racing!)

an unusually warm 20 degrees celcius in January!

Good news this year is Cory will have more opportunities to compete than in any other year so far. His first race day was with VASS on January 26, and it included not only a Giant Slalom, but a speed race (timed with a radar gun), a mogul slalom race, and a jump event. All were new to Cory except the GS.

First, the speed run, and Cory clocked in at 60 kms/h, good for second place behind the leader who posted 62 kms/h: (it takes him a while to get going in this vid):

Then the second run of his Giant Slalom, and a second place finish. Only about 6/10ths of a second behind the winner, who beat Cory by several seconds in a longer race last year, so perhaps Cory is catching up!

And then the mogul slalom, a third place finish:

And finally the jump, not something that Cory has worked on before:

Cory and I talked about his plan earlier today. While it continues to be difficult for him to look ahead to a provincial competition in 2011, he is really doing a great job of following his plan. He is getting much better coaching from Carley, Roy, and Roger at VASS, which especially this year is getting him much more racing experience. He's picked up a lot of great equipment, two pairs of world-class skis to go with his Atomic RT Ti 100 boots, and of course a really cool looking jacket . And he continues to do some weight training every week and does some biking whenever the weather allows.

His next race is scheduled for Mount Washington on Vancouver Island on February 22.