Kazui back on the skis!

Hey everyone. About 6 weeks ago I broke my tibia skiing GS at my mountain. But now I went to the doctors the other week and they cleared me on skiing again. I was so stoked when I got back on the hill with all my friends and coaches. I free skied slalom for three days and then went into a GS training plan. Since our team was training SG, I jumped in their course with GS skis and my leg felt great!

The next day I had a double session day were we get to ski a part of the afternoon so you get extra training in. I trained some quality GS gate training with my friend and fellow teammate Dylan Bibeau (Coming off a leg injury that kept him off snow for about a month). This was very helpful and helped me get a feel for my skis again.

In two days I entered my first race of the season. It was at Mount Snow and it was a fairly flat and easy pitch. I came down in 2nd place overall behind my teammate. My coaches wanted me to ski at a respectable pace were I can just get good results to get myself into states. But somewhere in my brain my adrenaline made me pumped up and ready to go. But my coaches were right that right now the only important thing for me to do was to finish and not worrying about winning.

I gotta give it to the winner of that race Finn McNamara who put down two slaying runs. In the beginning I was pretty bumbed that I didn't win, but in the end I did get three results and for the least part, my own teammate and friend beat me which made it seem a little less dramatic. I just trained slalom gates for the first time today and it felt pretty good. I got to work on some technical stuff that will help me improve on my GS too. I have a SG race coming up this friday at Stratton and a slalom race at Willard Mountian the next day. Keep the blog updated for results later!

.)) Kazui Kusumi

"Finish Line Syndrome"

Last weekend was our fist JO qualifier. It was two days of GS held at Park City. You cannot ask for better race conditions then we had. There was a firm surface and blue skies above. On the fist day, I had two solid runs landing me a second place.

Unfortunately, the next day, I was having a phenomenal run but missed a gate only three gates from the finish. My coach called it “finish line syndrome”. I had my eyes on the finish line and almost forgot to turn.

I have only a week of training before I load the van again, this time back to Jackson Hole for my slalom JO qualifiers.

.)) Molly Leavens

Vogel's Views

Hey guys, so my life has been pretty uneventful lately, I have been training non stop for a few months now which is totally awesome! It's a different feeling that I already have more training days than all my training days total from last year, for a lack of ski hill in Wisconsin where I live. Instead of driving 4 1/2 hours I only have to go 4 - 5 minutes.........

I went to Topolino Trials which is really Slovenia Trials now because they had to change it because of conflicting dates. I wish I could of done better but nobody skis their best at every race. So I took it as an experience and just more training! My coach got great video of many skiers so it has been awesome to review with Dartfish. I can definitely tell all this training is helping, it feels like I'm improving a lot.

I am doing another speed camp with Carolyn Lalive next week who was my coach in November at Copper so that will be a ton of fun. My next real race is championships in mid February so I have a lot more training and definitely a lot more conditioning in preparation for that race. Ski fast !!!

.)) Colin Vogel

No Kidding from Serina

Hey SRD! So far my season has been pretty good:) I had the Slovenia shoot out around new years, and did fairly well. I was there for 4 days but the first 2 days were just training and getting to know everyone. Those couple days were really cold. The first race day we had 3 runs of GS but only counting our best run. I had really 2 strong runs of GS and unfortunately I fell my third run, but by the end of the day I was in 2nd by 8 hundredths! Although in the SL race I had some trouble and just couldn't lay down a strong run. By the end of the weekend I finished 3rd overall for the Skofja Loka time trials.

The next weekend we had our JO Speed qualifiers/Smartwool race in Aspen which I was there for 4 days again. The first 2 days were downhill training runs. The first day we sectioned the course which was nice because I was really scared for it only being my second downhill race. When it came to race day I was a little conservative but finished 15th overall. The next race day was SG and I skied fairly well that day and finished first for j3's and 2nd overall. The second race day of SG we had a huge delay on the girls course due to bad fog, although when I went towards the end the weather wasn't quite as bad for me and I finished 2nd for j3's. Which currently has me tied for first in the JO qualifiers.

After a lot of training getting ready for our tech qualifiers my team took a week off of skiing and just caught up on school, then just worked on our fundamentals.

This weekend we had a Smartwool/USCSA race (college) in my hometown. The first day I started in the second seed and had a strong run and was in the lead by 4 tenths on the first run. On the second run I was ahead by only 8 hundredths but a combined time with almost 3 tenths ahead I managed to take the overall and 1st for j3's by over 2 seconds. The next day was a SL race and I was pretty nervous because I hadn't trained SL gates in almost 3 weeks. My first run was decent I finished 5th overall and 3rd for j3's, but I fought for it on my second run (having the fastest time) although finished 2nd overall and 1st for j3's.

This Weekend we have a race in Winter Park!!!

.)) Serina Kidd

Pokal Loka Shootout in Cali! From Molly and Breezy.

This past weekend we both competed in the Pokal Loka Shootout in Sugar Bowl California. All competitors trained both GS and Slalom on Friday 21st. Sunny weather welcomed us with a great opportunity to see other racers and get to know the hill. We trained a tight GS that threw many of the atheletes. Our Slalom course was watered, creating yellow ice that coated the race hill. Only a handful of athletes finished runs in training, even after three runs of each.

Then on Satuday the race began with slalom time trials. Molly began with a small detour to say hi to an outside gate. While Breezy placed just off the podium in fourth. The second run went well for both of us. Breezy won and Molly placed fourth. Breezy took another win in the third run and Molly had the lowest time with a solid DNF.

As the second day rolled around Breezy took first, sharing the podium with Molly in third. Breezy also placed first in the second run giving her a perfect score in the standings. Molly, through a series of unfortunate events took a pleasant vacation to the ski patrol room prohibiting her from getting a third run.

Another exciting weekend is soon to come with both of us going toe to toe at the David Wright GS’s at Park City.

.)) Molly & Breezy

Molly's Mail: Live from Jackson Hole

Two weekends ago, I was in Jackson Hole for my first Super G race. Because of the weather, they were only able to pull off two of the three scheduled races as well as a training run. I did not finish my first run and barely missed the podium at fourth for my second run.

I have had a disappointing start of the season and I have only finished half my races due to major technical flaws. Early season injuries have cut into much of my pre-season fundamental prep. Every weekend of January has been occupied with a race, giving me barely any time to train and recover. With all that said, it is important that I keep my momentum strong for the rest of the season with bright looks towards the future.

At a recent race in Sugar Bowl California, I surprised myself with a third place in GS on a run I was far from pleased with. This was my first GS race I had used my newly purchased arm guards. I felt they helped me refine my line without the consequence of bruises and made my run a lot more fun. Unfortunately, I fell the next run and was unable to compete in the rest of the race. Fingers crossed my latest injury will heal in time for my race this weekend at Park City.

.)) Molly Leavens

Morse Code: Recap from Sunapee

This past weekend I participated in the Eastern Region Series, which is like Jr. Olympics simply earlier in the year. At this race there were the best J3's in the entire eastern United Sates. On the first day I took the victory in the slalom race at Sunapee, New Hampshire. It was a really cold day but it wasn't too windy; so the conditions were just right for a kid from Sugarloaf where it is always freezing and windy. Here are the results for the slalom race:

On the second day we raced GS and I blew out in the first run. I skated back in and finished that run in 21st. On the bright side, I got to run really early in the flip! Second run I went for it and came in 3rd that run, which put me in 8th overall. Sadly, there was no Super G and we will have to wait until Jr. Olympics to battle out the speed title. Overall though it was a great weekend of racing and I was really happy to see that all of the big guns showed up for E.R.S. this year. I want to send out a congratulations to Ryan Mooney who will be representing the East and the United States in Slovenia this year. I also want to thank Alex Krebs for putting on a great event. I enjoyed shredding for SRD and the new suit was pretty fast! :)

.)) Sam Morse