Gloucester Club National

An early morning over to Gloucester, but what a difference, sunshine!! Wow forgot what that was like at a race, seems so long ago now.

An interesting course was set by Hedley Beavis on a course which only allowed for 13 gates. As with most courses if you setup right for part of it then the rest is plain sailing. It’s easy from the side of the slope but yep I know totally different when racing down and something I wish I could do! So with this course you had to make sure you mastered to top half and then if you did that correctly it would lead you perfectly into the final few gates. Make a mess of the top and you would either get a poor time of ski out.

Saturday – Stoke Club National
The journey up to Stoke was ominous, rain followed by heavy rain followed by rain, oh and what happened to the sun? What job was I doing? Finish Ref out in the open!!

Prior to open practice the slope was checked and appeared to be fine but once the faster guys starting coming down it was apparent there was a major problem with the matting at the end of the slope near the finish area. Unfortunately under the matting was giving way and causing part of the mat to ripple which in turn meant that as racers stopped they were catching the dodgy mat and flipping over. There were a few minor falls initially but one major injury which resulted in a visit to the hospital with a dislocated shoulder and badly damaged face for Andrew Leeson, hopefully he’ll recover quickly.