Tonight was a tough night for our team without our top point man. Our team was very competitive on Monday nights, especially considering the median age of our team is 30 (NASTAR heavily favors older skiers when awarding handicap points). However, our recreational oriented race team was no match for the most race suit wearing gate bashers that race during the other week nights. We finished second to last though with our top point man and slightly better runs from our key racers, our team could have placed slightly higher.
My two runs felt good despite a sluggish start on racers right and a tough run out on the flats of racers left. The course was set on Twister which was unfortunate for my preferences. Twister actually looks like a good race trail if you start at the top instead of at the flats, so I am anxiously awaiting King of the Hill next Thursday.
After hardly skiing a hard packed groomer all season, it was nice feeling the progression as I got my carving legs back under me. Still was not up to college racing form, but that aspect of my technique package has definitely slipped in favor of powder, freeriding, and tree skiing skills. I got better every week and beat out our number three point getter twice during the last two races.
This was my first full season in a NASTAR league and I came away with the impression that some rule changes need to occur to make up for some irregularities and handicapping issues that reduce competitiveness. Either that or they need to start setting a challenging race course. It is too easy for old farts to essentially straight line it towards the finish. The snowboarder on our team got better every week but his scores did not show improvement so snowboarders need a bigger handicap point boost.