Moguls Courses At The Chill Factor^e 14th–16th July

Reporter: Alan Brown

After many false starts, they finally got agreement to build some, and all was set for the first such course at Chill Factor^e for several years. When the Club held its Thursday Ski Meet, only two days before the first sessions, we realised that bookings were very thin. Hence the Newsflash everyone got, suggesting we join in.

As it turned out, of the 16 students, 12 were from the Club. Peter Brooks was the only student on the first session, so he had personal tuition. Peter came back for a further session in the afternoon which Jane Dawson, Caroline and I also attended. We were all very fortunate to be instructed by Chris David, who is not only the slope's Snowsports Manager, but also Team GB's Freestyle Coach! And to add jam to the cake, he'd invited a friend who has competed in Freestyle in the Olympics to help him!

The session was very informal and relaxed, but there was no doubting Chris's ability as coach. He was very careful to provide personal guidance, and we all felt we learned a lot. Interestingly, he never mentioned absorbing the bump, but concentrated on pole plants and looking several bumps ahead. The combination seemed to give us all extra time to negotiate the bumps which didn’t seem quite so scary. We all came away with further advice: 'keep your legs closer together'.

I understand that we'll have the chance for more top class instruction next month (see John's announcement about Chill Factore events) and I for one will certainly be there looking to see if I can find even more time to get everything right. Some hope, but we can all dream!