Competition! Canadian Adaptive Snowboard Program National Championships

Adil Latif | Snowboarding- Training to compete | ON 27th January 2009 | 0 comments

We travelled to Vancouver for a national snowboarding competition at Grouse Mountain. I was very excited as the purpose of my training this season had been to bring my snowboarding ability up to a competitive level.

We were competing in boardercross, which consists of a downhill course with undulations, banked turns and a table top (a form of jump) at the end. Usually in boardercross you have more than one rider simultaneously racing one another to make it down. However, having Travis guide me with other people trying to race us would have been sadistic. I was given the opportunity to run the course 3 times and the best time was going to be taken out of the 3.

I had never been on a boardercross course so it was very daunting to begin with. The first 2 days all the riders were given some training on the course to become familiar with it.

I especially struggled the first day and took lots of tumbles. The best tumble was soon after I had asked one of the organizers if it would be possible for me to go too high up the bank turn and fall over the other side. She replied that it was not possible especially since there were fences all the way round and they would just push me back in if I was to go too high. You can guess what happened: I went too high, found the only hole in the fence, went right through and rolled 10 feet down the slope on the other side. It became apparent that the commands which Travis and I had developed and which Travis had been using to guide me down the slopes in Vermont would not be accurate enough for the boardercross. 

28th Jan

Refined system of guiding

On the 2nd day we managed to refine our guiding system and made it far superior to what we had. The new system was still very basic, however it provided different degrees to which I would go left or right.

We tried it out in the afternoon and found it was quite versatile and good for navigating me through tricky turns.

Each turn would have 3 levels. So a left turn could be L1 L2 or L3 and a right R1 R2 or R3.  L1 being a little left turn and a R3 being a big right turn. Not perfect but it was very simple. We also had a few other additions to the system.  For example, I could have a R3 turn with Carve,.  This would instruct me to carve the turn as opposed to skidding the turn. We kept the other commands the same such as PM: which stood for people management and this would inform me to take it easy and don’t to anything random as lots of people are around. Flat line: this being the command for keeping speed on my board on flat portions of the mountain as, if one were to stop there would be a lot of walking involved. Oh yes, and the most important command…STOP!

29th Jan

Competition day

The Competition was going to be held in the evening so we had most of the day to kick around the course. We took it easy and tried not to tire ourselves too much. It had gotten dark and the course was lit up by flood lights.  It was quite surreal. Due to the temperature drop in the evening, the course had become faster than we had ever ridden it during the day. The Fore-Runner who had one run immediately before the competition start, warned us to take it easy at the table top as it had become very fast.

First run

5. 4. 3. 2. 1. My heart was pounding. I was the most nervous I had been in a very long time. Travis and I went through the course over the rollers and completed the 4 bank turns going through every gate. We came to the table top at the end and I was very careful with my speed and barely made it up the up ramp of the table top and cleared the finishing line. I was happy as I got a time. The pressure was off a little; I could (in theory) mess up the next 2 runs and it wouldn’t matter.

2nd run

The 2nd run I was just as nervous waiting at the top.  The lady performing the countdown had an interesting accent. I think it was German but I wasn’t in the mood for socializing. I was On A Mission. Most of the 2nd run was similar to the first however I missed one of the gates which meant I was disqualified for that run. I continued on, determined to make it to the end. It was at this point things went a bit pear shaped. I approached the table top angled a little too much to the right. My board fired off the side of the up ramp and I landed on my ribs hard! The poor gate keepers who were standing at the side of the table top weren’t expecting me to drop in and were forced to jump/roll/tumble back down the side of the table in haste. I started to gently giggle as I heard Travis calmly advising them that they may want to be standing at a safer distance for my last run.

As we went up the chairlift for the last run we saw a few of the other competitors being taken off on stretchers as a result of going too high on the tabletop and landing hard. If I could get any more nervous now would be the time.

Final run

Travis helped me to position myself between the start gate. The countdown began, however the countdown lady hadn’t noticed that Travis still needed time to strap his back foot into his bindings. Thankfully as I pushed off the start gate Travis was ready! This final run was nearly identical to the 2nd run. However I was determined to make the table top this time. As we approached the table top I picked up speed and began climbing up the up ramp. I had my legs bent to absorb the uphill so that I wouldn’t launch too high into the air. I launched high into the air! I could feel my board go light and I could hear the music and the voices of the people who were standing around the finish line at my ankles!

I imagine the people watching would have been nervous seeing me in the air again after having seen my last attempt as well as watching the previous 2 riders getting hurt.

So when they saw me land on my feet with a big smile on my face the relief was overwhelming for both them and me!

Being the only Visually Impaired rider there you can guess who took home the gold medal in the Mens Visually Impaired category.