My son just went off to Boulder for school this fall. As many of you have probably heard it got ranked the #1 party school, although I'm not too concerned about that for my son. On the other hand, it got ranked as only the #2 school for outdoor recreation by Outside Magazine (UC Santa Cruz was #1). That, I think is a mistake.
So far (2 weeks), my son has been mountain biking, trail running, bouldering, climbing at the gym's climbing wall, playing tennis with the club team, working out at their pretty spectacular recreational facility, and I'm not sure what else. (He had a shot at making the CU tennis team but chose not to try out in order to pursue these other recreational opportunities).
Last night, however, I got another report about the CU Ski and Snowboard club which is actually a "Freeride" club. At their first organizational meeting he learned that there are 5 or 6 coaches for the club almost all of whom or have been national level or world class moguls or freestyle competitors and champions. Additionally there are student members of the club with similar accomplishments. They do organized dry-land training all fall and then have reserved times and places at a few resorts along the front range (Eldora, A Basin, ...) almost daily. To say the least he was excited about the opportunities afforded. Although he has mostly been a "big mountain" free skier in his focus, he can't believe the opportunity to train with such accomplished skiers. Besides the emphaiss on moguls, freestyle, and slopeside, there is also a smaller focus on big mountain free skiing.
I think his biggest issue this year may be how to balance teaching at Eldora (which he hopes to be hired for) and training with the Freeride Club. (A special note of thanks to Rusty for his help and guidance in making my son aware of the possibilities for teaching at Eldora).
BTW I'm not too worried about his academics as he enters with enough AP and college credits from high school to be a second semester sophmore. In case it is of interest he is staring out as a geography major with possible intent to focus on hydrology and snow science (for which CU Boulder is one of the top rated programs). This choice is definitely a consequence of our backcountry skiing experiences, I think.
Bottom line is that I'm thinking that maybe I ought to go back to college, this time at CU. Do you think there are any scholarships available for a 50+ year old wanna be??
[ September 04, 2003, 08:37 AM: Message edited by: Si ]
So far (2 weeks), my son has been mountain biking, trail running, bouldering, climbing at the gym's climbing wall, playing tennis with the club team, working out at their pretty spectacular recreational facility, and I'm not sure what else. (He had a shot at making the CU tennis team but chose not to try out in order to pursue these other recreational opportunities).
Last night, however, I got another report about the CU Ski and Snowboard club which is actually a "Freeride" club. At their first organizational meeting he learned that there are 5 or 6 coaches for the club almost all of whom or have been national level or world class moguls or freestyle competitors and champions. Additionally there are student members of the club with similar accomplishments. They do organized dry-land training all fall and then have reserved times and places at a few resorts along the front range (Eldora, A Basin, ...) almost daily. To say the least he was excited about the opportunities afforded. Although he has mostly been a "big mountain" free skier in his focus, he can't believe the opportunity to train with such accomplished skiers. Besides the emphaiss on moguls, freestyle, and slopeside, there is also a smaller focus on big mountain free skiing.
I think his biggest issue this year may be how to balance teaching at Eldora (which he hopes to be hired for) and training with the Freeride Club. (A special note of thanks to Rusty for his help and guidance in making my son aware of the possibilities for teaching at Eldora).
BTW I'm not too worried about his academics as he enters with enough AP and college credits from high school to be a second semester sophmore. In case it is of interest he is staring out as a geography major with possible intent to focus on hydrology and snow science (for which CU Boulder is one of the top rated programs). This choice is definitely a consequence of our backcountry skiing experiences, I think.
Bottom line is that I'm thinking that maybe I ought to go back to college, this time at CU. Do you think there are any scholarships available for a 50+ year old wanna be??
[ September 04, 2003, 08:37 AM: Message edited by: Si ]
