Well, well, well, what have we here? It appears that our old pals over on the UCSD Ski and Snowboard team have started their race season and were back in action at Mammoth leading up to New Years. For this race weekend, we were going to be competing in 3 different events: Skier/BoarderCross, Giant Slalom (GS) and Slalom. Normally, the Cross events are a rare occurrence, but this year our athletes got tossed at full speed over humps and bumps and rollers on their first race day. The weather on Race Day 1 wasn’t optimal for skiing all over the mountain due to major sockage above the midpoint of the mountain. Fortunately, our event was taking place on the lower mountain, so all systems were gucci. The races started off with the women boarders and skiers. If you thought the ladies were gnarly last year, you would not have believed the speeds these women were achieving in just the first race of the year. UCSD had a solid standing with women placing in both the skiers and boarders. For skiers, we had our own co-president Kathy (Kathy knows how to huck) coming in at 3rd place, Sammy our resident travel coordinator coming in at 4th, and at her first race of the season Shayna showed up and bagged an 8th. For boarders, we had our social media lord Hope come in at 4th place. After the women ripped the course to pieces, it was the men’s turn to have their go at the sweet course that Mammoth set up. For the male boarders, we had our ex-co-president Jeff charge his way into 6th place and our one and only milk club president John place at 7th for his first race as a UCSD extreme athlete. Our male skiers started off strong, but at the end of the race we only had one athlete place. For his first win of his UCSD tenure, Tobin the ski captain placed first, asserting that UCSD is the superior San Diego skiing school by besting 3 SDSU riders in the final round. With the cross event completed, the athletes were challenged by UCLA in a battle of wits and athleticism. Though the LA inhabitants fought valiantly, everyone knows that UCSD is just way cooler dude. Due to this, UCSD athletes absolutely demolished those dang fools by being master craftsmen of puzzles, and superior challengers of sports games. Using this victory, our riders were more than ready to tackle the GS and Slalom races of New Year’s Eve. On the final day of 2019, our skiers and boarders got to enjoy what would be a solid day of racing and charging around the mountain. The day started off early with wind but the conditions were far superior to the prior day with nearly clear blue bird conditions for the whole day. In the GS race, our female boarders unfortunately had nobody place, but they were out there putting their lives on the line for the UCSD namesake. For the male boarders, we had our boys Jeff and Oliver coming in at 2nd and 5th to secure a solid number of points (I don’t think anyone has any idea how the point system in our league works). For ski GS we had our consistent ladies Sierra, Sammy and Kathy place into 4th, 8th and 9th to once again obtain some sweet, sweet points. For the male skiers, we only had Tobin come in at 5th, but all those other guys were charging down and dealing with the brutal chatter that was being produced on the race course. Following the GS race was the slalom race. Slalom is kinda wack because the turns are really tight but even with these silly courses our athletes still knocked it out of the park. For the boarders, unfortunately the results on live timing are indecipherable, but based on what a little bird told me, the guy himself Jeff places once again at 2nd and Oliver was thrown in the top ten somewhere (5th). As is typical, the skiers were far more organized in their race antics and because of this, ya boy Snowlord can actually determine what place people came in. For our female skiers, our ladies are just too consistent and can’t be stopped. Sierra, Kathy and Sammy once again locked in points at 4th, 5th and 6th, securing a sizable quantity of mystery points for the Tritons. For the dudes, we unfortunately had a number of disqualifications whether it be from a gnarly crash or missing a gate on the confusing course, but amidst all the chaos Tobin was able to steal a 2nd place, missing first place by only 40 seconds, a real barn burner. With the races complete, a very happy new year was celebrated and our athletes all wished for very sick and snow filled 2020. With 2020 off to a hot start, the next thing our athletes look forward to is our big Welcome Weekend where we celebrate all the returning and new members on the team. The next race isn’t until MLK weekend unfortunately, but in the meantime huck that carcass and shoot them chutes guys and gals. CYA

Snowlord Dudeski