COPPER MOUNTAIN — The base area was nearly deserted and only one run high on the mountain was in shape for skiing, but a contingent of young racers and mentors with World Cup credentials made the most of it last week.
With three World Cup podium finishes on his resume, U.S. Ski Team downhiller Steve Nyman worked closely with Ski Club Vail prospect Greta Byrne, observing her technique and offering pointers.
“You’re really loose and fluid,” Nyman told Byrne on a lift ride. “It’s sweet the way your skis track, you arc and you’re smooth, which is what will maintain the most speed. It’s just a matter of figuring out how to place that arc in the proper place on the hill . . .”
In the final days before Copper opened to the public for the season, Nyman was there with past and present U.S. Ski Team racers Daron Rahlves, Bryon Friedman, Jake Zamansky and Caitlin Ciccone for a four-day “Speedfreaks” training camp sponsored by Spyder, the Boulder-based ski apparel company which has outfitted the U.S. Ski Team since 1989. The established racers were paired with hopefuls such as Byrne, 15, and Katie Hostetler of the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club.
“It’s cool to see people you look up to and read about in magazines,” said Hostetler, 14. “You kind of think of them as celebrities, and then you meet them, they’re just like any other ordinary people.”
Founded in 2007, Speedfreaks is Spyder’s grassroots initiative to nurture and inspire the next generation of racers. Faced with the proliferation of half-pipes, terrain parks and “action sports,” Speedfreaks is an effort to convince at least some kids that ski racing is cool too.
“We make no bones about it, it’s ski racing,” said Phil Shettig, Spyder’s business unit director. “We’re not trying to be new school. This is all about going fast.”
The germ of the idea came from Nyman about three years ago in a conversation with Shettig. Nyman wanted to find a way to do something for kids as a way of giving back to the sport.
“I think it’s just stoking passion,” said Nyman, who has been on the podium at Beaver Creek the past two years. “It’s just firing the kids up. I think there’s a perception of ski racing as a very serious sport, but it’s fun, man. If you break it down, all we’re searching for is speed.”
While Nyman worked with Byrne, Rahlves mentored Nicole Anderson, a Team Summit racer who commutes from Centennial, where she attends Grandview High School. Easily America’s most accomplished downhiller, Rahlves retired from the World Cup after the 2006 Olympics but has targeted skiercross in the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, as has Ciccone.
“He’s a legend,” Anderson said, “so it’s really nice to train with him.”
Rahlves worked with Anderson on being more precise with her edges.
“On that left-foot turn, just drive that inside arm a little more,” Rahlves said. “You tend to hold it back like this (demonstrating), and it puts you on your heels. Just try to be really clean, edge to edge, all right?”
Friedman has spent the past two seasons trying to regain his form after a downhill training crash in January 2005 broke his leg and threatened his career. Working with the Speedfreaks kids reminded him of the days when he was a wide-eyed teenager working his way up the pecking order of ski racing.
“It helps me because it rejuvenates me,” Friedman said. “I’ve had a rough go the past few years. I realize just how fun the sport really is when you strip away all the political stuff and the pressure. It’s great, it’s fun, and coaching people helps me work on my skiing.”
