Canada Day, July 1 Race
Posted: Sat Jul 03, 2004 12:37 am
The 1st Annual Dovercourt Open
Getting awakened by thunder and hard sheets of water flailing against the rooftop and side-walls of The Ottawa Sk8park wasn’t what we had hoped for.
Rob later flipped on the computer to monitor the storm on radar. The ban was moving away and it seemed like we would get a window of opportunity. At around 9:30 or so we loaded the start ramps and some of the gear and proceeded to the hill. The sun was scarecely creeping in and out of the moving cloud cover. Rob S helped me unload the truck and returned to the park.
The 2 staff from Dovecourt were there to greet us and see if there were any special needs; where they were to put the tables and PA system. The sun shone brightly and started to dry the road as I set the course. Once the course was set I asked for some opinions then it was chalked. While Pierre and ? duplicated (nice job) the course it was chalked. I was putting the starting ramps together, 16 screws and two shims with Rob and some of the guys. I then proceeded to put the blower to work clearing the roadway and happily drying out the shaded area that would have remained wet for quite a while.
The racers were raring to go and a few had some problems making some of the techy sections but they pretty much all managed it pretty well. It was very nice to see Karen Hegman come to Ottawa again from Toronto with her husband Vince and complete it after some frustrating attempts. Karen Hegman was the first ever Girls Canadian Slalom Champion Crowned in 1978.
New to the sport was Patrick from Montreal; Parker (a young kid from my City of
Ottawa sk8camp in 2003) and Irene, another person from my city sk8 classes. Irene took several unsuccessful runs and decided to watch and learn as opposed to competing at this time. Although Patrick, Parker and Karen did not make thesemi-final group they sk8’d well and seemed to have a really good time in the process.
Another new girl on the sscene is Briana Klassen. Look out for her, ladies. Although she decided not to compete she is fast and going to be force in the near future. She started ridding ramps at last December, tried Slalom at Easter, then 3 weeks ago during a Team Demo she started runnin’ one of the Slalom courses I set-up and that was it: she’s hooked!
This was the 2nd time Nic made a trip and was skating well and will continue to improve. As for Chris and Alex they’re developing well since they began at Easter their improvement is steady. We will see each one of them beating each other on different courses as their styles are different.
It was nice to see Rob Sydia Slalom skills developing as well. He enjoys Slalom and the racing. He made Jimmy work hard to knock him out. Civ took out Nic. Nic put down a fast time in the 1st heat but took out a lot of cones . He is showing potential as well. Ian took out Chris pretty handily. Chris, knowing that he has some skill, tried really hard to challenge Ian but DQ’d on the first run and hit way too many on the 2nd run. Alex was eliminated by Pierre who proved that his win in Montreal and his 2nd place finish in Ottawa on Easter weekend was no fluke. His Pro model works well under his feet and he is getting faster.
In the 2nd round Civ took out Jimmy and Pierre took out Ian. Then Ian took out Jimmy getting even for the Easter races weekend. In the end Pierre Gravel took out Mike Cividino for 1st place. This was hard fought racing and both racers finished in fine style running the course clean. Pierre’s good start kept him in front from start to finish as Mike showed some tenaciousness.
Cones Heads – Derek, Isaac, Tyson, Corey: Ken, Chris and Nicholas, (Briana’s family) and anyone else I missed (I know there is one young fellow that cone marshaled and we never got his name, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you all).
MBL was the Head Cone Marshall, Paul Cormier (the one that drove to cali with me for the 2002 worlds) was the mid-course head cones Marshall. Brianna and Shasta were timers and Shasta also doubled as the timekeeper.
Ian and Jimmy built a timer the night before the race that proved to work wonderfully with only a few missed runs. It was set-up for single lane so everyone had a chance to get a run with the timers. We used a stopwatch on each lane for recording the racing.
This timer is going t be nice when it’s completed. It will be complete with software and all.
We would like to send a big THANK YOU to: The Dovecourt Community Centre. They are looking forward to hosting The Second Annual Dovercourt Open. Rosi’s canteen that set-up the canteen and kept the prices very reasonable. Jonathan Hatchell from Labatt’s breweries for supplying some Adult beverages. Those coolers could be a problem, they’re “Great”. The neighbors. To all the residents that allowed us to take charge of your residential street on Canada day we also Thank you immensely. The police that came by to check us out and seemed to be enjoying it. The spectators, friends and our families that were there to support us. It was great to see my family come out and support me. My Grandson Dorian who sat quietly with a smile for me as he struggled with an inner ear infection.
To my business partner MB goes a special Thank you. As I hobbled around over the last 10 days she worked endlessly on the contest preparation including food, drinks, the barbecue, posters and many other little things that make the big things work out flawlessly. The whole event ran quite smooth and there seemed to be few delays once we got started.
I wish I could have raced and am glad I decided not to. MC’’ing and starting was enough. Everyone seemed to do well on the starting ramps and there were no falls from anyone except for the ones on others parts of the course and there were only a few.
This time showers were provided by the big guy upstairs (complete with spectacular light show). We had a really nice time after the second storm with a barbecue at The Ottawa Sk8park. After everyone left, Civ, Shasta, MB and myself did the 30 minute round-trip (including the fireworks) to see the fireworks. You would have though that we were attached to the 4 X 4 in front of us. No one and I mean no one was getting between us. Nice driving MB! You would of thought it was breakfast time because we were all toast at that point.
Thanks again to everyone that supported, sponsored volunteered and watched the 1st Annual Dovercourt Open.
Canada Day tight slalom results at Dovercourt rec center Ottawa, Ontario.
Position Qualifying runs
1st run 2nd run Run 1 Run 2 Run 3 Run 4
1st Pierre Gravel 11.62/11.88/12.31/10.81 +3/11.78 +1/11.72 +2
2nd Mike Cividino 12.41+1/12.09+1/11.84+2/11.9+1/11.94+3/1 1.5+2
3rd Ian Comishin 12.85 2 12.4 +2 12.28 4 13.6 1/12.5+4/12.03+8
4th Jim Ziemlanski12.78/+6/12.47+3/11.93+5/12.06+2/12.06+ 5/12.16+2
5th Rob Sydia 13.13+3/12.63+4/12.34+4/12.68+DQ
6th N icolas Desmarais 14 +1/14 +5/12.97+8/14.03+1/
7th Chris Tingman 14.22+5/13.47+5/DQ/14+10
8th Alex McMahon 13.88 +4/14.62DQ/14.34+3/13.72+4
9th Pat Constantineau 14.6 +1 14.63 +1/14+?
10th Parker 15.75+7/15.59+7/?
Paul Cormier Did not race
Women: Karen Hegmann 18.28+3/DQ/
Brianna Klassen did not race
Mary Beth Lavoie did not race
Mia Efrain did not race
Irene Lepiesza did not race
See you all soon.
For 2005. Is anyone in the East US, interested in planning a 2005 CAN/AM event? July 1 and 2 in Ottawa and July 3 and 4 ? Let's get on it soon if you are interested. IT's 1hour and 40 minutes to fly from Ottawa to Washington and we could call the event The Capital Cup. The 2nd Annual Dovercourt Open will be the Ottawa leg of the Competition.
Getting awakened by thunder and hard sheets of water flailing against the rooftop and side-walls of The Ottawa Sk8park wasn’t what we had hoped for.
Rob later flipped on the computer to monitor the storm on radar. The ban was moving away and it seemed like we would get a window of opportunity. At around 9:30 or so we loaded the start ramps and some of the gear and proceeded to the hill. The sun was scarecely creeping in and out of the moving cloud cover. Rob S helped me unload the truck and returned to the park.
The 2 staff from Dovecourt were there to greet us and see if there were any special needs; where they were to put the tables and PA system. The sun shone brightly and started to dry the road as I set the course. Once the course was set I asked for some opinions then it was chalked. While Pierre and ? duplicated (nice job) the course it was chalked. I was putting the starting ramps together, 16 screws and two shims with Rob and some of the guys. I then proceeded to put the blower to work clearing the roadway and happily drying out the shaded area that would have remained wet for quite a while.
The racers were raring to go and a few had some problems making some of the techy sections but they pretty much all managed it pretty well. It was very nice to see Karen Hegman come to Ottawa again from Toronto with her husband Vince and complete it after some frustrating attempts. Karen Hegman was the first ever Girls Canadian Slalom Champion Crowned in 1978.
New to the sport was Patrick from Montreal; Parker (a young kid from my City of
Ottawa sk8camp in 2003) and Irene, another person from my city sk8 classes. Irene took several unsuccessful runs and decided to watch and learn as opposed to competing at this time. Although Patrick, Parker and Karen did not make thesemi-final group they sk8’d well and seemed to have a really good time in the process.
Another new girl on the sscene is Briana Klassen. Look out for her, ladies. Although she decided not to compete she is fast and going to be force in the near future. She started ridding ramps at last December, tried Slalom at Easter, then 3 weeks ago during a Team Demo she started runnin’ one of the Slalom courses I set-up and that was it: she’s hooked!
This was the 2nd time Nic made a trip and was skating well and will continue to improve. As for Chris and Alex they’re developing well since they began at Easter their improvement is steady. We will see each one of them beating each other on different courses as their styles are different.
It was nice to see Rob Sydia Slalom skills developing as well. He enjoys Slalom and the racing. He made Jimmy work hard to knock him out. Civ took out Nic. Nic put down a fast time in the 1st heat but took out a lot of cones . He is showing potential as well. Ian took out Chris pretty handily. Chris, knowing that he has some skill, tried really hard to challenge Ian but DQ’d on the first run and hit way too many on the 2nd run. Alex was eliminated by Pierre who proved that his win in Montreal and his 2nd place finish in Ottawa on Easter weekend was no fluke. His Pro model works well under his feet and he is getting faster.
In the 2nd round Civ took out Jimmy and Pierre took out Ian. Then Ian took out Jimmy getting even for the Easter races weekend. In the end Pierre Gravel took out Mike Cividino for 1st place. This was hard fought racing and both racers finished in fine style running the course clean. Pierre’s good start kept him in front from start to finish as Mike showed some tenaciousness.
Cones Heads – Derek, Isaac, Tyson, Corey: Ken, Chris and Nicholas, (Briana’s family) and anyone else I missed (I know there is one young fellow that cone marshaled and we never got his name, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you all).
MBL was the Head Cone Marshall, Paul Cormier (the one that drove to cali with me for the 2002 worlds) was the mid-course head cones Marshall. Brianna and Shasta were timers and Shasta also doubled as the timekeeper.
Ian and Jimmy built a timer the night before the race that proved to work wonderfully with only a few missed runs. It was set-up for single lane so everyone had a chance to get a run with the timers. We used a stopwatch on each lane for recording the racing.
This timer is going t be nice when it’s completed. It will be complete with software and all.
We would like to send a big THANK YOU to: The Dovecourt Community Centre. They are looking forward to hosting The Second Annual Dovercourt Open. Rosi’s canteen that set-up the canteen and kept the prices very reasonable. Jonathan Hatchell from Labatt’s breweries for supplying some Adult beverages. Those coolers could be a problem, they’re “Great”. The neighbors. To all the residents that allowed us to take charge of your residential street on Canada day we also Thank you immensely. The police that came by to check us out and seemed to be enjoying it. The spectators, friends and our families that were there to support us. It was great to see my family come out and support me. My Grandson Dorian who sat quietly with a smile for me as he struggled with an inner ear infection.
To my business partner MB goes a special Thank you. As I hobbled around over the last 10 days she worked endlessly on the contest preparation including food, drinks, the barbecue, posters and many other little things that make the big things work out flawlessly. The whole event ran quite smooth and there seemed to be few delays once we got started.
I wish I could have raced and am glad I decided not to. MC’’ing and starting was enough. Everyone seemed to do well on the starting ramps and there were no falls from anyone except for the ones on others parts of the course and there were only a few.
This time showers were provided by the big guy upstairs (complete with spectacular light show). We had a really nice time after the second storm with a barbecue at The Ottawa Sk8park. After everyone left, Civ, Shasta, MB and myself did the 30 minute round-trip (including the fireworks) to see the fireworks. You would have though that we were attached to the 4 X 4 in front of us. No one and I mean no one was getting between us. Nice driving MB! You would of thought it was breakfast time because we were all toast at that point.
Thanks again to everyone that supported, sponsored volunteered and watched the 1st Annual Dovercourt Open.
Canada Day tight slalom results at Dovercourt rec center Ottawa, Ontario.
Position Qualifying runs
1st run 2nd run Run 1 Run 2 Run 3 Run 4
1st Pierre Gravel 11.62/11.88/12.31/10.81 +3/11.78 +1/11.72 +2
2nd Mike Cividino 12.41+1/12.09+1/11.84+2/11.9+1/11.94+3/1 1.5+2
3rd Ian Comishin 12.85 2 12.4 +2 12.28 4 13.6 1/12.5+4/12.03+8
4th Jim Ziemlanski12.78/+6/12.47+3/11.93+5/12.06+2/12.06+ 5/12.16+2
5th Rob Sydia 13.13+3/12.63+4/12.34+4/12.68+DQ
6th N icolas Desmarais 14 +1/14 +5/12.97+8/14.03+1/
7th Chris Tingman 14.22+5/13.47+5/DQ/14+10
8th Alex McMahon 13.88 +4/14.62DQ/14.34+3/13.72+4
9th Pat Constantineau 14.6 +1 14.63 +1/14+?
10th Parker 15.75+7/15.59+7/?
Paul Cormier Did not race
Women: Karen Hegmann 18.28+3/DQ/
Brianna Klassen did not race
Mary Beth Lavoie did not race
Mia Efrain did not race
Irene Lepiesza did not race
See you all soon.
For 2005. Is anyone in the East US, interested in planning a 2005 CAN/AM event? July 1 and 2 in Ottawa and July 3 and 4 ? Let's get on it soon if you are interested. IT's 1hour and 40 minutes to fly from Ottawa to Washington and we could call the event The Capital Cup. The 2nd Annual Dovercourt Open will be the Ottawa leg of the Competition.
