National Ability Center Ski and Snowboard Center

The National Ability Center had its staff BBQ at the Ski & Snowboard Center a couple of weeks ago. The BBQ was in celebration of the renovations and hard work that many people put into the off season to make the Ski & Snowboard Center a little better.

The equipment room is more space efficient with new places to store ski equipment.

The ski team now has its own locker room to help store its equipment, a place where the team can have meetings, and a separate place for the coaches and team members to hang out.

There is a new locker room that they are calling the Education Locker Space. Instructors will now have more room to store their personal skis, snowboards and different gear that they will be using to teach participants.

The main desk area has been opened up. There is now more desk room and more room in general area where the couches are.

Thank you to all of those who put in long hours to make the Ski & Snowboard Center renovations a success. I am sure the participants and their families will notice the changes and the new feel of a renovated Ski & Snowboard Center.

We are looking forward to a great season together. The returning volunteer training has now taken place at Park City Mountain Resort, and we look forward to seeing many familiar and new faces on mountain this season.

If you are an individual or know of an individual that would like to take part in lessons at the National Ability Center's Ski and Snowboard Center please log onto our website, and check out the programs and the different adaptive equipment we use to teach participants on mountain at DiscoverNAC.org.

If you have a friend that would like to volunteer with the National Ability Center's Ski & Snowboard Center please have them look at our website for the opportunities available at DiscoverNAC.org.

Adaptive Alpine Champs Wrap-up

by Sue Greenberg

The 2009 U.S. Adaptive Ski Championships drew to a close today in Winter Park Colorado with the newest event in ski racing, the Super Combined. For those unfamiliar with this event, it requires the athlete to complete one run of Super G and one run of Slalom in one day. Super G is a speed event similar to Downhill but with a few more turns. In Downhill the athletes have the opportunity to complete a few training runs on the course prior to the actual race. In Super G there are no training runs, only a single opportunity to slowly inspect the course before racing full out. Following the morning race the athletes switch equipment and gears to complete one run of the quick turning slalom course. At the end of six tiring days of competition this event showcases both the athletes' versatility and level of fitness. I am very happy to report that all three of the NAC Ability Ski Team members attending this event not only survived the test of the Super Combined, but brought out some of their best performances of the week!

Zack Broderick discovered a love for speed this week, and while his Super G was solid, his Slalom run bumped him up two places to finish 10th in the Men's Sitting category. This showcased the hard work that he has put in all season developing his Slalom skills. Sam Blakley had consistently good runs in both portions of the Combined with a 9th place finish, closing the gap on his Junior aged rival from the East who just squeaked in ahead of Sam. Teague Cowley got one more opportunity to strut his Slalom skills with a run that moved his final result up to 7th place, just behind the U.S. team athletes in the Men's Standing category.

After ten days on the road, the athletes and coaches of the NAC Ability Ski Team are exhausted but excited both by the results from this season and the anticipation of next year. We return to Park City tomorrow. After a few well deserved rest and recovery days the team will begin preparing for next season by getting back to training next week!

Looking forward to seeing everyone.

The Waiting Game

Teague Cowley and Zack Broderick waiting for the snow to stop.

by Sue Greenberg

There was a problem with the results calculation during the last couple of days. With all of the snow there were a few delays in getting yesterday's race underway, so while the coaches were out getting a thigh burning workout by pushing several inches of powder off of the downhill track, the athletes had a bit of time to rest and relax. The weather did clear and the race was held under much better conditions than Tuesday's blizzard! We'll keep you updated as we get the results from the recent races.

Video from 2009 Adaptive Alpine Nationals

After one of his best finishes as a member of the Ability Ski Team, Teague Cowley edited this video together of his races and those of teammates Zack Broderick and Sam Blakley. Check them out!

Giant Slalom at Disabled Nationals Ski Races

Results today in Giant Slalom were OK with Sam Blakley placing 9th and Teague Cowley 10th in GS. Teague skied a 240 point race which is 50 points better than he had going into the race. Sam is still getting used to his new boots and really picked up the pace in the second run. Teague had his own "wardrobe malfunction" with his top boot buckle falling off during morning warm up, allowing him to prove that you CAN fix almost everything with duct tape! Zack missed a gate in the first run and was disqualified. They are all looking forward to the speed events that begin tomorrow with a Downhill training run.

More to come...

Ability Ski Team: On the Road at Nationals

by Sue Greenberg

The Ability Ski Team put the rubber to the road on Tuesday on our way to Winter Park Colorado for the U.S. Alpine Adaptive Nationals. Apparently we missed out on the most epic snowfall of the season in Park City, but that's okay - our entire season of training has been leading up to this event, so it was best that we were able to maintain our focus and edging skills. Wednesday was a training day with an opportunity to ski on the Super G track in the morning and a few runs of Slalom in the afternoon. Thursday was too windy to allow for training, so we had a much needed rest day to catch up after the travel and adapt to the higher elevation. Friday brought a rare sunny day to Winter Park, and we trained Slalom in the morning.

Today was the Slalom National Championship. The first run was exciting with our athletes, Teague Cowley, Zack Broderick and Sam Blakley skiing at a level that showcased their potential. These athletes compete in the two most competitive categories in Adaptive Racing, Men's Standing and Men's Sitting. After the first run, Teague was in seventh place in Men's Standing, ahead of some US team athletes, and Zack was in 8th place in Men's Sitting. These runs represented personal best results for these athletes. Slalom is a two run event, with the overall result coming from the addition of the two runs. At the end of the day, Teague finished in 8th place, with a result that will improve his world ranking by a significant amount. Zack had another solid run, but unfortunately was disqualified on a procedure violation. Despite this setback he has shown a great improvement in this discipline over the season. Sam finished 12th in the Men's Standing category, finding his groove after a shaky start. Overall the athletes represented the NAC very well today, and we are confident that this will continue through the remainder of the Championships.

Other results of interest to our supporters include current US Team member and NAC alumni, Erik Bayindirli finishing just off of the podium in 5th place in Men's Sitting. Park City locals Monte Meier (Men's Standing) and Stephani Victor (Women's Sitting) won the Championship Titles in their respective categories.

The Championships continue tomorrow (Sunday) with the Giant Slalom. We will keep you updated.

Participant of the Quarter

The National Ability Center is proud to have Erik Bayindirli as its participant of the quarter. The Center would also like to congratulate Erik for being named to the U.S. Disabled Ski Team and for the four medals he earned while racing at the U.S. Disabled Nationals in March.



Erik has been skiing since he was three years old and has been racing for twenty-seven years. For most of those years, he has been racing with the National Ability Center. Erik has been a participant here since 1985, and in 2000 he began training and racing more seriously with the Ability Ski Team (formerly known as the Park City Disabled Ski Team).

This year in Idaho, Erik won four medals at Nationals. After so many years of work, Erik was still surprised at the results.

“I was quite shocked. I was more than ten seconds behind first place last year,” Erik said. “Speed is not what I usually do well at so that was pretty incredible.”

Hard work individually was a big part of Erik’s success, but he shares the glory with his coaches.

“It was a really great feeling to see all that great coaching by Julie and Maca pay off,” he said.

Now, Erik says he is excited to have the opportunity to see what he can do on an international scale while trying to qualify for the World Cup races.

Besides skiing, Erik likes to snorkel, water-ski, wakeboard, surf, hand-cycle, target shoot, and play tennis and sled hockey.

Erik’s advice for others with big dreams is, “Never, never ever quit. Just as you might think it’s the right thing to do, things can change, and you’ll wonder why you even had that thought.“