| The 2006-07 “Year of the Senior” proved an excellent year for S&T training, with a total of 28 people attending at least one EMARI Senior S&T training clinic, 19 candidates officially signing up for the program, and 12 of those 19 testing. Of the 28 participants attending the clinics, four were from the New Hampshire region, and one was from the Maine region. The result, even with the painfully slow-snow start to this year’s ski season, was a great deal of training time, fun and improvement, including plenty of those joyous breakthroughs that make S&T training so satisfying. People just love learning how to tame (survive) the bumps!
We had a total of 5 days of up-north Senior training this year, all of which were extremely well attended and very productive. Locations included Loon Mountain, Sunapee, Sunday River, and Cannon Mountain. Midweek clinics at Wachusett were offered on Thursday nights this year, with an average of 6 or 7 participants per night. Wednesday clinics at Wachusett were also offered for an extremely dedicated (manic) group of four Blue Hills patrollers that were unable to attend Thursdays. As in the past, S&T clinics were open to all interested patrollers in EMARI and NH, whether formally enrolled in the Senior program or not.
The training effort this year loosed 15 dedicated EMARI Trainer/Evaluators (T/E’s) and several new candidate EMARI T/E’s on the unsuspecting candidates, who were improving before they even knew what hit them. Two brand new EMARI T/E’s were also added to the fray: Mami Iwamoto and Mickey Beriau, both turned in strong performances at the very rigorous late January T/E evaluation at Sunday River, much as we knew they would.
This year’s joint EMARI and NH Senior Ski & Toboggan evaluation was held on Sunday March 4th at Cannon Mountain, and was organized by the New Hampshire region in concert with EMARI staff. The test was well organized and included all the excitement and drama we’ve come to expect, plus an excellent prepared lunch at the Park Headquarters building arranged for by NH region. Thanks to Lee Murphy and Orest Ohar for putting together
a smooth running test day.
The following nine EMARI candidates passed all or part of their Skiing and Toboggan components in
the 2006-07 season:
- Mike Spector — Blue Hills
- John Houghton — Bradford
- Dave Polsey — Nashoba Valley
- Amy Silveria — Nashoba Valley
- Martha Larson — Wachusett/Crotched
- Missi Baima — Wachusett
- Patty Benz — Wachusett
- Ed Coulliard — Wachusett
- Josh Tamulen — Wachusett
Our Toboggan Instructor clinic and mentoring program added several new Toboggan Instructors to the Region as well. We thank them for their willingness to step up, and look forward to their help and enthusiasm in the coming seasons.
I would like to offer my sincere thanks to the superb EMARI Ski & Toboggan staff for their help in my first year as S&T advisor, most especially Dave Smith, the past S&T Advisor. The dedication and excellence of EMARI staff continues to impress all who receive their expert instruction and guidance. It really is a kick to be part of such a professional, motivated and accomplished team. Hats off to you all for another great year of training.
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