School is finally here, which along with little sleep and lots of work, also brings freshmen. For those unfamiliar with higher education, freshmen are essentially gifts from on high made to more experienced members of the ski team–useless balls of clay for us to shape into handsome, athletic specimens.
Well, sort of. If you thought that this was going to be a post about hazing, think again. (We keep those reports and pictures under wraps.) No, in all seriousness, it’s very exciting every fall to get a new bunch of fresh faces ready and excited to train hard, learn about the sport, and make new friends.
This year, the incoming group of skiers has actually doubled the size of the team. We’ve got something like six or seven new guys and a similar number of girls. They come from far and wide– Utah, Western Mass., Upstate New York, Minnesota, Michigan, and Maine–and they also boast impressive resumes. We’ve got a Michigan state champion, multiple Junior Olympic attendees, and some plain-old all-around solid athletes.
One of the most exciting things about the new freshmen are the rollerskis that they’ve been using during captain’s practices. I’m currently on a pair of V2 920s for classic, which are normally decent speed, but the bearings in them are seriously in the hurt locker. Trying to keep up with some of these new kids on their Proskis, Sharks, and Swenors has been causing me quite a bit of pain; I think I’m going to have to spring for some new wheels at a certain point or I’ll be doing a lot of training by myself.
The other exciting thing that happened this week was the absolute last paddling excursion I’ll be participating in this fall. On Saturday, I cruised down to the Rapid River (near Bethel) with the Bowdoin Outing Club for some solid class IV boating, which apparently results in disaster when combined with canoes. I felt really badass as the only person in our group in an open boat right up until the first four rapids, which resulted in four successive swims (see pictures). I then proceeded to slice open my right palm on a kayak paddle while trying to surf at a sweet play spot. Hmmmm…..
I’m heading up to Katahdin this weekend for a solid hike with a few other ski team members. Hopefully I’ll have an exciting report on that next week, although if it weren’t quite as exciting as the Presi traverse that’d be fine by me…

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