Sandcastles. And the Nordic Kids Wrap-Up.

It's a lame time of the season. So lame, in fact, that it feels about as lousy as that one time when you were 6, playing on the beach, building the best sand castle of all eternity. Then, your big sister came over and gave your sand castle, complete with moat and numerous drippy-castle turrets, the boot. Darn thing exploded faster than an over inflated swim Floaty.

Such is the feeling of every young XC racer and jumper in late March. One moment you're on top of your form, skimming over the frozen slush during paintball biathlon and plunking rides past K and the next, you're lazing around the house searching frantically for hobbies that are even as remotely cool as ski jumping. Thanks a bunch, spring weather!

Okay, philosophical rambles over. The 2010 NYSEF NORDIC KIDS FESTIVAL was a complete success. With total cooperation from Mother Nature and the awesome ORDA staff, we managed to have a fantastic season send-off competition. Congratulations to all the awesome competitors, and a hats off to the super volunteers. The weekend saw some top-notch racing with the 7,284 different disciplines, and everyone was impressed with the great level of skiing.

If you're searching, results for the XC mass start, sprints and paint-bizzle biathlon can be found here: http://nysef.org/nysefXcRace.html

Here are complete results for Nordic Combined, K6 and K18. Yahoo!



We're still searching for some scorching pics from this weekend's extravaganza on the jump hill, but to wet your whistle, here are some awesome pics courtesy of Jen Ledger, from February's Empire State Games festivus:

A packed K18 Flugschanze.

NYSEF's own Landon Liveri, gracing the very bottom of the K18 Flugschanze with his presence. Landon swept the J5 boys class & the Nordic Combined this past weekend... way to go Landon!

Don't worry, the SJ and NC fun won't be stopped for long. We'll have dates set for our world renowned NYSEF GRASSHOPPER CAMPS after Saturday's Eastern Ski Jumping meeting, so stay tuned. Complete information can be found below on our brochure.

On behalf of all the NYSEF staff, thanks for making the 09/10 jumping season our best one yet. At last count, we had over 78 youngsters take their first jumps on the K18 Flugschanze since December 1st. In the meantime, keep those tips up!

Dave McCahill, Evan Bliss & Casey Colby

JNCJO2010 Recap

If you're concerned because "JNCJO2010" is the case sensitive password for your Quicken and Gmail accounts, don't worry. Well, maybe you should worry that your sensitive files are now exposed on the information superhighway for all to see, but take solace in the fact that this unnecessarily complex acronym stands for Jumping & Nordic Combined Junior Olympics 2010.

If this comes as a surprise to you, then consider switching cnn.com for our friendly blog as your browser homepage. But regardless, Team East had a blast taking part in the event which showcased the top juniors throughout the country. Results, crazy videos and pictures galore are posted online at, you guessed it: www.jncjo2010.com

Here's our official team photo. Theme was "bank-robbers". If you don't believe it, check your recently slimmed-down Quicken account.

Kudos and krazy shout-outs to first time Junior Olympians Miles Lussi, Annie Frenette, Matt Doyle and Nate Capone. Killer performances by J1's Spencer Knickerbocker & Zach "The Attack" Daniels in the J1 NC Team Relay. Great job by Nina Lussi, who set off every metal detector in Chicago O'Hare with her cumulative 63 JO medals. As always, stylish rides by seasoned JO Vet Danielle Lussi, who completed her fourth and final Junior National Championship event. Most improved jumper of the week goes to Loudon's Luke Daniels, who was barnstorming the K-Point.

Last, our athletes took away some important skills from the event. Putting tele's in under pressure, hammering cross country in 6 in/minute snowfall and how not to get snaked by a 6 year old on snowblades while getting on the POMA lift. But most of all, they learned that a video camera held 2.1 inches away from your face can make for a pretty awkward video:

So be well, do good work, and come back often. See you this Saturday for the NYSEF Nordic Kids Festival!

Chicago Junior Olympic Qualifier

We had three great days for jumping this past weekend up in Fox River Grove where the kids showed some up and down jumps on the big K70 meter that was in great shape after some heavy rain that wiped the jumps out a week earlier. We had Annie, Miles, Luke, Matt, Nate, Danielle, Spencer, Zach, and Sam come with Dave and I to Chicago and test their game on some of the best juniors in the country and some learned that they have some work to do if they want to be named to the JO team and some learned they have a ways to go if they want to be called the JO champ come March.

Many of them failed to finish their jumps off with landings putting them off the podium and some off the top of the podium. All showed good signs of improvement and did not get discouraged when they had a bad jump knowing there was a second round to improve and make up ground on the others. The trip was kept interesting with games of beat the heat in the van ride, Late night high stakes poker games where David made most of his coaching wage, and NHL 09 on xbox.

To see full results from the weekend check out this link: http://www.skijumpingusa.com/

Like to say thanks to the Glasders and Browns for housing our athletes!