a call to retiring gymnasts

[Steve Adamson]

Hi,
I am Aerial Skiing Development Officer for British Freestyle (http://www.freestylesnowsports.co.uk/british/) and I am looking for people with a gymnastic background who might be interested in having a go.
The Canadian Freestyle Skiing Association (http://www.freestyleski.com/) recently put out the following press release (http://www.freestyleski.com/eng/archives/2004/gymnasts_july14.htm) regarding their programme for transfering gymnasts.
Aerials training in the UK takes place through the summer at the Water Ramp (http://www.sharks.org.uk/Photos/waterramp2004/Page.html) in Sheffield.
If anyone would like to get involved please get in touch, or if you are coaching anyone who might be interested pass on this information.
Best wishes for the season,
Steve.

[Steve Adamson]

Here are the first few dates we have organised for water ramp training this year, 7/8th May, 21/22nd May, 4/5th June; I will post more as we organise them.

We have recently been discussing long term goals for British Freestyle Skiing, one of these is to have at least one Aerials Skier participating in the 2010 Olympic Winter Games. The only realistic way to achieve this is to follow the lead of Australia and recruit from the Gymnastic and Trampolining community.

If anyone would like to have a go at this sport, or knows of anyone else that might be interested please get in touch for more details.

aerials@freestylesnowsports.co.uk (aerials@freestylesnowsports.co.uk)

[Steve Adamson]

If anyone would like to see some Freestyle Skiing then have a look at Channel 4 at 7.30 on Sunday (27th March) for highlights from this years World Freestyle Skiing Championships, watch out for quad twisting triple sommies in the Aerials.

[Steve Adamson]

We are now well into the water ramp season and things are looking good, Orla Gilmore from Stirling Uni. decided to give it a go and she has been doing really well, landing double back straight sommies on her third session on the ramp, hopefully she will be able to compete on snow this winter. We have a short video of a session earlier this year on the British Freestyle website http://www.freestylesnowsports.co.uk/british/fsphotos.html click the video list and select "water ramp training" both files are the same but one is better quality.

For more info of how to have a go, or come and watch a session contact aerials@freestylesnowsports.co.uk

[Gingerheid]

Very nice video - looks impressive!

[Dave]

Quality video.... might give it a try when i do actually retire from gymnastics !

but at present there are no plans to do so :D

[Steve Adamson]

the British Olympic Association have recently decided to support the strategy of recruiting athletes reaching the end of a competetive carear in trampolining and transfering to Ski Aerials, we have had success in the past with Richard Cobbing who came into Aerials in 1991 and achieved very good results in the early 90s jumping at 2 Olympic Winter Games in '92 and '94 and the World Championships in '93 where he came second.
At the British (Artificial slope) Freestyle Ski Championships last weekend, Sarah Ainsworth from Brentwood, who was identified by John Beer as having potential in Aerials, became British ladies Aerials Champion at her first competition at the Sheffield Water Ramp.
We now have two Aerialists, Orla Gilmore and Sarah Ainsworth, who will be going to compete in Europa Cup this winter.

[Steve Adamson]

The 2006 Olympic Winter Games are almost upon us. Watch out for Freestyle Aerials, there are four events in all, as both men and women have a qualifiying round and a final. The dates are 19th womens qual. 20th mens qual. 22nd womens final, 23rd mens final. These jumps are huge with the men jumping around 15 metres up in the air and typicaly performing triple straight sommersaults with three or more twists. Have a look at the BBC sport website for details of Olympic coverage.

[Bronagh Patterson]

saw some info about this on the bbc last night and was very tempted.until i phoned my mother who prompthy said "bronagh. no":(

[Bronagh Patterson]

steve do you have any more info on courses in the UK for this? theres some people in my uni who are really interested! email me at bropat@hotmail.com please!