Regional races (SSO): Aldershot is in the Southern region of Snowsport England. There are six Southern Region races per year. We would advise that if you are new to racing these are the ones you should focus on in the first year. The London and South East, and Eastern regions are also not that far away for extra regional races. Regional races offer a great introduction to ski racing, and they are all closer to home. If you do enough races within a region, your results will count towards a scoring for the overall regional season placings as well. Races are split into boys and girls and by age group (Two year groupings - under 8’s, 10’s, 12’s, 14’s,16’s and 16+) The group is based on the age of the athlete as of 1st January. For example, if you are  going to be ten years old in the 12 months following the 1st January, then you will be in the under 12’s group for that year and the year after.

 

Club National races: These races are run by a club or region at national level. The level of competition and course difficulty is a step up from the regional races. These races happen throughout the UK. They are often paired so if you do travel for a race you could do two in the same area over a weekend for example. For these races, athletes need to register with Snowsport England (under 12’s are free for the first year). For all racers in the under 14’s and upwards age groups there is a national seeding points system and these races, as well as the GBR ones below, give you points in that system towards overall rankings for England. These weekends are a great way to get to know your fellow ASRC athletes and to meet others from all around the country interested in the same thing. The parents also greatly enjoy the social aspects of the weekends away and we look to try and book the same hotels and dinner venues where possible. On the race calendar these are identified as “club national” races and the host club is named by each one.

 

GBR races: Similar to club national races this is a series of six races (there is an indoor and outdoor series) in the season. You will get seed points for these races too. The level of competition and course difficulty steps up again as these are effectively international events.

 

Schools races: If you are involved in ski racing with your school they will advise you on all of the school racing that is possible. Each county tends to run an interschools race each year. Your school would support you at these races.

 

For details on the Seeding Systems (BASS - British Alpine Seeding System, iBARTS - Indoor British ARTificial Seeding and oBARTS - Outdoor British ARTificial Seeding) - visit https://gbski.com/seeding.php Good luck, it is complicated.