I want to thank everyone for making our 2009-10 Club Day an incredibly successful event. It was a great way to cap what has been a challenging but ultimately outstanding and rewarding season. It is often said that hardship brings people together and for whatever reason, this season brought the club together to not only ski, compete, and get to know each other better, but to above all else have fun! This year proved that the heart of a ski club is not the snow or the mountain but the enthusiasm, dedication, and commitment of all the kids, parents, and coaches that make up our club.

Of course, having a great mountain to ski on sure does help! It was wonderful to hear from Kent Rideout how Cypress Mountain will continue to champion and support our club. It was fantastic to hear how Cypress Mountain will generously provide the club a club house in the old day lodge beginning next season! We'll have a busy summer getting the club house ready for the new season and so look for a grand opening in the fall! It was also a chance to preview our relationship with a new member to the BC ski community, Paul Montgomery, the owner of Skiis and Biikes Snow Covers who will be a sponsor of our club next season. Be sure to visit the new stores in Vancouver and Whistler and let them know you are from Cypress Ski Club - or sign up at the web site for great deals . It was inspiring to see Paul hand out bandanas to each and every racer at the end of the race and give out the coveted boot bags as door prizes. We are especially indebted this season to Odlum Brown who continue to support the club as a Silver sponsor. They have been outstanding in their generosity. We we will happily report to them on the festivities of the Club Day and the success of the season. Thanks also to Business Development Canada and NavCanada for their generous support.

The Club Day was a great end to the season and inspiring for next season. There must have been at least 140 people or more gathered together in the lodge! According to Paul who handed out bandanas at the end of the race we had 114 racers participate in the race! Congratulations to all the winners in the various age categories and to Tilen McQuarrie, a K1 racer who walked away with the enormous trophy for fastest skier overall. Congratulations to Colin Grant who unseated reigning champ Doug Keay who came in second in the adult category. Clearly Colin's kilt gave him some kind of aerodynamic edge! I know the K2s who were in Revelstoke for the Westerns this past weekend would have given us all a race for our money! Shona will post the results of the race on our web site .

Congratulations to John and Cindy Hayto who would have walked away with the "retro couple in red and white" prize had we such a prize. I also hear Antoine Vermette and Mischa Price are head to head in the best costume prize that we will give away at the banquet in April! Congratulations to all the racers who this season pushed their skiing abilities and overall fun factor to new levels! And thanks to all the coaches who guided the racers and modeled for them the love of the sport.

A special thanks to Colin Boyd, Al Zacharias, Jacquie Gaudet, Mary-Ann Price, Bill Drake and his team of parent volunteers who organized, set the course, managed the race, and chewed through many pencils in calculating the results! I had a quibble with the placement of the last few gates or at least my legs did but despite that it was a fantastic course! Thanks to Sarah Renzoni, Helen Ritts, Tina Massey, Remy Conway and countless other volunteers and board members who organized the social with cool aplomb. Thanks to everyone who brought food! Its really the fantastic volunteer work that makes events like this happen so well and our community so strong.

I especially want to thank Shona Park, our Program Director, who this season showed new depths of organizational abilities and flexibility. She helped parents and racers alike, planned fantastic programs and worked out ways to move our club from mountain to mountain throughout the coast with warm smiles and grace! Thanks Shona!

Again, I want to thank you all for your patience, energy, flexibility, sense of fun and commitment to your kids and the club community for making this a memorable and fantastic season. I know from the looks on the faces of the racers every week that we were doing well despite everything else. On behalf of the club board, I wish you an incredible summer! I hope to see you at our club banquet on April 18th and at many of our summer activities, dryland and camps. I especially hope to see you all next season!!

For our K1/K2 racers, the season is not quite over. Best of luck at the Coast Zone Finals in Mount Washington this weekend, and congratulations to Sidney Kwan and Tilen McQuarrie who will race on the Coast Zone team and Slovenia team at this year's Whistler Cup on April 8-11th.

best,

Ron

Cypress Ski Club President