Oxford University Ski and Snowboard Club  

President's Update 10/2/21

As many of our members will be aware, the Varsity Trip has unfortunately been cancelled due to travel restrictions and the risks posed by the pandemic. It is, of course, a great sadness for the Trip committee and for all who wished to attend, and we thank them for their hard work and empathise with their disappointment. For now, we look forward to a time when we are able to ski once again, and to the potential for the Varsity Trip to resume as normal this December. I am delighted to hear from members new and old who have been able to safely navigate this situation to ski or snowboard in various parts of the world. It has also been great to hear stories from old members about years gone by and I enjoy sharing these with the rest of the current team so please do keep sending them to me! 

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Last night, we held a virtual Q&A with British female skier and four time Olympian Chemmy Alcott, and those who attended reported a great session to boost spirits (especially for those in lockdown). I hope we can attract more speakers in the coming weeks, and Morgan and I are working hard to get more names on board! 

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I share the disappointment of many in that so much of what we had planned and hoped for, be that training, socials, and the races, have been unable to go ahead. The committee and I also express our wish to all members that they and their families keep safe and happy. For the future, it is the intention of this committee, and one I will pass to whoever takes my place, to engage greatly with our Alumni community and bring people together for social occasions.

Some may remember alumni dinners in the past, and each year there is an end of season dinner at Vincent's Club in Oxford. It was our intention this year to hold a joint dinner for current members and Alumni at the latter venue to celebrate a year of skiing and to hear the stories of those who have left Oxford and ventured 'off-piste' into the real world. While I may myself be an alumnus when this eventually can occur, it is something for us all to look forward to.

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In the meantime, please do keep and eye on our social media and our mailing list, and please do send stories and photos freely so that we may remember more active times together. 

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Josh Boddington

President 2020-21

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Committee Update 5/10/20

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Firstly, welcome to all those starting Oxford this year, and welcome to any current students who want to get involved with us!

This year is looking a little different for obvious reasons, and so it’s changed the kind of activities were able to offer.

As of right now, we are waiting for our risk assessment to be approved by Oxford Uni Sports Federation, and so until then we can’t *officially* advertise what’s going on.

That being said, we can tell you what we will probably be doing:

On Sunday’s in University Parks, we will be running outdoor circuit style fitness sessions. These are a great way to safely meet club members.

On Monday nights, we would normally run trips to Hemel Hempstead, an indoor ski slope in order to train slalom gates, but COVID-19 has limited this. As a result, we hope to run two Monday sessions during term, where we travel to Hemel Hempstead in the morning, arriving at 12pm, for technical training on the slope until 6pm, before having a dinner break, and then heading back onto the slope for 2 or so hours of gate training. We recognise that people may have to attend things on these days, but unfortunately the kind of training we want to do is not offered over the weekend, so hopefully we will be able to find two Mondays that work for a lot of people. If you hold a UK drivers license and wish to attend, you will be offered a significantly lower price if you are able to drive a hire car.

The above session is not intended for beginner skiers, but beginners to racing (who are competent skiers) are encouraged to attend to get a feel for what skiing in this way is like. You will be able to rent skis, boots and poles, but you can also bring your own.
 

In terms of Varsity, if you don’t know our main competition against Cambridge takes place on the Varsity Trip, which is a huge ski trip open to all students at Oxbridge, not just racers. Instead of being held in 9th Week (December), it will take place between the 19th and 27th March 2021, in our 10th week. We intend to offer the option of arriving in resort a week early, on the 13th March (9th Week) in order to complete a weeks “Pre-Season” training, before the rest of the Trip arrive the following Saturday, an extended Varsity if you like!

In terms of club socials, current restrictions make in person socials basically impossible, but we’d love to do a online meet and greet at some point, and rest assured as soon as we can meet in person we will!

Of course, as everyone will be aware, things change very quickly, and we may have to cancel or reorganise things at short notice. We also have to collect detailed information on all participants in order to cooperate with track and trace, so getting accurate numbers, and making sure these attendees have paid membership, is crucial. To purchase membership, please head to our website www.oussc.co.uk where you can pay through Q Pay. It is compulsory to be a member in order to attend any ski training sessions, unless you request a Trial session, in which case the cost of the session is slightly more. Socials and outdoor fitness training is open to all.

In order to keep up to date with what’s happening, we encourage you to sign up to our mailing list, which you can do by sending a blank email to this address: oussc-subscribe@maillist.ox.ac.uk or you can provide your telephone number to be added to our OUSSC 2020/21 WhatsApp group. CLICK HERE TO FILL IN OUR FORM.

Thanks for getting this far if you made it, hopefully we’ve given you some information you wanted to know. We can’t wait to meet anyone new this year, and to see some friendly faces too. Much love to everyone and stay safe.
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The OUSSC Committee

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