SFL BULLETIN Summer 1997 Ski for Light 1455 W. Lake Street Minneapolis, MN 55408 SFL '98 in New Hampshire The twenty-third annual Ski for Light International Week will be held from Sunday February 8 through Sunday February 15, 1998, based at the Four Points Hotel in North Conway, New Hampshire. Skiing will take place at Great Glen Trails in the Pinkham Notch section of the White Mountains, near Gorham, New Hampshire. North Conway is located 130 miles (208 kilometers) north-northeast of Boston, Massachusetts near New Hampshire's Mount Washington. The Four Points is a full-service hotel, with an indoor heated pool, a hot-tub, and workout room. It is located adjacent to Settler's Green Outlet Village, containing more than 50 outlet stores, and is within walking distance of additional shopping, restaurants and entertainment. Great Glen offers packed and groomed trails over gently rolling terrain in the beautiful Mount Washington Valley. The facility includes a modern Base Lodge, with changing rooms and a full-service ski shop. Great Glen also has the added feature of two yurts out on the trails. A yurt is a circular cloth hut, heated with a wood-burning stove. They are perfect for warming, resting and mingling, without having to go back to the Base Lodge. Applications for visually-impaired participants may be requested from: Larry Showalter 206 Vista Drive Gahanna, OH 43230 (614) 478-7898 E-mail: larrysho@infinet.com Applications for mobility-impaired participants may be requested from: Jeff Pagels 1400 Carole Lane Green Bay, WI 54313 (414) 494-5572 E-mail: pagelj@dnr.state.wi.us Applications for instructor/guides are available from: JoAnne Jorud 3940 Hubbard Avenue N. Robbinsdale, MN 55422 (612) 533-7415 Information about the 1998 event is also available on the Ski for Light Internet home page: http://www.tmn.com/sfl/home.html. Please come and join us for a truly spectacular event in 1998! Sail For Light '97 Plans for this year's Sail-for-Light are well underway. The event will be held on 10-15 September 1997 at Boston's Community Boating on the Charles River. The program is designed to teach blind and visually-impaired people the basics of sailing in a variety of boats. Space is limited, so if you are interested, contact Amy Bower or David Fisichella right away at 508-457-4725. Anyone interested in participating as a sighted guide (must be qualified sailor) or volunteer should also get in touch with Amy or David. From the President by Nancy Rowan Summer has been slow to come in the Northwest. Somedays it feels like Fall outside. In fact, if it were not for the ripe raspberries in my back yard I would be contemplating a hot wax on my skis. Even so, many in the Ski for Light family are taking part in summer activities across the United States like hiking with llamas in Colorado, sailing in the Northeast or rafting on the Salmon River. I, on the other hand, with the help of friends, am preparing my house to paint. The beginning is pressure washing - a job best done in rain gear. Next is scraping then sanding or in my case patching and priming. This takes planning. Right now we are planning for sunshine so that the house can dry out and take the paint. My children think that red or purple would be nice colors... The point is that most events take a lot of planning. In my case I wish I was planning a long hiking trip. Right now Judy Dixon, Event Chair 1998, and many others are planning for the next Ski for Light event. Ski for Light International has never been to North Conway, New Hampshire. This presents a lot of excitement in seeing new ski trails at Great Glen Trails in Gorham as well as working with a new hotel in North Conway. We are looking forward to lots of snow, good company and many new friends. Wishing everyone a peaceful and lovely summer. Thank you to all those that are working towards our next event either on the Event Committee or on one of the other committees that work together to form Ski for Light. Now, if you have a week to spare and want to come and visit I've got a paint brush and some paint thinner waiting for you. Best regards. SFL Committees SFL President Nancy Rowan has put together the following standing and ad hoc committees for 1997/98. The chair people listed below will be working hard with their committee members the next year to make SFL run smoothly and successfully. Executive Committee: Nancy Rowan Budget & Finance: Egil Almaas Bylaws: Larry Showalter Friends of Ski for Light: Laurinda Steele Lacey Fundraising: Jack Newbury Guide Recruitment: Brenda Seeger Legal Issues: Jeff Pagels Long-Range Planning: Lisa Wangberg Participant Recruitment: Wendy David Publicity & Public Relations: AnneMarie Cooke Regional Liason: Deb Wiese Site Selection: Jeanne MacKenzie Sons of Norway & Norwegian Community: Scott Bertrand Takes Two to Tandem The New England Regional doesn't sit around once it hangs up its skis for the season. Summer activities include canoeing, nature hikes, and that perfect sport for blind people--tandem cycling. For the fourth year, a tandem day ride was organized in early June, recruiting sighted "captains" and their tandems from the Tandem Club of America membership around New England. Willing volunteer cyclists were also recruited via various e-mail lists, including the "tandem@hobbes" listserve listserv@hobbes.ucsd.edu. Twelve visually impaired people as well as 8 or so Ski for Light guides on single (half bikes) enjoyed the sunny weather, friendly roads and good company. Laura Oftedahl who tandems several thousand miles a year continued in her role as event chair. Typical of SFL events, there was an overwhelming willingness to make the day perfect. Tandem enthusiasts were so much into the idea of sharing the exhilarating sport with blind people that they hauled their tandems to Boston from as far away as Albany, NY; Hartford, CT; and Manchester, NH. The shortage that day was actually in the number of blind people! It turned out to be a great day of cycling, and a memorable experience for many, as evidenced by this e-mail on "tandem@hobbes". Mark Shelley of Shrewsbury, MA "mshelley@banyan.com" wrote: "This past Saturday I was fortunate enough to participate in the Blind Stokers Rally in Arlington, MA. The routes were 18, 25 and 35 miles of rolling terrain with no large climbs. Most folks did the 35 mile route that went through historic Lexington, Concord, and Bedford. The weather was fabulous, sunny, warm, and very dry. I arrived around 9:15 and met my stoker, Amy Bower. After some adjustments in the parking lot, we were on our way with Diane (my wife) on her solo, Wallis and Terri Sholar on the Santana DaVinci. Along the way, we met and added Rob Shaffer and Darryl Harrison to our happy clan. We stayed together for most of the day, taking a nice leisurely pace, except on the Downhills where Diane worked her behind off trying to keep up. Darryl Harrison gets my vote for most impressive feat of the day. Darryl hadn't ridden a bicycle in many years (and never a tandem). He rode 35 miles on a Cannondale RT series bicycle, without a shock post, in long black running pants. There was one stretch where I did hear that sequence of BAM, ouch, sorry, bump... Darryl was a real trooper and did fine. Amy hadn't been on a bike in a while, but rode rock steady smooth, and had a comfortable cadence. We were in-sync as a team within the first couple of miles. We had only one "tandem moment" where I forgot that it wasn't my usual stoker back there. I didn't think for a moment about applying the brakes on the one downhill on the route where we hit 42mph. When I did apply the brakes at the bottom, I heard a sigh of relief and realized what I had just done to my stoker. Bad captain! I had a great time, met some wonderful people, and learned a little bit (like you can't ask a visually impaired stoker what chainring you're in). Diane, learned that when you lead a 6-foot, 3-inch blind guy around, you have to look out for low branches. If you ever get a chance to participate in one of these events, do it, you'll feel great, and allow some folks to experience riding who otherwise would never be able." Rob Shaffer of Manchester, NH responded: "I was going to write about the New England Regional Ski for Light Blind Stoker ride this past Saturday, but Mark gave an such a complete and excellent report so there is little for me to add in the way of facts. Mostly I just wanted to say that participating in this event made me FEEL GOOD! It was a great group and everyone seemed to have a wonderful experience, captains and stokers alike. I was riding with first-time stoker, Darryl. I have to admit, I got a pretty good workout that day! Our Tamer seatpost just arrived, so if Darryl joins me on the ride next year, I promise him a little softer ride!" A very good resource for tandem enthusiasts is the Tandem Club of America. The organization has thousands of members all over the world, and publishes an annual membership directory. Best of all, their newsletter is available to visually impaired members on cassette. TCA dues are $15 in the US, $20 in Canada, and $25 elsewhere in the world. For membership information, contact: Tandem Club of America Bruce & Judi Bachelder 306 W. Union St. Morganton, NC 28655-3729 1997 World Blind Sailing Championships by Duane S. Farrar The third World Blind Sailing Championships were held in Weymouth, England, from June seventh through the thirteenth. This competition, held every three years, attracts the very best blind sailors from around the world and for this event there were 21 teams representing nine countries, including five teams from the United States and, for the first time, a team from Norway. Other countries represented were Finland, France, Great Britain, Japan, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, and Sweden. A blind sailing team is composed of two visually impaired crew and two sighted guides. One visually impaired sailor is the helmsman, or "skipper," and is responsible for steering the sailboat around the course. The other visually impaired sailor mans the foredeck and is responsible for trimming the jib, or fore sail. The sighted guides are experienced sailboat racers and they give verbal instructions to the visually impaired crew and are responsible for tactics and race strategy. One of the sighted guides will also usually trim the main sail. In order to make a sailboat go fast around a race course and maintain boat speed each crew member must perform their job skillfully and in coordination with the others. In international blind sailing a team can compete in one of three divisions: B1, B2, or B3. These classifications are based on the level of vision of a team's visually impaired crew, with B1 sailors having the least amount of vision and B3 sailors the most. I found it hard to believe that, a mere nine months after stepping on board a sailboat and putting my hand on a tiller for the first time, and with only four months of actual on-the-water experience, I was competing in this world-class event as the helmsman for the Massachusetts B3 team. I had been a participant in the first Sail for Light program held in Boston last September and just two weeks after that I was racing in my first blind sailing regatta. Astonishingly, I placed third in that regatta and I haven't stopped sailing or racing ever since. Over the winter I was asked by Arthur O'Neill, the director of the SailBlind program in Massachusetts, if I would be interested in competing in the World Championships. Before the snow from our April Fool's Day blizzard had finished melting we began practicing and racing in Boston Harbor. In mid-May our crew placed second in the national championship held in Newport, Rhode Island. With that good performance in hand we felt confident that we could go to England and have a chance to sail competitively. For the World Championship regatta there were seven teams competing in each division with seven races in each division. The races were held in spacious and historic Portland Harbour, which had been a major launching point for the invasion of Normandy in World War II. There were two classes of sailboats used for racing: Hunter 707's and Beneteau First Class 8's. Because there were only 14 boats available for 21 teams it meant that the B3 division would have to sail in both, creating an additional challenge for our crew. It also meant that we had twice as many practice sessions as the other divisions in the two days leading up to the start of racing on Monday, June 9. On the first day of racing the B1 team from Norway, which had two fifteen year old crew members, surprised the more experienced and heavily-favored teams by winning the first race. It was a great win and it put everyone on notice that the level of international blind sailing had risen dramatically since the previous regatta in 1994 and that it was going to be a very exciting and competitive week. And indeed it was. And the United States had its best showing ever in a World Championship. The Massachusetts B1 team, helmed by past Ski for Light participant Matt Chao, won the silver medal while the Texas B2 team won the gold medal. The B3 division was dominated by the British who won six of the seven races. Great Britain won the overall team trophy as well. As for my B3 crew we placed as high as second in one race and finished fifth overall, a very respectable showing. My most exciting personal racing moment of the week occurred during our final race on Friday the thirteenth when I nearly went for an unplanned swim in Portland Harbour. We had just started the race and were completing our first tack. I ducked so low to avoid the boom as I crossed to the other side of the Hunter 707 that I slipped under the lifeline and popped right through. I found myself falling backwards, upside-down, and head-first for the water. I caught the lifeline with my left arm as I was falling out of the boat while I tried to hang onto the tiller with my right, but it slipped out of my hand and the boat swung up suddenly into the wind. It was only at this point that Lyn Comfort, my sighted guide, who had been looking forward, realized that there was something amiss in the back of the boat. I managed to pull myself back into the boat, retrieve the tiller, and we continued on with the race. Just as exciting as the racing was the opportunity to meet and get to know the blind and sighted sailors from the other countries. In particular I downed many pints of beer with the Northern Ireland squad. One evening I was talking with Michael Beggs, one of their visually impaired sailors, about our mutual interest in cross-country skiing and I discovered that he had attended the Ridderrennet in 1983. At that moment I felt the world get just a little bit smaller. It got a little smaller still on Friday night during the awards dinner. I was presented with a Team Japan sweatshirt by Noriyuki Segawa, the visually impaired helmsman from the Japanese B3 team and in return I gave him a U.S. Blind Sailing team jacket. It is a common post-regatta custom for sailboat racers to exchange uniforms. The Japanese team had been our closest competition during the week so it was quite appropriate that we carried on this tradition with them. Since my return from England I have been sailing and racing every week, eagerly preparing for our next blind sailing regatta this September in Boston. If you attend this year's Sail for Light program, you will have the opportunity to come out on the water in Boston Harbor and watch us race. Already I am looking ahead to the next World Championships, which may take place in Newport in 1999, dreaming of calm seas, steady winds, intense competition, and, hopefully, a gold medal. Silence by Bud Keith I was visiting with some friends last weekend and they were telling me about a trip they had taken to the Shenandoah National Park. They had gone on a hike and gotten lost. The wife, who is totally blind, said that she became a little concerned when they stopped in a large meadow and she couldn't hear a sound, not a bird, car, airplane or voices. She said that it was the first time she recalled such silence. I told her that the silence was one of my favorite experiences while skiing. There are many occasions when I ask my guide to stop while I stand and listen to absolutely nothing. The silence of the winter woods with the sound absorption of the snow creates a truly unique experience for me. My normal life is continuously filled with the hum of machines, the noise of street traffic, barking dogs, airplanes, ambulance sirens, telephones, and many unidentified noises. Often, the winter woods offer a silence that, in contrast to my normal surroundings, I can hear. At first, total silence seems like such a simple concept, but until it's experienced, its peacefulness just can't be understood. Its another one of those concepts that has to be experienced in order to really be understood. Sometimes at home, when it first seems quiet, I hear the fan on my furnace, the creaks as my old house expands and contracts, a car passing on the street out front, and the refrigerator motor humming. I then think of the real silence of the winter woods and vicariously experience the peacefulness. Then, often my mind recalls sounds that have been as important as the silence. Sounds that I may never hear again, but the past experience of having heard them still can bring pleasure. Some of those sounds are random in nature, like a sudden bird call, a tree branch cracking with the weight of ice, the whistling of distant pines in a gust of wind, and then the sounds of humans laughing. But I also remember sounds that were created by thoughtful humans, whose sounds are not random, but intentional. Sounds like the ringing voice of Martin Luther King telling the world that he had a dream; sounds like the heavily accented English of Erling Stordahl describing the challenges and thrills of skiing over the magnificence of his piano; the humorous Brooklyn accent of Marty Mahler reciting a poem about his injured braille reading finger; the cheering of a Ski for Light community when an overweight tearful woman struggled across the finish line fifteen minutes after everyone else. These are sounds that inspire, encourage, and bring people together to do worthwhile things. Bud Keith is Immediate Past President of Ski for Light. You can reach him on e-mail: budkeith@netcom.com Bud is blind and an active cross-country skier, tandem cyclist, returned Peace Corps volunteer and retired civil servant. He is currently surviving prostate cancer in Arlington, Virginia. SFL Bulletin Published four times a year in print and on cassette by Ski for Light, Inc. Editor: Laura Oftedahl Echo Communications 104 Coolidge Hill Rd., Unit 7 Watertown, MA 02172-5025 Telephone: 617-923-7768 E-Mail: Laura_Oftedahl@wgbh.org Layout: Kari Heistad 182 Calivornia Street Newton, MA 02158 617-928-1549 E-Mail: unagb@gis.net SFL Home Page on the Web: http://www.tmn.com/sfl/home.html SFL is registered with the IRS as a 501(c)(3) Tax Deductible Organization, (ID#51-0175938) SFL is a member of "ORCA", the Outdoor Recreation Coalition of America, and very grateful for support from our Corporate Sponsors, JanSport, Exel/Garmont USA, Grabber Int, Gargoyle, Granite Gear, Crazy Creek, Nordic Track and Royal Robbins. Please check out our INTERNET WEB site for more information on SFL at http://www.tmn.com/sfl/home.html