The Life of a University Ski and Snowboard Committee Member?.
Ok, picture the scene you've been a member of your ski and snowboard team for 2 years, you've had a great time and always wondered what it would be like to be on the committee. So after a great Easter trip away they pounce on you... do you want to be on the committee, 'it's really cool, you get loads of discounts, and it's great for your CV'.
So after a wondrous summer holiday you return to the realisation that you will be organising a load of ski and snowboard freshers and veterans, taking them on recreational trips, organising races and holidays and getting them drunk all year...How hard can it be??!!
Fresher's Fair:
This is the start of it all. We need to get a load of new members to increase the club numbers, to get more money, to win more races and to have more fun. The fair is a mixture of good fun talking to like minded people and meeting up with old club members and a little bit dull talking to people who blatantly are never gonna sign up in a million years. But then you've got one... she's keen, she's skied loads, she's definitely joining and then bam you watch her walk up in her ugg boots to every other stand and sign up there too... Beware of the society whores and the people who have been 'skiing for like ever' because they're too cool to join.
We're pretty lucky for numbers though because let's face it would you rather join Demon Ski and Board or De Montfort's gaming society...?!!
The Socials:
This is the best part. On the whole students do not take much persuading to go out and get drunk! Originally started as a gathering to discuss things about the club (you wouldn't be wrong to be asking....what things??!) the social soon turned into a chance to meet up and talk skiing and snowboarding whilst getting drunk, downing dirty pints and more often that not whilst wearing fancy dress! The union used to let clubs host a night to collect money for their club and our charity shop chic night went down particularly well! Another great success was the pub golf... I'm not bias but even though cards were lost, drinks were spilt, and people disappeared I still maintain to this day that my team won!
The Rec Trips:
You would be forgiven for thinking that ski and snowboard clubs must just get drunk and go on one holiday a year, because there's no snow in England right? Wrong! Most university clubs like to take advantage of the indoor snowdomes which are cropping up around the country. Although they seem to some to be a waste of time they are good fun and allow people to get more confident and perhaps even learn a new sport before the all important holiday. Everyone professes at Fresher's fair to being the best skier or boarder who has ever lived and so the recreational trips to Tamworth or (if we're splashing out that week) Milton Keynes gives us all a chance to test that theory out!
The Races:
Ok so De Montfort won't ever go down in history as being the best sporting academy around but nonetheless every team likes to have a go! The Ski and Snowboard club would annually attend the midlands division of BUSC and race other universities to see which teams would make it through to the finals. This was a challenge as few were keen to race their own equipment on dendex and unlike Leicester University we didn't have the money to buy race guards let alone skis and snowboards for our racers. So with various mixed teams we went every Sunday, of every season, every year and we raced, drank, socialised and occasionally won the wooden spoon! Once our snowboarders even won a race! Who knew??! In our final year we made it to the glorious finals at High Wycombe (god rest its soul) and competed with the big guns, a shining year to be repeated every year since!
The Holiday:
The main event of the Ski and Snowboard club's social calendar, the university Easter holiday. With discounts and special offers from ski tour operators the university ski holiday was about as cheap as you could get, especially if you were on the committee and got it free! With a weeklong plan of drinking, skiing, boarding, fancy dress, lazing around and maybe more skiing and snowboarding it was the place to be if you were part of the club and if you didn't go... well you were nobody! Each resort was usually spilling over with university teams and so it was a good chance to catch up with people from BUSC as well as challenge them to a boat race or two. Very few people took us up on the offer of organising lessons and people milled about the slopes with differing abilities and aspirations, soon learning that their best skiing or snowboarding was never done on a hangover. After getting back from holiday the club disperses, the skiing and boarding stops and suddenly it's already time to hand that crown over to the next committee!
Long Live Demon Ski and Board!
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