THE NATIONAL SCHOOLS OPEN RACES 2022-23

Since our first race in 2013 at The Snowcentre, Hemel Hempstead with 180 schools skiers, the National Schools open events have grown Phenomenally to 6 indoor events, 3 outdoor and the popular National schools leagues running over the Autumn, Winter and Spring (see pages 20-21) at venues throughout the country.

Last year saw a return after covid with some changes being made to the larger events in respect of capacities, with racers taking part in batches and a numbers cap of 300 (the biggest events previously have been over 400!).

We have now stepped fully into National Schools dry slope events with the UK as we believe there needs to be greater inclusivity at grass roots level in our sport, we started with a UK National Schools Open Championship event back in the autumn of 2019 at Swadlincote, a slope which had just returned to traditional matting with resurfacing taking place over that summer, making a great venue for the event.

Over the last 2 years we have added to this race with two other open championship events on dry slope, and the National Schools League (initially set up to work within covid guidelines but proving very popular)

With the numbers capped at the three Snow Centre Events, Hemel Hempstead, we hope to see growth over the other events we run and this was borne out with the British Schools Indoor Open Champs at Chill Factore, Manchester in June, attracting nearly 180 racers. By far the largest number we’ve had at that venue.

As always, accessibility is very important for these open events with an unrestrictive race entry. Many other schools events tend to restrict entry by insisting schools are members of the organisation running the events or restrict the entry to teams of single age group only. This excludes small schools or schools with less than 4 skiers. It also handicaps schools which cannot raise a team consisting of skiers within a single age group. The NSSA format allows for mixed age groups and individual entries, so being more inclusive and less intimidating for many children.

These events work as a great feeder series into local races, club national and GBR events with many racers competing for the first time alongside children from the national team and full time academy programmes. This gives the newer racers some inspiration and exposure to skiers that they may not usually see. The NSSA Races are responsible, over the last two years, for more than 200 racers trying the competitive side of the sport for the first time!

Placings in the races and series will qualify racers for selection to the National Schools Snowsports Squad for the following school year/season with squad training camps, races and exposure to a national programme for these pupils. More information on the squad can be found on page 4-5.

In addition to our open schools events, we have been working with a number of schools organisations to run races exclusively for their members and we are proud to work with the ISA, IAPS and SATIPS.

For more information on any of these events or, if you’d like an event run for your school, school trust or against another school, Please contact The NSSA, or Impulse Racing, who run events on our behalf.

NSSA website www.schoolssnowsports.co.uk e-mail: office@schoolssnowsports.co.uk