2008 Woodie Awards
Mules compete at tobogganing championships
Hats for bats Steve Sandak
Issue date: 2/9/07 Section: Sports
There are a lot of cool things to do in the Greater Waterville area. A lot of Colby students go to Sugarloaf during the winter months and the Commonground Fair in Unity is a pretty popular event in the fall. However, there seems to be an event not too far from campus that people are missing out on and I would encourage them to go to next year. This past weekend I traveled to Camden, Maine for the 17th annual United States National Toboggan Championships. My teammates, Peter Arlein and Peter Carty, had no experience, the equivalent of a Charlie Brown Christmas tree toboggan, and no idea what to expect going into this weekend. Here is a quick rundown of some of the events that occurred...
Carty and I show up on Friday to register and get in some practice runs on this course. The event is held at the Camden Snow Bowl which is not very big, but cool since I hear once you get to the top you can see the ocean. But we didn't ski, we were there to sled. While we waited in line for our toboggan to be inspected, we saw that our toboggan (think 1988 Volvo 240 wagon 200,000 miles) was going to be competing against some souped up sleds. These people had varnished finishes, waxed bottoms, and unlike our sled, no screws jutting out of the bottom. After being laughed at we went for some practice runs.
The track is about 200 yards long and the average amount of time that it takes to get down the course is nine seconds. I am not so strong with the physic formulas but they say that you get going around 35 to 40 mph. You sit at the top of this hill and a guy pulls a lever. A gate opens and shoots you down the track much faster than I expected. After some practice runs we felt pretty strong about our strategy and decided to call it a day and get ready for the competition on Saturday.
One of the highlights of the weekend for me was the opening ceremonies. The man who resurrected the toboggan chute in the early 90's, Jack Sullivan, goes down the chute and waves the American flag as the national anthem plays. America rocks, and this competition is about as American as you can get. The tailgating scene is great, filled with a whole bunch of grilling and Allen's coffee flavored brandy, which I learned is the most consumed alcohol in the state of Maine. Even though our results were lackluster, I blame them on the sled we borrowed, not our tobogganing skills. The weekend was a blast. If you don't think you are going to be the fastest, you can still win prizes for best costume, or oldest team (I think this year's oldest mean age was 74).
Carty and I show up on Friday to register and get in some practice runs on this course. The event is held at the Camden Snow Bowl which is not very big, but cool since I hear once you get to the top you can see the ocean. But we didn't ski, we were there to sled. While we waited in line for our toboggan to be inspected, we saw that our toboggan (think 1988 Volvo 240 wagon 200,000 miles) was going to be competing against some souped up sleds. These people had varnished finishes, waxed bottoms, and unlike our sled, no screws jutting out of the bottom. After being laughed at we went for some practice runs.
The track is about 200 yards long and the average amount of time that it takes to get down the course is nine seconds. I am not so strong with the physic formulas but they say that you get going around 35 to 40 mph. You sit at the top of this hill and a guy pulls a lever. A gate opens and shoots you down the track much faster than I expected. After some practice runs we felt pretty strong about our strategy and decided to call it a day and get ready for the competition on Saturday.
One of the highlights of the weekend for me was the opening ceremonies. The man who resurrected the toboggan chute in the early 90's, Jack Sullivan, goes down the chute and waves the American flag as the national anthem plays. America rocks, and this competition is about as American as you can get. The tailgating scene is great, filled with a whole bunch of grilling and Allen's coffee flavored brandy, which I learned is the most consumed alcohol in the state of Maine. Even though our results were lackluster, I blame them on the sled we borrowed, not our tobogganing skills. The weekend was a blast. If you don't think you are going to be the fastest, you can still win prizes for best costume, or oldest team (I think this year's oldest mean age was 74).
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