We're Moving!

We have determined that we reach many more people on our Facebook Page than on this Blog.

Consequently we have decided to stop using this and move our announcements over to: http://www.facebook.com/UWNordic

We hope you will 'Like' us and keep track of the team at this new address.

Grand Mesa Thanksgiving Camp!

We may have found the best ever Thanksgiving Camp venue! Grand Mesa has tons of km's of trails, plenty of snow, good grooming, rolling terrain and Powderhorn was a fantastic place to stay!

On the whole it was the best Thanksgiving Camp I have ever been to in 20 years of Thanksgiving Camps! It just doesn't bet any better than this!

We skied tons of hours during the week and on the last day we had a fun relay with Mesa State, thanks for the fun and sharing your area!

Skate Technique Videos:


Classic Technique Videos:

What kind of Dancer are your skis?

I was talking to my sister Holly last week and she gave me her view of skis. Can you add to her list?


Fischers are like a large german woman dancing the tango,  she moves well but not a lot of springyness but good and solid.


The madsus is like an argentinian woman doing the tango, lots of action and tons of springyness.


The atomics are an italian woman, a little less springy but plenty of action.

Lots of news!

Well, it's been an extremely busy few weeks, we really need to update this more often...

First and foremost is the invitation for UW Nordic to represent the USA at the World University Games! Truly incredible! Instead of writing a huge post here's the link to our news page where you'll find a bunch of articles about it, http://www.uwyo.edu/ski/news.html We'll be doing tons of fundraising for this event and soliciting donations so please consider sending some money for this once-in-a-lifetime honor!

We also just had our first ever Nordic day for UW Ski Week. It was awesome fun with a rollerski race around Prexy's Pasture at Noon! We had full support of the University and bunches of spectators, even though it was raining and cold. It was wonderful! We also had a strongest double-pole competition with a Ski Erg and did waxing of skis for $20/pair. It was awesome fun, awesome exposure AND we actually made $426! Crazy! Check the Photo Album and YouTube site soon for pictures and videos.

Who Needs Snow? Freshman Kai Sharp of Houghton, Mich., leads members of the UW Nordic ski team in the Nordic Rollerski Sprint Race around Prexy's Pasture Monday. The race is among several activities scheduled during UW Ski Week through Thursday, Oct. 21. (UW Photo)

Vests and Headbands too!

You've got to have new vests and headbands to match the new suits!

NEW SUITS !

This year the UW Ski Team will not only have a sweet now logo but new suits !

A little bit cowboy, a bit racing and all Wyoming!

New Logo!

Visual Literacy Journal#1

Rachel Watson

I began reading the two texts for this course early in the spring and slowly, at an enjoyable pace, made my way through both. I found this a very fulfilling experience as my mind began to knit together the concepts and to create visual works with, as Freud might say, my id, ego and superego (Berger, 2008, p. 4). In fact, I found myself awake at 2:30 am one morning contemplating a new logo for the University of Wyoming (UW) Ski team. Thoughts regarding shape, balance and direction floated through my head (Berger, 2008, ch. 3).

Thus, in a state that was half waking, half sleep I imagined an image, that with asymmetrical balance, would create excitement and energy (Berger, 2008, p. 78). I hoped to use lines and shapes to direct the viewer’s eyes and to allow the viewer to see, in the image, both a skier and the letters “U” and “W” (Berger, 2008, pp. 80-81). It was when I realized that I could use psychological closure to “complete” the body of the skier that the image began to truly take form (Berger, 2008, p. 83). As I worked, I found that I was able to complete the entire logo using derivations of only one shape, a circle. In retrospect, this seems fitting as a circle is said to represent endlessness, warmth and protection (Berger, 2008, p. 75). These are all emotions that I associate with skiing, as I will be a skier forever and as a coach, I hope I represent warmth and protection to my athletes. Although I journal about this logo here for the first time and show it for the first time (below), I have not yet described all aspects of visual literacy that informed my creation. I hope to do this in future journal entries. I also hope that the logo will continue to evolve throughout the summer as I incorporate additional principles of visual literacy. 

Visual Literacy Journal #2

Rachel Watson

In this entry, I return to the logo for the University of Wyoming (UW) Ski team about which I wrote in entry 1. With continued insights from the course, I have considered not only elements of shape, balance and direction but I have also begun to consider color. Lynell Burmark (2002) writes that color can increase engagement and recall. She further notes that the color yellow can be very stimulating. For my design, this is serendipitous happenchance because the only appropriate colors for the logo are those incorporating the University’s colors of brown and gold (yellow). Burmark further goes on to remind us that text (or logo in this case) should contrast with the background (p. 73). Again, a fortunate consequence of school colors in brown and gold is their natural contrast. However, when suggesting effective design for presentations, Burmark notes that a darker background is preferable. She notes that these dark colors are calming and tend to recede whereas warm colors, such as yellow, are better for the foreground text and graphical elements (p. 73). I thus have attempted a logo in which the skier / letters are in yellow against a brown background. The darker color then theoretically recedes, leaving the yellow to “jump out” and excite (fig. 1).

            Upon completing this design, I was pleased with the way in which the UW now seems more evident. It does seem that the background recedes leaving the logo to be the “eye grabber”. I still felt some concern about the head of the skier, which in effect is the only portion of the logo that is not both a part of the skier and the UW. Thus, I further incorporated Burmark’s design principles and attempted to make the head a slightly darker color with the hope that it would recede with respect to the remainder of the skier. Also, in order to further detract attention from the skier’s head, I noted that Berger (2008) states that, “We can use focus to emphasize certain things and deemphasize others…” (p. 135). I thus attempted to deemphasize the head by making it appear less focused.

This leaves me now to ponder the appropriateness of a brown background for a skier who, of course, always skis on snow and a radiant, light background. Perhaps my design of this logo will be ever evolving but it is unarguably made better with the application of each new design principle and with each rendering. 

Watch for the double-pole hints or watch for the quotes. It's all good!

"This is for sure the gear that gives you the girls. At least that's what I think. But it separates the boys from the men I guess you can say. Beause you know what, real men they don't spread their thighs, they doublepole."


Couldn't say it better myself... Despite this cryptic and entertaining quote from this video it's actually really great and talks about double-poling. It also has a catchy song...


Enjoy!