Supacat renews support for Combined Services Disabled Ski Team
16-10-2012`Jackal` suspension expertise improves sit-ski athletes’ equipment and chances for 2014 Winter Paralympics
Dunkeswell, Devon, 16 October, 2012, Supacat has renewed its support for the Combined Services Disabled Ski Team (CSDST) for the fourth consecutive year for the 2012/13 winter season. In addition to financial support, Supacat’s engineers lend their expertise to fine tune the sit-ski athletes’ equipment. The Team’s goal is to maximise the chances of the service and ex-service athletes to compete at the 2014 Winter Paralympics in Sochi, Russia.
Supacat’s technical support is delivered through a collaborative industry consortium, the British Adaptive Snowsport Equipment Innovation Council (BASE-IC). Supacat’s engineers focus on the suspension system used by the sit-ski athletes, applying the expertise they have developed in this area for the company’s renowned high mobility vehicles; `Jackal`, `Coyote` and the SPV400. The engineers support the athletes with education and advice, specialist equipment selection, ongoing analysis and on-snow data logging so that their suspension is optimised and tuned for all conditions.
This month Supacat’s engineers returned from an intensive, four day work package on the indoor slope in Landgraaf, Holland. A full programme of data logging, suspension set-up and tuning was conducted, helping the team’s three principle sit-ski athletes to understand their equipment and establish base line settings for the upcoming season. Supacat has been supported by Millbrook Proving Ground who loaned high performance motorsport data logging equipment for the duration.
Supacat’s Head of Marketing and Communications, Jamie Clarke said “We are delighted to support such a worthy cause for yet another season and we look forward to some impressive results on snow this winter. Our work with the CSDST suspension systems has given the athletes a real advantage and allows them to compete with confidence knowing that their equipment is set-up and performing correctly. Already this has made a significant impact on the team which is reflected in the international podium positions they have been achieving.” He added, “We now have all three sit-ski athletes racing on top of the range, custom built, suspension systems. With our motorsport data logging and analysis our engineers can fine tune each athlete’s individual equipment to optimise their performance”.
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For further information: Celia Turner, CTPR, +44 (0)7703 344425 [email protected] or Jamie Clarke, Head of Marketing & Communications, Supacat +44 (0) 7921 973916 [email protected]
About Supacat
Supacat Ltd is an innovative engineering company specialising in high mobility vehicles. Since its foundation 30 years ago, it has grown into a product developer with a broadening international customer base across the defence, renewables, marine and oil and gas sectors.
It has a complete engineering capability spanning design, prototyping, testing and trialling, certification and low rate production. Services include system integration and fleet support, from post design services, repairs, spares, to deployed support on operations (CONDO) and Contractor Logistics Support.
About CSDST
The Combined Services Disabled Ski Team (CSDST) is open to any serving member of the Armed Forces with a permanent disability. It is also open to those who have previously skied with the team, but have since left the Services. The disability may have been sustained through action on operations, illness or accident. CSDST aims to improve the individual skill of every athlete who joins the team through high quality coaching. This process encourages and promotes the raw talent of near beginners, as well as providing high level performance coaching up to International level. CSDST’s ultimate aim is to feed athletes into the British Disabled Ski Team (BDST) at the appropriate moment; with the ultimate goal of participation in Paralympic events.
CSDST generally takes novice disabled skiers from Exercise SNOW WARRIOR (Adaptive) (ESW(A)) which is run by the Adventurous Training Group (Army). However, personnel also come to the team after participation in BLESMA ski events. At the beginning of the training year, CSDST feed the novice skiers into a development programme, much of which is run at indoor Snow Centres across the UK. This is aimed at providing basic skills and technique training and increasing skiers’ experience and confidence on snow. In November of each year, those that wish to take their skiing further are able to attend our Skills Camp in Austria, during which their alpine techniques are improved. At the end of this, skiers are taught elementary ski racing techniques and are introduced to “race gates”. Those that show aptitude and a desire to progress further, are then able to participate in the full range of military alpine races from Corps/Unit level through to racing at the Inter Service Championships.
Those skiers who show real promise are encouraged to race at Europa Cup level and, if they achieve the requisite points, may then be invited to join BDST. This will see them participating in a range of international disabled races at Europa/NORAM/Southern Hemisphere Cup levels before progressing on to World Cup and Paralympic competition.
Anyone wanting to join the team should contact the Development Manager https://www.csdst.co.uk/contact-us/. The Chairman would be delighted to hear from anyone interested in sponsoring the team via the same link or via [email protected].
About BASE-IC
Supacat’s technical support is delivered through a collaborative industry consortium, the British Adaptive Snowsport Equipment Innovation Council (BASE-IC). This brings together defence companies who contribute a range of technical skills to improve the design and performance of the athletes’ adaptive ski equipment. The consortium comprises Supacat, NP Aerospace, Selex Galileo and QinetiQ, who bring innovation and technology from their organisations to give disabled skiers a performance edge and the chance to be the best. BASE-IC is supported by its President, Major General Carew Wilks (DLE), and by its military partner, CSDST, and the sports charity, Disability Sport UK.
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