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October, 2022
EXECUTIVE ORGANIZATION
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
President
– Toby Kravet – 808-224-1065
Vice
President - Anita Hodges
Treasurer - Jonathan Carr
Secretary - Stewart Taggart
Michiro Iwanaga
Alan Teramura
Caroline Sluyter
Mike Tsutsui
Karl See
Nelson Dang
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Newsletter Editor
Toby Kravet
(Click on Contacts for e mail addresses)
CALENDAR OF EVENTS:
Every Monday evening (except on holidays and, of course, during Hawaii Ski Week), at 4:30 PM, a group of ski club members and their friends play tennis at Keehi Lagoon Courts, off Lagoon Drive. Stay in shape and enjoy a "careful social hour" afterwards.
October 6 (Thursday), 5:00 PM, We are back to Rainbow Bay Marina, Pearl Harbor for the first new membership year Kickoff Meeting since COVID got in the way two years ago. As with July 7, the food, probably the same basic menu, will be provided by the club. unlike July 7, we'll have some door prizes to make things interesting, so "pencil" this into your schedule now.
December 10 (Saturday) Following a two year hiatus due to COVID (what else?) Sam Wright is inviting us back to the Esplanade in Hawaii Kai for our traditional holiday party.
January 6 or 7 (Friday or Saturday), location and time tba: Pre-Trip/Packet Pickup party for Big Sky trip. Stay tuned.
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE:
First, I wish to welcome new members, Judy, Dennis, and Ty Shimabukuru who have skiing experience in Japan. Judy found us on Facebook and then tried, unsuccessfully, to go to our website, found it offline, and called me (my telephone number is on the Facebook page) to find out more about the club and to report that they couldn't get on our website to sign up. It looks like the server was down for most of the day on Wednesday, September 14, but we were "live" again sometime overnight, and the Shimbukurus are now members. Welcome, and I hope to meet you guys at our membership year Kick-Off Meeting on October 6th.
If you have joined the Club since April 1 of this year, your membership will extend until September 30 of 2024, and you need not do anything. Everyone else, who hasn't already done so, needs to "re-up" for the 2022-2023 year by completing the digital form on our website and either paying dues by credit card at the bottom of the form, mailing us a check, or bringing the check to the Kick-Off. At this writing, we have fewer new members and renewing members having completed the digital form than have signed up for Big Sky, and you need to be a member to go: I know it's only September 21, and you still have ten days before the end of the month, but--------. Although our ski club website is not a secure site, and a message to this effect may be displayed on your screen, don't let this deter you as the membership form and credit card payment option are on the secure Cognito site, not ours: When you click on the Join/Renew button, you are transferred to their site. Also, don't forget to RSVP to me, no later than September 29 if you are coming to the Kick-Off.
Hope to see you all soon.
TOBY
UPCOMING SKI CLUB ACTIVITIES:
ANNUAL KICK-OFF
MEETING/COOKOUT
RAINBOW BAY MARINA
57 Arizona Memorial Drive
(next to Restaurant 604)
PEARL HARBOR
October 6 (Thursday) 5:00 PM
Come to our Annual
Kick-Off (to the new membership year) Meeting, where the food will be "on the house,"
at Rainbow Bay Marina, Pearl Harbor, Cabana A. This is
exactly where we had the July meeting, and this time, in addition to free
food, we will have some door prizes. If you haven't already paid by
credit card or mailed in your check for the 2022-2023 year, you can bring
your check to this meeting, but don't forget to
first complete the digital
membership form accessed through our website. Rainbow Bay
Marina is the outdoor picnic area with cabanas on the right hand side
(facing towards the ocean) of Restaurant 604. We have held
our October Kick-Off Meetings and, at least, a couple of Pre-Trip Packet Pickup
Parties here in the past. For those of you who unfamiliar with the
area, enter Pearl Harbor off Kamehameha Highway as if you were going to the
Arizona Memorial, take a right on the inner road (Arizona Memorial Place),
and drive approximately 1/4 mile. As soon as you go under the Ford
Island viaduct, you are there. You
can park behind the restaurant. This
is BYOB, and please carry out your drink containers rather than
deposit of them in the refuse receptacles at the venue or we will forfeit
the return of a
$100.00 deposit we gave them for cleanup.
Please
email me pres@hawaiisnowskiclub.com
TOBY
GENERAL MEMBERSHIP
MEETING
MANGIAMO BY 604
NAVY MARINE GOLF COURSE
943
VALKENBURGH ST.
November 3, (Thursday) 5 PM
We're back to Mangiamo for our November General Membership Meeting and, although the meeting itself won't begin until 5:30 PM, we'd like you to get there a bit earlier so you can get situated and order your food and drink. If you haven't yet been to Mangiamo, it is opposite the airport, off of Valkenburgh Street which runs between Nimitz Highway (under the viaduct) and Radford Drive. It is on the second floor of the golf course's club house. See you there.
TOBY
ANNUAL CHRISTMAS PARTY
The
Esplanade, 500 Lunalillo Home Road
December 10 (Saturday) Time: tba
Sylvia "Sam" Wright has come through yet again to get us the recreation room/terrace at her condo, The Esplanade, on Hawaii Kai Drive. This is both pot luck and BYOB. Also, if you want to participate (almost all do) in the traditional gift exchange, bring a grab bag gift with approximate value of $15.00 You will be given a raffle ticket, and when your number is called, have the option of choosing a gift from the "pile" or one that has already been chosen, thereby forcing the original chooser to choose from the pile again: This can get pretty funny, satisfying, or frustrating depending upon whether you are victor, victim, or spectator----at that particular moment. and victors can turn into victims at the next ticket pulled. Also, (Trumpets, please), this is the same date as the annual Hawaii Kai Christmas Boat Parade in which boats, adorned like Christmas trees, sail through the waterways, and we should be able to view it from outside the building. To get to the Esplanade, turn left off Kalanianaole Highway at Lunalillo Home Road, the last traffic light before the highway goes up the hill towards Hanauma Bay. Drive in the mountain direction approximately .6 of a mile and look for the looming white building complex on the left. While parking is limited at the building (eleven guest stalls in the circle at the entrance) there is normally plenty of street parking available on the other side of the street and on side streets off the other side. The recreation area is right on the ground level beside the lobby.
TOBY
PAST SKI CLUB ACTIVITIES:
SKI CLUB PAU HANA
at the
ET AL RESTAURANT AND BAR
in the
KAHALA MARKETPLACE BY FOODLAND
4210 Waialae Ave, Suite 401.
Friday, August 26
About twelve of the "Usual Suspects" found their way to et al Restaurant and Bar on August 26 which was the diametric opposite of our previous Pau Hana venue in Kaimuki. et al was not, by any definition, a "dive bar," and the prices were a bit, uh, pricey, but that didn't stop any of us from eating and drinking up. We don't usually make reservations for Pau Hanas because we don't know how many to expect, but the first arrival, Margaret Murchie, stepped up and, thank you very much, scored a table for twelve right in front of the bar. I could be wrong, but I don't think that any of us, with the exception of Karl who planned it, had been there before. Mahalo, Karl. Can't wait for our next Pau Hana "adventure."
TOBY
UPDATE ON SKI TRIPS FOR 2023:
Big Sky January 13-21, 2023
We now have 56 people who have registered for the trip and paid their
deposit. We still have one double occupancy room available at the Village
Center for $2577 per person for 7 nights lodging and daily breakfast. There
has been a flight schedule change in the group air:
1/13/23 leave Honolulu 9:05 pm - arrive Seattle
5:00 am
1/14/23 leave Seattle 7:45 am - arrive
Bozeman 10:20 am
1/21/23 leave Bozeman 11:00 am -
arrive Seattle 12:00 noon
1/21/23 leave Seattle 3:40
pm - arrive Honolulu 8:00 pm
We also added several additional group air seats
for those who haven’t reserved airfare earlier. If you purchased an Ikon
Pass you must reserve the dates you want to ski by logging into your Ikon
Pass account. See additional information about Ikon Passes in last month’s
newsletter. Please note that your trip balance is due on or before December
1, 2022.
Sapporo Snow
Festival & Skiing in Niseko, Japan February 11-19, 2023
40 people have registered and paid their deposit for this trip. Originally we had reserved 15 double occupancy hotel rooms and these were quickly booked so we added 8 more rooms but these are also now fully booked. Our hotel in Niseko is sold out during the week we are there so we can only place new requests on a wait list in case of a cancellation. Final payment for the trip is due December 1, 2022.
Rusutsu, Japan February 18-26, 2023.
50 individuals have registered and paid their deposit for this trip. We had
originally reserved 35 double occupancy hotel rooms and only 4 are still
available. If you are still thinking about skiing in Japan with us, sign up
soon. We still have some great non-stop group airfare seating on Hawaiian
Airline that are several hundred dollars less than advertised on their
website. Final payment for the trip is due December 1, 2022.
For further information and reservation forms, go to the Trips Section of our website, www.hawaiisnowskiclub.com
ALAN
NATIONAL NEWS (From Far West Ski Association):
IKON PASS ADDS NEW RESORTS
Alterra Mountain Company’s Ikon Pass has added Lotte Arai Resort in Japan and Panorama Mountain Resort in British Columbia. With these additions, the pass will now provide access to more than 50 destinations in 10 countries for the 2022-23 season. Full Ikon Pass holders will have access to seven days at both resorts with no blackout dates. Ikon Base Pass holders will have five days at each with holidays blacked out at Panorama. Panorama is also available on the Ikon Session Pass. It is the fourth mountain resort and fifth destination in British Columbia on the Ikon Pass, joining Revelstoke Mountain Resort, RED Mountain, Cypress Mountain, and CMH Heli-Skiing & Summer Adventures.
VAIL RESORTS TO LIMIT TICKET SALES IN 2023
After “Apocalyptic Lift Lines” last year, Vail Resorts will cap ticket sales at all 37 of their North American resorts this year. EPIC Pass holders, however, will not be affected! This is not just a high season or a holiday plan. The company will set a daily cap at each resort, and it will be in effect all season long. Vail will show the availability of daily tickets on each resort’s website, and skiers can purchase as far in advance as they want. Once lift tickets are sold out for the day, there will be no walk ups or further tickets sold. For Vail Resorts, especially at their largest and busiest ski areas such as Breckenridge, Vail Mountain, Heavenly, and Stowe, it comes down to the balance between preserving the ski experience and keeping the sport accessible to all guests. James O’Donnell, president of Vail Resorts’ Mountain Division states “this will help us provide our guests with an Experience of a Lifetime this winter”.
HISTORIC CLIMATE BILL EXPECTED TO BENEFIT SKI INDUSTRY
In the recent Inflation Reduction Act, signed by President Biden, the package includes the largest climate, energy, and environmental justice investment ($370 billion) in U.S. history, from which the U.S. ski industry stands to benefit. The legislation will invest billions in sustainable forestry, wildfire risk reduction, and drought response, among other provisions—all of which will be helpful to the entire ski industry long-term. Bonnie Hickey, the sustainability director at Bridger Bowl, notes several positive potential outcomes from the bill. In Montana, she believes that the investment in renewable energy will create in-state jobs, bolstering the local economy. “Anything that is good for Montana’s economy is good for the ski area”. Bridger Bowl also stands to benefit from investments in wildfire risk reduction and water security. The ski area had wildfire approach within a few miles last year, and much of the West and the Plains have suffered from ongoing drought. Aspen Skiing Company, Vail Resorts, and Arapahoe Basin all tweeted out support for the bill as it was making its way through Congress, as well, as did NSAA.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
HAWAII SKI CLUB IS ON FACEBOOK
Facebook is the best way to keep current on the Hawaii Ski Club. On your Facebook page on your computer, type "Hawaii Ski Club" into the search box on the top left. On your mobile device, tap the magnifying glass at the top to get the search box. Pictures from Ski Club activities and other items are posted as they are submitted. You can submit your own Ski Club pictures and other items you wish posted by emailing them to anita@hawaiisnowskiclub.com
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Contributions from the membership to future newsletters are encouraged and will be greatly appreciated: Please e mail them to Toby (see Contacts) no later than 9 calendar days from the end of the month. Thanx much.
Updated club info available at http://www.hawaiisnowskiclub.com and on our Facebook page.