1/31/03
By MATT HEITNER
NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT
Pop-quiz time.
You're a Central Coast cyclist with a penchant
for camaraderie and wine, and are looking to combine the two.
Do you: A) venture into Isla Vista on a weekend night, B) bring
your own bottle, corkscrew and glasses and offer them to other
bikers during your ride, C) join the Santa Barbara Ski and Sports
Club, or D) stop reading right now.
Unless you're a UCSB student or are a little
off your rocker, you probably selected the correct choice, C.
And if you did, you're not alone. The SBSSC boasts nearly 200
members, and while not all of them are wine and bike fanatics,
the club still gives those who are a chance to satisfy their
jones.
"We have two wine rides each year in the Santa
Ynez Valley," said weekend trip director Tom Doolittle. "We bike
and stop in between, and hit five different wineries in 25 miles.
And we have a barbecue after it's all said and done."
Sound like a good time? That's because it is, and that's what
the SBSSC is all about. Founded in 1955 when it was just a
ski club, the SBSSC has grown in size and scope over the years,
now allowing members to choose from activities ranging from
bowling to kayaking to camping. And it's all done in the name
of fun.
"It's a good way to meet people and enjoy winter
sports in a clean, good environment," Doolittle explained. "It's
a place where people can go enjoy winter sports with other fun
loving people. There's no competition at all. It's all about
having fun."
Such a relaxed atmosphere has attracted members from as far south
as Ventura and as far north as San Luis Obispo. And while they
all come for exercise, most of them stay for the friendship.
Just ask Marie Granaroli, who along with her husband Angelo,
have been involved with the club for 29 years.
"We met some of our best friends there, people
that we're still friends today," Marie said. "We're both 78,
but we still like to go out there and have a good time. They
kind of look up to us for having a good time at our age. And
luckily our health has held up. That's the key, you've got to
have your health."
If that health should ever fail while on a trip, one needs look
no further than the group for a little help. That's because
over the years the SBSSC has been represented by an amalgam
of occupations, including physicians, a tradition that continues
to this day.
"The average age is 35 to 40-plus," said club
president Rita Wrolstad. "We have all professions. Doctors, attorneys,
dentists, engineers, teachers and clerical. All of Santa Barbara's
finest. Our younger members, ages 25 to 30, are the minority,
but they try very hard to keep up with our very experienced skiers
on the slopes. (But) everyone has a good time."
If having a good time is inherent in the SBSSC, so too is hitting
the slopes. Though it has expanded since its inception, the
SBSSC is, at its heart, a ski club. That's why heading into
2003 it offered members seven different ski trips, five of
them weekend getaways and two lasting the entire week.
For its first week-long excursion, the SBSSC
flew off to Big Sky, Montana, where it experienced the majesty
of Yellowstone National Park. From Jan. 12-18, the club enjoyed
Yellowstone tours, cross-country skiing, horse back riding, dog
sledding, horse-drawn sleigh rides, beautiful fine dinning on
the mountain and, of course, shopping, according to Wrolstad.
The club departed on its second week-long outing, to Steamboat
Springs, Colo., on Jan. 26 and will return on Feb. 2. Mammoth
Mountain serves as the club's most frequent destination for the
weekend outings, with one bus trip there already completed and
two more on the horizon, March 6-9 and 20-23. A five-day trip,
to Lake Tahoe is scheduled for Feb. 20-25.
For those a little strapped for cash, the club
offers discounts on airfare, lift tickets and anything else to
make the trips a little more affordable. Both Big Sky and Steamboat
cost nearly $1,000, but that included airfare, a six-day stay
at a hotel, lift tickets and, in Steamboat, a pub crawl organized
by Tour Pros Ltd.
"Every flight we get group airplane rates and
we get group rates for ski lifts, too," Doolittle said. "However,
most people we go with have season passes to Mammoth. But we
do take advantage of all the discounts we can get."
But be it two days or seven, skiing or volleyball, all of the
SBSSC's outings carry with them the opportunity to see new
sites and meet new people. Doolittle estimates that between
10-15 couples have married after meeting for the first time
through the club, and countless lifelong friendships have been
forged in the snow, sand and on the road.
"Oh, I would recommend it to anybody," Granaroli
said. "Anyone who wants to be active and have a good time should
come. You can definitely do more than ski.
"It's been good for us."
The club meets on the first and third Wednesdays of the month
through April.
Club information can be obtained on its Website
at www.sbski.org.
2/21/03
By PALMER GIBBS
NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT
Leslie Brueckner is an avid skier, dancer, biker and camper.
She
loves the outdoors and nothing keeps her from pursuing an active
lifestyle.
Not even the fact that she is legally blind.
A self-described "closet sight-impaired person," Brueckner
said
she started skiing again after a 15-year hiatus. Her desire to
become "a
really good skier" was a lengthy process, she said.
The Santa Barbara resident, who suffers from
retinitis
pigmentosa, a degenerative retinal disease, is now proficient
enough to
handle the Cornice, an expert-level run at Mammoth Mountain.
Initially, though, she had to hold the hands
of a guide to get
down a green beginner's run.
While it was just a baby step, the sensation
of being on the
snow was overwhelming to her.
"Even with that minimal exposure, I knew I was
hooked,"
Brueckner said.
She continued to progress over the next two ski
seasons,
advancing to skiing behind the guide while holding two bamboo
poles parallel
to their hips. Once she got accustomed to that, Brueckner moved
to the
front. Still holding the poles, she followed the directions from
her guide
who was behind her.
She then graduated to one bamboo pole as she
and her guide would
ski side-by-side with the pole parallel to the ground at about
hip level.
When this became easier, they started to use a race gate -- an
eight-foot
pole that is jointed 15 inches from the end by a ball bearing.
The guide
would hold the short end of the pole as they skied side-by-side.
"We were loosely connected, but he had no control
over my
movements or direction," Brueckner said.
The next level was to "ski verbal" -- her guide
skiing behind
her and shouting out directions such as "left, right, stop, traverse."
The guide also uses descriptive language to explain
the run and
snow conditions.
Brueckner has advanced so much that her guide
now just tells her
it's clear and then lets her go down the run.
"If there is an obstacle, or the run becomes
crowded, he'll say
he's taking over and begin to call out directions," Brueckner
said.
Although she can see the dark forms of the trees
on the slope,
Brueckner cannot see other skiers. As she makes her turns down
the run, her
guide has to anticipate the moves of the other skiers. But Brueckner
uses
her acute senses of feeling and hearing to gauge the condition
of the run.
"I use my ears and the feel of the hill beneath
my skis to
figure out the same things other people figure out by looking," she
said.
Brueckner, who grew up in West Los Angeles, said
her vision
problems began in childhood. She started wearing glasses at age
four.
Childhood night blindness, along with her tendency of running
into things,
suggested retinitis pigmentosa, with which she was later diagnosed.
"When I was a kid everyone just thought I was
clumsy," Brueckner
said.
While she struggled with her vision, Brueckner
excelled in
sports.
She started swimming as a small child and by
7 she was
approached by an Olympic swim trainer. Although her parents turned
down the
offer, Brueckner continued to swim competitively through high
school.
She picked up surfing and volleyball in her teens
and went
skiing for the first time when she was 18. She said she enjoyed
her first
time on the slopes.
"It was just so peaceful, so beautiful. I remember
feeling like
I was floating," she said.
A year earlier she had been diagnosed with retinitis
pigmentosa.
At the initial diagnosis, she was told that the disease was not
progressive.
But as an undergraduate student at UCLA, her initial diagnosis
was changed.
"I felt bummed. Really bummed," she said.
Undeterred, she went on to earn a bachelor's
degree in
philosophy. Her pursuit of higher education did not stop there.
She worked
toward a master's degree in clinical psychology and then a law
degree. All
the degrees are from UCLA.
She married Anthony Brueckner in 1987 and retired
from
practicing law in 1988 to become a full-time mother. The couple
moved to
Santa Barbara in 1988. Anthony began working as a professor of
philosophy at
UCSB.
The Brueckners have two boys, Kurt, 14, and Kim
11.
After Kim was born, Brueckner noticed a drastic
change in her
vision. Since then, her vision has been on the decline but her
attitude has
remained positive.
"All of these psychologists keep looking for
anger inside of me
for getting dealt a bad hand," Brueckner said. "They all give
up because
there's no anger inside of me."
But there's plenty of passion, especially for skiing.
Now an advanced skier, she takes black diamond
runs with aplomb.
Her goal is to become involved in competitive skiing for the
sight-impaired.
A member of the Santa Barbara Ski and Sports
Club, Brueckner has
a season pass at Mammoth, where she served on the resort's Adaptive
Sports
Foundation Board of Directors.
When she puts the skis away, Brueckner hits the
dance floor for
swing lessons on Tuesday and Friday nights. She also bikes in
tandem on the
weekends and hikes and camps with her friends and family.
Brueckner is not about to stop living life to
its fullest.
"The fastest way to get me to do something," she
said, "is to
tell me I can't do it."
