Getting Ready for Ski Season

Westporter Mel Yemma, 17, a senior at Staples High School and an accomplished freestyle skier, practices her techniques Saturday at a “rail jam” hosted by the Outdoor Sports Center in Wilton to promote the ski season. Yemma has skied competitively on a freestyle team at Stratton Mountain in Vermont.  At Staples she is participating in a three-year science research project in which she has designed and built her own skis made out of bamboo, which she is testing as a possibly more flexible and more environmentally sustainable type of ski material. About two dozen young skiers and snowboarders participated in the event. The Outdoor Sports Center brought in several truckloads of “Zamboni shavings” from area ice rinks to provide the snow. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Andy Yemma for WestportNow.com