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Each year, races attract Sebold and her rift raft

by Ken Waltz, Sports Editor for The Courier-Gazette & Camden Herald

 

Relaxing on Hosmer Pond after finishing a toboggan run a few years ago are, from left, Carol Sebold, Susan Gilbey, Ernie Plummer and Vicki Harner.

     CAMDEN — For Carol Sebold and a few of her friends and relatives, the National Toboggan Championships are both an annual rite of winter and a much-anticipated occasion to celebrate.

      Of course, zooming down the 400-foot, iced wooden toboggan chute at nearly 40 mph is exhilarating, but for Sebold and her teammates, there is so much more to the event than a few nine-second thrill rides.

      They love the atmosphere and overall ambience of the event, which, for them, brings together friends and family from across the country. They look forward to a weekend of thrills and hopefully no spills.

      Sebold, 64, of Camden is one of only a handful of tobogganists who have participated in at least 10 consecutive competitions at the Camden Snow Bowl. Sebold also is one of the event’s oldest racers.

      This will be Sebold’s 11th straight year gliding down the toboggan chute and she and her teammates show no signs of slowing down. If anything, they want to speed up so they can win in the two-, three- or four-person race divisions.

      Sebold is a member of the Rift Rafters — the frozen version of a group of friends who enjoy river rafting.

      The team members, whose average age is about 60, wear snowmobile suits for warmth and draw small toboggans on their sleeves to commemorate each year of participation.

     Some of the members have changed over the years, but the Rift Rafters have included, at different times, Sebold; Sara Montgomery, Gail Young, Susan Gilbey and Vicki Harner, all of Camden; Joan and Ernie Plummer of Augusta; Rutley Chalk of Albuquerque, N.M.; Sebold’s daughter, Robin; and Sebold’s sister, Donna Cherry of Toledo, Ohio. Joan Plummer is the team’s coach.

      In 1992, the year before they began racing in the toboggan nationals, Sebold and some friends went rafting on the Colorado River. For these thrill seekers, toboggan racing seemed a perfect wintertime activity.

      When the team first started competing in the toboggan nationals, many members had to make lengthy trips to Maine.

      “In the beginning, we used to have four or five team members drive or fly in from far away just to go down the toboggan chute in about nine seconds,” Sebold said. “We started as a team from away, but now they are all moving to this area.”

      The toboggan nationals, which attract about 300 teams, draws Sebold and her team members to the Snow Bowl each winter for the races and much more. Team members spend hours enjoying all aspects of the event.

      For the Rift Rafters, the races are exhilarating. The last thing Sebold does before she and her teammates twist their bodies like pretzels onto eight- or 10-foot toboggans is to rub a mink pelt across the bottom of the sled.

      “I rub in one direction — but I’m not going to tell you in what direction because that is very important — because you have to get all of the molecules heated,” Sebold said. “You have to warm the bottom to make sure it slides better. Then we all hum a certain word — again I cannot tell you what word — before they send us down the chute.”

      As one can see, much of the Rift Rafters best advice for would-be toboggan racers is cloaked in secrecy.

      Despite taking dozens of runs down the frozen chute over the years, Sebold said she and her teammates still get nervous before each run. In the early years, in fact, the group experimented with screaming and not screaming during races to see which one made them go faster.

      “We thought maybe we were going slower because our mouths were open (when we screamed),” Sebold said.

Three members of the Rift Rafters, from left, Susan Gilbey, Carol Sebold and Vicki Harner, take a break from preparing their toboggan for this weekend’s national races. KEN WALTZ PHOTO

     Sebold said it is a rush to sit at the top of the chute anticipating the descent. “Every run you get butterflies for just that split second,” she said. “Then it is ‘whoosh’ and it is over. You start and nine seconds later you hear the crowd cheering. Then you are down on the ice (on Hosmer Pond) trying to hang on hoping the toboggan doesn’t roll too much. We have taken some tumbles.”

      The Rift Rafters’ goal is clear — to go fast.

      “We try to do what everyone else does — to be the fastest,” said Sebold, an artist whose original print of the toboggan nationals is sold each year at the event. “We always seem to just make the cutoff for the finals. We have never won any prizes but we just have a real good time.”

      Sebold and her teammates have competed in all kinds of weather, from the brutal cold to spring-like temperatures two years ago that forced racers to glide through huge puddles of water at the end of the chute.

      For each race, Sebold sits in front of the toboggan. “I usually close my eyes, but sometimes I look at the trees as they fly by. You just go for it.”

      Sebold said she continues to participate in the toboggan nationals for much more than the fast runs down the chute.

      Sebold likens the weekend event to a football tailgate party, with plenty of food, drink and fun. But instead of tailgating for a few hours before the big game, the Rift Rafters tailgate for several days.

      And when each day’s racing ends, the group converges on Sebold’s house for theme parties. Last year they attend a “senior prom.” Guests wore prom dresses and tuxedos. There was voting for the party’s king and queen. In an interesting twist, Sebold’s friend, Mac Murphy, also a toboggan competitor, came to the party in drag. Fittingly, he finished second in both the king and queen voting.

      This weekend’s extravaganza has a Caribbean theme.

      Sebold said there are many reasons she competes in the toboggan championships. “It is just the thrill of doing something you don’t usually get a chance to do. And it is the nationals. It is the only place in the country people are nuts enough to do this. Any of us can say we were in the national championships. Only hundredths of seconds separate the first- and last-place teams.”

      Several Rift Rafters — Sebold, Gilbey and Harner, to name three — enjoy many thrilling activities, including scuba diving and skiing. They have even kayaked with whales. But in late January and early February, they get their kicks sliding down the toboggan chute.

      Among the other toboggan teams, one of the Rift Rafters best rivals is Frozen Assets, of which Murphy is a member. In fact, this year Murphy and Ernie Plummer will form a two-person team called the Frozen Rafters. “It is fun competition,” Sebold said.

      Sebold said competing in the toboggan championships never gets old for the always aging Rift Rafters.

      “It is like good wine,” she said. “We get better with age.”