L a t e s t  n e w s ..... Rachel Adcock and Gerard Flahive win both races at Scottish Dry Slope Championships ...

'The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams' (Eleanor Roosevelt).

For the last couple of season's Channel 4 have brought excellent coverage of ski racing (as well as the snowboarding, freestyle and winter sport in general) to the British public.  Nick Fellows made the transition from Eurosport Commentator to being the face of British Ski Racing with his show "World Cup Skiing" that appears on Channel 4.  But who is the man that has to look at Nick while he explains everything? That man is Canadian Pat Bell, Racer Ready caught up with Pat in the Finish Area at Garmisch and Pat explained what goes on behind the scenes on race day...

The on slope crew that bring World Cup skiing to the television sets is made up of the two presenters, Nick Fellows and Konrad Bartelski with Pat carrying the camera!  While Nick and Konrad are infront of the camera explaining what makes the winning run, Pat records it all.  Pat will work with Konrad as he picks a couple of spots that he believes will be crucial in finding the winning run: these could be steep sections, fast sections or technical corners.  While he is doing this, Nick is learning the course as the racers do.  While the racers only get one chance at the course to get it right, Nick has to right every time with the names of the corners, jumps and straights.

While Konrad and Nick go off to the commentary booth to do live on site commentary during the race, something not all TV stations do due to the cost of hiring the booths, Pat gets time to mingle down in the finish area, talking with journalists and other cameramen.  This time Pat uses also to arrange interviews that can be used for fillers and background information for the shows when they get transmitted.

With all the racers taking place away from the Studio, the shows get transmitted back to Channel 4 by satellite where they are pieced together and the final cut is put together.  Pat will have spent many hours on the slopes with both presenters with his camera on his shoulder shooting shots that make the show original and not just a collection of standard shots that the host broadcaster sends out.

So how did Pat get involved with Hothouse Productions, producers of World Cup Skiing and what does he do away from the Ski Racing circuit?  Pat has been with Hothouse for six years now, three on the skiing and three on the Snowboarding before the skiing.  "I was involved with skiing before with the Crazy Cannucks," he grins!  Podborski, Green and Read, they were real crazy guys Pat regales!

Away from the skiing, Pat is the Technical Director for the World Triathlon Tour: "We visit twenty one countries between April and November!" Pat explains about his life away from the skiing.  "With Solden in October I went from New Zealand to Skiing (Solden) to Australia all in the same month!"  So how do the two circuits compare?  "This is serious television," he grins!  "We are trying to elevate triathlon but it is hard! Triathlon is growing as a sport but it is young: The Federation that runs it has only been going for twelve years!"  Having started out in 1991 as a cameraman on the back of a motorcycle, Pat and his camera have certainly come a long way!

The connection with Hothouse came about when Nick Fellows asked if he could use some footage from the Mexico Triathlon in 1996.  From small acorns grow large Oak trees the saying goes and the Fellows - Bell partnership has grown steadily since then.  As the two have shown what they can do so to have the input from Channel 4 and this has been shown with more creative Features Producers coming on board.  This year Lucy Darke has helped to develop the show to appeal to the interest that British viewers have of the international racers: "The British people are very worldly," Pat finishes with...not bad for the man from Vancouver, Canada!

World Cup Skiing can be seen on Channel 4.  To see times for the next show click here