This winter he will take his annual uplifting break from his retirement village to travel to Wānaka and lead the Snow Farm's annual Merino Muster World Loppet, a cross-country skiing competition popular with local and international athletes.
But he hopes this year will be his last and that a new volunteer will volunteer to take over.
“I thought if I mentioned my age, maybe people would realize that's what we are [the Waiorau Nordic Ski Club] I need a little more help,” he joked during a recent interview with the Wānaka Sun.
Burridge hasn't lost his sense of humor yet – his retirement village has a theme song Another One Bites The Dust – but he fears it is “unwise” to keep him on as race director, “particularly as we consider long-term strategies for the race.” future of the breed”.
In 2019, Snow Farm manager Sam Lee relieved Burridge of his duties, but it was too much on top of grooming trails and managing health and safety, staffing and all the other ski field management duties that Lee does, so Burridge stepped back on the line. .
“Last year I helped set up the stadium but had to stop at lunchtime as I couldn't cope with the height and needed my usual afternoon nap.
“As a result, we missed the deadline for the Snow Farm grooming team to mark the trail before beginning their late afternoon and overnight grooming,” Burridge said.
“It caused some anxiety for them, but despite missing deadlines and making their lives more difficult, we delivered a brilliant track, even with the limited snow cover.”
He regrets his last-minute race planning last year, and would like a youthful substitute this year, if only as a standby, “in case I need oxygen bottle support”.
The understudy would also require patience, Burridge said, as he tends to repeat his story about skiing the Transjurassienne in France and how the course team there used snowmobile headlights to ensure a group of female skiers reached the finish line.
“The race director's skills are essentially management skills rather than cross-country skiing, as there is an FIS qualified technical delegate, a sort of referee, who supervises and monitors the safety and fairness of the race,” Burridge said.
Burridge doesn't remember the first year he directed the Merino Muster.
“[Snow Farm co-founder] Mary Lee gave me the job. It has no status whatsoever. You usually hand out sandwiches.”
Burridge first tried cross country at Canterbury in the 1980s and failed miserably.
“In my early days I lived in Lower Hutt, then Taupo and then Auckland. I had a friend at Massey University and at lunch I was chewing the fat with him and telling him I had seen a story about cross-country skiing in the mountains. back of Round Hill in Canterbury.
“There was a guy who ran cross-country skiing courses, so we went and did it and it was a complete disaster. The snow had blown off the top of the hills. We both thought, it can't be that bad.”
“I then heard that something was going on in Cardrona while I was talking to farmers at an animal health conference in Winton. Some of us decided to go to Snow Farm for the weekend. I couldn't believe my luck,” Mr Burridge recalls . .
The conference's refugee winter weekend camp at Wānaka Top 10 Holiday Park marked the start of an annual winter tradition.
“Our skiing was terrible, but we enjoyed it a lot. Then I learned to skate ski. It took me three years to learn that. One of the instructors completely gave up on me.”
His participation eventually won him some medals, including two veteran championship medals in recent times.
“I think there was a lady and another man in the race,” he said.
Burridge is at the forefront of this year's race planning. In April he spent a week in Wānaka, getting to grips with his upcoming tasks and checking on Snow Farm's infrastructure.
“I will be back in plenty of time for the event in August. My family is also coming. Some of them are very excited,” he said.
This year, Burridge wants to make a few adjustments to keep Merino Muster athletes and spectators on their toes.
He hopes to introduce a powhiri, which offers international athletes a special cultural context and experience.
He is considering a change of course to guide skiers past the new Musterershut, simply because he really likes it and wants more people to see it.
Plans are also being made for a catering base near the municipality of Cardrona.
Burridge would continue to attend the Merino Muster even after another race director takes over.
“I will continue as long as I can. For me it is a very special race,” he said.