Wrap up of the Australia and New Zealand Cup

After two races at Mt Hotham and an extended training and racing trip to Wanaka, New Zealand the FIS Australia and New Zealand Cup is over. I managed to podium in all three races and was pleased with this and how I rode but wouldn't of minded two more golds!!

Hotham my home mountain put on a great show for races #1 and #2 despite trying conditions. Training day had to be cancelled because of warm conditions and the resultant inability to groom the course, they also had to move the start down 20 meters to avoid a large hole that had developed in the snow cover!

On day one I qualified fastest and went on to have a comfortable win in the final, definitely making my presence felt & showing that my skills had improved by the way I gained distance on the one jump in the course and held an aggressive line. Stay tuned for a podium photo!

Day two was not quite as successful, when in the final I managed to get a bit too keen coming VERY hot into the first burm trying to put a pass on Belle Brockoff and managed to end up switch for the next roller section. Whoops! I still got third and should at least be please that I was 'going for it'.

On Thursday the 11th I made the trek to Wanaka to spend a few days training with Rachel Newton of HPC Cardrona and Red Mountain Resort & staying at the wonderful Purple Cow Hostel. I picked up 'Sunny' the rental car and drove to Wanaka and promptly decided I never wanted to leave!

And up at Sunny Cardrona. The weather got significantly nastier during the middle of my stay and I only got home Tuesday night because Rachel managed to coax me down vverrry slowly down on Tuesday after a 270 degree spin (with chains on!!!).

This was a valuable time to reestablish good habits and learn some new things, especially in the way of Positive Self Talk, something I had struggled with in the past. Rachel is a fantastic coach and at the end of 5 days training (and some powder riding thanks to the ridiculous storm that hit NZ) I felt like I was riding the best I had in a long time. I have really started to channel good riding memories to let me breathe pre-race. If anyone out there has a way to contact Fishing/Snowboarding Adam in Telluride I would love him to know that there was one day that we were bombing or straight lining a powder day up at Revelation Bowl (an over hyped lift but great this day early season) and did about 10 laps in 30 minutes with only maybe two or three turns between us is the memory that makes me feel good about going fast. Adam, you are the basis of my positive self talk when I'm freaking out!

Official Training Day on the Thursday went fantastically well despite a massive crash that put some lovely fluid in my ankle over a roller section. So I was pumped-up come Friday.

On race morning in my classic state of excitement I managed to forget my boots, luckily I hadn't left town when I remembered so went back for them... that could have been ugly! The day was gorgeous...

Rachel, Joss McAlpin and I sitting at the course - all smiles!

100% Pure New Zealand... and loving it!

 I qualified third fastest and was feeling good come Semi finals having to race against Callan Chythlook-Sifsof a US World Cup Rider and another Aussie girl. I got the hole shot out of the start but Callan put a past on in Burm 1. Come Burm 2 I passed back after Callan got rutted out and crashed.

After that it was smooth sailing into the final.

Unfortunately my start was not great come finals time and Belle had the jump on me. Despite riding the lower half of the course well (and according to Rachel my biased coach fastest) I couldn't make a pass and finished second by a couple of meters. All part of the game I guess but I am definitely inspired to improve my starts!

Here's a podium shot pre-party time out in Wanaka...

After a couple more days hitting jumps at Snowpark, watching the Slopestyle, enjoying the company of A.M.A.Z.I.N.G riders and generally getting into the vibe of Wanaka it is back to Uni, Work, Gym and sunny old Melbourne town for a few days. My time in New Zealand definitely inspired me to keep at this sport, train harder and get faster. I feel like I can do this.

After getting a little bit caught up on Uni work this week and putting my 'Corporate' face on for a Law Interview next week I'm off to Hotham for a Rider Cross fun event and then Thredbo for Australian University Championships which shall be a great time. I'm excited about wearing my brand new Outerwear, thanks to my sponsor Anakie Outerwear, though it might be t-shirt weather given the trend in Oz at the moment!

Thank you to all those that made my stay in New Zealand fantastic, I'm looking forward to living there at some point in the future!

Smiling at you through my epic goggle tan!

Powder Days – aka CLAMS!!

Back when I lived in Telluride, CO (2009) I had an Australian friend who had named the piles of snow on a powder day on rocks, leaves, trees and so on “clams”. If you have seen a good Colorado powder day and can visualise it you will know what I mean. He bought a tin of clams on each such day for the season and stacked them up at the ski store. The nickname has stuck and there is now a crew of “Clams” folk that get around above 1000m, even here in the Australian snow field.

The good news is we have had some EPIC clams days this season up at Hotham. 

Got to earn those turns...

The tour guide (at least I knew vaguely where we were headed... Down!)

Yep I was the pushy tour guide that took the first turns!

Powder beds...

The pictures really don't do it justice. Hiking Golden Point off the top of Orchard was definitely worth it on one fabulous weekend with old family friends up here to hang out with. 

The next weekend, 7 days after fresh snow we still managed to find some perfectly “corny” turns in a little secret spot (not telling you where!!) with gorgeous sun and lots of time to shred with a totally cool group of girls.

Loz and I just a little excited about riding together!

Loving the crusty corn!

Apres any one?

I’ve just arrived at Hotham for another weekend of fun. Unfortunately no clams in sight but it is the Australia New Zealand Cup races (the National Championship of Australia) which I am very excited about. Hopefully I can back up a solid performance at this event after taking out the National Championship last year. Driving up here today it felt a bit like summer, being 20+ degrees in Melbourne, the blue mountains were sparkling and the snow visibly melted since last weekend.  However, given the good early season snowfall at first glance the course looks like it actually has some decent features (jumps, burms etc). I CAN’T WAIT TO RIDE IT!!!

With only one boardercross race under the belt for the season thus far at the Victorian Intervarsity Championships, which did not go exactly to plan, I’m feeling itchy to get out and compete. The adrenaline of flying down the course always makes those endless gym hours worthwhile. 

Here's some photos from up at Vics...

Warming up on the X-Country ski's with Camilla

180 on XCountry ski's? No biggie

Slopestyle - Queen of the Girly Method!

The little wu tang on the Boarder Cross course

Sending smiles from a sunny Hotham - wish me luck!

[Thanks go to Lauren Broomhall, Vanessa Bacchetti, Cat Bonwick & Camilla Humphries for the photos included]

And we're off...

If the hell-raising drive, the wet mist in the air or the punters in extremely loud clothing didn't warn me that I was back up at Hotham, the perfectly groomed Aussie slush and the first shout of 'Safety Bar' certainly did. Conditions are pretty impressive for this time of year but we definitely should not stop praying for more snow... keep burning those skis, please! I had a good couple of hours lapping the Village and Road Runner on my oldest and most bashed up board as there are still some rocks poking through the slush, though the misty rain and wind eventually got the better of me and I thought it was time for a well deserved Milo and toastie.

I was looking at all the ski maps that Mum has collected and put up on the walls - Fernie, Whistler, Telluride, Steamboat, Val d'Isere, Cervinia, Niseko... - I might of skied them all, and have memorable moments or runs from all of them but it is really this little hill that I'll always love like home. Plus there is some really great terrain here, especially in years where we have a good base, like this year. I can't wait for Heavenly and the 'EXTREME' Skiing to get covered!

I thought I would take this opportunity to update my few readers on plans for this season, let me know if we will run into each other anywhere. I'm always looking for more company on the slopes.

June/July: I will be a weekend warrior up at Hotham, trying to get back in riding shape while focussing on being at full steam in the gym.

July 21st - 24th: Victorian Intervarsity Championships, Mt Buller

August 5th - 7th: Australian/New Zealand Cup, FIS Races, Mt Hotham

I'm then considering heading out to NZ to train with coach Rachel, who travelled on the Nor-Am tour with us over January and February for 10 days. Alternatively, I will do the Hotham Banked Slalom on August 13th (a great even for all comers... lots of fun!)

August 19th: NZ Winter Games, Australian/NZ Cup, FIS Race, Cadrona, NZ

August 28th: Beer-battered Rider Cross, Mt Hotham

August 28th - September 2nd: Australian University Championships, Thredbo

September: Back-country touring up in the Main-Range and Buffalo areas!

Typing all that out made me very excited, I love this time of year... with everything yet to come.

Please stay tuned for an update on the fabulous people who will be sponsoring me this winter...

Get excited folks... it's snowing!

Smiles.

Its snowing... Wow!

Check out this - Mt Hotham predicting snow!

Just thought all my Northern Hemisphere Friends (and some Australian ones) would like to know that it is snowing here!!

I'm getting excited and trying to sleep lots now and get my body right.

33 days until our Queen's Birthday opening of the season!

Sending anticipatory smiles!

Hitting the Wall

On March 14th I hopped off the plane at Tullamarine to be picked up by a smiling mother. She always seems to be rather relieved every time all of her children and safely back inside Australian borders. I promptly jumped full throttle into life as a full time student.

To be totally honest, life as a full time student kind of blows in comparison to the life I led this summer as an athlete. Sitting at a desk really doesn't compare to flying down the slopes and squeezing in a work out is just so much more difficult. Though, getting back into the social scene in Melbourne is always a treat. This year I was lucky enough to have a gorgeous birthday dinner shortly after my return, the perfect chance to sit down and actually talk to long lost friends. In addition to all this I had started work at a pub around the corner, The Cricket Club, which was the perfect job - not too stressful and great hours. I am organising the snowboard portion of racers for Melbourne University and was also helping coach the St. Hilda's College 1st rowing crew!

Perhaps a little too much and as Good Friday rolled around I came down with what seemed, at the time, like bad tonsillitis, but a week and a blood test later turned out to be Glandular Fever. Thus the past week has been all about lying on the couch and afternoon naps; study and exercise have ground to a halt. Chocolate was not a great feature of Easter as nothing seemed to taste at all like it should, much to Mum's chagrin I was constantly saying, 'this taste's like vomit' - it was not her exceptional cooking just my silly taste-buds! My body seems to be losing any muscle mass it ever had. I'm not looking forward to feeling well enough to start working back on my body condition - it's going to hurt!

I guess this is a kind of karma for taking perhaps a little too much on. Hopefully after a few weeks off work and the gym I can keep up with my study and get a whole lot better. Fingers crossed because the Queen's Birthday Weekend, the opening of the ski season, is only six weeks away!

In other news I was very humbled to receive a Friends of the Sports Association Scholarship from the University - this is going to be significant assistance for the Australian winter coming up. Also, I am beginning the search for sponsors in the hope that next Norther-winter I can be a little less reliant on Mum and Dad.

Don't share water bottles with anyone!

Red Mountain, BC

I was pretty excited to be ending my time in Canada by a trip to Red Mountain, BC. I had heard a lot of good things about this little resort. This piece of advertising pretty much sums it up:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7Z0MBLHF20

To tell you the truth, Red did not disappoint. We got up on Friday morning for some pre-training riding on a reported 6cm of fresh snow. It felt like so much more. I teamed up with Thomas one of the 16 year olds on the team and we spent all morning hiking a little hill to get freshies and cliff drops a plenty. Unfortunately for me I had one pretty awkward moment where I realised I was perched right on a frozen waterfall with no where to go. The locals had some pretty helpful advice to yell from the chairlift, 'Just send it', 'Go for it', 'Do it'. I took my time in the public arena to get to down a little lower by sliding on the ice and then went for it. Very comical I'm sure from the chairlift. It definitely wasn't graceful!

Aside from the amazing free-riding we were at Red for a couple of British Columbia Provincial Series races. The course was long but the features were not huge meaning that it was a good chance to actually ride on the course. Though, I did my best to fall over the wu-tang at the start in as many different ways as possible. Apparently one of my front flips over the feature in front of a few girls I was training with was pretty spectacular - I nearly landed it.

On the Saturday I qualified fastest by over a second which should have put me in a good position to take the win. Unfortunately in my semi-final when winning by about 50 metres coming into the last burm I decided to throw myself into the stubbies, this ended my chances of winning the first race. VERY ANNOYING! I was definitely not consoled despite destroying the other girls in the consolation final.

Sunday was another solid day of qualifying, this time my time put me in front by 3 seconds over the next female qualifier. Surely I could keep myself together for this final race of my season. I won the semi easily and was feeling good going into the final. I picked the right gate and pulled out first. However, I thought I needed to make it just a bit more difficult for myself and take just one more fall over the wu-tang. This put me far behind with a lot of work to do in the next 1 min down the course. I caught 2 of the girls but couldn't catch the girl in first place. 2nd definitely felt like 1st loser in this race but I guess it's part of the sport. I've just got to work out how to actually ride to my potential in racing, definitely a challenge for the future.

Please stay tuned for photos and video from the race. I have some funny ones of people taking themselves out.

Oh and in other exciting news, a new FIS points list came out (this is how athletes are ranked against each other, gaining points depending on what races they do and how they do in them). I'm currently the highest ranked Australian!!!! Pretty happy with that small achievement and it puts me in a good place for next season.

I'm spending my last week in Steamboat, CO, my body is slowly recovering from all the hits it has taken and I'm starting to feel ready to get back to Uni. It has been gorgeous and sunny here with a really great powder day tomorrow. I'm home on Tuesday and looking forward to catching up with everyone.

Sending smiles from sunny (and delightfully warm) Colorado.

Beach biceps anyone?

I got to thinking whilst reading a sport biography of a journalist, Bill McKibben, who decided to take a year off life and train like an elite cross-country skier. He wasn't a talented athlete but he put in the miles and actually did some pretty decent races by the end of the year. McKibben mentions at numerous spots in the book, Long Distance, about getting up and eating his 'oatmeal' (aka porridge) to get ready to train/race/face the day. I also eat porridge every morning, as I'm sure many other winter athletes do - it seems to fill the stomach just perfectly. So my thought was how would the Winter Olympics fare if there were no porridge? Would there be a mass strike? Would the athletes fall half-way through their races? I'm not sure, but I am sure that I wouldn't have been able to train nearly as hard this winter without my hearty bowl of porridge every morning.

We work out at the Bill Warren Training centre, home of elite nordic skiing athletes, ageing masters, groups of enthusiastic young up and coming cross country skiers and the occasional dung bell lover.  This week a new rather scrawny but very serious guy has started attending the gym. He wears all black, all the time and has a wonderful collection of dog tags. I'm not sure that I have seen him do anything except arm work and sit-ups. This makes all the athletes doing actually functional work-outs giggle, but I feel like it is a good warm up for getting back into the Melbourne University Gym - home to a large collection of 'roid-addicts and men seeking those perfect pectorals.

Here are some photos from the gym:

Deciding how much pain to go through. Adam was advocating for more rather than less. I was not so sure.

Dead lifts

Lat Pull Downs with a view!

I'm not sure if I'm laughing or screaming at this point.

Nate - Happy it is time to stretch and the work-out is all over!

Another cross-country training group - I'm not sure if they actually go to school???? No wonder Canada excels at winter sports

That is where I hang out a fair bit. It is a great gym, usually very quiet and with every activity to test agility and balance that you can imagine!

Oh and here are some shots from the walk home...

The Canmore Nordic Centre

The blue sign points to our dirt road & the Grassi Lakes Recreational Area

'The Spray' aka our home in the woods. Note the Christmas lights, very festive really!

So this is my last post from Canmore. This Thursday I am off to my 10th resort for the winter, Red Mountain, BC for two provincial races. It should be fun to get some really good racing in at a lower level of competition. Then Monday I'm starting a rather protracted journey home via the US again.

Sending smiles for the last time from Canmore, tomorrow is looking like an epic powder day so it is a very big grin really.