Christmas Break

So I haven't blogged for a while mostly because my break has been really chill. I was a gatekeeper for the 4 Eastern Cups right after I got back to Sugarloaf, which was a different but enjoyable experience. The ankle was good enough to get in a boot for some relaxed skiing but nothing too intense until the week of Christmas when I started to ease back into training. I had a good, quiet Christmas followed by a few days of good training. I've been frustrated by the condition of my ankle just because I haven't been able to quite flex the boot like I usually can. I've got one more day of training tomorrow and then I'll fly out on sunday. Although I'm enjoying being home I'm definitely excited to get back to California and get back into the more intense training. Happy New Year!

Videos

Evidently, the videos were unviewable because of the privacy settings on youtube. I changed the settings this afternoon and it should work well now.

Snow King Crash

I arrived home last night at about 12:30 and crawled into my bed for the first time since October, certainly a welcome comfort after a day of travel. I slept late this morning, then headed down to Farmington for a few doctors appointments. First we saw a physical therapist, who confirmed our suspicion that my left leg was shorter and weaker (for some strange reason) than my right, even with the new injury to the right. We then moved on to a chiropractor who dove deeper into the problem, and found that my back and pelvis are misaligned, which seems to be the root of many technical issues that I've been having. He tweaked a few things and thinks that over a short period of time he can get my legs to be the same length, which would help make everything easier. Unfortunately, due to this work and the state of my leg, it doesn't look like I'll be racing this weekend, despite my confidence in my ability to compete. I have to listen to my coach, the doctors, and most of all my dad, no matter how much I don't want to. So it looks like I'll be gatekeeping tomorrow, which will be great because I can get some ticket vouchers to use later on in christmas vacation. It'll be a much different perspective to a ski race, which I'm pretty excited about. Below is the footage from the crash the other day, it's not graphic at all but you can definitely see how I messed myself up.

Snow King SL

So the last few days have been full of ups and downs. I ended up scoring on sunday, the first one of the season and first for a while in slalom. I was excited to ski even faster yesterday, I had a good start position, and felt like I knew what I needed to do to get an even better result. I was having sort of a rough run when I came into a hairpin at the bottom in an off balance position and way off the line. I clipped the double gate with one of my tips, flipped over the front, and tumbled for a few seconds. In the process of that tumble, I twisted my right ankle and shin really badly. At first I thought the pain would be temporary, but when it persisted and intensified, I started to worry more and more. We had X-rays done, and thankfully I didn't break anything (although I was very close), I just sprained my ankle and have a ton of swelling on my shin. Although this is quite an unlucky event, I was really lucky that I didn't end my season. I'm in the airport now getting ready to board a plane back home for races that I thought I was going to do starting thursday, but that's in serious jeopardy at the moment. Hopefully I'll heal up for the slaloms this weekend but I'm not sure at the moment. Despite all of this bad news, I'm really excited to see everyone at home and have some time to slow down and rest. Below is the footage from the first slalom, I was finally able to upload it. So I'm going to hobble down onto the plane now and try to suffer through the pain for a few hours.

Snow King SL 1

So I didn't feel much like posting yesterday, not much went well the entire day, ending with one of the most dramatic crashes I've ever had. Moving on to good news, the slalom training yesterday afternoon was good and then the race today went really well. I started 3rd, which is not only my lucky number but a very advantageous start position in snow like today. I had probably the best slalom run of my life in the first run, with only one major bobble and some very fast turns the rest of the way. I was 4th after that run, and I was determined to not only score but get onto the podium and win one of the awesome plaques that they give out. I didn't ski very well second run though, and ended up fifth but still with a score. It's amazing how much better it feels to do well like I did as opposed to the last few days, yet I feel extremely motivated to do even better tomorrow. I'll try to get some more race video on here along with the fastest skiers of the day. After the race tomorrow, I'll head down to Salt Lake City for a flight on tuesday back home. I'm really excited to see my everybody at Sugarloaf and even more excited to race there!

And an interesting perspective on the latest world cup venue...http://nymansworld.blogspot.com/2010/12/tough-on-eyes.html

Snow King Race 1

So today didn't go quite as well as I had hoped, but I'm not too down on the race. I drew bib 4, which I was excited about. In soft conditions like this, a little chatter to push against but not enough to be rough is what you want. I was happy with the way I skied, and ended up 7th after the run, but I really wanted to punch it second run and put myself on the podium. Running 24th, the track was much rougher than the previous run and I had a much tougher time. I leaned in on the third gate and struggled the rest of the way down, especially with the bottom section, where I seemed to jam every gate I saw. I lost most of the time down there and ended up 25th on the run and 14th overall, not even close to scoring. I hate blowing second runs more than anything, mostly because I pride myself on moving up in rougher courses where others falter. I also don't think it's a good sign to be messing up when it really matters. But I'll move on to tomorrow, and hopefully ski as well as I did today, minus the mistakes. I think if I do that, I'll like the result. I'd like to give a shout out to fellow Sugar Bowl athletes Mark Engel and Ty Sprock. Mark won the race and scored a 29, and Ty, in his first year of FIS, scored a 51. Enjoy the video!

Sunny California

So the last few days have been pretty relaxed, which is certainly welcomed after the intense block in Colorado. We got back on snow on saturday with some freeskiing, ran slalom stubbies on sunday, powder skied yesterday, and hit some GS gates today. The snow has been super soft which is frustrating, but we made it happen today with 10 pretty solid runs of GS. I feel pretty good going into the 4 races at Jackson Hole, and am really excited to get back home! Well I'm going to sign off, James Clifford just whipped up some awesome Steak and Potatoes that I'm ready to feast on! Farewell from the eternal traveler...

Going Back to Cali

After another tough day at Aspen racing Nor-Ams on tuesday, we packed up and did the 6 hour drive to Provo, Utah, where we spent the night. I started to feel really sick, with what I discovered today was an ear infection and strep throat, so that night was pretty miserable. The next day, we completed the boring drive through Nevada and into California, the final destination of an epic journey from coast to (almost) coast. I arrived here at about 7:30, to the winter home of James Clifford, who was nice enough to let me crash here for the next week-long rest/training block before our races at Jackson Hole on Wednesday. I got a ton of stuff done today, including getting a haircut that I was originally much more skeptical about than I am now, seeing the doctor and getting antibiotics, and attempting to get my phone and windshield fixed. I visited the academy for the first time, which to my surprise, is very much at the top of a mountain. Tomorrow will include much of the same, with some ski tuning and more rest before getting back on the hill on saturday. I'm really excited about spending the winter here, its an awesome town with awesome people. Also, the rest of my favorite kiwis are arriving tomorrow! I haven't seen the Prebbles in 2 and a half months so I'm really excited for our reunion.