Date: 11th of January 2008

Hi All,

More snow this morning for something different, just a lazy 10cm to kick things off for the day. Breakfast was the usual and then it was out for a big day on the hill. The snowboarders and the freeskiers had the afternoon off after some serious powder skiing / riding all week while the mogul skiers (the boys) had their mogul completion today.  More to come later on that though.

The boarders spent the morning was spent doing their favorite run through their secret little cliff drop and down through the park. Ollie and jay were the most impressive today, both showing they had been learning lots over the past couple of days with all the fresh snow. Ollie was getting some nice methods over the drop and landing a fair way down the landing while Jay was working on his indy grabs and was looking rather stylish. Jamie took out the stack of the day, and possibly the stack of the camp. He tried his first backside 3 off the drop and somehow only managed to get it around 270 and caught his toe edge straight on his stomach but quickly bounced back up with a big smile on his face. Not sure what Nathan had for dinner last night,  but he came out with all guns firing, on the drop he just about cleared the landing on his first couple of attempts, he just loves to go big. Kane was making the most of his last day, with some smooth spins off the drop, and was getting technical in the park with some nice gap to front boardslides on the battleship. Jack was throwing some smooth backside 180's on the drop, not even the coaches had tried that trick yet. Emma was riding the best she has all camp getting everyone excited with her smooth switch 180 off the drop and she also had her front boardslides on lockdown in the park. Jordi and Rowan are getting better every day there with Rowan launching some nice indy's off the drop while Jordi was schooling his brother on the boxes. The Skullcandy daily award today went to Jay who was throwing himself silly off any little jump he could find, even managing to throw his first switchbacksides 3's for the camp.

Ridley had the competitors up bright and early forced to be on snow at 8.30 sharp. Training began at 8.45 with course inspection for 15 minutes. Like most mogul events by the time the first run came around they were already 30 minutes late.  The boys all trained well with most putting down some good looking top to bottom runs. The rest of the day went something like the following:

First Run;
Brodie put down a good top to bottom with some small breaks in form. Double twister on top air and a 360 on bottom air. Time: 33.23. Jack was looking good throughout his first run until the bottom jump where he was slightly off axis on his 360 rotation. He took a small crash however recovered to finish in a time of 38.48. Alex E. skied his first run extremely well however had a couple of very small breaks in form which cost him a little. His time was 36.33. Bryn was skiing the top section like a pro until he hit the second jump. Taking a leaf out of Jack Thorburn’s snow diving journal he landed heavily and jumped right out of his skis and ended up 3 bumps further down the course. Unfortunately a double ejection means his run was only scored up to this point leaving him in 25th (last) place after the first run.  Alex C was also on the money until taking a small crash shortly after the first jump he recovered well to finish his run on a positive note with a nice 360 on the bottom air. His time was 34.85. Alex W was always going to have to ski well against good competition in division 2. He did just that, putting down a great top to bottom with twister and heli iron.

Second Run;
Brodie was up first with Ridley allowing him to go for it. He did just that lighting up the bumps course with a beautiful combination of 360 and 720 in the air. A little slow however with a time of 32.66. Jack was up next with the aim of putting down a solid top to bottom. Skiing well again it was the bottom jump that brought him unstuck, again crashing an off axis 360. His time was 39.94. Alex E never looked comfortable on his second run skiing backseat. The pressure was off after skiing a top to bottom in his first run and  attempting to ‘let them run a little’ he came unstuck half way down the course.  Bryn was again on the money, skiing the middle section of the course in a matter of seconds. Falling a little backseat he crashed out entering the second jump.  His time was still relatively quick at 33.61. Alex C was on fire burning up the course with his relaxed style. A double spread and lovely 360 surely propelled him up the rankings. He also skied a great time of 30.85. Alex W was also given a ticket to go big. He did just that with a 360 and pencil straight 720 that had all coaches talking. Unfortunately he was a little slow with a time of 34.14.

Presentations will be held tomorrow night; we will let you know results then. Although Ridley does have the only copy of the results and is open to bribes. Nothing less than 4 figures will be accepted.  Congratulations to all competitors today, you did a great job.

Chris and the freeriders joined forces with the girls from Ridley’s mogul groups for a session on the backside skiing powder. With all the fresh snow over the past week and with the resort pretty empty there are still heaps of powder stashes to be found. I’m winging it a little today as Chris forget to give me his update, the first time in 5 years so not a bad strike rate there.

This morning, the alpine/snowboardcross group headed out with a full group. Everyone felt better but some still a little tired. They headed out to Big Dipper in the upper section for some GS training to get ready for tomorrow’s race. There was a bit of fresh snow on the ground so after two good slip the course was ready to ride. They had a course from top to bottom. After a couple of runs they had to slip it out again to maintain a good condition in the course. Greg had some good runs and was carving through all the gates. Chrisy also rode well and is getting faster and faster every day mainly due to choosing faster lines. Julia had some really good runs with lots of speed. She had a few downs during training but she was able to bounce back into some good runs again. Ash still felt a little tired. But had some very good section in the course choosing a good line and had strong carving.

I was on shuttle duty this afternoon so at 2.45 I headed off the hill with a van load of kids ready to spend, spend and spend down in Vernon. I pulled up at ‘The Bay’ (like Myers) and told everyone I’d pick them up at 4.00pm. Come 4.00 o’clock there were only two kids and another 15 minutes later they all come strolling up to the car wondering why I had steam coming out of my ears. Apparently no one had a watch and they were all relying on Airlie’s phone that unfortunately was 20 minutes wrong.
 
Tonight’s activity was another double header with all the ‘4 weekers’ and a few other heading down to Vernon to see an ice hockey match. We headed down before Christmas with the ‘6 weekers’ so we thought we’d even it up and give the new arrivals an opportunity to see a game. The match was between the local Vernon Vipers and the visiting Trail Smokeaters. The game had its usual fights and rough play and eventually Vernon ran out winners in overtime. For those who did not go they had an opportunity to go to the Friday Night Movie down in the Silver Star village. Tonight’s choice was Mr Bean’s Holiday which was not overly popular with not one person attending.

As mentioned yesterday a big goodbye goes out to Lauren and Amy who left this evening for the long flight back home. Kane also leaves us tomorrow to spend some time with the family in Big White. We enjoyed having you guys as a part of the group and hopefully we see you back next year.

Today's Pinky goes to Ash Holckner who got a little bit bored this afternoon and let Conrad draw on her face, not quite sure why but nice one Ash!

That’s it for today, until tomorrow

Stowie