Date: 18th of January 2008

Hi Everyone,

We’re officially into the last week of training here in Silver Star which really is quite amazing considering it feel like it was only last week that everyone arrived. Things have absolutely flown by and before long everyone will be on a plane heading for home. Today was a scheduled half day with all groups taking the afternoon session off snow. It’s very much needed with the last 5 weeks starting to catch up with many of the group.

The snowboard group was a little smaller in size due to Oli and Dave taking their level one Instructors course, so the guys decided to take advantage of the smaller numbers and split into two groups again. Matesy took Henry, Jamie and Jack out for the morning to get some more footage for their video sections while Beggsy took Emma, Steve, Jordy and new arrival Pat to the park for a few warm up runs. The jump was in prime condition and both Emma and Steve threw some sweet straight airs. Jordy wasn't into the jumping today so he decided to push himself on the boxes hitting the battleship box clean every go and even nailing the flat down rail for the first time showing just how rapidly he has progressed in the last 3 weeks. Pat just got his feet back and did a few good 5050s on the boxes. It was then off to the air site for a few jumps before lunch and after a couple of hits it was time to head in and go for a team lunch. The group had decided that given Henry and Jack go home  over the next few days that they would all go out for lunch – so Long John’s it was for the legendary Long Johns Burger. Most of the group had the afternoon off to rest, but Jack and Henry headed down to Vernon with Beggsy, Matesy and Conrad to try their hand at some urban jibbing. They settled on the skate park and shoveled a line into the skate bowl as well as a run in for the flat down rail. The guys returned for dinner buzzing after what was one of the most fun afternoons yet.

Phil and his racers headed out to Big Dipper for another session of GS gate training. The weather was clear and visibility good, but the conditions got colder as the morning went on, but at least the snow was in excellent condition. The course was fast and stayed in good shape as Chrisy had some good runs carving really well and picking up some solid speed. She also had a pretty good crash but bounced back unscathed. Julia did some great work increasing her hip movement and increasing her speed while Ash had a good day and improved her speed and kept working on her body position. Tomorrow morning the group will have another small GS race that’s a part of the Interschools Canada Cup.

The moguls crew headed straight for the bumps course this morning to get it back to top shape for the last week of training. The top jump and its landing had not been well maintained during competition and needed some work. Once this was complete the group moved to the bottom jump to ensure the course was good to go for top to bottoms and after and chop and shape all was in order. Ridley then decided the group would do a comp simulation which entailed 1 hour and 20 minutes for training and then a single comp run. Training saw some good runs from Brodie, Alex W, Alex E and Annabel while Kate, Brighid and Airlie struggled their way down the demanding course but still did a good job overall. Prior to the comp runs beginning the girls headed to the skills course for a few runs before lunch.  By the time training finished all skiers felt as though they had been hit by a bus and were in serious need of a rest. The comp run was a bit of a gong show with not one skier putting down a top to bottom. Bad luck guys, they have all deserved the afternoon off. Relax those feet and ice the shin bang.

Chris and his freeski group decided to hit air site for a session this morning.  Conrad, Marnie, Piers and Mike were the crew with Hamish resting his knee and helping Chris out on the knoll.  A quick little chop to prepare the landing and a rake of the jumps and the site was ready to go.  Conrad was determined to land a switch 5 and after a few tries managed it on his last try.  Still a little work to be done but the rotation is coming around nicely.  Piers and Mike had their best morning yet with both having some beautiful jumps on the small hit and they even added some safety grabs.  Chris decided to step the boys up to the 15 footer and both hit it and had no problems at all.  Marnie had some good pops this morning and was focusing on her stance so she could get off balance and be able to add a strong grab into the mix.  The group is taking the afternoon off to rest before the big weekend of training on snow.   

Tonight’s activity was another round of ice skating down on Brewers Pond. Phil and Min took a group of 20 or so over for a couple hours of skating and the ritual ice hockey match.

Pinky – he’s taken a day off. He decided he needed to take a leaf out of my book and create a public holiday like I did yesterday. He’ll be back tomorrow.

We also held the fourth of our AWSC awards last night where we give out 4 awards to the athletes that are voted on by the coaches. The first of the awards was The “Bolle Big Break Award” and this is awarded to the athlete who has made the most improvement over the past week. This week it was awarded to Julia Harper. The second award is the “Helly Hansen Encouragement Award” is awarded to the skier and snowboarder who have contributed the most effort and tried the hardest over the past week. This week it was awarded to Emma Early for the snowboarders and Brodie Summers for the skiers. The final award is the “XTM Training eXcellence Award” This week it was awarded to Hamish Scarff.

Lunch today was thai chicken soup and sandwich buffet with a very tasty creamy chicken carbonara and garlic bread for dinner.

Until Tomorrow

Stowie

PS: I did manage to get out for a ski yesterday and headed over to the mogul course for a few runs. The crew was pretty surprised that I could actually ski. Sitting behind a computer for most of the camp has not agreed terribly well with me as I’m extremely sore after my ‘two’ big runs. I think I’ve even got some video footage online today – very old school of me!!!