Date: 21st of December 2007

Hi Everyone,

The usual 7.30 wake up call went around and the crew filtered downstairs for then regulation continental breakfast. There was not a lot enthusiasm until everyone looked out the window and noticed the blue sky day and then the smiles started to appear. All the coaches briefed the kids on it be very cold (minus 15) but I think mostrhad “blue sky’ fever as no one appeared to rug up – yep they paid the price later in the morning.

After an afternoon off yesterday the pace of the group had increased, the guys were rested and keen to start throwing down again. They rollers were in prime condition today and with the endless visibility the crew quickly found a nice line through them with the trick of the day being the nose grab, which is one of the harder straight airs. Mr. enthusiasm "Kane" and his sidekick Jack were doing tailslide nose grabs while the rest of the group just perfected the trick and worked on their style. Jordan C just played around with his line trying to get his ollies bigger to maximize his airtime.

It was the first day in the park today so the guys did a few laps to check it out before lunch, it was really good to see the guys back in their element. The crew stuck to the smaller features as it was their first day back but that didn't stop them trying some cool tricks. Jamie C was once again progressing really quickly trying a different trick on every feature including 5050 bs 180 out on the box and even a backside 360 over the bin bonk. Oli did some nice tail presses on the box with his smooth casual style while Jay went for a few boardslides. Nate had to take it a bit easy today, he has been riding so hard that he snapped his bindings in two. Kane and Jack were trying the very technical "Michael Jackson" over the small box which involves riding the box on their toeside edge. Even Jordy stepped up and hit his first box today and got a few nice 5050s.  After some burgers for lunch the guys were re-fuelled and ready to go and Beggsy took the video camera out this afternoon to shoot some of the tricks and Pez took  a few photos also. There were smiles all-round today when the group returned today after one of the best days on snow yet.

Chris’ freeski group was amped up with blue bird sunny skies and the park opening first thing in this morning.  They headed out to the usual warm up run and stretch then went straight over to the park and did a quick lap through to check out all the features. The park crew had done a great job getting it up and running with an assortment of boxes and rails.  Chris took aside the girls and they played one on one on the beginner boxes.  After a couple of stacks all the girls made it without falling which was a great achievement on the first day.  The rest of the morning they lapped through the park working on technique on the boxes.  Conrad and Hamish were hitting some of the more advanced boxes and rails with Conrad doing some nice reverse spins off and did a few 270’s on.  Hamish was working on getting his balance back on the boxes.

In the afternoon the group went back to the park with video camera in hand.  The goal was to catch all the action the group worked on in the morning.  The girls hit up the boxes again working on their slides with Chris filming from all different angles.  Conrad was hitting the rails down lower and had some nice reverse 270 off the flat as well as nailing the flat down to switch off while Hamish, who for some reason has troubles sliding the boxes was nailing the flat rails no problem.  He also did a 360 on to 180 off the box at the top of the park which was great. Overall, an impressive first day in the park.

Yesterday I mentioned that Rowan was one of the unluckiest Pinky’s we’ve had in recent years well today was one of the silliest. With clear sunny skies and very cold temperatures (minus 15 degrees) you would imagine that all metal objects are VERY cold. Conrad thought it would be funny to see how cold the safety bar was – with his tongue! Now, either he’s not seen the movie “Dumb and Dumber” or he thought the tongue freezing to the metal scene was fake! So he tried it and you guessed it – frozen tongue for 15+ seconds and he left half of it on there when he finally ripped it off. I think we know who dumber is!

The mogul’s crew were out in force today with all skiers back on snow after some sore bodies recuperated after some time off. The group began in the park like the other groups with Jack, Brodie, Alex and Bryn starting with a couple of laps while the girls got used to sliding the boxes for the first time. Kate made some great headway and was almost sliding the box by herself by the end. Brighid had a great morning and was killing the box with some great style. The boys ducked off to Attridge to get some pow turns in with Pez while Ridley worked on both rails and edging with the girls.  The whole group then headed over to Attridge to get some pow wow. After finding some untracked,  Pez proceeded to snap some 300 odd photos of the entire crew getting knee deep.

After lunch the group hit up the air site for some T sets and 360’s. After a couple of days off snow Alex worked on getting his T sets in order, as did Jack. Brodie and Bryn got straight into the 360’s while the girls continued to get used to the landing hill. Tomorrow they will begin on a small jump on the air site. A big shout out to the group for their hard work in maintaining the air site, keep up the good work guys! Big thanks must also go out to Toppa and Mike for putting in many hours on the shovel. 

Holy food Batman! Vegi lentil soup, beef burgers and sandwich buffet for lunch and an awesome Shepards Pie and salad for Dinner…. Does it get much better than this?? We think not!

Tonight’s activity was a double header with Beggsy taking a full van downtown to the Rec centre for badminton, yes badminton! A small group of 8 made the journey and had a couple of hours of whacking the shuttle cock around. While up here at the lodge we ran a ping pong round robin tournament with seven male/female teams tacking part. After some intense game play the final was between Ridely and ‘smackdown’ Amy and Kate and myself. After a tense game back forth with heaps of lead changes Ridely and Amy took it out 21 – 20. As winner Amy took away a $10 Starbucks card.  

Well that’s about it for today, until tomorrow.

Stowie

P.S. We've been having some problems with the phone lines here at the hostel. We're trying to get them fixed and we'll hopefully be back online by Monday. We are still checking messages and passing them on.