Date: 23rd of January 2008

Hi All,

Another clear sunny day here in Silver Star, what a great way to finish off a great camp. The temperature was still a little cool but at least the sun was shining.

The freeriders headed out to cold sunny blue skies and after a good warm up run and stretch they started lapping the front side of the mountain.  Whiskey Jack rollers and then down to the park with everyone on their own programs hitting and playing on different features.  In the arvo the freeride skiers and mogul skiers joined forces and went out as a rat pack and destroyed the whiskey jack rollers and park run.  The jump line was the most popular to hit with a majority of the group following Coach Chris down the line.  A couple of the girls went off on their own for a few runs to hit up silver woods to enjoy the tree skiing.

Phil and his alpine girls had the morning on soft boots and spent a majority in the terrain park and traded their race boards and riding styles to hit a few boxes. They all did really well and had a great time as they took about 5 runs down the park and did 50/50’s on boxes. Ash, Julia and Chrisy all impressed and Phil even had a go himself but called it quits after he landed on his behind. Later in the morning they headed to the mogul course to work on absorption and then over to whiskey jack for a few more runs.

In the afternoon it was back to the terrain park for the girls to hit the boxes again and it was then over to far out for a Chinese downhill. The girls coped exceptionally well with the speed and the bumpy conditions. Tomorrow is the last day of training for the group so hopefully the weather stays nice.

The weather was too good for the boarders to pass up a day of freeriding. In the morning everyone was working on their switch riding on the bottom half of the hill while also working on fine tuning their rail and jump lines. They also worked on getting their 180's too perfection. Nathan's hard work over the past couple of days paid off with him landing some super smooth backside and frontside180's. Rowan and Jordi even attempted their first 180's for the trip and hopefully with some more work tomorrow on the last day, they will land their first ones. Jamie was working on his frontside 360's all day with the best coming after lunch with some super smooth spins. Jay and Dave were both sliding every box they could hit, with Jay destroying the flat down bar with some clean boardslides. Oli was working on his tail grabs on the 25 ft kicker and somehow he managed to clear the whole landing on every jump, he just loves to go big.

The moguls crew split in two this morning with the girls and the James’ heading to the skills course and the boys preparing the large course for some comp style skiing. The two groups worked really well together with both James’ making some great progress and putting together some great top to bottoms. Kate also made some great progress today killing the top to bottoms. Airlie was also on her game with a number of very solid runs.
Ridley was making his way from group to group and ventured to the large course to check out the guys who had prepared the course in excellent condition. Jack, Brodie, Bryn, Alex W, Alex E and Alex C were all on their game with great skiing and great jumps.

The afternoon consisted of the moguls gang joining forces with the free riders to cruise the park and freeski. Alex E has progressed even further and showed his skill with some fantastic rail slides. Alex W showed his strength in the air with some great corked 7’s while the girls were also going well with some solid sliding. Unfortunately the park is loaded with only big jumps and there was no opportunity to work on the 180’s and 360’s the girls were practicing the other day.

Lunch was tomato soup and sandwich buffet while dinner was the return of Mexican with a burrito fiesta. Always a camp favorite and today was no different.

The last of the Vernon shuttles headed off the hill after training with Chris and Matesy the dedicated drivers. 20 kids headed down to pick up the last of their bits and pieces and presents for family back home

Tonight’s activity was Wii night down at the NATC which had a couple of kids heading along. We also had swimming down in Vernon scheduled although not a big uptake so we decided to cancel. So instead most opted to hang out and play pool.

Until Then

Stowie