Date: 4th of January 2008

Hi All,

A few cm of fresh snow overnight added to the 10cm of snow we had yesterday afternoon. The usual wakeup this morning and I must say the three of us who do wake ups being Beggsy, Min and myself all have completely different styles. Min is very quiet and gentle with her wake up call, I just have a very monotone ‘wakey, wakey, time to get up’ phrase, while Beggsy is more a swing the door open, flick the lights on type of guy. I think Min is by far the most popular although I don’t know if popular is the right word to describe someone who wakes you up!

After a tough day in the bumps yesterday the moguls crew headed for the air site to construct their new jump. They arrived to see that there were already 5 jumps under construction, one of which was theirs to share with the beginner free ride and snowboarders. After a small stint with some shovels and ply wood Ridley had constructed a beautiful new jump for training. Luckily Chris was on hand to blow some snow in and pack the jump down quick smart. The jump was shaped and ready to hit with 1 hour left in the session. The Alex’s, Bryn, Brodie all tried their hand at the newly constructed free ride jump with some success, although this served more as a warm up for the new mogul jump. This morning was Airlie’s first time on an air site and she certainly progressed quickly. Her strong stance allowed her to hit the small beginner jump on her 2nd attempt at the hill and she will be ready to start training on the mogul jump very shortly. The guys had 3 to 4 hits each on the moguls jump with Alex W making great progress with his ‘pike’ issues while Alex E was able to widen his stance for a more stable take off and landing position. Bryn and Brodie began with some nice 360’s while Alex C worked on his T sets. The new jump will serve as a great practice for larger mogul jumps before the new competition course is constructed on the summit. The new course will be 4 lines, 2 jumps and approximately 180 metres long. Almost all the kids are competing in the B.C Champs next weekend at Silver Star so this week will be a busy week in the bumps.

The Boarders headed straight for the newly built jumps on the air site this morning and spent hour or so working with the other groups putting the finishing touches on the site. Kane and Jack were both working on their frontside 360's and were looking stylish after a few hits. Jamie earnt himself the daily skullcandy award by landing his first backside 360 for the camp. He was rather pleased with himself and was throwing air punches all the way down the landing. Oli and Nate were doing some rather large straight airs and the boys decided they wanted some more airtime by landing halfway down the landing. Nate had stack of the day by somehow throwing himself over the front of his board off the kicker and catching his heelside edge on the way down. As always Nath got up with a big smile on his face and laughed it off. Jordi was showing he’s growing in confidence by finally being able to straight line the whole landing. Emma and Dave who have only just joined the program were doing laps on the Attridge face as there was still plenty of powder stashes to be found.

Like the rest of the groups the freeskiers headed out in force this morning and went right over to the jumps site.  Along with the snowboarders and the mogul skiers and the entire local freestyle team got to work to prep the last jumps and fix up the landing.  Our kids were in charge of the small jump as well as building a mogul kicker and floater combined into one jump.  Marnie, Kate, and Erica were all working on getting used to the landing hill and they did laps starting about half way down then working their way back up.  Piers and Mike did a bit of the same but the boys both felt good and managed to build up to the smallest jump with each having a go.  Nick, Hamish and Conrad were all excited to hit the newly built 15footer which was looking sweet.  Nick was getting his air legs back this morning working on his pop while Hamish was playing with 3’s and even tried a 3 with a grab.  Conrad was right into the switch skiing doing switch 1’s and even hit a 3 near the end of the session. 

This morning, the alpine/snowboardcross group headed out to Big Dipper for a GS session. Conditions were not the greatest for racing with overcast skies, flat light and light snow falling. The course held up well though and the girls were able to work on a few key areas. Chrisy did really well and was the standout this morning with good development in here upper body position. Ash and Julia continued to work on some more technical areas of their body position and pressures.

The alpine racers spent the morning skiing stubbies and working on stance and body position but like the alpine boarders struggled with the tough conditions. Sam was not with the group as she is feeling a little off colour so James and Jamie held the fort. In the afternoon it was more of the same but the fog finally got the better of the group and they finished the stubby course early as visibility was very limited.

All groups (except the racers) had the afternoon off today. We sent a van down to Vernon for a shopping trip with captain Chris at the wheel. Those who did not make the trip chilled out for the afternoon.

We shut down the main lounge room this morning and it remained so all night after the place was left in an absolute pigsty last night. There was popcorn an inch think on the ground and cookies and other snacks ground into the carpet and all over the place. Obviously the kids don’t seem to care too much about other people property so the lounge has been shut down for the day. We’ll give them another chance tomorrow and hopefully they’ll all be a little more responsible and think before they drop their rubbish on the floor. He’s hoping but after all the years of doing these camps I doubt much will change.

Tonight’s activity was a double header with Badminton down in Vernon and movie night “Pirates of the Caribbean” down at the NATC. Matesy took a van load of the crew down to Vernon after dinner while a small group headed to the movie.

Today Pinky goes to James Parsell who thought it would be nice to taste Tide laundry detergent and water mixed together. But after have a quick sip (don’t worry mum, it was only a very small sip) to test the waters, he decided it wasn't such a good idea after all. We think so too James!

That’s all for today.

Stowie