Date: 5th of January 2008

Hi All,

Well today we were finally treated to some nicer weather with clear skies with some small overcast patches, lots better than the foggy weather we’ve been having for the past week

Today the snowboarders started their day with laps of the six pack. The guys were going trick for trick with the coaches off the "Whiskey Jack Rollers" throwing some nice crails and switch backside 180s. The park had some new features today which the group was quick to conquer. Between the park and the lift they worked on their switch skills and Jordy and Dave both put in a great effort considering they have not ridden much switch before. Meanwhile the rest of the group were even doing all their jibs switch. Just before 11am the crowds picked up so they decided to spend the time until lunch hiking the park. This move showed immediate results with everybody progressing really quickly. The Cozzella Bros were looking good, Jordy got back on the boxes today with the help of Matesy, while Beggsy had Rowan hitting the box with the gap on. Dave hit boxes for the first time today and nailed some nice 5050s. Olli and Nate were working on getting their board slides to 90 degrees and Nate even had a go on a smaller board which really helped his jibbing. Jamie was once again in progression mode nailing plenty of tricks including cab board slides and even a boardslide to 270 out, he even did some slides without his board "rollerblade style". Jack, Kane, Beggsy and Matesy were all doing the technical backside tailslide to same way 270 out. The standout of the morning was new arrival Emma Early who is the winner today's Skullcandy daily award as she did some nice board slides, a cab boardslide and then learnt frontside board slides with great style.

In the afternoon the sun came out for the first time in days and the group headed over to the big air site and got down to business. Emma didn't take long to do the landing hill progression and work her way onto the small jump doing a nice Indy off it. Jordy came out from lunch with plenty of confidence and was riding the best he has all camp hitting the small jump and stomping a number of sweet straight airs. Jamie was back doing his backside 360s while Kane was doing frontside 360s. Matesy was leading by example this afternoon doing some nice frontside 720s and a perfect frontside 540 which inspired Jack to land his first 540 off the site this year. The group rode until just after 3 when the light went flat and the coaches decided to call it a day

This morning, the alpine/snowboardcross group headed out to Big Dipper for another morning in the gates. The snow was really good for setting a course and made it super fun to ride. Chrisy improved her line and her body position while Ash worked on her body position and carves while Julia made strong gains in her carving and line. Toward the end of the session Phil bought the group in for a video analysis session to look over the morning riding. In the afternoon the group headed across to the airsite to work on a few BX skills. Chrisy and Ash free rode while Julia went over the jumps a few times and really stepped it up with her jump attempts making some good progression. Phil mentioned he was happy with everyone s riding today and is hoping tomorrow will be as good.

Today the Alpine racers of James L and James P started their day with meeting up with their race coach in preparation for their mock Slalom race held on Big Dipper. The first course of action was to head up the Comet chair and go to Big Dipper to inspect the course. Once that was completed it was over to the Summit chair to start the day’s proceedings. The course became pretty firm after a few runs which forced the two James’ to work their edges hard. On their last two runs Pez came over to take some photos of them in action and by the time Pez was finished, it was time for lunch. The racers had anew addition of Lachlan Price who was fresh off the plane and ready to get some turns in though he wasn’t too keen to start the slalom training straight away. Head race coach John Armstrong took him under his wing with his group and travelled over to the backside to get some steep carving turns in on Gypsy Queen. A couple of laps over there and it was time to head inside for lunch.

Chris’ freeski group headed out this morning and had the usual warm up and stretch and then broke up into a couple of groups. The boys ,being Hamish, Conrad and Nick did laps on the six pack chair playing on the rollers and in the park.  They each had a focus for the morning and worked through that.  The other group was Amy, Lauren, Bassett, Marnie, Piers, Kate, Erica and Mike.  Chris took these guys and worked on all sorts of things from 180’s to Yo Yo Pops to general take offs and they were even doing some switch laps when the terrain allowed.  Marnie and Kate both progressed up to a bigger box with a jump onto it while Amy and Lauren had some nice 180’s this morning.  Erica and Piers were playing around with their timing of their pops and Mike was working on his stance trying to widen it up for more control.  Bassett was just getting back into things after taking it easy for the last few days due to shin bang.   In the arvo Chris and his posse headed out a little late due to the exciting finish to the world jr hockey finals were the number one team, Canada won in OT.   The crew went straight over to the air site to build on the morning’s solid development.  Erica was nailing the landing hill top to bottom and was confident about hitting a jump next time there.  Amy and Lauren were going huge playing with the different grabs Chris taught them while Piers, Mike, Kate and Marnie all moved up to the little jump.  All had great improvements and managed to be a little more comfortable in the air.  Nick was working on his takeoffs and was adding in the few grabs to help stability his body in the air and Hamish and Conrad had stand out afternoons with Hamish hitting one of the newest jumps with a 3 while Conrad stepped up and landed his first 7 off the 30 footer.      

Lunch today was one of Emma’s best soups to date – a hearty winter vegetable, she even told everyone how good it was before we even had a chance to taste it so she must have been confident. There was also the regulation sandwich buffet with all the fixings and some left over pizza from a couple of nights ago. Dinner was a very tasty meatloaf. I must admit it did not look overly appetizing but it tasted awesome and looked like hit with everyone.

Tonight’s activity was ice skating down on Brewers Pond. Our two resident Canadian being Chris and Phil (who are both great skaters) took the crew of 25 over for a couple of hours of skating. From all accounts everyone seemed to have a good time except Jay who might have been a little cold. See below!

Today Pinky goes to Jay Ghattas who hadn't quite gripped the concept of ice skating and balance whilst also going out in the freezing cold with no hat and no gloves. Hat's off to you Jay.

Until Tomorrow

Stowie