Europa cup tour starts NOW!

The last few days have been absolutely manick!
Yesterday morning i left the UK with what was supposed to be a 12 hour drive to Le Sauze, France in front of me...
I left good old Blighty and headed for france. I arrived in Calais at around 9am and then had to drive the 8 hour drive to Les Houches to pick up my England Team, Team mate Max Hardy.
The drive to Les Houches was tedious, and to top it off i only had myself for company!
I made good time and arrived in Les Houches at 4.45pm. After a well earned/needed coffee we packed the van with Max's kit and away we went. This part of the journey was supposed to take us around 4 hours. Now id like to point out that Max isnt the most organised of people so when i asked him if he had his Passport to hand he looked at me with terror!
(As you will know if you have done this particular trip, the road takes you through the Frejus Tunnel. This tunnel cuts through the Corner of Italy hence the reason you need a passport.)
After we discovered he didnt have his passport to hand we had to choose an alternative route. This route was over a pass that runs through Valloire. It took about an hour to get over to Valloire and once there we carried on along the pass to find that there was a massive bank of snow blocking our way through!!! DAM IT!
We turned around and had to try the border and just hope they didnt check. But then we came up with an even better plan!!
As we drove up towards the Italian border Max jumped in the back of the van and covered himself in coats. Our plan was to try and sneak though without him being detected, and if he was just say that he was sleeping!!!! GENIUS.
We got to the border (max hidden under various peoples garments) and luckily the two officials there had pulled two cars over already. The lady shone the light down the van and waved us through! MAX/ED 1 ITALIAN BORDER PATROL 0!
We drove through the stupidly sized tunnel hoping that the next border patrol would be the same or we could blag our way through. So again max hid under the coats and we drove towards the next Italian border patrol. On the way out of Italy they have an Italian border patrol and a french one so this would be twice as hard!
Luckily for us the Italians dont believe in work so had already gone home. What a result. MAX/ED 2 ITALIAN BORDER PATROL 0. Now for the French one. We drove towards the hut which was illuminated by several lights that where on and continued driving past but trying not to stop. The guard must have gone to the Toilet or was otherwise engaged but this was perfect for our smuggeling attempt. We carried on driving and broke through to France without any problems.
We arrived in Le Sauze at midnight last night and as i had been driving for 19hours i decided it was definately time for bed!

We went up the hill for training today and we were all extremely suprised at how well the course ran and flowed. We spent a good 2 hours training the course which has made me confident that tomorrow will go well!!!
I will let you know tomorrow how it all goes...

So for now all i have to say is take care and keep shredding
Peace x

Ok so ive been back in the UK now for the last two weeks waiting for the next race in europe to kick off. It has been really useful having some time off. Ut has given me the opotunity to rest, get in the gym, sort my busted ankle and have some down time! I am leaving for Le Sauze on wednesday morning and face a 14 hour drive to get there... UHHH I am really not looking forward to it!! So today i am frantically packing then repacking my kit and the van and making sure everything is hunky dory with the transport so that i don't break down in the middle of the french country side!
Anyways, I will keep you all posted on the results of the next race and you can find out if i make it to the race...

WORRRRRD X

Time at home...

So i am back in the UK for a week before i fly to the USA for a race at Sugar Bowl where i hope to earn some big points. Unfortunately i have sprained my ankle so am in the gym training before the next set of races whilst i have some spare time!
I will be leaving for San Fransico on the 28th to race to NORAM's in Sugar Bowl. Please keep checking for more posts shortly...

Take care and keep shredding x

The next leg of the tour is in sight!

Hey guys i hope all is well and that you are all taking the oppotunity to get out and shred some of this fantastic powder!

At the end of my last blog i had just finished training on the course in Les Contamines. The course was brilliant with fantastic features flowing nicely into each other and jumps that actually had landings! The next day was suppose to be qualifying but instead we stood on the mountain for 7 hours whilst course officials deliberated if the weather was good enough to run the race. At about 3.30pm the officials postponed qualifying until the next morning.

The next morning i was woken by my alarm screaming at me telling me it was 6am and that i had to get up. We rode the gondola up to the to the bottom of the race course in the pitch black. As we got to the top of the course the sun was just poking its head over the mountain. Still in mid darkness all the racers tried to inspect the course. By the time training had started it was light but the visability again was poor.
As i pulled out of the start gate for my qualifying run the clouds desended even further. I knew the course but unfortunately i couldn't see any of the features. I launched off of jumps that i could not see the take off's or landings for and hit roller packs that were invisible. To say the least my time was not exceptional by any means. The last few racers to come down suffered to with all the times being at the back of the field. Even the other racer agreed i was exceptionally unlucky.

We left Les Contamines yesterday morning stopping in Bourg D'Oisans at my coach's friends house for a lovely cup of english tea! Just what the doctor ordered. We are now in Alps D'huez but unfortunately my ankle is playing up so i will not be racing which is a massive shame. So tomorrow i will be departing Grenoble at 10 am for Gatwick airport. This coming week i will be prepping ski's and making sure i am in the best shape i can be for my trip to the USA and Canada.

So for now all i shall say is take care and remember KEEP SHREDDING!!

Xx

P.S here are some photos from the last few races hope you enjoy

Firstly I would like to wish you all a very prosperous new year. I hope this year brings you some great skiing. After my last blog I drove from Saas Fee back to Lienz to train before the second World Cup race in St Johann. Normally the journey would take me around 8 hours via Zurich. However, because there was so much snow on the road it took me over 13 hours...!!!

We left for St Johann last Sunday morning so that we would get there just before our inspection. The course was interesting to say the least! They had injected the course from top to bottom which meant they had sprayed water into the snow so that it was solid ice. This made it incredibly painful on the landings of the jumps and extremely dangerous. Not only was the course incredibly hard but it was also at night! The race course was flood lit so seeing on course was not a problem however getting to the course from the gondola, it was pitch black! Luckily I had my trusty Satski (www.satsportsgps.com) to hand which guided me effortlessly down the run all the way to the top of the course.



Over 5 helicopters and 6 blood wagons were used at the race which was absurd! I raced ok, but the course was more alpine than skicross. Not my fortay! This being the case i didnt do too well but still managed to finish in one piece!! The finals of the race saw some interesting results with World Champion skicross racer Tomas Kraus not qualify and Simon Stickl winning the race.




That evening we had a team ceremony in the main town which was brilliant. All the teams lined up just up the road, all stood behind there correct flags. We marched into town proudly behind the GB flag into a huge crowd that took pictures and cheered.



After this all the teams were treated to a traditional Austrian dinner with some interesting entertainment. There was a group of men that wore very tight shorts and performed a very odd traditional dancing!!



We left St Johann yesterday morning with the daunting 8 hour drive staring us in the face. This time it did take us 8 hours to get to Les Contamines thank god. Today we trained on course which was fantastic. The course is perfect with huge features and the landings matching the jumps.
Tomorrow is qualifying and i will do my very best to make it a perfect run.

Take care and remember to keep shredding xx