Which meant a huge night out with everyone, obviously, and putting me in a bad way to start training for the Nendaz Freeride!! Great night though…. apparently!

The snow over this way is good, even though it hasn’t snowed in a while it has been very cold and this has kept the snow fairly fresh! So got straight on the powder mission, Bungle found me looking for people at the lift station and as soon as he mentioned that his crew were off to go and do Superbowl i was straight in the lift with them! After the short hike, we came into the bowl full of fresh pow and had a great first run, who said training cant be fun!!

A freeze frame from a little filming with Andy Bennett, sluff tastic!!

Photo above is a freeze frame from some filming we did with Andy after the last fresh snow fall.

So the reason i am back over this way is for the Nendaz Freeride, one of the biggest stops on the Freeride World Tour Qualifier series. It was a 5.30 am start on Saturday morning, which is always a difficult start to the day and myself and Julie Fletcher jumped in Bab’s wagon (thanks massively for the lending of the car) for the hour drive round to Nendaz.

With registration done and the riders meeting attended, it became clear that they were not going to let you compete unless you were wearing a harness…. problem as mine was over in Verbier, an emergency phone call to Chris Southwell and Christian Constantine meant that they would bring one over but would not get to the venue until 11.30…. So i had a very good look at the faces and waited! Due to the format of the comp you had to do 2 runs with the choice of 3 faces, but you had to have both done by 3pm.

So as soon as harness arrived, i ran up the hike to my first line. Managed to ski the line i wanted, missed the bigger cliff that i wanted to hit, but was fluid and stayed on my feet, bonus!

Photo by Christian Constantine - One of the qualifier faces

Photo by Christian Constantine - Me at the top of start gate 1, pretty rocky entry!

Sorry for the way the photos have been added, trying to do this on Chris’s Mac, cant use Mac’s, but you get the idea!

Photo by Christian Constantine - First part of my second run, trying my hardest to find the correct way through the rocks!

Photo by Christian Constantine - halfway down my second line, finding some rocks!

It was a good day, i didn’t qualify for the finals, but got a few World Tour points under my belt!

Team Kiwi were ever present at the event as always, with Neil qualifying for the finals in 4th and Janina pre qualified! So we all got up the hill on Sunday morning to watch our friend in the final, the standard was incredible, with some huge drops and massive inverts being thrown down! Well done to Janina who came second, personally she should have won it in my opinion, but was an awesome run! Also well done to Chris Southwell who rode the final with half of his body still hanging off from his crash in Italy, but he rode a nice smooth line and bagged some points!

So after a chilled Sunday evening with friends up in Fran’s rather nice chalet she is looking after (thanks for a lovely dinner)…. cigars in the hot tub and a relax in the steam room is always good after a comp, i am now just about to start the journey over to Slovakia for the final Freeride World Tour Qualifier for this seasons rankings. Looks like a good comp and there is a convoy of 3 cars heading over and i am sure team Kiwi will keep the trip interesting! Then back to Verbier on Friday for the Freeride World Tour Finals and Verbier Extreme party weekend!!!

Will get a proper update done after i am back from Slovakia, as Christian has taken some lovely photos!!!

Hope your all well xxx

So after a few really nice days riding in Verbier are motley crew consisting of fellow Storm Team rider Julie Fletcher, Brit freeskier Luke Potts and myself squeezed into “Black Beauty”… (the name for my rather beat up black Ford Focus Estate..SPORT) for the 6 or so hour drive over to St Moritz to get ready to compete in the Freeride World Tour Qualifier Engadinsnow! The drive was pretty easy, apart from the Sat Nav taking us for a quick sightseeing trip around Zürich and some F1 style chain putting on and off when we got back into the mountains near St Moritz!

We checked in to our pretty cool hotel, and it was awesome to catch up with friends that I hadn’t seen since last winter, team Kiwi had pretty much taken over the place, with the Kuzma sisters holding court!

Riders meeting was really well run by the organisers and we all got our bibs, number 66 for me, which wasnt too bad pretty much late middle of the field starting wise and Julie got a pretty nice number also!

Julie with her bib on the way up to the face!

Then it was back to the hotel for my favourite part of the trip… sharing a huge double bed with not only Miss Fletcher but British snowboarder Chris Southwell…. Julie just didn’t know how lucky she was….!

It was an early start and we got up to scope our lines on the face, it was awesome to have such a big crew of us together, as i hate trying to decide which line to take on my own! It was also really cool to catch up with my old wingman Kiwi Sam Smoothy who i spent a lot of time with last year but hadn’t seen for months!!

We all watched the girls as they had a go first, Julie did awesome, she hit pretty much the line she wanted, stomped her bottom cliff and shredded nice and fast to the finish! For her first comp, she did ace, and finished with a very good 10th place!

The face was ok, snow was pretty good, but a bit sugary and sluffy in the rocky sections, which i would find out later on… grrr! Got my line in my head that i was happy with and headed to the start with Mr Southwell. It was awesome having him starting around the same number as me, as we both calmed our nerves by talking about everything and anything (most of it un printable) before we dropped in!

I dropped just before Chris, really confident of my line, dropped my first air into the rocky section that i was hoping to ski through nice and fast and send the cliff at the bottom to exit…. best laid plans never happen in a freeride comp…..

As soon as i dropped in to the rocky section i realised that because of previous athletes that had been through, all the snow had sluffed off, leaving rock and not much else to ski on… there was no way i could get any speed up to send my bottom cliff and make the landing so i picked my way out of the rocks sent a smaller part of where i meant to go and got to the bottom tail between my legs knowing i had not done nearly enough to qualify for the finals….

Quick photo in the finish area after getting down in one piece!

We watched the rest of the athletes come down, some pretty good lines, and some nice backflips thrown down. Results came through, team GB, a bit like the current Olympic team, had underperformed a little bit… none of us Brits qualified for the finals but team NZ had a good day with Pete Oswald qualifying in 5th to go through and Smoothy already there which was awesome! Team GB cut our losses and with none of us in the finals there was no free hotel room to all stay in so we headed back to Verbier with the promise of fresh snow coming!

Finals day went really well for Smoothy….. he got that major victory he has been hunting for ages, he smashed it in the final coming away with a well deserved 1st place! Well done bro!

From Left to right: Scottish, Me!, Mark and Luke at the end of the qualies!

We all got back to Verbier pretty late, so decided against the big night out we were going to have…. but a good nights sleep was had by all and we woke to see buckets of snow falling out the sky the next morning!!

Another post to follow very soon i promise, with all the craziness that fresh snow and sunny powder days bring!! With a few photos!

Just a quick get well soon note… both Chris Southwell and Sam Smoothy had big crashes in the last World Tour Qualifier in Austria, Smoothy has been told he has a broken leg and it is season over for him, such a shame as he was on top form and looked like he would finish top 3 in the world rankings, get well soon mate, miss you already! Chris, not as bad, but he was pretty banged up with stitches in his shoulder and leg, girls of Verbier should watch out…. with him off the hill for a couple of weeks i am sure the Farinet is where most of his “recovery” time will be spent… you are all warned!

xxx

So… The weather really came in two nights ago and it didn’t stop snowing for about 24 hours!!!

Which meant two things… I couldnt make the Flaine comp because all the roads were closed, but its meant we have had an amazing sunny pow pow day over here, Chris and myself got the first lift up this morning determined to get some good shots done before lunch and then go for a shred in the afternoon!

Below are a couple of Chris’s shots from this morning:

First line of the day! (Photo by Christian Constantine)

Second freshy of the day! (Photo by Christian Constantine)

Nice early morning drop! (Photo Christian Constantine)

Another little one to warm up on! (Photo by Christian Constantine)

It doesn't always go perfect... (Photo by Christian Constantine)

Reflecting on a good day! (Photo by Christian Constantine)

Then to top off the day i had a really good shred in the afternoon with fellow Storm Team rider Julie Fletcher, getting us in the perfect mood to go hit up the Engadin comp on Monday!

So long drive there tomorrow and hoping for a good day on Monday!

After completing the worst journey i have ever done, it took me 14 hours to get from Calais to Verbier, i eventually got back into the resort last Monday. There had been a sprinkling of new snow, sun promised and Christian Constantine had just got back into resort after gaining a new camera set up and was keen to shoot some photos!

We headed up fairly early to get some shots done but after the first hour the light started to go so we went for a bit of a ski and i tried to get my skiing legs back! There are a couple of teasers below from what we managed to get done:

Photo by Christian Constantine

Photo by Christian Constantine

So for the last couple of days i have been getting in as much skiing and training as possible ahead of the first Freeride World Tour Qualifier in Flaine this weekend. Then straight after Flaine its a drive down to St Moritz for the Engadinesnow Freeride which is also a World Tour Qualifier. Going to be a busy 4/5 days but will be good to see everyone, the partying after is always good and hopefully i can get some decent results too!!

Will let you know how i get on after the weekend!!!

Another of Camilla's amazing photo's (www.whiteroompictures.com)

I have been very bad and getting my first blog of the season written, sorry!!

It has been a slow start to the 09/10 winter compared to last seasons manic snow filled December! This has been down mainly to conditions and work commitments back in the UK, which sucks! I didn’t get out to Verbier until the 26^th December this year as the snow before Christmas was pretty average.

 However my feet didn’t touch the ground as soon as I got into town, for the week between Christmas and New Year I was coaching on ES Freeski’s first Verbier camp of the winter. Decked out in our nice and bright FAIISE outfits we had awesome group, we had kids from age 10 to a couple of 18 year old Peak Leader gap year students. It was a super fun week even though we only had an afternoon of sunshine! All the guys and girls pushed there skiing further and picked up a few new tricks in the park, Oli Corkhill and myself were really impressed!

The course finished on New Years Eve conveniently…. And knowing that there was no need to get up early in the morning we went out and hit it fairly hard! A nice dinner followed by some huge shape making in the Farinet and Cas Bah followed well into the early hours….  getting to meet the man from the BT adverts and walking round wearing a butterfly mask all night being the highlights that I can remember!!

Verbier at midnight by the legend Rob Stanford, awesome photo!

After spending New Years day recovering and after a sprinkling of new snow and the arrival of Phil Hopper, we went out and got some skiing done! It was awesome to get to start testing next years STORM Skis properly, the 10/11 Strike is perfect and definitely a ski to watch out for!

We had wicked crew and having spent the whole of last year in Verbier with Bungle and not actually skiing together due to his injury it was good to get out on the hill with him, along with Andy Bennett who was finding us some cool pillow lines and mini cliffs! It was perfect early season training for when the next big snowfall comes so we can be ready to go out and get some shots done!

I have spent the last week back in the UK but am back to Verbier next week and cant wait! Got an exciting and busy period coming up with the start of the competition season for me, kicking off with the Freeride World Tour Qualifiers in Flaine on the 5^th of Feb followed by the next qualifier stop on the 8^th in St Moritz for the slightly scary Engadinsnow Event! So its straight into training as soon as I get back!

Will keep you all up to date and will get another blog out in a week or so and hopefully this time with a few skiing shots!! 

Have fun x

Also check out the new Run Jump Fly Productions series “Falling Skies” latest episode all shot on the Japan trip, showing everything we got up to on this link: http://www.downdays.eu/sites/crews/crew-tv/rjf

And if you dont have time to read all the rubbish i write, check out a recent White World Episode that producer Nick Southwell asked me to come along to in Meribel: http://www.freeride.co.uk/content/2774/

My snow monkey friend and me!

The busiest crossing in the world, Tokyo at 10pm, mental place!

The mighty band of warriors just after re-filming that famous fight scene from Kill Bill in the actual restaurant where it was shot i downtown Tokyo after a couple of glasses of Sake!!!

Camilla Stoddart and myself enjoying all of Tokyo, check out my little brown balls!

So on arrival back from Japan we had just managed to plan it so that we would make it back for the best party of the season in Verbier, Mardi Gras! Nic Watkins and myself had driven like maniacs all the way from London that day to get back in time with our fancy dress outfits at the top of our mound of luggage! So extremely jet lagged, slightly hungover from all the free booze on British Airways (thanks again BA) and knackered from our 8 hour drive we heroically donned our fancy dress and got on the Vodka Red Bulls, it was great to see everyone again and the night was an awesome one! Chris and Scouser’s outfits blew everyone away and i enjoyed being Top Gun for the night! A couple of photos of the carnage below:

Scouse and Chris win best costumes of the night with there Gangsta Smurf get up!

Chris and myself enjoying the occasion!

Flossie, Nick Southwell, Tom Goldney and myself show the love!!

So after Mardi Gras finished and a day to recover it was off to the SIGB Ski Test in Bormio, Italy. The ski test is where every ski manufacturer tries to show off there new products for next year to the British retail market and ski journalists. I went over to promote STORM Skis range for next year, but to also shoot with Fall Line Magazine for there big mountain shoot.

It’s always a fun week, you get to see people in the industry that you haven’t seen for ages and this year we were blessed with some good snow so the skiing was pretty good also! Some good nights out were had, thanks to Jay from Amplid and Miles from Movement for organising a wicked Mo-Amp party, but for STORM skis it was a really good week!

The STORM tent at the SIGB ski test!

It was the first chance for alot of people to see the brand and get to have a go on the skis, the feedback was awesome! Martin Bell ex olympic skier loved the range and said some very encouraging words. So it is looking good for next year with orders coming in for the skis from various British retailers already and good write up’s promised by many journalists!

Ending the ski test with a leap of faith! Taken by Andy.

From Bormio in Italy it was a “quick” trip back to Verbier which took 8 hours instead of the normal 6 due to a huge avalaunche that had come across the Super St. Bernard pass road, we had to wait for a couple of hours for it to be cleared as it was massive, we didnt mind to much as it was absolutely bucketing it down with snow! After a night in Verbier i had a quick couple of hours shooting in the fresh snow and sun the next morning and then i packed my bags again as i was off to Meribel in France for a few days!

Getting slotted and sluffed first thing in the morning, nothing better!

Nick Southwell had invited me along on a trip with fellow Storm Team rider Jamie Cameron and photographer Pally Learmond to Meribel to shoot an episode of Whiteworld with him and get some photo’s for Pally and Jamie’s new website www.skiunion.com. We had been blessed with snow for the trip, our first day was bright sunshine and deep deep snow, it became a mini huck fest with us all trying to find big cliffs to chuck ourselves off as big lines were off due to some severe avalaunche danger! Jamie won with two decent 40 footer sized cliffs which he landed perfectly! Some of Pally’s awesome shots can be seen on his blog at http://skiunion.com/blog/editors-blog.html

That night the weather came in and started to dump again, the Meribel Tourist Board had put us up in a very plush flat so we were happy chilling there for the evening and recovering after a few decent stacks during the day! Day two brought more snow and cloud so we headed for the trees and found some cool pillow lines and little drops loaded with snow, for a bad weather day we got some good stuff done. However the best skiing of the day came when we all headed out to do a night shoot! Pally and Jamie had found some awesome steep aspects between the road around the Motteret area. The snow was deep and extremely light, Pally used his huge flash and he got some wicked photos, you can check out a couple of the photos on Pally and Pikey’s site on this link skiunion.com/nightshoot, we continued shooting until almost midnight! We headed for bed thinking of how good it would be if it cleared up and was sunny like expected the next day!

You dont have to go to Japan to get waist deep tree skiing!

Day three was a huge disappointment, we woke eagerly with a bit of blue sky around and with 50cm’s of fresh on the ground, an epic days filming was expected! However the sun never really came out and it was flat light all morning and then started snowing again, very disappointed but happy with what we had got over the three days we cut our losses and headed back to Verbier where we knew there was also fresh snow and sunny skies expected! If you haven’t seen the link above for the White World episode here it is again: http://www.freeride.co.uk/content/2774/, check out just how good the snow was for our night shoot!

An awesome waterfall drop we found in Verbier!

So on returning to Verbier it was a frenzied few days of shooting stills with Camilla Stoddart who has just got back from Kashmir and video as when it gets towards the end of March and the full onset of Spring starts you never know how many more powder days there will be left and it might be the last chance to bag that cliff or line you wanted to do!

Here are a few samples of what we got done:

Taking advantage of the soft landings! Also this shot was by Sam Smoothy on his little didgi cam!

I also headed over to Zinal for a day with freeskier Gav MacKay and RJF filmer Nic Watkins, Zinal is a small freeride heaven situated in a secret spot about an hour from Verbier! Unfortunately most the snow had already turned bad due to high winds and sun but we found a couple of things to do and we will definately be back when it snows again, as the terrain was magnificent!

A very rare shot indeed, look closely behind me and he has caught Camilla in action!

As the onset of Spring became ever more apparent, the snow started to take a turn for the worse and the days got longer and sunnier it means Birthday time! I turned 22 on the 31st March and i must thank everyone for an awesome birthday. The girls cooked a BBQ up the mountain in the park during the day, then we got a little tipsy at our flat before heading to the absolutely heaving Wonderbar to watch another great Dicktators set, and then some of us may have sneaked off to Cazbah untill 7am….!

So not long to go untill another amazing winter is over, we’re being greedy and hoping for one more big dump so we can all throw ourselves off various objects we have been looking at all season, but as i write this chilling with a beer in the sun on our balcony i must say i could very easilly do this for the next few weeks!

Beanie looks on as the balcony BBQ gets going!

Myoko is only and hour and a half from Hakuba and after a short bus ride we entered a completely differant town to Hakuba, Myoko is a tiny traditional little village up in the mountains and is very pretty indeed. We moved in to an awesome hotel, the rooms were all traditional Japanese rooms and it wasn’t long before myself and Nic were trying the naturally heated Onsen out! That evening we decided to go and do some night shooting and see what we could find in town to jib as there was still no fresh snow!

We found a cool set of fire escape stairs that we made an acid drop out of and British snowboarder Vicki Miller who had just joined the trip and myself had a couple of hits. The landing was fairly solid so we tried to get it right straight away, Camilla got some cool photos done using a remote flash set up and we headed off for a well deserved dinner and beer, still none of the expected snow had come!

About to drop on the sketchy stair drop we found!

The next day we headed up the hill for a scout about as it still hadn’t snowed yet, Myoko is one of the classic Japanese skiing resorts, lots of nice open trees with little steeper pillow line sections and cool avalanche barrier areas. The terrain looked amazing, but it needed a hell of a lot of fresh to fall to cover the icy rain affected snow! We headed back down the hill early, all hoping for a miracle from the snow god as we needed over a meter to be able to do anything with!

At around 3pm that afternoon it started to snow as we sat in the outside onsen and when i say snow it literally started to dump more than i had ever seen before! This was the Japan i had come to see and in the first two hours it had already snowed more than 30 cm’s! By the evening there was a huge covering so we decided to go and get some funky night shots done, the snow was amazing, so light and dusty! Camilla set up some amazing flash angles, one of them involved me giving her a leg up so she could shoot from halfway up a telegraph pole! She got some awesome shots, the snow was so light and deep that it was hard to shoot, as soon as you turned you disappeared into a ball of white!  Make sure you check Camilla’s blog out as she has put a couple of shots up. We shot untill about 9.30pm and headed off for a huge feast in preparation for the powder day we had been after since the start of the trip!

Stoked on my chocolate and the snow!

The next morning we headed up early and even though the snow was slightly heavier than it had been the previous evening the amount that had fallen shocked us all! All the lines and pillows we had been scouting where on and the sun had started to come out! We worked hard and took full advantage of our first real powder day, all the frustrations we had were gone and we had an epic day, we went out for a couple of beers that evening to celebrate and to check out Myoko’s night life….!

The snow had turned a little funny on the lower areas so we hooked up with local legend and guide Bill! Bill originally from America had been in Myoko for 29 years and had got to know the backcountry like the back of his hand, he took us for a day tour into the wilds around Myoko, it was a nice change skinning up the mountain with no one around.

Halfway through our tour!

As we started to ski down the clouds came in and Bill explained that these were some serious snow clouds, we just hoped it started snowing soon! That night Bill took us to his friends little traditional Japanese pub, the food was unbelievable, we all sat on the floor around an open fire where the food was cooked in an open pot and we helped ourselves, then the Sake came out which is Japanese wine with a differance, its like drinking straight vodka!

Amazing Japanese "pub" grub!

As we sat around the table an excited voice rang out that we should have a quick look outside….. in the time we had been eating it had puked down about 50 cm’s of snow and it was still coming down quicker than i had ever seen!

Vikki in the fresh snow on the walk home!

Over night it snowed another meter and a half, the whole mountain had changed and we were now experiencing the real Japan! We were up the hill on the first lift, unlike Europe there wasn’t a hoard of people trying to get up the mountain just a couple of local shredders! We shot solidly all day and found some cool little lines, the snow was so light and dry, every run we did was epic!

Loving the snow!!!

It was the best days skiing i have ever had, we finished as late as we could all completely knackered, but very happy with our days work, a long onsen and a beer topped topped it off, a very tough day at the office!

Over night unfortunately the temperature rose again and are last days skiing in Japan was a wash out, but it didn’t matter the skiing we had got had been unbelievable! Also we were all extremely excited about heading to Tokyo for a couple of nights… The tourist board took us out for a farewell dinner which again was super nice and we took part in some Japanese traditional drumming, which was hilarious….

Showing the Japanese my amazing beats!

However on the way to Tokyo we stopped off to see the snow monkeys, they were incredible, they live in the mountains and bath themselves in the natural hot springs. They are really friendly, but if you look them in the eyes they get a wee bit aggressive as myself and Nic found out! Will get some photos up as soon as i nab them off Beanie as they are amazing little creatures!

We had two nights in Tokyo, so we went and explored the red light district obviously! I was amazed at how busy it was, at 11pm it was still busier than London at rush hour, it was hectic! We also did some extreme sightseeing during the day, running around so we could fit as much in as possible! Again i will get some photos up as soon as i get them.

So i am now back out in Verbier, where the snow is awesome, and heading off to Italy next week for the SIGB Ski Test with STORM Skis to show off next years skis to the media and retailers! Will get some more Japan photos up as soon as i get them!

Cheers and good riding!

The flight over was awesome and had more fun than i had ever had on an airplane, the cabin crew were so much fun and looked after us really well! We must thank British Airways who supplied us with complimentary booze all the way to Tokyo which made the 11 and a half hour trip fly by…! The crews banter was also brilliant and we spent most of our time stood in the crews compartment sipping on brandy and finding out all the cabin crews weird and wonderful stories about what happens behind the scenes on a flight…! We got into Tokyo at 9am local time and headed to one of the most hectic train stations in the world at peak rush hour time with our ski bags…. we were not the most popular tourists in the world!

We had to catch a couple of trains and a bus, but after 7 hours of traveling and a brief stop in Nagano, the site of the 1998 winter Olympics, we arrived into Hakuba our first stop on our tour! We met up with Camilla Stoddart, Beanie Milne Home and French skier Nicola Cruz, the crew was complete and best of all it was absolutely chucking it down SNOW!!! An early night was had by all as we had decided to not sleep on the plane and a very early start on Thursday was needed!

Waking up to Japan!

Waking up on our first day to sunny skies and fresh snow was a dream come true, it had snowed about 30 cm’s over night and the clouds had vanished! We headed straight up the hill after picking up our free passes off Andy Kelly, who has been a legend sorting stuff out for us!

As a warm up we decided to hike a ridge were we could see some pretty cool terrain off the side, after a 40 minutes of very warm hiking we stopped and checked out the snow and conditions, rather frustratingly the snow was pretty unstable and as there had been a few slides in the last couple of days we decided that we shouldn’t drop into the steeper stuff yet and turned round, it was annoying but better safe than sorry!

Nicola, myself and Nic at the top of the ridge, very hot indeed!

We headed for the trees and some smaller lines for the rest of the day, the snow was pretty good, not amazing but it was awesome fun to be skiing in Japan at last! We met up with some of Camilla’s friends at lunch time who had done winters in Hakuba and they showed us some secret spots, Camilla got some cool photo’s done of everyone and Nic managed to get a couple of cool lines filmed in the trees. We finished late in the afternoon very tired but very happy with what we had all got done!

Nic and myself checking a line out before filming

After an epic traditional dinner, it was another early night as we were all knackered!

Friday brought us the bad turn of weather we had been expecting, warm weather came in and so did the grey clouds, the snow very quickly started to turn to wet cement and on the lower parts of the mountain wet slush! We headed over to a resort close by which was renowned for its steep tree skiing called Cortina. It was also renowned for the huge Victorian styled house that makes up the hotel resort, it was massive!

Massive....!

The snow was done so we tried to head down the back of the resort and jib a dam the girls had found earlier in the week, we couldn’t do much with it as the snow was screwed but Camilla used her brilliance and got a couple of photos!

We entertained ourselves for the rest of the day in the kids play area as we found some of the best toys i have ever seen!

Nic and myself on the kids skidoo's

It was also the schools day out, there were thousands of school children there skiing, all wearing the same clothes, skis, boots, goggles everything! It was an amazing site! They were very interested to see us and were so funny and enthusiastic it was brilliant…!

School kids everywhere!!!

As the skiing was pretty poor we headed for the resort Onsens which were amazing, they are hot water spa type things and very relaxing indeed! The rules are you have to be naked so all the clothes come off and in you jump! Unfortunately they were not mixed and you cant see the girls…..

We headed home not having got much work done but had a really fun day! We had a huge traditional dinner, which was again awesome! The bad weather though had turned worse and the rain poured down all night and the next morning, so today we took a day off skis and headed out into town for a look around!

Tonight we are out for a few drinks and then tomorrow we are heading for Myoko where the snow is falling heavily and the terrain is amazing apparently! Its going to be a busy week shooting but then we get time to chill in Tokyo, but cant wait to ski some deep deep pow! A quick thanks to Beanie as i have pissed her off no end using her computer to write my blog as she has been waiting for me to finish!

Hope your all good xx

I am back pretty much to full fitness and have had a week or so skiing properly and testing the knee out, which has been a hell of alot better than sitting at home in the flat looking at all the snow, generally being hungover!!!

Lee who has been looking after my knee for me, giving me treatment on it for the last month has done an awesome job and has got it back to full strength, so thanks loads mate! The aim was to be fully fit for Japan and we managed it, as i write this i am sat in a very wet London getting myself organised as i head off to Jappers tomorrow with Nic Watkins of Run Jump Fly Productions to meet up with Camilla Stoddart and Beanie Miln Home, who have already been out there for a week. We are heading to a place called Hakuba first, so its going to be a mental bit of tube and train action from Tokyo to get there, and as mine and Nic’s Japanese is non existent it could be pretty interesting!

So i got back on the planks about ten days ago and spent the first few days doing some gentle training, testing the knee to see if it was hurting or weak in certain positions but it all seemed to be working fine and the physio was happy with it so i started to build it up and after 5 days was back in the backcountry skiing fast and hitting some airs on fairly hard landings, all was good and i got full confidence back in the knee!

Last week i was invited to coach the Peak Leaders Gap course students in Verbier for a couple of days with Andy David and Oli Coorkhill in Freestyle and how to teach freestyle once they have passed there BASI exams. Coaching is something i really enjoy, but due to my other commitments don’t get much time to do anymore, the couple of days were great fun and the students were a good bunch and all comitted to everything we got them to do! We taught them the basics, like how to ski switch, 180′s and how to hit a kicker. We then took them to a backcountry booter and threw them off it! The guys and girls did really well, everyone hit the booter and some of the guys were landing backflips, 3′s and frontflips by the end of the day with no injuries, which was awesome, well done guys! You can check out there blog at http://www.peakleaders.com/course_blogs/Verbier.

Coaching the Peak Leaders on hitting a backcountry booter!

The coaching was also a good chance for me to get back into jumping as i hadn’t done any since before the new year and before my injury, and a backcountry booter onto a soft landing is the best thing to practice those tricks you haven’t brought out for a while! So there was the “odd” crash in front of the students with me trying to demonstrate differant tricks, but the knee held up so was all good!

Trying to remember how to do a backflip!

We had a brilliant leaving party, which was obviously fancy dress! It was “Chav” night at the pub and we all dressed up for the occasion, myself and Chris going in matching outfits, awesome night out!

Chris and Me "chaving" it up at the bar!

So off tomorrow to Japan, cant wait to get there as much for the culture as for the skiing, looking forward to trying some weird foods! Camilla said she had raw horse yesterday, so i will keep you updated with what we eat… Nic wants us to try Blow Fish, which if not cooked correctly can kill you, so dont think its the knee i need to be worrying about!

I would just like to wish Chris Southwell, Nick Southwell and Sam Smoothy good luck for the Austria and Chamonix Freeride Qualifier comps that are happening over the next couple of weeks, bring it home boys! I will try and keep this blog updated as much as possible whilst i am away, not sure when i will have internet though.

Cheers and speak soon. xx

I had an MRI scan on Wednesday, a big thanks to Vista Diagnostics and Dr Rossiter for sorting it all out for me at such short notice, they came up with a similar diagnoses as to the docs in Verbier, which is always reasuring! The doc says its not too bad, its a “grade 1 and a bit damage to the MCL” if that means anything to anyone! So then had the physio have a go at it for the last couple of days, which has been painfull but well worth it as i have already got loads more movement in it! Thanks alot to Mark Adshead at York Lodge Physiotherapy.

It does mean that i am going to have to withdraw from the first Freeride World Tour Qualifier stop in Austria, which is a big blow as i was super hyped to do the comp and really looking forward to getting an early comp under my belt before the big ones later in the season. I was also really looking forward to heading over with Sam Smoothy, a kiwi athlete who has won the NZ Freeski Open and already has loads of experiance on the tour that i was looking to learn from! The physio reckons 10 days is just not enough time to get ready for it, and with the lack of skiing this month i would not have put in the performance i would have looked for and thats when it gets dangerous in this sport, if you push yourself when your not feeling confident!

However…. the doc and physio reckon that i will be fully fit and skiing pretty much a hundred percent by the time the Japan trip comes along at the beginning of Febuary which i am super stoked about! So just got to train hard to make sure i am as strong as i can be for the trip of a lifetime that it will be! Thanks must go to Camilla Stoddart already, for organising it, will give you more info about it all soon.

Before i left we had a very funny Pirate night, lots of erm booze and lots of face paint! Couple of snaps from the night below:

Beanie and me well on our way….

My sister Lizzie and Emma well on there way!

So back to Verbier tomorrow, cant wait to get back and see everyone, especially my flat mate Chris who i have not seen for ages, so i am sure there will be a few party shots up there form tomorrow night! Also really well done to Oli Coorkhill who has just passed his teach in some important ski coaching exam called a ISIA or ISI whatever, not sure what its called but it is very hard to get so well done mate!

Hope your all good and will try to get something ski related up next week…..!

xxx

You can still check out some skiing stuff (i do ski when fit):

Episode 2 of “falling skies” on downdays.eu: http://www.downdays.eu/en/video/rjf-episode-2

freeride.co.uk interview: http://www.freeride.co.uk/content/2559

Storm Team video: http://www.stormskis.com/stormTV.html