Arrival and First Turns

Arrived at Kimberley after an extraordinary long flight. Saw Mammoth Mnt on the way up from the air, was very cool. Anyways, the group of peeps here are really cool. Four sit downs (two quadra and two paras), three blind and one autistic/something else I have forgotten the name of. Its funny I thought everyone would be straight arses, but it is beers and smokes all round! The guys and girls are alot of fun, the assistant coach, we have nicknamed the hoff because of his hair is also a great bloke. Canadians are a funny lot, really friendly, country like peeps. The first day was unbelievable. Minus 10 to 12 all day, overcast with a few pokes of the sun here and there. The snow was fresh but not soft, quite hard in places and fast! Man I have never skied so fast in my life! Nicole, a fourteen year old B3 (better vision than me) rips it up hard core. I cant wait for her to have a ski with my brother in Australia, she would kick his arse! The coach was pretty laid back. We concentrated on basics.I havent really been crouching my turns well and I also was a bit stiff and tense in the upper body, which is now relaxed but still, the way it should be. By the end of the day I was really getting the hang of a new style, crouching into and out of the turns, but not really fast, more gradually and relaxed. I feel like my style is finally developing. Kimberley mountain is funny. No one uses the safety bar on the chairlifts! There are also alot of hardcore ski bums, not wannabe ski bums but real fair dinkum ones. The front of the mountain is really cruisy. We did the race course on the last run and it was beyond any doubt the best run of my life. Really steep and plenty of places to just fly. We didnt do the back of the mountain but I will update when I do. Finally the sit down guys blew me away. They are the most hard core awesome guys I have ever skied with. Its not like skiing as I know it, it is completely different. The sit in a "bucket" strapped in and have anchors or pivots for each arm for balance. When they fall over its not so simple to getback up. It takes about five minutes of pushing and heaving. The fact that these guys are out there and enjoying themselves is thebest. It makes me so happy. I feel so inferior to the sitdown guys. Now they are the real skiers. Anyways will update more soon. Sharing this computer with four other peeps and I dont want to hog it. I promise to update every day though. Taking my camera on Wednesday. This is possibly the bestest time in my life (apart from being with my my +1 fleur!!!!...points for me a la Ian D's linear theory of women!).

Hope everyone is warm down under. Major brass monkey syndrome here.

:-)