Free Skiing and Photo time

Yesterday was another free ski - I took the opportunity to take heaps of photos which I will post here as soon as I work out how to. Only two runs of tuition. Just a little carving practice which at first I was terrible but it just clicked again after a while. The mountain is great for just cruising around and practising. I worked on my carving mainly, but also did a spot of moguls when the sun came out. Not really focussed without my guide and coach so it is hard to maintain a vision of what I want to achieve without someone else pushing me on - I simply just enjoyed skiing for what it is. Now a little thought. I was on the chairlift when it occurred to me how much influence Australia has in this small town. Our coach, local Kimberley born and bred Steve Bova, was the Australian national coach for Torino and Salt Lake. Australian taxpayers footed the bill for his house, his three cars, his trips to Australia and to the Paralympics for him and his family. Right now Steve employs three staff, Graham the assistant coach, Scott my guide and Paul who is Belinda's guide. Steve's training camp consists of seven Aussies over the season and one Canadian and two Pommies. He also trains other people but they dont stay at the house. So we Aussies staying here pay for Steve and his family, Scott and his wife and baby, Paul and his wife all their wages. Not only that but we contribute to the local economy each time we go shopping, or have a beer, or pay for season passes. So the effect of us Australians on the local economy is not insignificant. I was on the chairlift thinking, geez Australians are a real microeconomic influence on Kimberley. It was, I guess, no surprise that I then met Ook at the bar at the end of the day. Ook is an Eskimo from Lapland or something like that. He is now a Kimberley local and hangs out at the mountain bar doing some serious drinking as he has an injured ACL or hip or something. Anyway we got chatting and it turns out he works for a mining company as an instrumentalist. He was telling me stories about how they fly him here to fix one machine, and then to the other side of Canada to fix another machine, then to Finland to do some training, then down to Papua New Guinea to do something else. I was fascinated by Ook and asked him the name of the company as he mentioned they were global. It was none other than BHP, good old Broken Hill Propriety Limited! So not only do we Aussies hold up the skiing side of things, but we also employ locals to work! I was thinking without Australia, Kimberley would be virtually dead broke! So it made me feel a little bit more at home. Distance aside, Australia really didnt feel that far away. There is a little bit of Aussie in everything I look at here, Steve's outdoor hottub, the diamonds on sale at the town Jeweller, the Alexander Keats Pale Ale that my assistant coach has in his hand at the end of each day - it is all a part of Australia in some weird economic way or other. Today was a day off. Done to Cranbrook to pick up a few things. Nothing exciting happened at all. Plan to read, do a little stretching and recover, recover, recover. Tommorrow a little ski to warm up for half a day. Wednesday full days training and Thursday another day off. Friday, Saturday and Sunday is the speed camp which I am looking forward to. Super G and downhill course is set up with timers and speed cameas. I want to smash the course.

Big Holes, More Snow And Fluid Skiing

Another normal day.

My guide is still away so I stuck with the rest of the group. In the morning we focussed on jump turning. This is where the majority of the turn is done in the air in a jump like motion. The jump turn is used in bumpy or mogul like runs. I picked it up pretty quick as I had previously felt the "popping" sensation that occurs from holding an edge into a turn and releasing the edge to transition into the next turn. One drill was where we did not actually ski any of the run, but simply jumped (on our skis) from left to right all the way down the run. Not only is this physically exhausting it is a great way to warm up. And at -8 degrees with poor visibility and snow flurries warming up is pretty much the only thing one can think about.

After lunch we applied the jump turning to mogul runs (we were previously doing it on groomed tracks). The visibility was poor to begin with, and a part of mogul skiing is turning at the top of each bump. I couldnt see anything but white snow, no undulations, no up or down, nothing but plain white. This obviously posed a problem and I told coach such. But as I did so a smile went across his face. Feeling pissed off because I felt like he was wasting my time I heard him say turn around. Sure enough when I did, I noticed that the clouds were gone and the sun had come out. I could now see every single bump! I ended up ripping the double black diamond (hardest) run up big time. For the first time in my life, I really enjoyed skiing moguls.

On the way to the mogul course our coach decided to take me tree skiing. Not the best idea for the blind, and indeed I was a little apprehensive at first, remembering my brother telling me not to do it, but nonetheless I trusted my coach. We ended up blasting this tree run. The trees were really far apart so it wasnt a big deal but still that is something I wouldnt normally do. My trust for my coach grew and without being cocky, I felt a little bit more confident.

We headed back to the trail that takes you to the base of the chairlift that takes you back to the main run. This trail is in the shadows, and because I cannot see the edges of the trail (it is predominately flat) I usually follow someone. But everyone flew off in front of me and the person taking the rear didnt see me ski into this massive huge hole. I mean it was huge, a six foot drop into another four foot of powder. No one could see me from the trail and I thought I was a goner. I was able to take off my skis but wondered how I was going to get out. I realised that behind me the snow sloped upwards. I kind of had to climb it without applying pressure, because if I did, all the snow would collapse back into the gaping big hole. I mean the hole was so big I thought a grizzly bear might be there, I was freakin out big time! I didnt want to be eaten alive! I was able to get half way up the hole and started waving my ski around. Luckily someone skiing this secluded trail saw my ski. She was able to take my skis and poles and haul me up with her pole. We both looked back down at the hole and realised it was a major risk hazard. I took a branch from a nearby tree and made a cross to indicate to the public not to go there. When I finally made it to the chairlift my skiing buddies had also freaked out and a lifty was about to get a snow mobile to rescue me. Anyway I told the lifty about the hole and the cross I put above it and he promised to put a barrier there for the general public.

So luckily I wasnt hurt or injured. To celebrate, I went off a jump back on the main run and landed awkwardly on my hand. Didnt notice till a couple of hours later how swollen it is. Not that bad but funny how the things you worry about are really nothing, but the things you dont are actually the ones that affect you.

Tonight is the local ice hockey game. A sleep in tommorrow to 10am (it is Sunday!) and freeskiing all day! Woohoo! Bumps for me!

Sun is Shining, Kicking On

Today was one of those days one repeatedly thanks the gods for being alive. The sun was out at full force, the snow was crisp but still powdery, the skiing was fluid, dynamic and like poetry in motion (if I do say so myself).

Woke up to clear skies and a brisk temp of minus twenty. I didnt really feel this as it was a sunny day. I was hankering to make some improvements and by 9.30 had done three runs (chairlift dudes let me go up before the official opening time!).

My guide Scott is away with the local rugrats at a race meet in Red Mountain. So it was pretty much a free skiing day. Instead of a guide, I simply followed the other people in our group. For one or two runs I got a few pointers from our assistant coach Graham, and instead of getting tuition all day I decided to focus on simple techniques such as pole planting correctly and a wider stance.

Since my mental battle was won, and I was in a better frame of mind to improve, I really noticed the fluidity in my movement and a sweet style developing from keeping my arms out in front. Although this at first is anything but steezy (cheesy style), once the motion is perfected it really looks great. It is funny when you know you look good skiing, but part of me is a bit peed off at being so fixated on appearance. All in all I believe a good style will in turn develop into good techniques through a build up in confidence which allows you to attempt different approaches.

In the afternoon three of us tried this run called Magma. It is the steepest run in Kimberley, a black diamond, usually ungroomed, but with no bumps or moguls. The run isnt usually groomed because it is so steep it takes two grooming machines to complete the run. One tows or winches the other grooming machine from the top of the run because it is so steep they are prone to slipping. And these grooming machines are a quarter of a million dollars each so to groom this run is a rare occurence.

The run was absolutely phenomenal. The pitch is so steep that if you fall, you slide right to the bottom of the run as it is impossible to slow down. Luckily I didnt fall. I really nailed this run, my body faced downhill the whole run, I leaned downhill and wasnt wimpish enough to lean back into the mountain (which is a normal instinctual response for the body as you are going so fast). I didnt realise that I had passed the others and was waiting for them at the bottom of the run. It took them five minutes or so to finish. I had done it in about thirty seconds. They were all over the shop, leaning into the mountain, rotating their bodies to move the skis (a big no no) and skidding their skis instead of parrallel turning.

My confidence really grew after that run but I decided not to tempt fate anymore that day and stuck to the main run to practice high speed quick turns. Low and behold success! I really nailed the main run. At the bar at the end of the day the locals were really impressed, they had seen me from the chairlift that goes right over the main run. That for me is the biggest compliment.

Actually I lied. I did tempt fate one more time. I went into the jump park. There are a series of jumps, small, medium and large. I decided to give the small jump a shot. Thinking it was not going to give me much air (it is a small jump afterall) I picked up alot of speed coming off the launch. I flew about fifteen feet long and about five to seven feet high. I slammed down onto the landing with such a shock I thought I was deadmeat. But I just kept on going. I skidded to a stop and the snowboarders hanging around went "whoa man that was sick, and you're the blind dude arent you?". I just smiled and skied off. That too was highly satisfying although I cant stand those snowboarding punks.

Anyways a successful day after a few bad ones. Progress on track. Keep on improving and the world is mine!

Mindgames with yourself

I never really prepared myself for the mindgames of training and trying to succeed. I didnt go into this willy nilly but at the same time i underestimated the pyschological impact.

And although today I won the mindgame that swallowed me up and spat me out yesterday, I didnt feel like I had improved or gained anything worthwhile technically.

At each turn I tried harder. Even at the depths of my despair in not being able to improve I still gave it a shot. And I guess, in the end, maybe I did improve, if only mentally, because I feel like I am in the right frame of mind to do such.

Today was about minus 18 on top of the mountain. We did some balance drills to start of with, skiing without poles with hands on head (weirdest), hands on hips (my favourite because I was aware of my upper body rotation), hands behind back (hardest) and hands in air (most awkward). Another balance drill we did is called parrallel traversing. This is where you face down the mountain, but with your skis parrallel facing slightly up the mountain (i.e. totally separating the upper and lower body). This took two runs to perfect but apparently will do wonders to my counter-rotation ability.

During this whole time there were slight snow showers. About 11am it started to bucket down with big fat dry flakes. This continued for about forty five minutes. We had some lunch and as we came out the sun to decided to join us. With the clouds gone and about ten centimetres of fresh dry powder I was in heaven. This was my favourite type of snow to ski on. The sun was out and I could see all the undulations, tracks and bumps.

The slalom course was set up and I gave it another shot. I went terribly. The course was already tracked out and the powder had been pushed to the sides. This meant skiing on ice, virtually. I was sliding all over the place, unable to get a proper edge. And because the slalom course is extra fast turning, by the time I did get an edge I was already behind in making my turn for the next gate.

This went on for about three runs. On my last run I decided to do a different approach. Instead of going quite wide of the gates (I was then following my guide) I decided to go no more than five centimetres past each gate. This ended up being a successful tactic until I was going so fast I missed two gates! In a real race I would have been immediately disqualified. But all in all I am happy with my progress with gates overall.

The main thing for me is technique. My guide is gone for a week so I am training with the assistatnt coach Mr David (Graham) Hasselhoff. I am looking forward to this as Graham is alot more techo than my guide Scott, who is more relaxed and cant stop talking about boobies. Not that I mind, but sometimes I need to focus!

So technique technique technique!

Super G course tommorrow and I am borrowing some GS skis (been on slaloms the whole time) so I am really looking forward to that. More speed and a bigger turning radius is something I really need to do to change my mental perspective. Who knows it might give me a new lease on my technique.

Anyway cheers to winning the mental battle and here comes the technical one.

Signing off for today.....

Frustration

I suppose at every point in an effort to achieve a goal there is going to be consternations and frustrations. Today was no exception. Started great. It was snowing and a good layer of fluff about five to ten centimeters cushioned the slopes. Although it reached minus nineteen degrees I wasnt that cold and was out for a total of six hours. My guide Scott took me down some nice steep pitched runs under the Tamarack chair. I love these runs, great views (although I dont have much time to look) and great for balance as well as going fast with short turns. Trouble started when I could not make the top of my body face downhill during (long) turning. I spent all last week perfecting this, for both long and short turns, in variable conditions including anomolous bumps, but could not for the life of me get it together today. And of course the more it happened the more I got frustrated and the less able I was to extricate myself from this position. It really is a mindgame and today I lost out to the freak that is no confidence, rigidity, and no fluidity. It may have been the cold. It may have been the beef jerky snacks I am religiously eating, hell it may have been my skis, but today I really fell back a step. Part of the mindgame is obviously getting over these inconsistencies. Tommorrow I am trying a new approach. Every time this happens I am going to stop, get out of my skis, look around and try and appreciate my time and place. I know I will get over it and I know I will progress in due course, but today was evil. I call it the reverse hump day (It is wednesday here). Anyway after lunch the giant slalom course was set up. I had a go and for the first few runs I was going pretty good. I mean the bad habits were still there, but I was going dam fast. A couple of times I had to call out to my guide to hurry up (I follow him). One time I yelled out "move on chump' but he didnt hear me and he stopped. Narrowly missing him I slammed into the padding of a chairlift pole. It didnt hurt and I was laughing hysterically. Scott blamed it on my misuse of commands and I blamed it on his bad hearing (all in jest). I told him to start swimming in the slow lane. The very last run of the day was another shocker. So tonight I am going to unwind, listen to music and read a bit, try and redirect my focus towards improvement and not so much on emotions. Anyway fingers crossed my pyschological approach to being in the right state of mind and lets hope this flows onto actual improvement!

My first day off training

Seven days skiing in a row after a six month absence is a testing time for anyone's body. My feet are tough as hell from the hours of numbness in my super stiff racing boot and cold from the sub -10 average temperatures. My ankles and knees are quickly aging from the incessant pressure involved with high speed turning. Physics doesnt do justice to your body. My calves, hamstrings and quadriceps are slowly bulking up - which is good, but relentlessly painful every night when I return home. Even my shoulders and biceps are getting a good work out from "disciplined" pole planting. Mathematically I am supposed to remember all turns throughout the day. Of the average of ten runs a day, I am doing about 50 long carve turns a run and about 100 -200 short turns. This equates to roughly 700 turns a day (assuming 2 x 150 short turn runs and 8 x 50 long carves runs). This really doesnt include drills or practice runs, where we might be practicing to ski on one leg fully crouched or say a mixture of long and short turns. But 700 to 800 turns a day sounds about right. Imagine hopping on one foot for five jumps. This for me is roughly the same amount of exertion and pressure applied for one long carve turn. This might make short turns seem less strenuous, but alas it is not the case, since the force or pressure used in one run of high speed short turning is as strenuous as at least four runs of high speed long or carve turning. But for the sake of simplicity lets make the exertion of short and long turning equal, remembering that one long turn for me is like five hops or jumps on one leg. By this logic imagine hopping or jumping on one leg 3750 times a day (750 turns a day x 5 jumps or hops on one leg being the same pressure used in every turn). Now for me 3750 hops a day is not only strenuous, it is an absurd amount of exercise. And I smile the whole time, especially at the end of the day. So it comes as no surprise that I am equally happy with a day off training. It hasnt snow for about five days and although the cover is still excellent I imagine it would have been quite hard this morning. I woke up at about 8.30am, had some cereal, chewed the fat with my coach re buying some skis and watched the x games on telly till 11am. We then all went into town to do some shopping. At luchtime we met in the local sandwich shop for a soup and toasted ham and cheese sandwich with fries and coffee. Halfway through lunch it started snowing again. Not heavily, but the flakes were dry and fat, just the way I like it. I like being out when it is snowing so instead of getting a lift back to the house I decided to walk the three or four kilometers on the icy sidewalk. It was really peaceful and serene as the walk takes me through a little park and down some quiet side streets. I got home about half an hour later, taking my time and watched some more x games. When the others arrived back home we decided to go ice skating at the local rink over the road from home. None of the skates really fitted me well so after two circles of the rink I gave up. It was also starting to snow heavily, but a little wetter and smaller flakes. I jumped on the couch with some tea, read some of my book and had an afternoon sleep. Tommorrow is another day off but the cleaners are coming to the house so we all need to be out between 10am and 2pm. I dont know what to do but we are thinking of going to the movies in Cranbrook, about a 20 minute drive away. I am thinking I might just catch a cab up to the mountain so I dont miss this powder day. It is still snowing and by my estimates we will have about 50-75 cms of fresh. I dont want to miss the opportunity of skiing in that as powder skiing is a great test of balance as well as a hell of alot of fun. But with no guide this is looking unlikely. So one an a half weeks into my trip and things looking good. Incidentally my last run yesterday was unreal. My short turning has improved greatly both in style and technicality. I finally feel like an alright skier. Until that moment, I always felt inferior to the general skiing population, generally trying to avoid skiing under chairlifts because I lacked style and a sense of confidence. By my last run I was trying to ski right next to the chairlift, full of confidence that my style was visually pleasing. It is a great feeling.

Typical Day

today was pretty typical, so I will let you know what it was like. Wake up at 7.00am. It is still pitch black. Usually the girls knock on our door to wake us but the wheelies (guys in wheelchairs) will wake us a couple of minutes later wheeling around the kitchen which makes a sound not to dissimilar to a turbo prop plane taking off. The bathroom is a shyte fight. I share with two girls and a boy. The boys take less than five minutes combined but for some reason we are always waiting for the girls. What the hell do they do in there? Breakfast is usually 7.30am. Continental style ceral and toast and fruit. Leaves me wanting sometimes so i often get something on the slopes like a breakfast burrito or a breakfast pizza. We start to get changed around 8am, this takes me less than two minutes but yet again the girls seem to take hours. Our assistant coach Graham, aka the hoff, arrives about 8.20am and warms up the van. The four wheelies, the two blinkers (blind peeps) and the cerebal palsy dude take about ten minutes to get all our ski gear in the van. We take turns helping the wheelies into the van as they need to get their wheelchair real close and kind of hop into the van. We then pack the wheelchairs into the back of the van. By 8.30 hopefully we are off. The drive to the slopes is my second favourite time of the day. The music is cranked up (usually trash - but still brings a smile to my face_. Our direct route gives us a great view of the mountain as we live on a hill with a valley between us and the mountain. The route takes us through downtown Kimberley, all eight streets. We take a right up the mountain drive and often see wildlife like longhorn sheep or buck (deer). I like seeing the animals, always give me a sense of place and being. The route takes about five minutes maximum. When there are more than two cars in front or behind us the locals call it a traffic jam. We arrive at the mountain and being all disabled get dropped off about ten meters from the main quad chairlift. Another ten minutes is spent getting the wheelies out of the car (we again take turns) as well as all our skiing gear (including the wheelie's buckets, which are quite big_. The blinkers, the one legged and the cerebal palsys often are the first in the queue. I have had the first chairlift twice and only been here a week. This is obviously my most favourite part of the day. Even today, a Saturday, I was the seventh chairlift up. Most mornings we make first tracks on our favourite groomed run called Midnight. We all love it because it has a gradual rolling pitch where everybody is confident enough to go fast. The only exception to this rule is the powder day, where we veer skiers right onto the boundary run, where the best powder runs are found. By the time we are at the bottom of the first run the wheelies are ready to go and all the coaches and trainers have arrived. We all go up and break up into groups. The wheelies, the blinkers with each of their guides, and the one leggeds and cerebal palsys. We ski in our respective groups until lunchtime at 12 midday. A homemade lunch is provided by Tegan, the head coach's wife. We take it in a little warming hut at the bottom of the mountain. Usually it is a ham and cheese roll, or egg and lettuce roll with a hearty soup. Cordial, Muffins, cookies (woops I mean biscuits) and fruit are also provided. I also like to finish lunch with a coffee. Albeit a dodgy Starbucks one which seems to be the closest thing here that resembles the real stuff. About quarter to one we all go up and free ski for a run to warm up again. At quarter past one we again meet for the afternoon session. Breaking up into the previous groups we do drills, routines and practice, practice, practice. Sometimes the race course is set up and we get some practice (today for example I got my first untimed shot at Giant Slalom - which I was comfortable with). The afternoon session finishes at 3pm (good for me as the sun starts to go down behind the mountain). We can freeski, practice drills or just warm up in the pub. Today for example I did two more runs after 3pm practising my carving technique with proper up and down movement. Incidentally, I really got the hang of this and for the first time I experienced the "popping" sensation (where most of the turn is done in the air) when doing extra steep moguls. At around 3.30pm most of us can be found in the pub drinking warm drinks, or in mine and the wheelies case, beer. We also love to get their waffle fries, full of extra good fatty grease. At 4pm we usually pack up and head, again loading up the van with skies, buckets, wheelchairs and ourselves. We often stop at the grocery store or the ski shop on the way back just to pick up a few things. By 4.30pm we are usually always home, unloading the car, chucking snowballs, watching the ice hockey players across the road, or just unwinding. I always help unload the car so I can be the first in the showers. By being first in the showers I can also be the first on the internet (like now!). It is freetime until about 6.15 when dinner is served. Dinner is also a favourite time of the day not so much because I am so hungry I could eat a dog a cat and a horse but because we all gather around and talk about the day and joke and fool around. After clearing up and helping Tegan with the dishes, I often do some stretching in front of the TV while the others watch a movie, use the internet, read a book or tune skis. By nine I am always thinking about sleep. By ten thirty I am always asleep. So this has been my life for the last week and will be for the next three. I can honestly say it is without a doubt an eye opener. In saying that I am also 100% committed to the cause and I love my life here. I do miss my fiancee exceptionally and that for me is the only thing that is really missing. So there you have it.