Well, I'm back from Telluride, CO and the US Snowboard World Cup and ready to get into the holidays East Coast style! But first, a little recap on this year's event. Once again the event consisted of a Parallel Giant Slalom on Thursday the 17th, a Snowboard Cross on Friday, and a Team Snowboard Cross on Saturday. All events went smoothly and thanks to the snowmakers there was plenty of snow to build the courses. Beilieve it or not, there was not a lot of the natural stuff in SW Colorado. The majority of that western snow has been settling elsewhere like in Summit County where JP and the Rev Tour athletes spent their time recently. Anyhow, the racing was great for all events with the Americans right in the thick of it. If you want to check some of the photos or videos go to my USASA Adirondack Series facebook page here or you can watch NBC this Sunday the 26th at 3pm for the TV show. You may see yours truly at the start if you look close. USASA Adirondack Series rider Derek DiCastro was on hand again to train and forerun having just missed out on a starting spot. He ran the course well - especially since the first training day was also his first day back on snow since the Junior World Championships in New Zealand back in August! Double D will be competing this season on the Rev Tour and Hole Shot SBX events as well as the US Snowboard Cross Championships Grand Prix in Utah this February. I'll be updating his results as the season goes on and hopefully he will earn enough points to get his first World Cup start at this event next season.
NYSEF was represented in the Revolution Tour at Copper, CO by Stephanie Lawee, John Wilkins, KC Brousseau, and myself (JP). The Revolution Tour is a place for armature freeride ski and snowboard athletes from all over the country to come together and compete for a place on the world cup circuit in the disciplines of slope style and halfpipe.
We departed from Albany on December 10th in route to Denver. Anticipation and stoke levels were at an all time high. We were all very excited to leave the east and go ride where there was “actually” snow.
As it turned out there was plenty of it. We hopped on a shuttle at the airport in Denver that took us from the sunny weather in Denver up I 70 into a blizzard. By the time we had come out on the western side of the Loveland Tunnel it was snowing harder than it had all year so far back east.
It snowed hard all night. So hard that summit county closed the interstate between the Loveland Tunnel and Vail for about three hours. By the Way, this just so happened to be at the time that we had gone to Frisco to get groceries for the week. If you ask anyone from our crew they will tell you about how we got stranded on the bus in Frisco due to the snowstorm; but hey, it left us with lots of powder skiing the following day!
Needles to say John, Steph and I were thoroughly happy and whooped after the day.
The following day we decided to get down to business and we went to Keystone Mt to train on their terrain park features. They had so much to offer and we had a great day.
John @ Keystone: John got his head stuck for about a minutes
This is what Keystone looked like:
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On Monday we were joined by fellow teammate KC Brousseau. As the week went on the level of enthusiasm grew amongst the team. This was only magnified when the weather continued to get more and more sunny throughout the week. The halfpipe and slopestyle courses were in awesome shape.Every competitor was wanting and willing to give the competition their all.
The Half Pipe
Steph got 11th place overall in women's halfpipe
The view on the way to the slopestyle course
First two features in the Slopestyle course: Left – up box, Right – Cannon Box
First Jump
Second Jump
Third Jump
Last Two Features: Flat Rail
Or a Down Flat Down Rail
Although the enthusiasm was everywhere, it had no way to safe guard us from injury.KC had a bummed ankle from when he arived, John knuckled the second jump on a Back side cork 7 and hurt his knee, and Steph had severe shin bang.Also, Steph's lip and her pole got into a fight on the landing of the second jump in the slopestyle course.
Steph’s Lip
Everyone on the team felt somewhat skunked, but instead of letting it get us down it fueled a fire deep inside everyone’s competitive spirit. The consensus is that we did not represent our fullest potential at this revolution tour stop. Also there is still a long season ahead of us. We are all determined to work hard and dedicate more training time before the next revolution tour stop at Mt Hood Meadows.
Team Hardway + Santa
We all had a great time in Copper and are eagerly awaiting the Rev Tour at Mt Hood. Stay posted, and Happy Holidays.
- JP
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Hey Everyone,
The First day of NYSEF Freeride kicked of with a bang. Excitement levels were high and good times were abundant throughout all of our groups.
Its crazy to think about competitions already because we only just had our first day. However, competition season is already almost upon us.
On Friday I will be traveling with John Willkins, Steph Lawee, and KC Brousseau to Copper Mt CO for the first stop of the USSA Revolution Tour. This series is a direct route for amateur athletes to move on to Pro Level Events, and to World Cup Half Pipe and soon to be Slopestyle events.
Hello everyone, YES, it's finally time to get this season going! Our firt weekend program day at Whiteface is this Sunday December 5th. Before we head out onto the slopes though, the Freeride staff and I will be holding an information session for all our ski and snowboard athletes and their families starting at 8:45am in the NYSEF building. Attendance is mandatory for weekend athletes and highly encouraged for all parents and families. This will be the time to meet the coaches and get info about training schedules, competition tracks, expectations for the season, etc. and ask questions while we are all in one place. The plan will be to get through with the basics asap so everyone can hopefully get out on snow by 9:30am. So, get your questions ready for Sunday and of course if you want to pick up a pass and ski or ride on Saturday please feel free to do so. Our staff orientation will be taking place but we will be available to assist you from 8 - 9:30am. See you soon.
Well, I'm back from Telluride, CO and the US Snowboard World Cup and ready to get into the holidays East Coast style! But first, a little recap on this year's event. Once again the event consisted of a Parallel Giant Slalom on Thursday the 17th, a Snowboard Cross on Friday, and a Team Snowboard Cross on Saturday. All events went smoothly and thanks to the snowmakers there was plenty of snow to build the courses. Beilieve it or not, there was not a lot of the natural stuff in SW Colorado. The majority of that western snow has been settling elsewhere like in Summit County where JP and the Rev Tour athletes spent their time recently. Anyhow, the racing was great for all events with the Americans right in the thick of it. If you want to check some of the photos or videos go to my USASA Adirondack Series facebook page here or you can watch NBC this Sunday the 26th at 3pm for the TV show. You may see yours truly at the start if you look close.
