Dealing with the Downs

Greetings,

I'm sitting on the couch right now with an ice pack on my shoulder...

Injuries in freestyle snowboarding are very common. A snowboard legend (and now an announcer for the X Games) Todd Richards wrote in his book P3 something along the lines of "When it comes to injuries it isn't a matter of if, it's a matter of when and how bad." That pretty much sums it up. I've had to deal with the nuisance of injuries since I started competing in snowboarding. They suck but you've got to take them in stride and look at the bigger picture.

Yesterday I hit a jump and I was a little bit too forward with my balance. I fell forward on the landing and hit my shoulder.  My shoulder got a little inflamed but it isn't that bad. I need a couple days of rest and then I'll be back on the board again, just in time for the Burton Open. For now I'm catching up on my chemistry work and getting ready to rip!

Peace out,

A

Cow Town

Hello there,

I just got back to Whistler from my trip to Calgary. I'll put up some pictures to here for you to check out before I bore you with my stories. So my internet isn't allowing me to post the pictures right now so you're either going to have to bear with me for the stories or you can always just scroll down the the bottom. Here's a funny conversation I had with one a couple guys working at the ticket office:

I hand the guy my Canada West Pass (which works for lift tickets at all resort in BC and Alberta), he takes it and asks "Are you from Alberta or BC?"

I say "I'm from the Northwest Territories."

"Is that in Alberta or BC?"

"Neither, it's the No

rthwest Territories."

"OK, which state is that in?"

I look at the guy dumbfounded. "Uh..."

"Oh, it is a state?"

"Yah basically, you're not from Canada are you?"

Turns out he was from Australia. Fair enough that he didn't know where it is I guess but come on... state? I thought that was pretty funny.

Kyle cooking up a breakfast of champions for us!

Now to the trip... it was pretty sweet. The first day we were there it was dumping snow. In typical Calgary fashion the next day was a sunny +10. Our first day we spend riding in the late afternoon and night to see what it would be like riding under the lights. It took a while to get used to riding a 22 foot tall halfpipe again. For those of you that don't know, Calgary has one of the biggest halfpipe walls in the world. So the first night was mainly spent getting comfortable riding really, really fast towards these monster walls.

      The huge pipe

Day 2 was the official training day and the day before the contest. It was cool to see riders from all over Canada shredding the tube. I tried to get into my contest run but was having some trouble with my backside spins so at the end of the day I decided to change up my run. This meant that I would have hardly any time to practice the run I was planning on doing in the contest but the up side was that I had done that run in contests before.

There were 2 pipe contests back to back and they both went pretty well. I wasn't worried about how I ended up because I was just using these contests as training. I landed my run both days and I was happy with that. I ended up finishing in the middle of the pack both days. I'm working on backside spins as well as some other tricks so that I can compete with the top guys in Canada by Nationals. Joe and Kyle taking vid and pics

The slopestyle contest on Sunday was fun to do. I made the finals and it ended up being really tight with the time we had to leave to catch our flight. I literally did my last run, went to the car and left. We couldn't stay for the rest of the contest, let alone awards or dinner. So I'm not even sure how I did. I know I didn't come in the top 3 because I fell on my last run and on my first run I did a backside 3 where I wanted to do a 5. It was a good experience though and something to build on.

I'll be back to Calgary for the Burton Open at the start of February, I'm excited to see what that's like.

Now if only I could get those pictures to work...

Andrew

Back to Business

Hey there,

I'm in Calgary right now for 2 Noram halfpipe and 1 ASA slopestyle contests. My friend and fellow athlete of Whistler Valley Snowboard Club (WVSC), Kyle, has been kind enough to put our coach Joe and I up in his house for the time we're here. In the last couple of weeks I've been getting back to business. I've started back on my regular training schedule with WVSC and I've also started back to university. I'm taking chemistry once a week at UBC and spending the rest of my time in Whistler. 

I've been training a lot in the pipe lately getting ready for the Noram, that and my slopestyle board was being fixed. Brad at Showcase fixed up my board and it's all good to go now, thanks Brad! I've been working on my backside spins in the pipe, one of my weaker spins. I've been able to do them in contests in the past but haven't been really confident about them. I'm putting in the time and effort to get them right this time. It's hard to have the patience to take a step back in order to take 2 steps forward but in the long run it will be a lot better.

My first contest is a night contest under the lights of Canada Olympic Park (COP). That will be really cool, I've only ever done one contest at night before. We're going to train at night today to get a feel for it. It should be a good time!

Side note: Check out Flight of the Concords It's Business Time for a laugh.

Take it easy,

Andrew

Summer Video

Hey!

I'm trying out the video posting tool. This is the video I made from my summer trip to New Zealand. It was an awesome trip. They have some of the best terrain in the world for that time of year (August). Not only that but the country has amazing landscapes and tons of sheep!

Enjoy!

Park Pictures

Happy New Years!

Here are some pictures my brother took of me in the park recently. The park is really fun right now and it's only getting better. I'm stoked that the parks and pipe are up now. Looks like its going to be a great season!

On the weekend I'm planning on going to Mount Seymour to film my first Westbeach Airtime! It should be fun.

Best of wishes in the New Year,

Andrew