Copper Camp Part 2

Hey there,

The second half of the camp went by in a flash. My days riding the pipe were limited with the start of the Grand Prix training so I made the most of every day I went up. On my last day training, I had a really good session hiking the pipe getting some tricks back. I love sessions like that, it's all about me pushing my limits and progressing. I get in the zone and visualize my trick as I'm hiking up. I've been working on my body awareness. On this day, I started off with a trick that has been a struggle for me in the past: the back 5. After I was landing them consistently I decided to move onto the switch frontside (AKA cab) 5. I was getting them around pretty well and this was a good start for the season.

The pipe got super busy as the trip went on. This crowd is all waiting to drop in.

 In addition to pipe riding, I also practiced jumps one day at Breckenridge and jibbing one day at Keystone. I met up with my buddy Robby at Breck and we jumped for about 4 hours straight. It was sick to get some tricks back on the jumps, I was pretty rusty! The next day I felt like I had been running a marathon and then been hit by a bus at the finish line. If anyone thinks snowboarding is an easy sport, they are seriously misguided. Once I had recovered, Kyle and I bused over to Keystone (1.5 hours) to check out their park. For that early in the season, heck even for mid winter, their park is amazing! They had 4 different jump lines, from beginner to 'oh my god!' big as well as tons of fun rails and boxes to jib. Solid day.

Kyle and I at Keystone

And Again

 I also took advantage of the Grand Prix competition to see what the big guns in snowboarding are throwing down in the halfpipe. Unfortunately, no Canadian men made it to the top 16 finals but Sarah Conrad squeaked in on the female side and ended up in 8th place. The finals were unreal! Everyone in it was amazing, the guy that qualified in 16th dropped in and did a perfect 1260 about 10 feet out - and it only got better from there. Yah I know, ridiculous right! Double corks were the hot trick that the top guys were doing. Louie Vito took the title with back to back double corks and solid riding. It was super good for us to watch the contest to see where we need to be in order to compete at this level.

Some of the world's best snowboarders getting ready to drop at the Grand Prix

I'm still waiting on some footage from Joe to complete my video edit from the trip - stay tuned for that.

I had to put this in... Joe about to chow down on his birthday desert! Look at those hearts.

 Overall that was one awesome trip. We were able to rip the halfpipe before anyone riding in Canada or most world for that matter. It was a great way to kickstart our season and set the tone for the year. I learned a lot and I'm stoked for what the season has in store. Now I'm glad to be back in Canada and Whistler for a bit before I head home for a quick trip over the holidays to Yellowknife.

Sunset from the plane window

Peace,

A M