Andrew Matthews - BoardTheWorld Blog

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

World Champs Recap

Overall the World Championships were a great experience. I landed some good runs in practice despite very challenging conditions. The weather was -30 for both the training day and the competition. On the first day I was the first one to show up for practice and the second last to leave. I guess everyone else was scared of the cold, or maybe the jump, in fact probably both! A lot of people dropped out of the competition because the setup was sketchy: very icy and a lot of compression before the jump. I was happy that I was able to overcome the challenging conditions and still give it my best shot.

The crowd was huge for the event. My parents and brother there in the front row. It was awesome to have their support there. I knew that I need to step it up for this competition and when you're pushing your limits - doing tricks that you aren't very comfortable with - there's a bigger risk of not landing. That's what happened to me. I rolled the dice and it didn't go my way. Instead of looking at it as a letdown I'm taking away a lot of positives from the experience... I just competed in my first World Snowboard Championships! I'm really motivated and excited about the rest of the season. Now I've got some time to ride hard and learn some new tricks before my next big competition the Canadian Shield at Blue Mountain on February 23.