Dew Tour Am Series wraps up competitive season

Hey everyone!

My competitive season wrapped up last week with a great event and a strong performance! I finished off my fourth competition in sixteen days with a the Dew Tour Am Series - a new event on the TTR World Snowboard Tour. The course, which was at Sun Peaks, was challenging with three jumps and three rail features. Consistency is key with a long course like this. Thankful that's one of my strong suits.

I qualified for the finals in 2nd place by doing sticking with the same strategy as Nationals - landing a less difficult run very well. In the finals I was up against 10 invited riders as well as 9 others who made it through the qualifiers. Despite the devil on my shoulder telling me "try your hardest tricks in finals! Go for the win!" I was fortunate to have my coach Joe reassuring me again that doing easier tricks is perfectly fine when you do them really well. When I landed my second run really clean I knew we made the right decision. My run scored me ahead of some really talented riders including a couple guys on the National Development Team! Good enough for 5th place.

Congratulations to (current and former members of my snowboard club respectively) Molly Milligan as well as Darcy Sharpe for placing first! Another club member Anthony Stefanizzi place just ahead of me in 4th place. I have to give credit to my coach Joe helping us do so well this year. The results speak to Joe's ability as a coach as well as his longterm strategy paying off.

Next up for me is to take advantage of the great spring snowboarding conditions and refocus on my progression. Ah, the never ending quest of pursuing excellence... you've got to love it!

Now if only I could get my bib on properly!

- A M

Long awaited videos from Austria and Colorado

My coach Joe has been getting really into filming this season. He's the guy ripping beside us, sending it off the knuckles, all while keeping us in frame and the camera steady. Now he's a triple threat - coach, cinematographer and producer. Check out his edits from our last 2 trips Austria and Colorado. Nice work Joe!

On top of the world in Austria

While many people in Canada dread the dropping temperatures and snow that eventually signals the start of winter - I can’t wait. In fact, this year I didn’t wait. I just got back from Europe where I got an early start to my winter. We were snowboarding on what seemed like the top of the world. The glaciers in Austria are able to stay open year round because of their elevation of 3,000 meters!

This year we followed the tips we heard through the grapevine about a snowboard park with a 5 jump line in October. That’s amazing for a time that is typically spend waiting for the snow to fly in North America. I got some great training in but struggled with some lower back pain which limited my riding.

After 2 weeks we packed up and drove halfway across Austria (not that far) to Dachstein for my first competition of the year. It was a 4 star TTR slopestyle course with 2 rails and 3 jumps. Despite very challenging conditions and dealing with my injury, I was happy with how I rode in the competition. It just wasn’t my day though. My last run came down to the last jump on an inverted 720. The trick didn’t come around properly and I fell.

The level of riding was very high because there aren’t any other competitions at that time of year. It was great to see what the international field was throwing down in their runs. Now its time for me to get out there and learn the tricks I need to consistently make the finals at events like that. I’m heading to Colorado for another training camp in a weeks time to do just that. I can’t wait!

New Zealand Video

After my go to resort Snow Park closed down this year I was skeptical about riding at Cardrona Alpine Resort. They stepped up their game and had one of the most on point park crews I have ever seen. Our coach Joe made the trip to NZ for the first time this year. He was really stoked to film some dynamic shots of us. "I think follow camming is my new favourite thing!" Check out the video below. You can definitely tell he was as stoked to get the film our tricks as we were to do them.
A big THANK YOU to Ryfan Electric Ltd for really making this trip possible for me and my Pursuit Team for allowing me to bring my coach out.