New Season New Plan

Working towards the start of the 2019 NZ season with plenty of time spent in the gym building on strength and condition is keeping me busy, thanks to Alpine Health and Fitness. As one journey ends another begins and with funding from NZ Ski Charitable Trust (Hamish Edwards) coming to an end, it’s time to reassess. This season, after five great years of training at Coronet Peak with the Coberger Academy, I feel it is time for a change and am excited to be heading to Cardrona again. This season I will be under the experienced coaching of Osi Inglin and CAST (Cardrona Alpine Ski Team)

Many thanks to the Skeggs Foundation once again for your continued support. For any athlete in the Otago Region, be sure to check out their funding opportunities, click on the link and head on over to their website.

It was great to experience a breath of summer in Thailand and Bali after a tough season in Europe and get a chance to try something different with a bit of surfing in warm water!

It was a much needed break from winter to unwind and move on from what had been a difficult season. While I had some excellent training in Europe and some of my racing improved, results were hard to come by and the pressure was on.  Another season where the elements made for tough conditions with dumpings of fresh snow just before races, or warm wet conditions also adding to the mix.  In amongst all the World Cup races, we also headed up to Sweden to Åre for the World Ski Championships in February where it was another mixed bag of weather and conditions! I picked up second place on the podium for the National champs slalom race in Jasna, Slovakia early March which was a bonus. From Europe after the final World Cup race in Kranjska Gora, Slovakia 9th March, we rushed over to catch the tail end of the NorAm races in Burke, USA on the 12th March for four days of racing.  Not ideal conditions on top of the stress of travel and changing time zones made for a tough end to the season mentally as well as physically. 

New Year 2019

It’s been a little while since last posting so just a brief update and some photos from the past month in Europe.  After leaving Colorado we headed to Europe to continue on with the World Cup races with the first being in Val d’Isere, France.   On the way I stopped off to pick up some new gear from Volkl Marker Dalbello which was greatly appreciated.  The race at Val d’Isere had tricky conditions with heavy snow falling and quite bumpy.  Had some good turns but over skied a few places.

Val d’Isere
Val d’Isere Finish area

From France we headed on down to Italy with a brief stop in Milan before heading to the next race at Alta Badia in the beautiful Dolomites.  Had some excellent training conditions with perfect weather. I was much happier with my skiing in the race but not quite there for a second run.

Alta BAdia

From Alta Badia, Italy it was a quick trip back to base in Austria before flying home to New Zealand for a bit of a break over Christmas before the next set of races.  Hope everyone has had a great Christmas and wishing you all the best in 2019.