New Zealand? How did I get here?

Well  it has been an exceptionally long time since I last submitted anything to my blog.  It is not for a lack of me not doing anything interesting in fact I am writing this post from the majestic island state of New Zealand, not to be confused with Old Zealand if there was or is such a place, but I will get to how I got here in a bit.

The last time I posted how I fared at a race in Winter Park Colorado and how things could have gone better for me, followed by a brief stay in Kimberly BC to just free ski and generally mess around. After that nice easy week I went through a disastrous series of speed races back in Kimberly that left me soured to wanting to post anything pertaining to my racing. But I got back on the horse and got back into the training grove and focused on Giant Slalom and Slalom for the month down time that was March 2013 to get ready for the British Columbia Para Alpine Provincials, US Nationals in Park City Utah, as well as Canadian Nationals in Sun Peaks BC which would mark the end of the racing season.

As far as those races are concerned they went very well for me, I cleaned house at the BC provincials walking away with 3 golds. The Us Nationals were good also but the competition there was allot more stiff compared to the BC races, especially considering that there were some of the best para-skiers in the world there. I still managed to walk away with 6th in both the National and the NorAm Giant Slalom, as well as 4th in the National Slalom race. Canadian Nationals I fared a bit better with a silver in the National Giant Slalom and a gold in the NorAm Slalom, I almost secured a gold in National Slalom but crashed out about a quarter way though the course and while still finishing I didn't place very well. But with how well I did perform in both the US and Canadian Nationals I was invited to train with the National Team in Mt. Hood, Oregon for a week and half for one of their tech training camps. The Oregon trip was nice but conditions were really soft and some times unsafe considering that there were exposed rocks all over the place which resulted in one of the female American para athletes getting injured.

Which brings us to how I got to New Zealand. Apparently according to other peers of mine who are already on the Canadian Para-Alpine Ski Team as well as the coaching staff that my skiing has improved considerably in the past season and it is in their opinion that I would be competitive at the World Cup level. If this was any other season I would likely be in Chili right now which would also be pretty cool but this year also happens to coincide with the New Zealand Winter Games which hosts a series of events at the World Cup level that spans both para and able bodied events. So this year there are some World Cup Para-Alpine races in New Zealand, and so far I do not have any World Cup starts, and it has been suggested and hinted at that if I can meet the criteria for the Paralympics that my attendance in those games may be a distinct possibility but not a guarantee. That criteria is that one must have at least two finishes in the top 12 of a World Cup race and IPC points in each event lower than 220. I already have IPC points lower than 220 in all events so what I need now is two World cup finishes in the top 12, which is why I believe that the team asked me to come to this set of training camps and races. Now what is the possibility of me getting these finishes here at this event you may ask? well I would answer with if the coaches didn't think that I could do it then they would not have invited me to this month long training camp and associated races. It should also be noted that i also think that I can achieve this bench mark as it would be the culmination of a long lost child hood dream to go to a winter Olympic game albeit a Parlympic games it is still far beyond any point many of my childhood peers ever made it in the alpine racing world.

So I hope that all of my followers who know of my endeavors will wish me luck and all the best in achieving this goal not only to represent Canada but to represent a community of individuals who strive to be the best and most unique in all that they do in their own ways.

Winter Park, CO

So I have been back from Winter Park for about a week now and I guess it is time to inform the world how I fared.  But first off I need to thank Mark Catterall of the Regina Alpine Adaptive Ski Program (RAASP) from Saskatchewan Alpine who graciously offered to sponsor my air fair for this trip, it was greatly appreciated.  We got there on December 29th and I spent the 30th training Super-G with the National Center for Disabled Sports (NSCD) under the direction of Erik Peterson who also represented me for all the races while I was there, so a big thanks goes out the him and all their staff.  The 31st the vast majority of the racers took as a day off since it was New Years eave but I took the morning to work in a few more speed runs and to try to get used to the hill a bit more and overall was a good relaxing day.  January 1st was the Super-G and overall it went okay, there was a weird traverse half way through which tended to throw a few people for a loop and I really do wish I had a few more days to train on the hill but overall it was okay.  I placed 9th in the first race and 7th in the second race, which was a second and a half faster than the first race despite a hip checking speed scrub at the traverse.  The Giant Slalom and the Slalom could have gone better.  I don't even want to talk about the GS but I will say this about the Slalom, if I had managed to hold it together at the last gate on the second run there was a good chance that I may have walked away with 4th, but ski racing wasn't built on what ifs and all I can really do is learn from my mistakes and apply those lessons to the future.

I was back home for all of two days and then I was off to Kimberly for three days of skiing with my Sask coach and a guy I skied with a little last year as well as a new guy who is just getting into sit skiing.  From a training stand point it was bit light but the second day My coach set a full 60 gate course with tall gates which made the trip worth it.  Our final day was suppose to be GS training but we got snowed in, so it turned into a powder day.  The first few runs of the day I tried a HOC sit ski produced by an American manufacture and while it is a decent unit and there is one guy I know of who can really make it work and is near top of the IPC points lists, I maintain my previous theory that it is a sit ski that is better suited for double leg amputees and not for para's who have legs and a degree of leg function, but I digress.  The rest of the day I spent on a nice powder ski which was a first and I have decided that I really need powder skis, it made cutting through all the chopped up and mounded snow on main runs so smooth, unlike trying to use a slalom ski in powder which is not ideal.  It also provided allot of float through deep powder and actually made skiing deep snow fun.

So all in all the Winter Park trip was fun and Kimberly was a way to unwind a bit before getting back into full racing and training mode Next week.