2010 Olympics!

This past weekend we had our last olympic qualifier event at the world cup in stoneham, quebec. Everyone's goal on the pipe team was to have 2 top fives (out of 5 events) as it meant priority selection for the Olympic team. Coming into this past weekend, i was the only rider with those results. But it by no means meant i was safe. With canada having only 3 spots for the guys pipe team it was still possible for me to get knocked off the team. Brad, jeff and Dustin each had 1 top five and if they all got a top five in stoneham, naming the team would have become very tight indeed. If 2 of those guys got top fives, then the third guy was left out. Being in the 3rd spot brad was sweating the most these past few weeks.

As quals progressed Jeff and myself were sitting in 1st and 3rd, brad was around 10th and dustin was the last guy to drop. needing to land his second run to make finals (and his chance at a top 5) we all watched as dustin dropped into his do or die run. Dusty dropped a pretty good run, but with too many flat landing and sketches in the flat bottom it's gonna be really close to making the finals or not. We all piled around the score board to see the score come up, discussing the ups and downs of his run, debating possible scores. Dustin's score comes up short. I'm pretty sure i hear brad's sigh of relief from across the pipe! It sucks to see one friend's dream ended and another's realized at the exact same time. Basically right at this point Brad, jeff and myself all know we're on the team. Our smiles get bigger, shoulders relax a little more, high fives are slapped.

But we still have finals to go through. At the start of the day i told my coach i was gonna wing it through all my runs. Practise for finals was going really good, board was running fast, liking the pipe, feeling good. As we got into the finals themselves, the temperature dropped, a lot. I dropped into my first run and it felt like i was riding on sandpaper. I was barely moving in comparison to practise. Wasn't stoked. The temperature had fallen so much it made my wax job pretty much useless (cold snow is like little daggers and you need really hard wax for it; otherwise you go really slow). I made do with the situation (not much you can do) and ended up in 4th place. janne korpi from finland won on his last run, jeff got second and antti autti got 3rd. Was a fun night minus the unexpected slowdown.

We had a press conference yesterday in quebec city to name the olympic team, then jumped on a plane to head out to clagary for another world cup and the burton CDN open. In cowtown for a few weeks then heading home and the Games.
jl

riding powder, halfpipes and planes

my life has been pretty crazy lately. planes, powder days, halfpipes, michigan?

Early jan i spent a few weeks in mammoth california. The week following the US grand prix was interesting. actually mostly just windy. We had a few days cut down from it being super windy, a few days of puking snow. A good powder day which is always welcome. And finally our very last day in town it was real good. or at least the afternoon was really good. Always nice to leave on a good note. I'm not gonna count the casino in reno later that night!

My travels had me scheduled to go home for a 3 days, but it got cut down to 1. And i fully lucked out. 80cm and bluebird. needless to say it was a good day to be home in whistler. While in mammoth i'd heard about a 22' pipe being cut by pat melondowski out in the upper peninsula of michigan. Sorry, what? who? why? how? word on the street was that it was a pretty good pipe. Turns out the pipe was bigger than the hill, i mean the ravine that Otsego resort is perched atop. Aussies, kiwis, japanese, italians, the french. quite a few teams are making their way to michigan to hit up this pipe. So after riding pow in whistler, i made my way to michigan for a few days to ride the smallest ski hill i've ever been too. And the pipe was good, and the people at the resort were amazing. Super nice and really accomodating to all of us. One of the nights iw as there one of the japanese coaches and a few of his riders made a feast for 35+ people. They cooked for over 6 hours! it was unreal. The vibe in michigan was really cool. Was kinda bummed having to leave after just a few days. So rode for a few days in michigan, then jumped a plane that night and was riding stoneham in quebec the next morning.

Stoneham is hosting a world cup which is our last event for olympic qualfying. Anxious to get it all over with. Currently I'm ranked in first, followed by jeff batchelor and brad martin. the contest is tomorrow during the day with night finals. hope the pipe is good so we can throw down for the crowd, which is generally always good here in quebec.

The video is from my last 2 days of 2009. one of my favorite things to do at home, explore new zones on my splitboard. enjoy.
jl

mammoth GP #1 finals and #2 quals

couple more runs from the comp down here in mammoth.
the first run is my run from the first GP final (13th place). I had a different idea in the start but made up a new run as i went along.
and the next 2 are my quals runs from the second GP. missed finals and got 22nd. Probably would have made it had i landed the first run.
I don't really like doing the same run twice, and kept trying to change my runs a little bit every time. my quals runs today were pretty similar to the other day but was going to go switch back 720 on the first one on the last hit, and added a fs 9 to the second one. too bad i cant seem to do straight airs this week, def hurts when you're rolling down the windows on a straight air.
Pipe was amazing again. The wind sucked though. I'm sure finals is gonna be another good show tomorrow. Then a week of shredding here before heading home for a few days then stoneham. I'll try to get another vid up later this week.

mammoth grand prix#1 quals

quals for the first grand prix in mammoth went down today. was feeling kinda sick this morning prior to going riding. Runs went pretty good. first run was qualified me for the final in 7th overall (i think). the second run was supposed to be WAY different but i messed up dropping in, then again on the second hit. So then i just messed around the rest of the run. I'm a goofy foot, so don't listen to the announcer on the tricks so much.
Finals tomorrow at noon. stoked.

happy new year!

wow. 2010. Christmas was sweet. hung out at my parents in quebec, played some hockey, went sledding and took our canoe out for an ice breaking mission on the lake (which is pretty scary; falling in not much of an option). headed home to squamish after xmas, day in blackcomb park (it's awesome; especially for dec) some splitboarding, pow riding on whistler and a solo splitboard exploring mission that took a wrong turn and ended with me almost jumping out of my car!
We just got down to mammoth mountain in california for the US grand prix. We've been here for 2 days and on our first day here we had 2 surprises waiting for us. Pipe wasn't open and the contest starts a day earlier! so we effectively lost 2 days of training. Today's one day of training had one really good wall and one undervert wall which isn't the sweetest combo. But Billy (the pipe cutter) is aware of the problem and will hopefully get it cut perfect for the comp tomorrow.
I gotta go grab my boards and get them setup for tomorrow. more to come and maybe another video if i get around to it here.
jl