Darcie, Sarah and I at the the figure skating.

The opening ceremony!

At the medal ceremony for Kat Thompson!

TEAM GB "Better Never Stops"

With Amy Williams after qualification (5th)

My Coach, Jimbo and I as the only GB snowboarders!

With Greg, the team physio, pre heats!

It was snowing really hard on the first few days, we rode powder which was great!

On Tuesday it was SBX, which is my main discipline. The course was really good and fast. The GB SBX coaches helped plan the course which was succesful. I qualified in 1st. In the semi-finals, I came first and in the finals I came 1st.

Into the first bend; qualies

Overall Women:

1. Maisie Potter
2. Kate Foster
3. Sarah Mariott

Overall Men:
1. Thomas Bankes
2. Kyle Wise
3. James Foster

On Wednesday it was Halfpipe, which i really enjoy. The pipe was in good condition but there were two bumps running down the middle which was annoying but they dissapeared slowly towards the middle of the afternoon. Training went well but wasn’t getting as high out of the coping as I would of hoped.
In qualification, I messed up my first run because I lost balance on the icy wall and caught the bumps so I missed out my 3.
My second run was a safety run which was clean. I qualified 4th overall. In the final i did grabs, to 3, to cab3, to air to fakie

Overall Women:

1. Kate Foster
2. Katie Omerod
3. Becky Menday
4. Maisie Potter
5. Nathalie Silkstone

HP Girls Youth

On Thursday was the Big Air. The kickers we’re really nicely shaped. There was a 6m, a 12m and a 20m kicker! I hit the 12m with front 3′s in qualie’s which placed me in 4th. I overated one of my 3′s and nearly landed a 5haha, sick! Thats what the commentator shouted out anyway! In the finals the snow got really slow and the landing was really slushy so I did a clean backside air and an indy grab…

Overall Women:

1. Katie Omerod
2. India Stephenson
3. Ayla Thidling
4. Maisie Potter
5. Becky Menday

BA Youth Girls

On Friday was the Slopestyle. The course was nice, quite similar to the BEO course. I didn’t do very well, I fell on both runs. I guess i was really tired towards the end of the week. So i didn’t make it into the finals, instead i shredded with Ayla which was great! I landed my first ever 5 off a 10m kicker, stoked! It was an amazing feeling, it made up for not making the finals! Craaaaazy.. We hit rails, boxes and kickers with boardslides, frontboards, tail grabs, rotations and all sorts!

Thankyou

- Parents
- Keith, Debs and Nathalie for letting me stay with them!
- Simon, Jimbo and GB SBX team!
- Steve Addicott and Kate Foster on whyaintyoujibbin?
… AND THE GIRLS

Slopestyle day, it was an 8 o’clock gondola ride to the top, with an hour’s warm up! Boy heats started and then we were up for – 3runs, Best 1 counts.

I did a safety run with different grabs, then I tried a front 3 off the last kicker.
- 1st attempt: Too slow coming into it. – 2nd attempt: Landed but caught an edge on the slush and nose planted. Improvement needed I think..

The light was a bit flat today and the snow was changing very quickly, so it was tough but everybody did well and the winners were well deserved (throwing 3′s, cab 3′s, 5′s and cab 5′s) Well done to Katie who got 3rd!

Me+ Ayla at the bottom of the SS course! Sunshine

On pipe day, it was snowing so bad that there was powder in the middle of the pipe and the wind was blowing really hard! I was finding it really hard to keep up my speed, I got out on my first hit (gained from the drop-in basically) then I just lost it all the way down, no matter how hard I pumped! By the time I got to my 3 and cab 3, I had hardly any speed left at all… I fell on both of my cab 3 attempts, gutted just wasn’t going my way.

On the bright side, these doughnuts are just… perfect.

THE best doughnuts ever...

6:30 – FREESTYLE ACADEMY!
with Nathalie, Ayla & Max, Jake Terry and Richard. I love this place, it’s epic!

- Laid out back flips
- Underflip
- Wildcat
- Double front flip into foam pit
- McTwists
- Hand plants
- Back flip into foam pit

Me and Becky spotting new fashion!?

I easily won my first heat with first gate choice.

In the semi-finals, I was the only team member still in the game! I’m not sure what happened but I lost control ont he roller section and fell. The girl behind me crashed into me form behind. I was in slight schock but I got up and finished the heat in 3rd. At the bottom, I wasn’t feeling too well and chocking blood. It knocked out my confidence to race the small final so I pulled out. So, I finished 8th overall and 3rd in my year group.

Pulling out of the start gate in heat 1!

Also, representing GB were Lewis Courtier-Jones and Henry Shackleton.
There were different nations including Italy, France, The Netherlands, Czech Republic, Sweden, Romania, Chile & Austria.

GB Crew represent!

Thursday, training day!

Event: Lantern walk in forest – Night rail sessions!

Friday, Qualification day!

Bluebird day… Qualified in 1st place, stoked!

Event: Trentino Tour

Saturday Finals and Sunday Italian Nationals

Snowy… Placed 3rd in both!

3rd in the Rookie fest! Haha Yeti!

Me and Ayla in Changabang bar!

My run was, front 3; backside air; nose grab; tweaked stalefish; box; 50-50 on rail; (first time spinning a 3 off big red kickers, haaappppy!)

I never changed my run, I just tried to neaten it up a bit each time.

I was first to drop which was a bit scary! But turned out my first run scored the most points and put me into 3rd place in my category (grom) and overall!

GROM WOMEN

1 MENDAY BECKY (GBR)
2 SUFFYS MANON (BEL)
3 POTTER MAISIE (GBR)
4 LAROCHAIX THALIE (FRA)
5 YANEZ LASALVIA ANTONIA (CHI)
6 THIDLING AYLA (GBR)

3rd! Stoked!

ROOKIE WOMEN

1 NICOLAI LOLA (FRA)
2 SILKSTONE NATHALIE (GBR)
3 LE CORNEC AGATHE (FRA)

GB Giiirliiieees.

Babyfoot players in action!

“Ever heard of Christmas Crackers? Lets just hope you have, because the Italiens haven’t…”

Chairlift with Nathalie & Ayla

Edit very soon… with my backflip!

I arrived on  the Monday morning, whereas the other members of team arrived on Saturday night. My parents and my younger brother came up skiing on day 1. In total there are 3 cable cars to the top of the glacier! It takes approximately an hour and a half so by the time you get to the top you just want to hit the snow!! My family just cruised around skiing for the day.

I joined Simon and Jimbo (The coaches!) and the others in the team, including Jamie Barrow and Thomas Bankes (from last season). The new members included Myles McNeany, Tom Akass, Tom Farrow, Marlies Neuner and Jennifer Osbourne. Lots of tom’s! Nice to meet some new people.

We warmed up with some carving then headed for the pipe, which all helps for boardercross. At 2ish, we’re back at the flat for a rest and a bite to eat but we we’re soon heading out to do some core fitness at 4ish. The fitness was so to see how fit we’d kept that summer. For supper we had a nice spaghetti carbonara. yum…

Tom Akass Photography

Day 2: Tuesday

The resort was closed because of high winds (90km/h)! We chilled in the morning watching Nitro Circus. In the afternoon we wondered around Zermatt which is at the foot of  The Matterhorn. Very Beautiful. It was dumping it down with snow, so we booked a couple of hours in the gym for 4o’clock. For supper we had tortillas…munch…munch…

Day 3: Wednesday

The weather cleared up, yey! We worked on perfecting our finer points of carving technique in wide and little turns. Jimbo filmed our runs to look at later on the TV in the flat.. No fitness. For supper we had chicken, mash and green beans.

Day 4: Thursday

Cold and windy day but not too bad. We rode some pipe and straight-lined some kickers. We all huddled up behind a post and had lunch. The fitness session was more hard-core, we started off doing a 2km run (timed). Next, we did sprints. Five of each distance, best and average times counted. For supper we had spaghetti bolognaise.

Thomas Bankes Photography

Day 5: Friday

Last day… Pipe…Awesome…Tired… Photos…End of week… Sad…Didn’t want to leave…Travel… Home…

Tom Akass Photography

Bring on this season 2011-2012!