Fair Weather Racing

On -20, snowy chairlift rides wearing nothing but a thin layer of spandex I start to question my insanity.  If I wasn't so addicted to the mountains and the white fluffy stuff that covers them there is no way you could get me out into the cold. Recently I've discovered there are other ways to enjoy the thrills of racing in mild even hot climates!

On concrete
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzbWpcrxGSI

On grass
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFqTeYJbuEs

On turf
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8SiZ5RZp9U

I won't have to even wear a speed suit or invest in goggles!!

Big Bertha Bruising is Back

When I was still in High School, I would come back from a ski trip and the latest bruises I had to showcase would alarm my fellow class mates and make my teachers question domestic violence. However, for some reason I just naturally seem more prone to bruising then any other skier, I know. I guess I am  repetitively  hitting hard cold plastic at 100km/h but my bruises get bigger and brighter then some one who has been in a car crash. After two weeks of speed and wearing arm protection, this is what I returned home sporting....

This is NOT even close to the biggest, brightest bruise.... 

Chile 2011

Both arms from hitting gates

From crashing

Red Mountain 2010

From crashing and landing on my ski

This recent bruising is all on my left arm without a mark on my right. It seemed weird but I figured my right footed turns were just better than my left and therefore I was hitting the gates harder on that side. My old Castle Mountain coach Jean-Marc who is now coaching with Calgary Alpine approached me in Apex and said he noticed I was having trouble initiating the top of my right footed turns. He said he has been observing this problem for a while and believes that it could be a problem with my boot alignment. After the speed Norams I went to Lou's Ski Shop in Calgary where he had me stand in my ski boots, on a pressure pad and we discovered that
75% of my pressure was on to the outside and 25% to the inside with more naturally on my right foot. It should be 50/50 for everything. To move the pressure more even it took five minutes. All we did was move the cuffs of my boots out, and a little further out on my right then left. What a difference!!!! Now I'm able to effortlessly roll my skis on edge! The bruising it turns out was due to the fact that I didn't have time to start the top of the turn on most of my right footers and to compensate I was twisting my body and hitting gates in places where there wasn't padding on my arms.

The slight adjustment to my boots was instantly apparent. Right after I had a successful Super G series at the Nakiska Vanhoutte Cup where I took my first win of the season and was on the podium all three days. I was home for a week skiing powder at Castle and was again amazed by my new control. I'm now in Sunpeaks training SL and GS. I am super excited to get my technical events tuned up and to further my alignment experiments. Hopefully this is the fix I needed to keep my bruises at bay!