Dropping

This week has been all about drops!  On Monday I fell (nearly to my death) down a steep pitch.  For your amusement I can now provide you with an explanatory diagram of my fall – however due to the limitations of WordPress I need to link to the file rather than insert the picture – just click on it and all will be explained…

Chute Fall

Then, on Tuesday, we went and rode some more steeps.  Wednesday we were doing mock lessons for our Level 2 preparation, but we still managed to find some fresh powder after the recent snowfall in Whistler and I also did a small cliff drop.  I landed it, but fell over trying to ride out through the bumpy snow afterwards.  Cliff drops are still one of the scariest things for me, but it is a real buzz when you land them.  Plus on Wednesday we rode some awesome chutes and even found some freshies at 3.30pm on one of our last runs home.  Riding powder is unbeatable.

On Thursday I found out that I can’t get a place in the March exams for Level 2, so rather than ride with the Level 2 crew I rode with the freestyle group.  There are two freestyle groups, one that has black park passes and one for mere mortals.  Still, in the Whistler park there are some pretty big jumps (technically these are tagged as Medium jumps, but trust me they are BIG).  Thursday was the first time that I had ever attempted these jumps, of which there are three in a line.  Before getting to the jumps I had already had my first wipe out of the day when I fell off a box – hitting my legs on the box, and my head on the ground as I came flying off the side.  Undeterred, I hit a couple of small jumps and when Alan (our coach) asked who wanted to hit the bigger jumps I still voluntarily stuck my hand up – although another park of my brain was desperately trying to find out who was controlling my hand.  So…the three medium jumps…gauging your speed for the first jump is ok as you can see where people drop in from and as long as you have the necessary lack of fear and straight line it from there, you too can do the jump.  Hitting the 2nd and 3rd is harder as they are different sizes (the 2nd is a little bigger, and the third slightly smaller) and you have to guess at the speed as there is no stopping between the jumps and you can’t see the landings until you are in the air (as there is a big pile of snow in the way called a jump).  The jumps are probably 6 foot high and, with the correct amount of speed, propel you about 10 – 20 foot through the air before gravity assumes control and returns your feet to the floor.  I nailed all three first time, which is one of the biggest buzzes of my life.  My heart rate was probably close to 200 by the time I got to the end due to the insane and frightening feeling when hitting these jumps!  It is difficult to explain what it feels like to go off a jump at such speed and to be up in the air for so long, but to give you a rough idea what goes through my head: S***, F~~~, C###, I’m going to die, oh look there’s the blue line that marks out the knuckle, am I going to make it past the knuckle or am I going to blow out my knees?, S***, F~~~, YES – I MADE IT!  And then you do it twice more.  Being stupid I then went and hit an even bigger jump at the top of the park which is notable as (a) all the best park riders hit it, (b) people can watch you crash from the chair lift on it, (c) it is much whippier – i.e. although not propelling you any further than the other jumps it throws you loads higher into the air.  This jump scared the **** out of me as well, but I landed it all but one of the times that I tried it.  Also, by the end of the day I was able to do grabs on the three big kickers – not just straight airs over the jump.  Oh, and I hit a wall ride for the first time.  On my final run through the park I fell off the same box that I fell on at the start of the day – this time losing my toe edge and smashing my whole body into the landing (because I fell as I was getting to the end of the box).  Sometimes I wish I was younger.  Still, I managed to hit that box (which you haveto ollie onto) several times inbetween the two crashes that nicely bookended my day in the park.

Friday I went back to the Level 2 crew as there is still a chance of me taking my exams in March, or April if I stay.  Plus on Friday the lesson is always more about having fun and challenging yourself.  So we did some more cliff drops – I did my first cab 180 off a cliff drop – and we rode some seriously difficult tree runs.  One of which brought us out at the top of a 100 foot cliff, which we had to traverse away from to avoid killing ourselves!  Here’s Lance about to drop one of the cliffs.  I should point out that Lance is a coach and the rest of the group weren’t allowed to hit cliffs as big as this one (and yes, it looks a lot bigger in real life).

And then it was Saturday and my lessons for the week were over with.  I rode the park in Blackcomb today and at about 2.30pm my toe-strap broke on my rear binding.  I managed to ride down with no cap-strap, but it was pretty weird riding whilst not attached properly to my board.  Fortunately I got it fixed for free.

Other things that happened this week:

- I ran into a kid when racing down the piste on our last run on Friday.
- I didn’t win anything at the free giveaway that Anthony has most weeks (this is 8 weeks without winning anything!)
- UCLA won the Pac 10 BB tournament (beating my bro’s university along the way)
- Norwich continued to play poor football

That’s it for now.  Only 2 weeks left, unless I stay longer