Hey all, apologies for the delay in updating but I’ve been tired….I still am tired but as I’m on lunch I thought I’d fill you in on the weekend.
Saturday was a long day! 24 hours long in fact! A 6am start was required as I needed to pack up all the boarding gear for the boyf and me in anticipation for the day’s visits to MK Xscape and Tamworth snowdome. It was comp day again and having arrived at MK around 9am I set about meeting friends and catching up on gossip. The slope style set up looked awesome from the window, and I was soon looking forward to hitting the slopes.
Boardercross (racing) was the first discipline and the course was a bit straighter and more bumpy than last year……..I managed to front-flip off the kicker in warm-up but survived unscathed and made it to the race in one piece. My heat was carnage, there were 4 over 30’s involved and I think everyone fell over at least once; I managed to cross the line in 3rd place winning myself a goody bag filled with loads of cool stuff.
I have to say that the AIM guys did a great job with both courses considering that MK in their wisdom had removed tonnes of snow the week before, leaving a lovely ice block base with fresh snow on top. The problem was there wasn’t enough fresh snow, what there was wasn’t bonding to the base or itself so the ice was showing through and was only going to get worse.
Following the boardercross it was over to the slope style – this was a jam session for 30 minutes with all the girls riding together. The ice was really bad by this point making it quite a struggle to get fully settled on the run-ins and landing but we all gave it a go (some more successfully than others). I was happy to get some good riding done on the monster kink rail (the one that bit me at Bracknell) and the new “Red Bull” sponsored stair box they’ve built as well. The session finished with another 3rd place in Masters and another full goody bag so I can’t complain. I have to say I was really pleased that Jules Chappell not only won the Masters but placed 3rd overall beating a number of younger riders…..just going to show that life doesn’t end at 30! YAY Jules!
So the prize giving over it was a further 75 mile drive to Tamworth getting there just in time for the 10pm session……I love Tamworth, it’s my fave slope and I had a great session there (even though I had to stop at 1am ‘cos I was knackered). It was great to get to a well maintained slope and ride with all my mates, and even better to see Forum Snowboard’s team manager, Jon Weaver, checking out the set-up and planning for next weeks Forum Youngblood comp (I’m too old to enter this).
So the session ended at 1:30am and it was out to the car park for our mate Stu’s 30th birthday BBQ……left there at 3ish back home for 5:30am and then off to bed…….a very exhausting, fun and productive 24 hours!
Thanks to everyone who supported me on Saturday, especially the Vermin Crew….HOLLA!