FREESTYLE & FREERIDE CAMPS PROFILE FOR PAUL

LOCAL SLOPE: Bracknell Ski Centre

STARTED SKIING: 1981 - it sounded fun when some work friends suggested it!

I LOVE SKIING MORE THAN… …most stuff, but sailing and mountain climbing are pretty cool too!

SKIIED IN? Austria, Italy, France, Bulgaria, Germany, Andora and Switzerland.

TRICK BAG: 180’s, box slides, Straight airs, pipe turns and almost allyoops.

AIMING TO LEARN HOW TO: 360, rail slides, switch 180’s

FAVOURITE PRO RIDERS: Local heroes like Pat Sharples, Andy Bennett, Mike Wakefield and Paddy Graham. (Love the DVD ‘Yearbook” with U.S Pro’s, too many to mention!)

ANY WISE WORDS?! Like to encourage riders of all ages to get in the freestyle park - its fun and makes you a better skier!

LINE SKIS HOLIDAY & CAMP, APRIL 2006

DIARY BY PAUL

Day 1 - Friday 31st March

Friday afternoon… with all the well meaning plans about being ready on Thursday long gone… we shove everything in the car, keeping to the minimum number of bags possible; “pack like a you are in the Navy”, Line Head Honco Matt had instructed but having failed my Navy medical I had never found out how you pack in the Navy! Nevermind stuff it all in and get going.

My son James and I set off from home in Berkshire with just enough time to get to Dover for our target of 8pm if there were no bad delays. It worked out, just, and by 8:25pm we had parked the car in the Dover long term and were waiting to meet our fellow travellers.

Rick rolled in first with the minibus from Edinburgh, he still looked fresh despite having driven all day, the bus looked very full with vague Scottish noises coming from the back. Matt arrived soon after with the second bus, there was a general sorting out of luggage and who was on which bus and then we headed to the ferry. There was a big range of people, three who looked punky, seven lads from the Scottish Hillend slope all wearing t-shirts with their names on, one young lady Chloe and several others - it was clear to me that at 49 years of age I was the elder statesman in this group in fact it was unlikely anyone else was over 30 and that included the organisers! [Very kind Paul, but sadly not true! Ed.]

As we all piled off the buses on the ferry decks it was a strange experience as after only a few minutes of meeting I could recognize less than half the team and we could be standing next to one of them in the food queue without realising! We ran into several other people we knew on the ferry all going for ski holidays but none sounded as promising to our ears as a freestyle training week!

Day 2 - Saturday 1st April

The ferry soon reached Calais and it was time for James and me to fulfil our part of the deal. We had agreed to give Rick a rest & drive the nightshift, me driving and James keeping me awake. It was a bizarre experience I was sitting in the dark in a 17 seat minibus I had never driven before about to transport about 12 other soles hopefully safely to the south of France. I need not have worried as the miles rolled by, as always when driving in France I was struck by how easy it is to drive long distances on their uncluttered road system, even when wet. I drove until day break and then Rick took over and after that it was pretty plan sailing and we arrived in Les Deux Alpes at about 1pm in a mix of sleet & rain.

The hotel looked very nice, near the slopes with fantastic views from the restaurant. We strolled around the town in the slush for a bit waiting for our rooms to be ready and then after unpacking we had a meeting which introduced us to each other and some of the coaches. The basic plan of the each day would be breakfast at 8am, meet in the gym at 8:30am, out by 8:45am, ski until about 4pm, meeting at 6:30pm, dinner at 7:30pm with some evening activities particularly for those on the camp package i.e. the under 18s.

Day 3 - Sunday 2nd April

[Weather - blue skies & sun.]

We were divided in groups of 5 to a coach for accountability purposes, and then hit the lifts. I guess most were a little apprehensive wondering what the standard would be like but no need to have worried, on been give the order to follow Gavin Carruthers to the first rendezvous point 23+ pairs of twin tips skis hit the piste skiing in close formation, people starting going switch, looking for little jumps and so on, all having fun.

After the first stop we went down some steep off piste powder that did spread the group out a bit as some had never been in powder before and most fell over; in fact for two of the Hillend crew it was there first ski holiday but that didn’t stop them talking the powder! It just shows how much adaptability can be learnt skiing freestyle on a dry slope. For the rest of the day everyone just had big grins - this was going to be great!

We had a quick tour to the highest area of the resort and the chance to be filmed by Eddie “Slave Monkey” Thelwell, skiing switch down a gentle run. From these high runs we could see glimpses of the snowpark, it looked good but so did the off-piste bits between the runs with fresh powder. We skied down to lunch via the skier cross course which would become part of our morning routine.

We had a picnic lunch beneath the park and in the afternoon we started to get familiar with it. There was a fairly big slopestyle course still being groomed for the British Unive rsity Snowsports Council (BUSC) events that would be happening the same week in the resort. Beside that a couple of medium jumps and a step-up leading to a good sized half pipe and above that to the left a whole series of smaller jumps and rails alongside a big air jump served by a drag lift. We mostly played on the smaller jumps and rails in the afternoon, though I did have a run through the jumps and halfpipe.

The run home was again a mass transit of freestylers having a ball, we stopped on a natural jump on the lower slopes as we would every day for a bit of old school jumping.

The evening activity after dinner was to watch the BUSC opening ceremony of a dual slalom & pro am big air exhibition. Matt asked James to take part in the Big Air, I was a little worried, he had done exhibition jumps before in front of large crowds but in situations where he was clearly the best skier - how would he shape up here? I need not have been concerned, he was soon jamming with Pat Sharples, Paddy Graham, Murray Buchan and others quite happily, he nearly landed a nine & threw in a crowd pleasing front flip.

Day 4 - Monday 3rd April

[Weather - blue skies & sun.]

I spent the morning being coached by Pat Sharples in the half pipe - I really enjoyed the feeling of getting less scared of coming over the lip. In the afternoon I worked on 180s with Rick, although I had a basic 180 it was really a scrape round on top of a jump so I needed to rebuild it to make a proper pop & turn in the air - this was going to take some work. I think this was the day that Noddy Gowans dropped by and did a huge cliff jump just near the snowpark, it was wonderful to see such a thing done in front of your eyes. The first injury of the holiday happened to big mountain skier Joe who skewed his landing on the old school jump on the way down & crashed into Chloe, she was unhurt but Joe hurt his knee a bit and he skied little after this.

Evening Activity - review of the 2007 range of LINE skies by Rick - we can start using them tomorrow.

About 75% of the people on the Camp are clearly not using enough sun cream despite Matt’s reminders, a lot of panda eyes starting to appear!

Day 5 - Tuesday 4th April

[Weather - blue skies & sun.]

I chose to try the new Chronics first , I found them difficult in powder and kept falling in the half pipe but they went like a dream in straight airs over the jumps, they were some 17cm longer than my 1080s and a lot stiffer, I wasn’t looking forward to trying the Anthems in the afternoon which were longer still. However I was completely surprised to find that the Anthems were fantastic, I was a bit unsure at first but hooked up with Glen Lawley, James & Charlie doing the slopestyle course and screwed up my courage to do one of the course jumps which went fine, I could not believe how long the run in for it was, I also did the side of the hip & the mini half pipe. Glen & Pat then gave me some help on 180s which seemed to start to work though watching it on the video later I realised I still had to tidy it up with a clean landing, skiing away switch with straight skis.

The Anthems really cut through the slushy crud on the lower slopes on the way home, I felt really in control. I think this was the day when the second injury happened, when Jamie Dewar was the unlucky person to find out how the run- in to the big air softened and slowed in the afternoon sun - he landed on the flat just short of the knuckle & double ejected from his skis, ending up with very painful heels.

Evening activity was video feedback by Pat with the coaches, before Pat, Slave & Paddy departed to take part in the Fat Face competition on Wednesday evening in Tignes. Pat was commentating at the comp, Paddy competing & Slave driving. It was part of the fascination of the week to find out more about the world of full-time skiers and was certainly an education for my son. Paddy came 2nd in the competition.

Day 6 - Wednesday 5th April

[Weather - rain in the town & light snow with high winds on the piste, higher slopes & lifts closed.]

Harry’s birthday, the youngest member of the part was 12 today. Although the weather was worse about half the party still decided to give it a go, leaving the others for a rest day for injuries & tired limbs.

We avoided the park as the light was too bad for landings but skied several pistes and had hot chocolate in a delightful mountain café with wood fire & chintz curtains. I skied the Line Elizabeths, they were amazing, they were the fattest skies we had with us and I had no idea if I would be able to ski them but they just seemed to glide through anything. I was enjoying them so much that I persuaded Gav & Tom to ski another run after the others went down. We did the Les Deux Alpes version of the Grand Couloir, not as difficult or as steep as the one in Courchevel but in the conditions challenging enough and I completely forgot what big skis I was riding.

Evening activity was celebrating Harry’s birthday and going tenpin bowling. A good time was had by all and probably the most alcoholic night for most of us!

Day 7 - Thursday 6th April

[Weather - blue skies & sun.]

The return of good weather put us back in the park again, I took the 171cm Invaders and got on with them as well or better than the Anthems. We started with some photo shoots at a natural fence jump & in the half pipe. I was pleased to find that Rick had a picture of me in the half pipe with the bottom of both skis above the lip (just!). I didn’t try the fence jump at the time but later in the day with Gav I gave it a go but did not pop enough, catching the tip of one ski on the fence sending me somersaulting down into the powder completely without injury, in fact it gave me enough courage to try some small rock jumps in the same area so I was really glad I had tried.

In the afternoon I turned my attention to rails with help from various coaches but try as I did, I simply did not have the confidence to fully commit. However I picked up a lot of good tips and at least rails is something that is easy to work on back in England! The only complaint I would have about the park in Les Deux Alpes was that the boxes there were too slow & sticky to ride and I felt I needed to get my confidence on a box before going to the rails.

Evening activity was informal, I spent an hour or two filming James & Charlie doing some street rails near the hotel.

Day 8 - Friday 7th April

[Weather - blue skies & sun.]

I took the Invaders again and we headed for a quick photo shoot in the slopestyle course before it was to be used by BUSC for the rest of the day. They wanted us to take the hip full-on, straight over the top, I had never done this so I asked Pat if he could demonstrate and then went straight after him - what a great feeling! I hiked up to do it twice more and was very proud of myself.

I stayed with James, Charlie & Pat for the morning and worked on taking enough run-up and air on the jumps and step-ups on the lead-in to the half pipe, my confidence was really building.

In the afternoon I had another go at rails and then got Chris to film my improving 180s on the small jumps which I was taking with confidence, the plan was to build to switch 180s & 360s by the end of the holiday. I discussed this with Rick & Gav and decided I needed more height so I took a longer run in and launched myself. I turned in the air as I had been trained to do but seemed to stretch forward more on the landing and felt a sharp tearing pain in my right calf. After applying snow I was able to ski down with the team but it was a very frustrating end to my skiing for this holiday, when I had been enjoying myself so much and thus I became the 3rd injury… but like the others we had not needed any medical intervention and all-in-all Matt ran a very safe camp with people working within their abilities. I don’t think the same could be said of the BUSC competitions who had the helicopter busy all week flying out the serious casualties!

Evening activity for me was several medicinal beers and a Sauna/Jacuzzi in the hotel. The planned activity that evening was how to use avalanche transponders, then packing and completing feedback forms.

Day 9 - Saturday 8th April

[Weather - blue skies & sun.]

No skiing for me today but more than half the crew went up, I hobbled around the hotel and town doing some packing and organising a card, presents for the coaches & helpers, unfortunately many of the younger team members were running short of money so we had to keep it simple but I hope the gesture showed that we really did appreciate what a wonderful time we all had. [It certainly did, thanks again everyone! Ed]

The time went quickly and before long it was 4pm and we were taking last pictures and loading up the two minibuses.

Day 10 - Sunday 9th April

On the Scottish bus again, Rick drove the first shift, he started at 4.40pm and handed over to me after only two stops at 10:10pm, I then drove through the night and we were surprised to find ourselves in Calais at 2.30am, over three & half hours early for our ferry! It’s strange how the journey home seems easier. We took an early ferry and were in England by 5am Sunday morning. James and I left the team in Dover and made our way back to Berkshire via West Wycombe to drop off Joe.

Reflections on the Trip

Any regrets?

I wish I had ignored rails and focused on jumps more and then I might have got to 360s in the week.

I wish this sport had been around when I was 16!

Positives?

I am very pleased that I now have an understanding of some basic skills to build on and to help me encourage others who come to Bracknell dry slope.

My leg is nearly better and I look forward to testing out what I have learnt in the next few weeks, I was able to teach on it the following Wednesday.

James got an enormous benefit from the week in terms of skills, contacts & knowledge. He will build on that as he decides how to spend the next few years of his life.

Did I feel out of place being so much older? No not at all, I think once you are sking all cultural, age, style differences go out the window! If you like to freestyle ski little else matters, the pecking order is established in the level of skill and I am very used to accepting ski tips from youngsters who seem happy to encourage me and accept me as part of the group.

We are very happy to have met so many new faces to add to those we already know from the AIM Series & other events in the UK.

One of the best holidays of my life, can’t wait to see the professional photos & videos!

Paul

[Saturday 15th April 2006]