FREESTYLE & FREERIDE CAMPS PROFILE FOR JAMES

LOCAL SLOPE: Bracknell Ski Centre

STARTED SKIING: When I was 11, trip to Andorra with friends.

COMP RESULTS: BRITS 06 - Youth male: Gold in the Skiercross, Bronze in the Slopestyle, Silver in the Big Air. AIM Series - Artificial Slope Big Air Champion 2005.

I LOVE SKIING MORE THAN… …anything, it’s the shizzle!

SKIIED IN? Andorra, Germany, Switzerland, France, Canada.

TRICK BAG: 720 + 900 tails and Cork 720’s.

AIMING TO LEARN HOW TO: Cork 900’s and Switch 900’s.

FAVOURITE PRO RIDERS: Pep Fujas - awesome style, max steeze; Candide Thovex, corked 810’s to rail any day; Shane McKonky, for taking freeriding to a new level.

FAV CARTOON HERO: Sponge Bob Square Pants - a legend if there ever was one!

WHY SKI WHEN YOU CAN SNOWBOARD?!: ‘Cos it looks about a million times better, and boarders are a bit poofy! Hah, much respect!

LINE SKIS HOLIDAY & CAMP, APRIL 2006

DIARY BY JAMES

Hey guys, firstly thanks again for the amazing trip and opportunities. Best Ski trip or Camp I’ve ever been on, I would do it again for sure. Never learnt so much in that short space of time! Here is my diary of how the week went:

Day 1 - Friday 31st March

We met the minibus at Dover and crossed the channel heading south.

Day 2 - Saturday 1st April

Bright sunny bluebird day, really hyped up ready to ride. Introduced to all the coaches, Pat, Glen, Slave, Rick and Gav. We all went up to the highest point by lift at the top of the glacier for some photos courtesy of Rick, amazing views but hard walk over flat, found it hard to breathe with the altitude but it was worth it!

Everyone rode switch on this glacier run down, it was amazing to see so many British riders of different standards all skiing down together backwards! Then we all rode down to the Park.

The rest of the day was spent in the Park, I spent the day just getting used to doing bigger jumps and bigger rails again. Unfortunately in the afternoon we had some flat light so I had to stick to the smaller things, like the Pipe and rails. Skiing home was one of the high-lights of the day for me, skiing down as fast as I could, trying to keep up with Glen was awesome! On the way down we found a sort of natural step-up jump which everyone hit.

Later that evening we had out first group meeting where we all got to know each other, learning names and our favourite cheeses! Then, thanks to Matt I had the amazing chance to ride with some of the best skiers and snowboarders in Britain (Dan Wakeham, Paddy Graham etc...) and perform in the BUSC opening ceremony on a big air jump down in town. It was so cool to ride with such experienced people in front of an audience at night! I also landed my first superman front flip! I went home that night tired but ready for tomorrow!

Day 4 - Monday 3rd April

Everyone was so up for riding today after getting their snow legs yesterday. Got into the Park earlier today and the weather was perfect. Spent quite a lot of time in the Pipe, working with Pat and Rick to get some good shots, working on my speed and height, hiked a few times to try and get the biggest hit possible. Had a few runs in the area around the Park, getting some mini off-piste runs, trying to find some powder jumps.

At the meeting that evening we were introduced to the photographers and filmers and told we had to work with them to get our profile together and to make sure we hiked to get more runs.

We had our first group activity this evening where we were shown the LINE 07 range by Rick and were told we could use them throughout the week.

Day 5 - Tuesday 4th April

Several people took out the new LINE skis today so we went freeriding for them to try them out, then we headed for the park. I spent the morning hiking the pipe, getting some pics with Rick and being filmed by Chris. It was one of the most tiring things I’ve ever done but also one of the most satisfying. Then loads of us had a session on the mini-flat double bar rail in the park. It was amazing to see everyone improving so much.

Thanks to the coaches I learnt 270 on, 270 off and switch 270 on, 270 off. It was also amazing to see the LINE skier "Norwegian Steve" (Gaute Haaker) hitting the rail 270 on, switch up, 450 off! Then I started to work on the bigger jumps, getting my old tricks dialled and putting in grabs, getting my first 720 tail grab.

We also went through the Slopestyle course to get used to hitting bigger kickers and doing them all linked together.

That evening we had our first video analysis from to Pat's filming which really helped a lot of people and gave us all a laugh!

Day 6 - Wednesday 5th April

Today was Harry's 12th birthday and unfortunately the only day that wasn't bluebird. It was overcast with strong winds and snow. Only 10 of us braved it and went out for a ride despite the outrageous crapness of the conditions! Aside from the cold and bad visibility we had a really good half day of riding.

The lifts higher up were closed so we stayed low and worked on basics and just tried to make the best of a bad situation. Then we decided to try going higher (just so we could tell all the others who didn’t come out how good it was!) and found the lifts were opening… so we had a great, but cold, ski down. We also had the best hot chocolate ever in a little cafe on the mountain!

That night we went out bowling and celebrated Harry's birthday. It was good to see that although all good skiers, we were not talented at all sports! After bowling we had a few games of pool and then headed back to the hotel to pray for better conditions the next day.

Day 7 - Thursday 6th April

After a days rest from the park everyone was really up for hitting it today and a lot of people nailed new tricks. After a few runs through the pipe and then sessioning the rails a bit some of the Scottish lads and I headed over to the big air.

I worked with Chris as he was filming me, and I worked on tweaking out my 720 tails, then went for the 900 tail. On my first two attempts I could not stick it, but third time lucky I got it! Then I wanted to learn the trick I had been building up to all week… the cork 720. After a lot of 720's and talking to Pat, Glen, and then finally Slavemonkey I went full out for it and landed it. But then I managed to huck the next attempt and totally ate it! But I was happy!