FREESTYLE & FREERIDE CAMPS PROFILE FOR DANIEL

LOCAL SLOPE: Midlothian Ski Centre, Hillend, Edinburgh

STARTED SKIING: I started skiing when I was 12, then freestyle when I was 13 because I saw it on the Extreme Sports Channel.

COMP RESULTS: 3rd in Big Air in age group at White Out. 3rd in age group in Orange AIM Series, 9th overall in Big Air Orange AIM Series 2003.

I LOVE SKIING MORE THAN… …a fat kid loves cake.

SKIIED IN? Scotland, France.

TRICK BAG: 540 Ninjas, stylish 360 tails/mutes.

AIMING TO LEARN HOW TO: To land 720s all the time with nice grabs.

FAVOURITE PRO RIDERS: Jon Olson - so stylish, best skier alive, followed by TJ Schiller!

FAV CARTOON HERO: Johnny Bravo because he has a tank, like me (built like one).

LINE SKIS HOLIDAY & CAMP, APRIL 2006

DIARY BY DANIEL

Day 1/2 - Friday 31st March to Saturday 1st April

We arrived in Les Deux Alpes at 2.30pm after at least a day’s drive from Edinburgh, which was a bit of a nightmare but was worth it in the end. Once we had got settled in our rooms we met all of the other people that were taking part in the ski adventure. In the meeting we all introduced ourselves to the other freestyle skiers. It was good as it gave us time to know each other’s names and skiing backgrounds which was very interesting as everyone was different in some sort of way.

We were then allowed to go and explore the resort so we headed for the games arcade which was good fun, until we looked at our wallets after it! We then went back to the Hotel to get our dinner which was really nice, then to bed to get an early night’s rest for the big day’s skiing the coaches had for us the next day.

Day 3 - Sunday 2nd April

I got woken up by my phone alarm at 7:30am. I was really excited about going skiing on snow for the first time in my life. I woke up the rest of the room and we got all our ski stuff ready to go skiing. We had to get some food inside us as well so we went and got breakfast. After breakfast we got our lift passes and everything else ready and headed for the gondola which was only a 5 minute walk from our hotel, which was good.

The gondola seemed to take forever as I was so used to getting the chair lift at Hillend, which only takes 5 minutes to get to the top! As we started to ski there was this powder section that we were allowed to ski down… it was so funny as almost everyone fell doing it, including me, not a great start to the day!

We then got lots of different chairlifts up to the glacier, which was amazing as the views were magnificent. We were told that we were at the highest skiing point in Europe accessible by lifts, it felt so good. We got some photos taken and then skied down the hill to the Park. We took it easy this day, as it was the first. Eventually we skied back to the Hotel, then we went to the opening of the BUSC competition which was a Big Air jam session which was really good fun to watch.

Day 4 - Monday 3rd April

After breakfast we headed up to the Park, once we got there the coaches showed us around to get our bearings and then we dropped off our bags at the Park hut and went straight up to the jumps and rails. I started off hitting the smaller rails and jumps as I was just starting to get used to the difference between them and dry slope jumps. So for that day I just worked on hitting the smaller stuff as it was really the first day in the Park. We had lunch and then continued on with jibbing the rails and the jumps and Halfpipe.

Day 5 - Tuesday 4th April

I woke up not felling my best, as my shins were hurting alot but I still went up to the Park in the morning. As it reached the afternoon I was in too much pain to carry on skiing so me and a friend decided to head back to the Hotel for a break. After a shower I crashed out for a sleep!

Day 6 - Wednesday 5th April

On Wednesday I didn’t feel so good either as my shins were still hurting. The weather was pretty bad so I thought it would be good to have another day off resting, along with most of the group.

That night we all went out for a game of bowling which was really good fun as everyone was just having a good laugh and joking about.

Day 7 - Thursday 6th April

I woke feeling really good today and the weather was great so I went down got breakfast and walked to the gondola. We went straight to the Park which was freshly groomed, everything was looking perfect. I started hitting the smaller kickers then headed off to the bigger ones which were really smooth and nice to hit, I felt that I was doing really well on them. I did this for the whole day, as it was something I wanted to work on and I enjoyed doing it.

Later we went back to the Hotel and we watched footage of that day’s skiing and I was really impressed by myself, as there was a lot of me on it.

Day 8 - Friday 7th April

Friday was a different day because instead of going to the jumps all day a group of us decided to go of with Gav and do some off-piste skiing that was amazing, it was so good just to see different parts of the mountain and ski them, then looking back to see the runs we had done was amazing.

We then headed back home a wee bit earlier as we had to clean our rooms and get packed. Also one of the coaches talked to us about avalanches that was really interesting. He also talked about the tracking devices as well and even took us outside to test them which was really good fun. The only bad thing was we were leaving the next again day!

Day 9 - Saturday 8th April

We got up not feeling so great as we knew that we were leaving today so we were all kind of depressed because of this! Some went skiing for a bit while others stayed at the Hotel finishing of the packing that they had to do. I stayed as my shins were hurting a bit.

After packing a group of us walked around the town before the rest got back. Once they did and had showered we packed the minibus ready to leave. After everyone was ready we said our final farewells and then had the long trip home back to Edinburgh!

Daniel