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Published: February 16th 2010
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As I haven't updated for a while i've split this bloggage into 2 parts.
Part 1
Soooooooooooooooo its been a couple o weeks since the last insight into Timmy boys life out here. PLENTY of exam preperation has been occurring and to be honest its been stressing people out a tad. i know it sounds like a hard life going to snowboard school every day (cough cough) but seriously, getting analysed day in day out is actually pretty tiring. Infact i think i can safely say i've put in far far more effort into learning how to get 'RAD' on the old board than I ever did with my GCSEs (i'm sure friends and familly won't find this hard to believe).
The Level one course is split onto two catagories: Riding and Teaching.The teaching aspect is particularly challenging, and has given a very interesting insight into lesson planning and trying to transfer the goal of the lesson into words and demonstrations.
Due to the focus on technique in our riding ability, every one on the course (bar a couple of spuds) are starting to look really stylish and controlled on the mountain.
Last week as I mentioned previously
was particularly stressfull. All week our instructors had been focussing on getting us up to speed for the exam. There definitely has been a lot of pressure put on our instructors to get us all exam ready wich in turn had filtered down to them being a tad moody. Some pretty harsh critisism was being dished out and moral was getting fairly low.
Last Wednesday I volunteered to teach a demo lesson for beginner snow boarders. After starting the lesson I realised that the goal of what i wanted to get across wasn't clear in my mind. After a lot of bumbling along Yuki interupted and gave me a reet good telling off, saying that she was 'very dissapointed' with us all for our lack of prep. Mostly directed at me, I took it on the chin and did MASSES of revision for the rest of the week. Realising that she had been a tad harsh and that I just hadn't quite grasped the lesson plan idea, Yuki, kind of, in a round about way, apologised.
It was a little bit sad that our last weeks tutoring from Yuki was tainted a little, but she was just trying to get
us above standard before the exam.
On the Friday after the week mit stress, an amazing day unfolded. We had all agreed that we would take it easy on the booze front over the weekend as we had exams starting on the Mon 8th feb, so we arranged to meet at the base of whistler at 11 am. About eight of us RAD lads rocked up in various states of hungoverness and unenthusiasm. As we went up in the gondola the mood lightned as we began to observe the snow conditions and the depth of the previous nights snowfall. We decided to head up to 'Harmony' and 'Symphony' bowls to see what fresh pow pow awaited us. We weren't disapointed; the snow was super deep and reletively untracked.
Timmy boy decided that he would follow a few of the guys to a cornice that people had been dropping off. Everyone dropped off it successfully and I was the last one to do it; I landed, turned too quickly and then came the tumble... I started sliding backwards, slowly at first then gathered speed untill I was moving pretty fast and didn't stop for ONE HUNDRED METRES. It would have
all gone reletively unnoticed had it not been for the fact that I was in full view of the ski lift. I stood up, head to toe in snow and got a round of applause from everyone on the lift. Go on O'Connor.
After lots of amazing runs down, including high alpine, more cliff drops and tree runs, we decided to hike to the top of 'Flute bowl'. The hike was pretty gruelling but very atmospheric as we all trekked up through the mist. The run down was incredible. Fresh tracks for everyone on the most epic powder. The day had everybody completely buzzing.
When we came down the mountain we decided to go in to town and have a few jugs of beer to celebrate such an amazing day. As we arrived, guess what turned up? Only the flippin OLYMPIC TORCH! As we sat there, the torch bearer came right into the bar where we were sitting and we all got our pic taken with the torch. It sealed the deal as one of the most memorable days of the course.
Part 2
Last week was JUDGEMENT WEEK. We had all been really well prepped for our
exams and were all doing plenty of revision but needless to say, we were all pretty nervous.
As day 1 unfolded our minds were put at rest slightly. The way the course has been laid out means that there is no stressfull exam type scenario where by you are evaluated on one run down the hill. The evaluator is constantly analyisng everyones riding ability throughout the course and the outcome is judged on that. He was an amazing rider himself and very knowledgeable, so I was very pleased after the first day that he thought my riding was more than up to standard.
We all had a fun time presenting our lessons. Each of us were given a different scenario; for example I had to pretend that I was teaching a group of young athletic skiers that had never snowboarded before. On the last day I had to pretend I was teaching a group of ten year olds how to slide on the heel edge of the board down the mountain. After a lot of super hero analogies and plenty of over exagerated enthusiasm, I turned out a pretty good lesson.
We came down the mountain on the last day
of the course feeling pretty confident about how things went and rightly so cos we all passed! We were all sooooo relieved and extremely pleased with ourselves. Say hello to instructor O'Connor! Any one fancy learning to snowboard?
As you may have read in the press, the weather has been a tad up and down here in whistler. Rain in the village has been fairly common, but what it has meant is that there has been a lot of snow high up on the mountain. On sunday we decided to use our 'fresh tracks' passes on the mountain. This basically entails getting up at five thirty, getting up the mountain for seven thirty and having a HUGE breakfast before hooning about in lots of fresh snow. Fun fun fun.
We decided to head into town later on, a good choice. Huge crowds of people were in the street watching bands and big screens with olympic events on. T.V crews of all nationalitys all around the streets interviewing different people, the place is really buzzing at the moment.
We went into a bar to have a beer and watch some Olympic stuff and suddenly realised they were broad casting
DSC00378
Fresh tracks ticket from the stage right in the middle of the village. A few of us sprinted out and managed to get on T.V! The presenter even aknowledged us crazy chaps in the background and struggled to keep a straight face. On our return to the bar we got a round of applause and had a moment of celebrity. good times.
Avalanche/Backcountry training tomorrow.....mens ski jump on Thursday......its a tough life. Over and out chiefs.
x
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my heart bleeds
Stressful. Snowboarding in Whistler. My heart bleeds for you. Poor, poor Timmy. When you get make sure you take a long break to recover. When do you get back in UK? Seriously, well done mate. Is there any way of seeing a video of you in action on the slopes? See you soon. Prince of Arabia x