Yo Yo Yo & So the training begins

21/07/2010
Its been a few days since I blogged so I thought I would put some thoughts down as well as what I have been upto.
Man I am tired right now, training started this week with Rob Gordon and its been an intense 2 days of riding. Yesterday we started and had a real focus on lateral balance on our snowboard whilst performing high performance steep riding. We have been told to pretty much put level 2 riding out of our mind. Level 3 is wayyy more technical and on far more challenging terrain. I have struggled through the last 2 days of training, its been hard taking all of the things I have learnt out of riding and adapting to this new style, however I have learnt loads. I am going to really try and take it on during and in my practise time of riding.
In training Rob ran through a level 3 standard lesson, and loads of freestyle work. Then in the afternoon it was carving on super steep terrain. I have been told to really work on opening up my stance, I am finding it pretty difficult but its good because it shows I am adapting to a new way of riding. I think with a couple of days of practise I have I will get this down. We had a classroom session in the morning because the weather sucked. We discussed the standard of teaching that is required for level 3 and there is a huge difference between the level of movement analysis and teaching in level 3.
It should be all good I just need to work hard on and off the hill. I havent been going to the gym as often as I would like, but I’ll start back up again tonight, its hard to find the time, between riding, making dinner, eating and studying to actually go but I seriously need to make the time for sure.
Level 3 hands over responsibility of learning to the pupils, Rob is purely there to coach and facilitate discussion to aid our learning.
Matt Arnstein is really taking to the training well and looking super solid on his board. He is a real good rider and not only am I learning lots from Rob, but him too. He has been riding for a couple of seasons both of which were spent snowboard instructing also. I am very impressed with him.
More impressive is the machine that is Rob Gordon, the guy is an absolute powerhouse of a rider, he is sooo solid and technically incredible. Today he did the keg to peak challenge, which is basically a 17k bike ride from the bottom of the mountain to the base of the mountain, a hike from base to the summit of the mountain, which is about 1500 meters of mountain vertical to hike, then snowboard from the peak back to the base of the mountain and run down the hill, he did it in 6 hrs. It’s an incredible display of athleticism. The kind of fitness levels I could only dream of.
Things are a bit patchy in terms of what I have been upto, but I remember my first day off in a week last Sunday being oh so sweet. I had an amazing lye in, washed everything from myself, my clothes and my room. I had an incredible bath to help my joints and muscles and spoke to my folks. Sad news at home about my uncle Dinesh, he is having an operation to remove his lymph nodes in his legs. So sad...they might be malignant so its the only option to avoid the risk of the cancer spreading. The man hasn’t been given a break in life, just constant struggle and suffering. Hopefully he will be ok coming out of surgery, I can only pray for him.
After my incredible morning I hitched up in the morning with a called Kai and a couple of his friends, I rode with them for bit, and then lost them and found Sinead and Tom Dixon, we shredded hard in the afternoon, Tom Dixon is the jibbiest person ever, so fun to ride with, he pushed me super hard and I pulled off some crazy stuff. I was surprisingly daring, I did 2 clean style 540’s, 2 switch back 3’s and my first ever front shifty back 3 of a huge cut out transition jump. It was soo much fun, he got me soo amped for riding it was amazing.
I am thinking for the sake of my body I need to relax tomo and not ride its been 4 hard days on the trot, today I practised all the stuff I learnt this week with Rob and rode with Matt Arnstein and Tony. It was a lot of fun but I am here writing this now, I cut the day short just so I could chill and get some stuff sorted for sure.
Sunday night I won a game of poker which was rad, I thought I was going to lose but when it was down to me and Tony, I took it on an all in hand I had ace high and he had 2 kings after the flop, however on the turn and the river 2 Aces came out!! I had a 3 of a kind and took the pot! It was awesome!!
Last night I went out to the Turoa lodge again, it was ok...kinda boring, you would think if i drank i might have a better time, and you are probably right, but I would rather go out and have a good night without it.
Not sure there is much else my board should be here soon hopefully!
Peace and love!