I have now been in Calgary at the Team GB Winter Olympic holding camp for a week. The week has passed very quickly, seemingly in flashes of jet lag effected strobe lightness, so that I find myself with a bit of a blank spot as to where the time has gone and what I was doing. Certainly, we rode in a World Cup event and settled ourselves in and managed to finally fill out all our ADAMS info, more of which to come, and also quietly, and without fuss, said our goodbyes to Snowspot GB. I did say in my last post that I would come back to the SSGB subject but now feel there is no need. It is fully explained to the reader by the fact that the company set up to look after elite snowsport athletes has gone into administration two weeks before the start of the Winter Olympics! That says it all really, no need for the finer details.
So, to the ADAMS I spoke of earlier. Who is this Adam chap, I hear you cry. Is he part of the BOA? A pipe rider that nobody has heard of, or perhaps Gend has snuck his way in to the holding camp ready to make a music video with all the Olympic athletes dancing around in their matching shell suits like the footballers do before the World Cup. No, ADAMS is the name for the system that we have to use to document our whereabouts from now until the end of the Olympics. What the general public do not realize, is that athletes have to account for their whereabouts every day of the week, for the whole month of Feb. In fact, some have to do it all year round. It is a bit like being on remand but we have not actually done anything wrong. In years gone by, we had to give an hour, 5 days a week where we had to be where we said we were going to be so the drug testers could turn up un- announced and test us for all those performance enhancing drugs that are likely to help you ride the half pipe better and to which we pipe riders may turn in our hour of weakness in the hope they might help both take away the fear of flying 4 m high above a sheet ice wall, traveling at around 40mph, spinning and flipping, while at the same time enhancing our physical capability to time our movements perfectly to land from 4 m up after a 1080 degree rotation. (what are these magical substances? I hear you say. Well, your guess is as good as ours!) Anyway, we had to give our whereabouts for an hour 5 days a week. Pretty annoying, to be honest, but sort of manageable, after a fashion. As long as you remembered to text the change of address when you decided staying at your sisters house after a couple of glasses of wine with dinner meant driving home was a bad idea! Now, this time, ADAM has got more demanding. Like a needy child he now wants to know where we are an hour of every day of the week and more. He wants to know where we are for breakfast, lunch and dinner and he also wants to know where we will train all day; every day of the week; for the whole time we are here.
Someone asked me recently what the Olympic village will be like. I am sure it will be lovely and very well equipped. Modern, and clean and warm and cosy. I will have everything I need to do the best job I can in my sport. I will also have a nice new hi tech big brother style shackle. I’ve called mine Adam. For now though, Adam is still himself locked in the on line cupboard and I am free to roam Calgary wherever I want, whenever I want, for another couple of days; eating lunch on a whim in whatever eaterie takes my fancy and generally going with the flow.

Sitting on the plane heading towards Calgary and my third outing at the largest sporting event in the world, I can’t quite fail to recognize the absurdity of the situation. The many twists and turns and eddies of fate that have conspired to put me here and will continue to orchestrate the currents of destiny, for the next few weeks and beyond. I am one of a party of four traveling to Calgary as the Great British halfpipe snowboard team. Myself, fellow rider Ben Kilner, coach Leo Addington and physio Rob Madden. We all boarded in Heathrow Terminal 5 as guests of BA, which was just as well as if we had had to pay for the crazy amount of baggage we have with us we might have been bankrupt before we set off. A bit like SSGB might soon be, but more of that later.

We are headed to the official holding camp in Calgary where we will spend the next few weeks training and getting ready for the proceeding weeks of the actual Winter Olympic Games. The holding camp is a half- way house between the normal snowboarding calendar and the once every four years madness and excitement that is the Winter Olympics. We will stay with other Team GB athletes from other winter Olympic sports and get to know them and the other staff that will be working in the British camp of the Vancouver Olympic Village so that we are slowly acclimatized to the somewhat alien, (to us snowboarders anyway) team uniformed world of National Olympic Team shell suit existence. Don’t get me wrong, the team kit is pretty cool and we are certainly extremely well provided for with top of the range Adidas sports clothing. It is just slightly strange for snowboarders to be in this situation, as we are normally not dressed in Team Country uniform and like to at least kid ourselves on that we pride ourselves in being individuals who interpret the latest fashion in our own unique way.

Which brings me back to the shade of absurdness positioned as the backdrop earlier. Why, might you ask, is it absurd to be heading towards participating in my third Winter Olympics? Why not recognize the situation as one of excitement, anticipation, nervousness perhaps, or relief on making the qualification? These suggestions would have needed some degree of pre-planning though, a certain pre determination on arrival at a final goal, which I just did not have the luxury to afford this time around. I am here as if on a whim, almost as a chance of fate, in the best possible way, of course. I really never thought I would make it to three Olympics as a snowboarder.

Competitive snowboarding for me has become, or rather has returned to being, somewhat of a hobby in the last few years. Maybe out of necessity rather than choice, I may hasten to add, but it is a fact all the same. When I can, I ride the pipe, and if it fits in to the rest of what I have going on, then I do a pipe contest. I really enjoy riding the pipe and I more often than not also really enjoy riding pipe contests but I certainly can not afford to make it my full time profession. If I am truly honest I equally enjoy big mountain powder free riding but also, can not afford to make that my full time profession. And I do not think that I would be happy right now if either were my full time profession as I mean afford in a truly holistic sense.

Snowboarding has changed in ways I never thought possible eight years ago, sitting on the plane bound for the Salt Lake City 2002 Winter Olympic Games. Back then, there were very few riders who could truthfully call themselves professional snowboarders, in the sense that they were making a substantial living from competing in halfpipe contests, or riding powder for that matter. We were a seemingly rag tag group of like minded, talented, athletic and adventurous individuals with a penchant for risk taking and challenging boundaries, not just in our sport, but in life in general. We had built an admirably strong worldwide community of fellow snowboard visionaries, and were doing our own thing to a new, worldwide, audience of smitten general public. Who, no longer used to taking risks in their own lives, and no longer able to access their imagination to find their own adventure, became besotted by the ‘X’ factor. We were also fortunate to be supported by a young but growing boardsports industry, keen to promote the message of freedom and encourage its’ young knights in their ambitious quests.

Snowboarding became the media darling at the Salt Lake Winter Olympics, which not only brought a large rise in mainstream popularity and an increase in snowboard retail business, great for core sponsorship and the riders who were supported by this, but attracted many keen non core brands with large budgets, ready to associate themselves with these brave new pioneers of cool modern Xtreme sport and attitude.

Fast- forward through the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics to the present day, and Shaun White is a national sporting icon in the USA. A figure carved into the national psyche as a modern day sporting hero for the gaming generation. Where generation X took to the slopes in grunge filled rejection of 80’s consumerism, generation X-box have taken to consumerism in reaction to the idolized marketing of the wistful gen X, post seasonaires, now often running the marketing departments of the many companies propping up the modern day circus that showcases Xtreme sports. There are now many young riders who can state claim to the profession of professional snowboarder, making more than a comfortable living from competing in the sport they love. These riders are not just young Americans, but are from all over the developed world. Europe, and Japan, New Zealand and Australia to name a few. Add to these riders, the emergence of a talented and extremely well trained group of government sponsored Chinese riders and it is easy to see why the sport has not only progressed so much in such a short time but become one of the fastest growing sports in the world.

Where does the Vancouver Olympics sit in this developing story and what of the absurdity of my situation? The absurdity comes from the feeling of happiness I have that I will be one of very few riders at the Vancouver Games to also have been at the Salt Lake Games, and even more so, from the fact that I will be one of the very few riders there belonging to the group termed generation X as opposed to the majority of the other riders who, as well as never having heard of Primal Scream, 60 ft Dolls or Ned’s Atomic Dustbin, will certainly know their way around an X box better than me! Absurd because, back then, I would have delighted at the thought that snowboarding would conquer the world as it has done. I would have marveled to think that there would be a world famous snowboarding sporting hero, red hair and all, spinning and flipping his way into the very psyches of the people that I thought would just never ‘get it’. I would have been high on the enthusiasm, albeit it temporary, of the mainstream sporting media to know more about my great sport, but, now, well, I just have the uneasy feeling that you have to be careful what you hope for. The feeling that you get when you find out that the grass is just as green on one side of the fence as on the other. The feeling you get when you buy an apple in the US that is twice the size of the ones in the UK yet lacks that distictely apple taste. The lingering wonder in the back of my mind as to whether the grass is fake or not. Perhaps this is a feeling inherent to my generation? Perhaps I am cynically seeking that fountain of youth no longer accesable to the over thirties, even halfpipe riding ones. But something tells me this is not the case. Something tells me that the feeling I have is related to the general state of things, not just snowboarding.

I have just been in Laax at the European Open with the Roxy Team and what a way to kick off the 2010 season, we won both the slopestyle and halfpipe titles and had many top ten finishes. As well as being there as the Roxy Team Manager and coach I rode in the pipe contest myself. I thought it would be good to get in a bit of practice for the up coming Olympic Games! The pipe in Laax is one of my favourite pipes in the world and the Burton European Open is one of my all time favourite events. It is where I get to catch up with all my European snowboarding friends and many a good snowboard plan is hatched here for the rest of the season!

Here I am flying high in the Laax pipe.

In the slopestyle event it was the young Finnish rider Enni Rukajarvi who took the top spot having just come off another 6 star TTR win at the ROxy Chicken Jam in Saalbach Hinterglemm. Polish Roxy rider Paulina Ligocka won the pipe and Emma Bernard the French Roxy rider definitely got props for the best new comer result of 6th in the pipe. Emma is one of the Roxy Future Team riders I have been working with the past three seasons and it is great to see her doing so well.

I rode really well in the qualifications and won the qualis. By the time the semis and finals came round I was pretty worn out and just did not have such a good day, finishing 9th. However, with my 14th place finish in the FIS World Cup on the 8th of Jan these two results put me in a good position going in to the run up to Vancouver.

The BOA are due to announce the snowboard team this week and I am looking good for selection. I would be excited to go to my third Olympics for sure!

Watch this space for further updates.

Cheers,

Lesley

I am very happy to announce that I have a new sponsor to support me in the run up to the Vancouver Winter Olympics in February 2010. My new sponsor is Orion Group. Orion Group, is a specialist employment business providing personnel to the engineering industry with 28 offices worldwide. Clients include Shell, BP, Amec, Wood Group and Exxon Mobil. Orion is the UK’s number 1 engineering recruitment business and the largest recruitment company in Scotland.
Visit: www.orionjobs.com

With the support of Orion Group and my existing snowboard industry sponsors, Roxy, Nidecker snowboards, and 32 snowboard boots I will head out to the USA at the end of the month for three weeks of pipe riding. I will train in the Copper Mountain half pipe and will compete in the grand prix at Copper Mountain and also in the Dew Tour event at Breckenridge. I will be there with the GB snowboard Team and also some of my fellow Roxy team mates. Check back soon for updates!

Well, I find myself again in the pretty little Swiss resort of Saas Fee. I have been here a lot over the years and can distinctly remember the very first time I came here at the age of 13 with the British Childrens’ Ski Team. I was one of a Team of around ten kids who came to compete in the Ovomaltine sponsored event against kids from all over the World. I remember drinking so much of the free ovomaltine that I can now, even all these years later, not stomach the smell of the stuff. As well as the Ovomaltine, I remember taking part in some sort of team ‘Superstars’ like event. Never being one to sky away from these kind of in your face competitions I volunteered for the underwater swimming section of the competition. I lined up next to 6 ft tall bearded 14 year old boy men and when the whistle went I gave it my best shot, knowing that I was able to do the whole of the Aviemore pool under the water. I definitely failed to register the effect the elevated altitude was going to have on my underwater swimming prowess but sheer determination showed me the way and, lungs about to eject from my body, I surfaced after a full length of frantic underwater breaststroke, winning some valuable points for the team. I recently re tried this feat and managed about ten metres before common sense kicked in and I surfaced red faced and happy to continue my breaststroke granny style, with my head fully elevated in the (thin) air.

The thin air is a massif factor in pipe hiking here as well and I am finding it pretty hard to shake the Scottish cough I unfortunately brought with me to the Alps. I have been hacking my way up the pipe all week and am hoping that a days chilling will finally see an end to the cough before the World Cup starts tomorrow.

This will be the last of two World Cup pipe events to count towards Olympic qualification so things are hotting up. I aim to stay calm and focused and forget totally about the points race going on as I find it counterproductive to good riding. There should be plenty of good riding going on though and I am excited to watch the week unfold.

Blizzard conitions in the Cardrona pipe

I am still in New Zealand waiting for the weather to become a little bit more friendly. For the last week I feel like I have been hanging out in Fort William in a wet and windy March back home. Although it is nice to feel at home I am now totally over the crap weather and would really like to get some pipe riding in before I get back to the wet and windy Scottish autumn. Anyway, here I am, flying through the blizzard in the pipe at the FIS World Cup in Cardrona last week. I am surprised I managed to get this high out of the backside wall to be honest as there were fresh tracks to be had in the flat bottom and the wall seemed to merge into the sky the visibility was so whiteout. Despite dreadful conditions, however, the standard of the riding was exceptional. The good old Olympic points chasing circuit is bringing out the best in the riders as far as pushing the limits go. The weather does not care though! Long live the blue skys!!

The Roxy snow team have been laying down some great results in the NZ Winter Games in the South Island of New Zealand this last week. Top trumps goes to Aimee Fuller who landed herself a well deserved 3rd place in the ladies slopestyle competition in the Remarkables resort coming just behind TTR star Jamie Anderson and local hero Shelly Gotleib. Roxy team mate Britte Van der Pouw also put down a great performance to take 4th spot showing that the up and coming Roxy riders are a force to contend with.

Meanwhile, in the halfpipe, with doubled up as a FIS World Cup and Olympic Qualifier, Roxy riders Kendall Brown, Lisa Wiik, Mirabelle Thovex and Lesley McKenna battled with horrendous weather conditions in the form of 80km an hour winds and driving snow. Somehow the competition went ahead in the windows of weather where the riders could see the pipe and down to some pretty impressive organisation on the part of Cardrona Alpine Resort and the NZ Winter Games Team the competition was rescued from weather oblivion. The standard of riding was exceptionally high with riders from all over the world trying to secure their Olympic spots. In the ladies competition it was Chinese ripper Jiylui Lui who took the top spot with Kelly Clark and Gretchen Bleiler taking second and third. Team Roxy put on a good performance with the scores of the riders between 10th place and 30th place being very very tight. Kendall, Mirabelle and Lesley all finished well inside the top 30 they need to be in for Olympic qualifications, although none of the girls had the best day of their riding careers. Lisa was well on track to be inside the top 30 as well but had a few sketches which saw her finish just outside the top 30 cut in the end. Roxy team riders Torah Bright, Kjersti Buaas and Paulina Ligoska were conspicuous by their absence, being the only other top pipe riders in the world not at the contest due to injury or prior commitments. They are all already well inside the top 30 though so with a bit of luck Roxy will be very well represented come the Olympic Games!

Lesley flying through the blizzard in the pipe

Lesnz09pipe

In between training for the NZ Games Aimee and Lisa took some time out to do a bit of sight seeing. From very high up! They had the time of their lives sky diving with Wanaka Ski Diving, getting to view the amazing NZ scenery from a very different perspective.

Lisa in her flying suit.

Lisanz09

The girls are heading back to Europe now to catch the end of summer back home before hitting up the European glaciers for the autumn training sessions.

Although most people in the Northern hemisphere are in full summer swing some of the European Roxy Snow Team are loving the return to winter down under in New Zealand. Aimee Fuller and Britte Van Der Pouw have been shredding with Roxy coach and fellow Roxy rider, Lesley McKenna, who has been putting them through their paces. The girls have been learning lots of new tricks and the training is definitely paying off with Britte scoring a very respectable 10th place in the Burton NZ Slopestyle TTR event last week. Aimee who was also looking good in the qualification and was sitting in 4th place after the first run, just missed out making the semis after just sketching out on a massif backflip off the first kicker. Britte joined fellow Roxy ripper Lisa Wiik in the semis of the slopestyle where she came 10th. Lisa rode really well but did not put down a totally clean run and finished in 9th place. With an 11th place in the half pipe Lisa has got off to a very strong start in the TTR points standings.

The NZ Open proved to be quite a spectacle of a contest with Sean Whyte landing the first ever back to back 1080 double corks ever seen in a contest. Hot on his heel were Louie Vito and Luke Mitrani with Kelly Clark and Jylui Li leading the charge for the ladies.

The girls have been hanging out in Wanaka where they have been loving the beautiful scenery as well as the great snowboarding at Cardrona and the Wanaka skate park.

The European Roxy Snow team will stay in NZ for another few weeks where they will also compete in the NZ Winter Games and the FIS World Cup where they will be joined by Roxy riders Mirabelle Thovex and Kendal Brown. We will keep you posted of our progress!

After a very busy few months in preparation the first ever OnTransition camp is up and running in Cardrona, New Zealand. The camp which I hope will be the first of many started at the end of July and will run until the first week of September. OnTransition is bringing high level and innovative coaching to free style snowboarding. We have had a great few weeks riding at Cardrona and have been lucky enough to not only have a great park and pipe to ride but also some pretty nice powpow too. OnTransition camps are aimed at riders wishing to push their own freestyle skills and right now we are working with high level comp riders like Roxy team riders Aimee Fuller and Britte Van Der Pouw to help them explore new skills and polish up old ones in the run up to the NZ Open and the NZ Winter Games later this month.

If you fancy coming to joint us there are still places left for the remainder of the camp. Check out the info on www.ontransition.com

I am sitting in a very snowy Morzine watching the thick flakes of white float from the ski in that most mesmerizing way that makes you zome out completely while aiding contemplation a whole lot. I am just finished coaching on the first ever Roxy UK Snow Camp which was held in Morzine/Avoriaz, based in the luxurious and beautiful Chalet Starski. We had an amazing week here in Morzine, with near perfect conditions, all be it a bit of everything from nice soft powder to slushy park landings. The progression from the ladies on the camp was really good and they were also joined by Roxy pro longboard surfer Candice O’Donnell who picked up snowboarding extrememly quickly. In return for teaching her to snowboard, she is going to teach me to longboard which I can’t wait for!!! I already own a longboard and can surf it to a fashion but I definitely need some pointers.

As well as the on snow activities, the campers enjoyed a make over from a personal stylist, t-shirt designing, yoga, and a night out on the town in the Cavern Bar. They got to relax in the amazing Chalet in the sauna and hot tub and got pampered by the Chalet hosts who made us all feel like little princesses.

I am going to feel pretty hard done to now when I head off to the next World Cup in Spain minus the 5 star Chalet treatment!!

Chalet Starski are offering some great deals for the remainder of the season so if you fancy a bit of TLC and snow sliding check out www.starskichalets.com.