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It’s also been great to give my 156 Plastictastic a really good test and I’ve been really impressed with how it performs. It’s been great on the kickers,which at 12-14m tables have been much bigger than I’ve been hitting indoors on my 150 but it’s also felt great in the pipe (much better than I’ve been feeling in it, that’s for sure!) and it’s been cutting through the slush and choppy snow as well.  So it’s certainly turned out to be my perfect all-mountain park board.

Tomorrow is the first day of competition, and so I’m hoping the super speedy base helps me get to the front of the pack in the boarder-cross, or at the very least lets me olly over anyone that falls in front of me.

I can’t wait to get back out to what is probably my favourite resort (followed closely by Mammoth) for a week of coaching followed by the British Snowboard Championships.  I’ll be competing in all 4 disciplines, boardercross, big air, half pipe and slopestyle and I’m looking forward to giving my Plastictastic 156 a proper testing as so far it’s only been used on a 135m slope and that’s really not enough distance to allow it to really get up to full speed!  I’m hoping it will help me quickly get used to the difference in speed required for the larger kickers I’ll be faced with (the Brits course is based on the course used for the Burton European Open).

I’ve had 3 excellent practice sessions recently, I’ve been lucky enough to have some more coaching from the crew at Maverix and it’s been good to get back on a board after a 12 week break.  I’m looking forward to trying to convert what I’ve learnt indoors to the bigger park in Laax.  If you want to read a bit more about the Maverix courses then take a look at this article from Cooler magazine.

I’ll do my best to keep you all updated on how I get on while I’m out there.

Work’s been really busy, I’ve been travelling all over the place on visits to NHS Trusts to tell them all about the NHSE Membership scheme and that’s left me feeling tired and not really myself.  Sales isn’t something I love doing, I’m great at information transfer but actual closing of sales is something I struggle with.  Thankfully what I’ve been doing has been more on the info transfer side and because I really believe that the membership will make a difference, not only for the HR teams but the Trusts as a whole I think that that has come across in the meetings and I’ve managed to get quite a few Trusts on-board.  It still doesn’t stop me feeling a bit nervous and stressed going into the meetings though, and as January looks to be more of the same I think I’ll need to stock up on some more Bach’s Rescue Pastilles to try and take the edge of the fear off a bit.

Which brings me on to the New Year, yes we’re about to enter 2010 and I’d planned on it being filled with snowboarding and fun and big competitions, but as ever circumstances change and being a grown-up (well I try to be one sometimes) Jools and I have cancelled our unpaid month off in Laax this January and are staying at home to work instead.  This means no week of coaching and no Burton European Open (I guess 2nd time lucky just isn’t) for me.  We’re both pretty bummed out about it but I’m a strong believer that everything happens for a reason and so once 2010 officially hits I’ll be looking to the bright-side and making sure I get plenty of English shredding done so that I’m ready for the British Championships in March.  I’m going to miss being out there with all of my friends but to make up for it Jools and I are going to have a weekend break in the UK for his birthday.  It’s something we’ve been meaning to do for ages but never got round to so I’m hoping a weekend of fun and good food will perk us both up!  We’re also thinking that we might finally make it out to the board test this year, something else that’s been on the eternal to-do list but never quite made it to done.

In addition to exercising my body with snowboarding, Sports Active on the Wii and maybe even venturing back to the gym, I’m planning on exercising my brain a bit more too.  So I’m signing up to do a couple of short courses with the Open University.  I’m not sure if I want to do a full degree, I think I’m a bit lazy and not studious enough for that, but I like the fact that I can pick n mix a couple of subjects and who knows what will happen if I really get hooked.

As the New Year, and I suppose, new decade starts I won’t be making promises or resolutions to blog more or anything else really, what I will be focusing on is being happy, healthy and enjoying my life!

The weekend kicked off on a scorching Saturday with the boardercross, which took place on the main Dendix slope, and we each took 2 timed runs. We then moved through to some races with 2-3 people battling it out at the same time. Don’t be fooled, Dendix is not easy stuff to ride and it’s diamond shaped sturcture means falls can get nasty, luckily though the slams I had in warm-up coincided nicely with where I’d placed my padding and I survived in 1 piece. I finished the morning session in 2nd place in the Masters (over 30) age group. The afternoon was spent sessioning the kicker for the (big) air competition. Unfortunately the slope was running quite slowly and so if you didn’t land in quite the right spot then your board stopped and you kept going….cue whiplash for me! I’d decided to try and step things up, with only 3 in my group I figured I might as well try the spins I’d been working on in practice. It didn’t work out though and although I did a really nice BS180 Method I sat down on my landing, my second run was even worse and I managed a big FS90 to slam. The way I see it though if I’d landed the tricks I’d have been in with a chance, both girls in my group are trying 540s so I had no option but to step things up.

Sunday was slopestyle day and it was a bit cooler, unfortunately the slope was still running really slowly, so much so that the judges had the toys swapped around as people weren’t able to get enough speed to hit the higher scoring line the way it was originally set up. After a few practice runs I managed to work out the line I needed to keep my speed and my first comp run was a smooth and clean frontside nose press, followed by a nose press and then a 50:50 to boardslide, switch out over the up-down shark’s fin. It all went wrong on my second run though, I did a nice tail press to switch over the first box, but slipped out on my switch frontside on the next box ending nicely in a perfect faceplant. Hopping up the slope to try and get enough speed for the shark’s fin, I tried but failed and made it half way up the up box before having to jump off. I just missed out on a place in the final by coming 5th overall but my first run was enough to get me 2nd in the Masters.

So I finished the weekend with 2 silvers and a bronze, not bad going considering the sticky conditions. The big air and slopestyle will both get me started in this season’s TTR ranking and hopefully my luck will hold for this Saturday when I head to Milton Keynes SNO!zone for the British Indoor Big Air championships.
Photos by Jools Smith