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.

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!

At this point I should admit that I hate being the first person to hit a toy, in previous years I’ve been able to rely on Jamie Nicholls or one of the other kids acting as a test rider and I can bow to their judgement with regards to speed, how the kicker’s riding etc, unfortunately though they were all riding in the 2nd qualification group so if I was going to step up and hit it I’d have to do it on my own. I looked again and after a bit of banter with Shiner the Technical Delegate for the day where we argued over the size (I said as far as I was concerned it was 9m as that’s what the plan said, he said 14.5m) I decided it was definitely doable, took a deep breath and dropped in. Straight off the drop in ramp, over the first lip, straight into the kicker (good girl, no speed checks) and up into the air……..oooooops! Yes the kicker was way whippier than it looked and the moment I was in the air it started to feel a bit wrong, my weight was too far back and I was tipping in the air. Anyone that’s been in this situation will know that at this point time slows down, I was a long way up and I realised that my best chance of surviving this was to tip my weight so I was going to fall on my front not my back, bring my arms in, relax and wait for the impact. It seemed like I had a long time to wait as I took up my “frog” position and started to plummet, then the ground hit, I bounced on my front, hitting my chin and then I must have bounced onto my back because I came to rest half way down the landing with my head pointing down and my feet back up towards the kickers. I wasn’t in pain, knew I wasn’t broken but I was totally winded so when I looked up to see people rush in to check on me I signalled I was ok and let them unstrap my board so I could roll over and get off the landing. A huge thanks to the First Aider, Col Mytton and Jools Smith who were all over to me pretty much the moment I’d landed. A pretty impressive feat for Jools considering he was on the run in side of the kicker capturing these shots…..

..he then had to pelt round to check I was alive! Thankfully I was and once I got my breath back I was back up the top grabbing a drink of water before getting back to it (all be it on the 5m kicker). I was quite gutted not to have landed it but I think I impressed (and scared) everyone by giving it a go. For a while I doubted myself and wondered if it was my mistake and whether I’d misjudged my ability, it turns out I hadn’t though as over the course of the 2nd qualification when the guys were hitting it, it became apparent that it was too whippy a kicker and a lot of people came a cropper much worse than I had. Numerous guys ended up visiting the local hospital and quite a few more admitted to being scared. These weren’t poor riders but the cream of the UK and it’s a shame that a quarter of all entrants took a bad fall on the main kicker! I count myself very lucky to have escaped with a slightly scraped chin and some aches from the impact.

All in all it was a fun session, even with the aches I was feeling and I was stoked to qualify for the final in 3rd place. Unfortunately I didn’t manage to hang on to it so finished 4th overall and 1st in Masters, still I figure I can live with being beaten by a 12 year old, a 14 year old and an under 30 year old!

To wrap up the day nicely I had a really nice message that put the icing on the cake and I’m pleased to announce I now have a new sponsor, Laurus. Laurus make handmade face wraps, and I’m looking forward to wearing them over the course of the Winter, not just on the slopes but on my commute to work if it gets cold enough!

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

So here it is for your viewing pleasure!

Friday Night, Park & Ride from Kat Miller aka IAmKat on Vimeo.

Filmed on Friday 22-8-09 at The Snow Centre, Hemel Hempstead

Here’s a quick edit that Jools has done, it looks like my new laptop and Sony Vegas are working rather nicely together, and I’m looking forward to getting a chance to have a play myself while I’m away!

Park n Ride, 14-8-09 the HD version from Jools Smith on Vimeo.

If you’re not an avid fan of me on Twitter then you might have missed seeing the design of my 150, but you can now not only view it, but purchase it, via the Humanity Snowboards shop.  Obviously I’ll be doing a full review after my first shred but if you’re yearning for something new and can’t wait for that then it’s worth snapping up one of the pre-sale boards for $299 (Discount code 1STHMNTY50).  If you find that the pre-sale offer has closed then hit me up for my discount code.

Saturday was another fun day with coaching on kickers and rails, the kicker was quite small which made it hard to really get my knees up on my spins without me feeling rushed and panicked so I took things steady and just focused on getting the take off right (which in turn meant my arms were mostly below shoulder level).  The afternoon was spent on the low box rail and I worked on making sure I managed to get some new tricks under my belt.  I’d tried frontside noseslides at Castleford a few weeks ago but wasn’t really committing to get them fully tweaked out.  Yesterday I was really pleased because not only did I manage to get a regular frontside nose with my board at 90 degrees but I managed to get the same trick nailed switch!

I was even more pleased that I was really going for the tweak and getting the board at right angles rather than the 45ish degrees I was getting at Cas.

This week’s going to be a busy one, I’m in Nottingham on Tuesday for work and then back over to Hemel on Friday for a shred with Anna who owns Sputnik Snowboard Shop (and sponsors me).  We’ll also be heading over to the shop so I can check out the shiny new toys that have been delivered so far!  I’m just waiting for some new boots to come in as I noticed at the weekend that mine are starting to come unstuck around the edges, and I’m hoping the Burton Molotovs will have arrived by then too…..I love this time of year!  Add to that the fact that my snowboards from Humanity are being pressed this week and I think it’s going to be a good month on the new kit front!

I’ve been pretty much fit to burst for the last few weeks with all the cool stuff going on in my life that I couldn’t share.  Not only have things been going really well on the work front but I had the news of the Humanity sponsorship that was in the pipeline (Leah, when I was constantly checking my phone that night at MK I was waiting for the announcement blog post to go live!) and now the equally cool news that I’m off to Lynchburg, Virgina!

Why?  Well I’m taking the short trip (Chelmsford to Manchester, Manchester to Paris, Paris to Washington, Washington to Lynchburg) in order to ride plasticsnow.  In fact I’m going out as part of the demo team that Snowflex are taking with them to the opening of the slope that’s been built at Liberty University (check out the promo vid) on 29th August.  To say I’m pleased to be invited would be a HUGE understatement, I’m totally blown away by the opportunity not only to be part of a demo team with some of the UK’s best dry slope snowboarders & skiers but also because it’ll give me the chance to show how cool Snowflex is to a group of people who are open minded enough to be excited about the slope, the surface and the fun they can have on it!  Throw into the mix the fact that the hotel we’re staying in has free internet and I’m a happy bunny!

Expect lots of excited Tweets before I go and lots of updates while I’m there, the count down starts now.  The only sad side to things is that Jools will be stuck in the office while I’m playing on what I’ve heard is the most perfect kicker, so for him I’m Blipping “I’m leaving on a jet plane“.  Huge thanks must go to Wayne & Terry for thinking of me for this trip, I won’t let you down guys.

I’m typing this post while exhausted and full of Chinese food, my reward for all the snowboarding I’ve done this weekend.  We spent last night at the new Snow Centre in Hemel Hempstead, it opened a couple of months ago and yesterday was the first time we’d had the time (and money) to check it out. When it first opened the Friday night freestyle session was £50 for non members, thankfully they’ve dropped their prices so last night cost £31.50 with my SCUK membership.  I’d heard good things about Hemel, every-one’s been raving about the snow quality so as I was going to be at MK SNO!zone all day today we thought we’d do the Hemel session, stay in a hotel to save mileage on the car and then drive up to MK first thing this morning.

The first thing that hit me when we arrived in reception was the view of the slope, you can see it through a glass window behind them, it was shorter than MK but on the plus side shorter means more laps per session.  They had a rail and kicker line set up on half the main slope (with half being clear for non-freestylers) and then a bunch of toys on half the nursery slope as well.

The snow was definitely different to MK, finer and less granular and it was running well speed-wise, so well in fact that despite dropping in low on the kicker I almost over shot the landing!  I spent most of the night on the kicker, none of my friends were really hitting the rails on the main slope, so I figured I’d give the gap kicker a try.  It looked pretty whippy from the lift but it was a pretty smooth take off and once I’d got the feel from where to drop in from I had a really good session.  As ever, Jools was on hand to take some photos, so I set about doing some tail fishes (it’s the first opportunity I’ve really had to do them since I set up this new site) and then some shifty mutes.  I really did want to spin over it but the gap and the rutted run in meant i didn’t quite believe in my ability and the fact that I wasn’t going to catch my edge.  the park crew were doing their best to maintain the kicker but when you have 20 or so people hitting it solidly it’s always going to be tough to keep it perfect.  I did have a play on the rails and boxes on the nursery slope as well but 3 hours on the kicker had taken it’s toll and I wasn’t really feeling it by the time I made the switch.

It was a fun night and it was good to see friends (Doc & Street) I hadn’t ridden with for ages and I can see us heading over to Hemel once a month to see people who don’t make it up to MK as regularly as I do.

So after a rough night’s sleep in the hotel (smokey smelling bedroom leading to the invocation of Premier Inn’s good night guarantee) we hopped in the car and headed up to MK SNO!zone for another Maverix One Day camp.  This was my third full day with them and I was looking forward to it, on the drive up I planned out my “want list” for the day and during the pre-session briefing listed it as “all four 180s on the kicker and spins on and off rails and side ons”.  Once again we started on the kicker and after a couple of warm up runs I started spinning.  First up was the frontside 180 and although the spin itself was really smooth I had my arms in a perfect ballerina pose over my head….never a good look!  Thankfully as I settled in to it I became a bit more relaxed and managed to get my arms down and get a FS180 indy.  Next up backside, again I was a bit flayly initially but managed to get a BS180 mute.  I finished the morning session by stepping it up and riding switch, nailing Cab1s and switch BS1s, no grabs this time and I need to work on hitting the kicker a bit faster switch but that will come with practice.

The afternoon was a rail session, we started on the box and I managed to get FS180 on and Cab180 on, this was the first time I’d tried spinning switch on to a box.  It’s was Coach Phil’s suggestion and I was stoked to land it first try.  We then moved on to the long rail (switch frontside boardslide!) before heading up to the side on gas pipe.  After a few hits to 50:50 I managed to nail a couple of backslide lipslides.  Considering I’d been riding for about 5 hours by now I was pleased my legs held up and I didn’t clip the front of the pipe and I popped my back leg over the pipe before boardsliding away….after my second of these I called it a day, no point in riding too hard when your legs are getting shaky, that’s when accidents happen, and with the first leg of the Westbeach Snowflex Freestyle Series next Saturday I wanted to stay firmly in one piece.  I was especially keen not to repeat the run where I’d slide half the length of the corrugated gas pipe on my bum!

All in all it’s been a brilliant weekend, I managed to get about 8 hours riding into 24 hours and nail a load of new tricks into the bargain!

Here’s a slide show of my kicker shots from Hemel:

The full set, including Sam Cullum, Lon Canu, Jake Terry, Mikee Chen & Duncan Carr

MK Friday Night Shred from Jools Smith on Vimeo.

The HD version seems to be playing up, so if it doesn’t play click the HD icon and watch it in normal

Music by Professor Kliq – Downloaded from www.jamendo.com under Creative Commons license

Pre-session groom

This is where I ride most of the time, SNO!zone MK.  As you can see it’s not that big, the two main slopes are 175m long, so you don’t really get the “whole mountain” feel while you’re riding, but it is perfect for freestyle and getting new tricks dialled.

I was really looking forward to last night’s session, it’s been a long hard week at work and I needed an opportunity to switch off and have some fun, I will admit though that as I went up the Poma lift I was a bit disappointed in the set-up, everything apart from the rainbow box was jump on and not easy jump up but proper, jump up and sideways on!  Even worse, the easiest of the toys was the gas pipe and I HATE gas pipes, I’m just not a fan of their slippery curved tops and even less keen in the corrugated-ness of the pipes they have at MK at the moment, especially because when you wrap yourself around them and slide along on your front it stings!

After a fast run down the slope to warm up and get my contact lenses used to the cold I decided to stop being miserable and get on with it, let’s face it it would have been a waste of an evening to have driven 75 miles only to give up and go home because I’m a wuss.  I was feeling a bit happier than I have been recently as I’d had a couple of good hits on the gas pipe at last week’s Maverix One Trick Pony session, so I went for it.  Luckily I jumped on fine, clearing the top of the pipe without catching my shins and without jumping too high (this is an issue I’ve had for a while, I tend to over cook the jump to make sure I get on and then I’m unsettled).  Admittedly I did fall off the far side just before the end of the pipe but all in all it wasn’t a bad start.  I then spent the evening lapping the park and building up to harder rails, after the gas pipe I tried the flat bar that was just above it, this had minimal kickerage and I was a bit scared I wasn’t going to make it but commitment and courage meant I made it OK, and even managed to stick in a quick speed check and hit the gas pipe as well.  After a couple of hours sessioning these, I started to feel a bit less sick in my stomach on every run in and decided it was time to give the down rail at the top of the slope a go.

Side-on down rail

This is where my “New Trick OCD” kicks in, if I’m really scared but serious about giving something new a go I find I can’t do it first try, for some reason it just doesn’t happen.  So there I stand at the top of the slope, looking down at the rail, plotting how to attack it and I drop in, I get my line but just ride off the kicker not popping on to it, just riding past.  Bac to the top and I do the same thing, I want to do it, I just can’t, I’m chicken and slightly convinced that it’s all going to go wrong.  I give myself a good talking to as I ride up the lift, I have to do it this time, it’s number 3, no more messing around and not committing.  I drop in, pop, up and forwards, I’m on the rail, I landed board first, I jump off again.  I didn’t ride the full length, but I got on it, my breathing’s a bit heavy and I have butterflies in my stomach but at least I know I can get on it OK.  Back to the top and I do it again, stayung on longer this time, ,then a couple more aborted attempts (run in not quite right) before Jools captures proof on the video camera.  After that I decided to call it a night, it was almost 11pm (slope closing time) and I didn’t want to risk a silly slam right at the end of the evening.

I’m glad I stayed and pushed myself, I feel like I achieved a lot, on the gas pipe and flat bar my arms were much more relaxed and less flayly above my head for most of my attempts and although they were raised on the down rail I know now that I can do it so I just need to keep working on it and let my style improve as I relax a bit and my confidence grows.  Although it’s Summer that doesn’t mean progressin can standstill.  I’ve got my first big air comp of the season in 3 weeks (Halifax leg of the Westbeach Snowflex Tour) and then in September the British Snowboarding Championships kick off starting with the Artificial Championships in Norfolk (plastic snowboarding FTW!) and then before I know it I’ll be back in Laax ready to hit the big stuff again.  I need to keep the momentum and feel like I’m getting better all the time, it makes me happy to improve and although I know a lot of people don’t understand why snowboarding is a sport rather than a hoobby/social thing to me, it is and I love it all the more for it.  If I finish a session without having learnt or progressed then it’s just not fun for me!

As you can see from this 12 seconds video I had a great time last night!

Here’s a shot Jools took of my second run in the Big Air at the Brits. After landing a clean Roast Beef for my first run I went for the nose grab on my second. As you can see I didn’t quite get the grab but I still cleared the knuckle and rode away clean!

Considering I’ve previously bounced nicely off the knuckle and fallen I was stoked to get two clean runs in qualification. I was even happier (and a bit sad as well) when I discovered I’d missed qualifying for the final by one place.

Once the competition kickers were actually open I headed over and sized up where I thought I needed to drop in from. I set off, put in a mini-speed check and landed just past the knuckle, definitely more speed required. By the time the comp was due to start I’d had a further 2 practice runs and got my drop in point and speed sorted….bring it on!

By the time it was my turn to compete the nerves were starting to kick in a bit but I dropped in and went for it….up the kicker into the air, and a good solid Roast Beef grab, over the knuckle and down on to the landing, clean ride out. Definitely a good jump. I was the first of the two Masters to jump and I couldn’t see what Lynsey Ashdown had done off the kicker but unfortunately she fell on landing.

My second run I decided to go all out and go for the nose grab, this is pushing it for me, I’m really not keen on any grab that means I have to shift out of my nice, safe, centered stance. Unfortunately I didn’t quite reach my nose but I was pleased that I still managed to get some good air and landed cleanly. I was disappointed not to get the grab but more than pleased that this year I managed to get two clean jumps past the knuckle, cleanly ridden out. Lynsey slammed on her second jump too but until prize giving I wasn’t sure if I’d won or not as I wasn’t sure if a fallen spin would have scored higher than a clean straight air or not. Thankfully it did!

The one downer on the day has to be a major admin error that occurred at prize giving. Rebecca Cullum had been riding really well all day and had landed a really nice FS360 over the medium kicker. This has been a bit of a bogey jump for her since she knocked herself out cold and landed herself in hospital doing this trick, so I was really pleased that she not only landed it but made the final by qualifying in 5th place (6 went through). Unfortunately when it came to the prize giving for her age group they had missed her off the list somehow (she’d certainly placed 2nd if not 1st as both she & Sam Rogers had qualified for the final) and she didn’t get given a medal….as yet we don’t know if she placed 1st or 2nd in her group, or even if she should have made the overall top 3 as well. As you can imagine this was both a shock and an upset, no one likes to be missed off the prize winners list, especially when you want to show your sponsors how well you’ve ridden and what you’ve achieved. I really hope that this is made good tomorrow by having a new presentation with the right people on the podium, but whatever happens, not only has this upset Rebecca, but it will also upset the girl who was on the podium but unfortunately shouldn’t have been.

I really feel for Becca because I similar thing happened to me at Warmwell the year before last when I made the final and placed 4th overall behind 3 sponsored riders. I should have won the Best Unsponsored Female prize but it was given to someone else because they thought I’d won it already. When I pointed this out I was simply told I’d just have to win again another time! I really do hope that Becca gets better treatment and this gets fixed tomorrow because after her hard work she deserves her moment of glory!

My first run: Roast Beef

I decided to drop in quite slowly for my first practice run, not slowly enough though as I sailed over the first kicker and saw the landing vanish way behind me and I landed on the flat half way to the first roller….speed checks and pre-ollies were definitely called for as you came out of the gate that was for sure. After a second warm-up run where I timed the first kicker a little better we started our timed qualification runs. We each had two of these to determine seeding and gate choices for the races themselves.

My first run was OK, but I was a bit unsettled on the triple rollers so was actually quite pleased when I arrived back at the start to find that the timer system had failed and I needed to do a further timed run. After catching my breath I dropped in for my first official timed run and the sun came out, this time I rode much better, rode smoothly over the rollers and then felt I’d done a good time. My second timed run wasn’t so good, I caught a heel edge as I went up the third roller and landed on my hip & back half way to the first corner…OUCH! Not only had I half lost my goggles but totally winded myself as well, I wasn’t going to let this stop me though so up I got and started riding to the next 2 bends, straightening my goggles as I went and frantically waiting for my lungs to refill with air. I have to say it’s quite a scary experience but I figured that my riding with my mouth open enough air would find its way in to me before I suffocated. Luckily I caught my breath before I hit the kicker line but it wasn’t enough and it turned out that I qualified in 2nd place, 0.7 of a second behind the first place qualifier. Suddenly my doing boardercross for fun did an about turn and I wanted to win.

We lined up for the final, and the start gates dropped, I got away in second behind Philippa Tattersall, the girl who’d beaten me in the timed runs, I had a feeling that she’d beat me away but I bided my time and hit the kicker a few feet behind her. Just as I thought, she’d taken it too fast and on overshooting the landing she fell, I landed, curved to the right and passed her as she lay in the snow. From this point on I focused on my technique and keeping as much speed as I could, I had no idea how close behind me she was so I hit the rollers, making sure I sucked my knees up to avoid getting air, rode the banks pumping to get faster and then just ploughed on to the finish. It worked and I won!

So that’s one comp down and 3 more to go, tomorrow is the Big Air and I’ll be aiming to hit the 13m kicker as well as I did last week. Hopefully the weather will be good and my legs will be good to me, I really want to land two good clean grabs and ride away without stacking this year, I believe I can do it; I just need to make sure my body believes it too.

A special mention has to go to Hayley Sutherland for competing alongside me, at 46 and only having been snowboarding for a year she overcame fear and panic to complete both timed runs and the race…a well deserved and earnt third place!