It aint over!

Picture: Christopher Encina Designs, Elk Grove CA
My apologies for taking such a long break between posts.


Amongst an unbelievably hectic schedule, I'm making some plans to attend the Nor-Am Continental Cup at Mt. Hood NEXT WEEKEND...

I won't know for sure until Tuesday, stay tuned!

I have alot to say about this season, my experiences, the people I have to thank, and what I'm looking forward to in the near future, and I'll have it up soon.

Kenneth

Back on Home Turf...

Photo - PPM locked in, gated up and ready for launch



This past weekend was my first USASA Race since last seasons Nationals at Copper Mountain...

USASA South Tahoe Boardercross actually started last weekend, but after learning the hard lessons that came along with competing while SICK, I decided to take that weekend off. This was probably the smartest decision I've made in the last month of hustling all over the globe...

The weekend started off with some much needed on-mountain time with great company. Ian Wu and I got up to Sierra early Saturday morning. We wanted to get in on what was left of the "10 feet" that the last round of gigantic storms supposedly dumped on the Sierra's. Apparently all 10 feet must have fallen SOMEWHERE ELSE; Sierra didn't look too much different than the last time I was there about a month ago. Nevertheless, I had a race to prepare for, and Sierra has always been my favorite spot to go FAST. We met up with a couple other friends and had a blast (Thanks Chad and Melissa!). I ran with a freestyle stance, spent plenty of time on the hill, and had a chance to dial in some Air Time in the terrain parks.

After a full day, Ian and I headed down to South Lake for the night. The 3rd man in our crew was already out there for the weekend, so we gave him a call and brought back an old tradition; Elgin, Ian, and I - Harrah's Friday Night Buffet time! We caught up on old times, ate until we lost track of time, then headed out for the evening. For Ian and I, we got to the room and headed to sleep...Sunday was a big day. By 10pm, LIGHTS OUT...

The weather predicted a partly cloudy day Sunday, but we woke up to crystal clear skies! By 730, we were out of the house and on the way to Kirkwood.

The vibe at registration was SO MUCH DIFFERENT than I've experienced over the past month and a half. USASA has ALWAYS been so family oriented, and it was great to be back in a place where even amongst the heat of competition, it felt like home. I got up to the course for inspection, and got myself dialed in for heats.

I had raced on this course once last season, but Sunday's course was so much faster than it had been before! Coming out of the gates you drop straight down, after about 20ft, a small roller is there to pump even more speed into your take-off. After that, a pair of Double-Jumps / Rollers. Coming into the second double, you're already FLYING. During inspection, the confusion was mostly around this part of the course; "Do I double it? Pump it?...WHAT'S going to give me the most speed?!?" Whatever you decide to do, you have to be stable immediately; between the landing of the second Double and the long lazy turn 1 - FOUR rhythm rollers are waiting to take you right off your feet. Those things were a haunting reminder of the Triple that took me out of competition at Copper just 2 weeks ago. But, the experience prevailed and I killed those things every run.

After the entry, the course was mostly straight forward. The layout didn't give room for any tight turns, so if you were able to stay on your feet and keep the pedal to the metal, you were in good hands. Now, to mix that with a handful of other racers on course...this is where it gets fun.

This was my first season in "Open Class", so from here on out I knew I would be up against nothing but experienced racers. With my recent experience in France and Colorado, I was more than ready to welcome the challenge. Ironically, THREE of the racers from Colorado were there to compete...three GOOD racers. All three had made it past qualifiers at Copper, so it was going to take some consistency and aggressive racing to stay out of the bottom of the pack.

We had an odd number of racers, so heats were staggered a little bit different than normal. Opening heats would take the top 2 directly to the next round, while the bottom 2 would be allowed an LCQ, or "Last Chance Qualifier" to get into semi-finals. Our names were called, and 4 by 4 we got in the gates. When it was my time, I looked across the gates to see who I was running against; two of the guys I had never seen before. 2 gates over - John Retta, a guy I consider THE man to beat in the South Tahoe region. I've seen this guy running for the past 2 seasons, and even had a chance to race against his older brother a couple seasons back. He's got a GREAT pull out of the gates, and he's CRAZY FAST....

RACERS READY! IN...10 SECONDS..............


...eyes on the gates

With the PPM locked in, I RIP out of those gates. Within a half second, I can see that its just John and I - we left the other two behind with a great start. John and I hit the first and second Double side-by-side. He keeps it stable and goes airborne, while I try to keep it on the ground and pump for more speed. Both strategies seem to work, as we enter turn 1 right next to each other. From then on, John pulled away with some amazing technical riding. I wasn't able to reel him in, but stayed right on his tail through the finish. 45 seconds later, and we're in it - on the express lane to semi-finals!

Because of the odd number of racers, I got an awkward seed in semi-finals; one that I didn't necessarily agree with, but I couldn't argue. Instead of getting seeded with ONE winner of opening heats, and two winners from the LCQ, I was seeded against TWO winners of the opening heats. How ironic, it was the other two from the Copper Mountain Nor-Am Cup. No need to be intimidated, but it's going to take some hard work to make it through to finals. Both of these guys have a HUGE pull out of the gates, and both are insanely fast on the course. One of them took 2nd place at USASA Nationals Open Class recently, and the other is also a Speed Veteran, taking 8th place in Open Class Giant Slalom last year...

"Racers Ready....."

With a gigantic pull out of the gates, we all go barreling down course. It's neck and neck into Double #1 - but things almost immediately change. Right alongside me, one of the racers gets a bit unstable in the air. From my view, it looks like a fall is going to send him DIRECTLY into my line approaching the second Double. I'd rather NOT be taken out, so I lightly check some speed to avoid a full-speed pile up. Just as I thought, he lands, veers just barely into my line, but SOMEHOW manages to stay on his feet. My little safety precaution meant less speed into Turn 1, so it was going to be a hi-speed chase if I was going to make it past this round into finals. I remember this round in slow-motion; I would reel him in, and after some unstable flapping of his arms, I would back off to avoid a wreck. Rather than be aggressive and go for the pass, I kept playing it safe - and it ultimately cost me the spot in the finals.

3rd place in Semi's meant I would have to settle for the Consolation Round. After talking to Ian, he said that my timing was actually OFF on the gate-drop. A better pull would have gotten me out in front, and that's the name of the game if you want a spot in the next round. After getting the results, I headed back up to the top - Consolation Finals were coming up quick, and I needed some wax to try and salvage the best spot that I could.

Here it is, "Consi's". Were gated up, it's now a race for 5th place. After thinking about what Ian observed last round, I focused harder than ever on the top of the gates. The instant I saw the top start to drop, I was going to rip those pull handles right out of the snow. By this time we were ALL tired - but I wanted these points, BAD. "RACERS READY!!!....." The gate drops and everything falls silent.

With my BEST pull of the day, I'm GOOOOOONNNNNNE. I blast out of those gates, pump through the drop roller, and hover over both Double's. By Turn 1, I finally come out of the silent hypnosis and realize I'm out in front! WHY did my best run of the day have to be NOW?? Through the tech-section, turn 2, rollers, turn 3, 4, and so on and so forth...with the most speed I'd had all day, I fly through the finish line in first. With a 5th place finish on the day, I can't be any less than satisfied. Still, a little piece of me wondered how things would have gone if I had a different seed in semi's, if I had gotten a faster pull out of the gates, ANYTHING that would have put me through to finals. But in all, I was happy. My first Open Class race, I was in the top half of the field, and I had kicked some butt...

I'll take the positive energy into this coming weekend; Sierra is hosting the final round of South Tahoe BoarderCross - and I LOVE Sierra's track. Thanks again to everyone who's taken the time to follow along, stay tuned!

The Breaking Point...

Picture: The Entry Step-Down into Turn 1

The past two weeks have been a huge test...


I'm home from Colorado, still trying to get better, and with no FIS points after all the trouble I've gone through. Colorado offered a familiar venue; During the past two years I've had plenty of time on that race track. This past week, my earlier experiences wouldn't matter. Day 2 was far worse (for everyone) than day 1. The snow started to fall overnight, and continued to fall during practice and time trials. As a result, some of us felt this would improve times since we'd be running on a softer and more forgiving track, allowing us to push the speed a bit faster through the turns. As practice progressed, our speed was actually slowing, as the turns would begin to pile up with loose snow.





As the conditions started to change, all the others would run to their coaches and wax tech's and get their boards tuned for the new track conditions. I started to notice the difference in speed as well, and rushed to wax up for Time Trials.

Time Trials had a different vibe today. The course crew was trying to get through FAST, the weather was pulling in quickly. My first time trial was similar to yesterday; a blazing fast run...up until three turns from the finish. Approaching the final left into the nasty triple roller, you must first clear a nice size double jump into a long sweeping right turn. The problem isn't the features, it's the SPEED. Coming through this feature you're at full speed. Everyone knows about the oncoming triple, so this is the spot where most of us would scrub some speed to enter the final turn safely. For me, I soared over the double with all the speed I needed. When I scrubbed to check some speed, I lost an edge and my board almost completely slipped out, bringing me to a complete stop on the turn...DONE.


When I got to the finish, my time was surprisingly faster than I had thought. This meant that aside from that slide, I was on the money. I looked at the top of the field, and several people had less than stellar times. I could overhear the random conversations about "turn 5 was too loose", "turn 6 had too many ruts", etc. For me, I knew where I made my mistake and it was an easy adjustment. Val and I jumped on the chair to get back up for the 2nd and final Timed run. This is where things would start to take a turn...

I noticed that although the snow was falling, I was running surprisingly slower than normal down to the track entrance. I had plenty of time before the next run, so I opened up the kit and looked for some wax. When I flipped the board over, I saw something that NO racer wants to see..."Base Burn". We refer to it as a "burn", although it resembles more of a freeze, or frostbite. This type of base condition can occur when not enough wax is in the pores of the base to withstand the friction of the abrasive snow passing underneath. In turn, it increases the friction between the board and snow, and slows you down. There's a whitish appearance as a result; when I flipped the board over, the white streaks completely covered my base.

Luckily, I had gotten to know a few of the other competitors, so I felt comfortable going to ask them for advice. One of them (who, by the way, is competing at X Games in 2 weeks), looked at my base and just shook his head. "Man, this base is no good, you better find the hardest wax you have. The only thing you can do at this point is cover it so it doesn't get any worse." Another guy (who will ALSO be competing at X Games) said about the same thing. "WHOAH...You can feel the snow sticking to you right?" "This isn't good at all, if you don't have a spare board on you, better cover it with wax, and get this (board) base-grinded when you get back home!"

Picture: My base - BURNT

What lovely news to have right before we drop in for round 2. I remember having this on my very first snowboard, and didn't know what it was. Back then I had no concept of speed, so it didn't matter. After racing, there's a clear difference...a scary difference. Imagine running the 100yd dash...then getting back in the starting blocks with a parachute strapped to your back. In the same way the wind resistance will dramatically slow you down, base burn on a board will do the same. On the straightaways, it almost feels like you're hitting the brakes.

I did what I could, and corked as much wax as I could into my base. Run 2 started, and my number was coming up. I got the whole wax thing out of my mind, there was no fixing it now, and the wax was only important for the start since I'd be up on my edges throughout the turns. The ONE variable that I didn't take into account was changing...I was on deck, and it was starting to snow, HARD. The adjustment wasn't too difficult, I popped on a face mask and they called my number. Dropping into the course was the same as before, I popped over the pyramids, pumped the rollers, and approached the big step-down. After the step-down things changed, and in a bad way. When I got down to turn 3, visibility had all but disappeared. Come on now, it was one thing to be sick, and it was another to get swallowed up by the course and crash. THIS, was completely ridiculous. I don't know the rules regarding protesting due to visibilty (after all, France ran their event in zero visibility the day I left), so I had to keep running. I ran as fast as I could through the dumping snow, but it just wasn't fast enough...by far. Val and I were both eliminated by 2 and 4 seconds respectively. We still had a 18hr drive ahead of us with the other two guys, so without even stopping to evaluate what was already done, we headed back up to grab our jackets and got off the mountain as fast as possible.

I've had so much time to think about the past two weeks, and the only thing I can feel is an overwhelming sense of frustration. I have been offered an opportunity to write history by being part of the Philippines Snowboard Team. From the day that my Uncle Rodney had called me after seeing a TFC Clip, I had done all the necessary paperwork to be part of history. I worked to get myself in top physical condition, and I had worked to build a budget and publicity to help get me to the required events. When the final schedule for my early-season events was finalized, there was one thing missing that I had NOT given myself. TIME. I had foolishly neglected to acknowledge that the front-runners of our team had taken YEARS to accumulate the points needed to compete in Olympic Qualifiers. When my final budget and schedule was laid out, I would be giving myself three weeks to bridge the same gap.

During the course of this early season journey, I've tested myself on every level. Physically, Mentally, Spiritually, and Financially; I have gone until the meter read ZERO. When I got to France, things were looking promising. However, after all the practice, time, and money taken to get there...we get postponed and I have to leave. I got horribly sick on my way home and was in bed for 4 of the 5 days between events. At first, I thought it was most rational to get healthy and not take the opportunity to compete in Colorado. After some much needed soul-searching, I knew I NEEDED to compete if I had hoped for the remote chance to make it to the last Olympic Qualifier. The day I started to feel better, I jumped in the car with 3 others and drove 16 hours to Copper Mountain. My body put my mind in check, as I was completely ill again by the time the event came up. I arrive at home completely sick, and attempt to go to work the same night like none of this ever happened. On top of that, I've got plans to try to compete in Lake Tahoe and Canada within the next two weekends. Maybe this time I'll give my body a break and actually rest.

I cant help but try and feel accomplished after all this. In reality, the snow season just started. The local USASA League starts up this weekend, and I'll be participating just like I have the past few seasons. Making it to the World Cup is still possible through all of the international races I'm still eligible to participate in. The Olympics were a possibility because of my unique team affiliation, but it meant picking up and competing in an arena that I'd never been exposed to before. Now that I've started, things can only get better from here. I started at the very bottom before, and once again it's time to work my way up.

January 18th, 2010 - Race Day Summary

Today was day 1 of 2, Race Day. Last night I was more sick than I've been since coming home from France, and I doubted I was going to pull out of it by this morning. We woke up around 630-7, and my head was POUNDING still. Last night I went through all the Flu-like stages; Freezing cold chills, uncontrollable cold sweats, it was a nightmare. The ONLY thing I could think of was today, and how on earth I was going to race feeling like this.

I took a Thera-Flu and a Motrin 800, tried to suck it up and grabbed some breakfast. For the past two days I couldn't even stomach the thought (literally) of food, but eating an apple or granola bar throughout an entire day was getting to be a bit irrational. I had a banana, orange juice, some cereal, and any other vitamin filled food I could find. Val and I jumped on the 8:15am shuttle and headed to Copper. By 8:45-9am, the village was overflowing with racers, all loading up to head up top. Val and I got to the starting gates just short of training / practice time.

"COURSE OPEN - LOAD EM UP!!! IT'S PRACTICE TIME PEOPLE"

Just as soon as they made the call, the all-star roster started loading up the gates. We dropped about 30 seconds apart, and got back up top as soon as possible to TRY to get in a second run before they closed the course again before Time Trials. For Val and I, we were able to squeeze in the second run. I'll post a completely different entry and take you all on a ride through the course, stay tuned for that. My first run was a little conservative, and during my second practice run I stepped on the gas and sent it down full speed. BEAUTIFUL 2nd run; My board was dialed in, my timing was on the money, and I felt great (speed-wise). Here comes time trials...

Run 1 - Way too conservative to say the least. Time Trials aren't about being conservative. You either SEND IT, or you go home. I took a bad turn and almost caught an edge into turn 3, and I think that shook me up a bit for the rest of the run. When a hundredth of a second makes a difference between making it or going home, there's no option but to keep your foot to the floor until you reach the finish line, or crash in the process...with that said, I had to regroup and prepare for run 2

Run 2 -
"RACER READY...10 Seconds......in 5, 4, 3, 2....."

~GONE

Over the pyramids, pumped the rollers, smooth sailing over the step down. Turn 1, Turn 2, Turn 3, gone, gone, annnd gone. I was FLYING. Way hotter than any of my previous runs. No time for checking off speed, and no desire to either. I was killing every feature one by one. Coming into the last spine left, I washed just an ounce of speed to enter the deadly triple roller with at least a little stability. Yesterday that triple ended people's day with an injury. Today nobody cared about injury, we just wanted to stay above the cutoff line. I kept that in mind as I pumped the first roller, but with plenty more speed than I had entered it all week long. The second roller was everyone's possible game-breaker, and today it had my name on the extra long list. With my timing just a fraction of a second off, I got popped into the air. Being 2 inches off the ground is no big deal, but add to that a full speed run, and be ready to get slammed. Instead of having my base flat on the ground in time to pump the 3rd and final roller before the finish line table, my nose slapped the takeoff, sending me skyward. It was all over. A billion thoughts went flashing through my head, and I hadn't even hit the ground yet. All I could do was brace for impact...and it was definitely an IMPACT. At full speed, getting bucked off that roller sent me almost all the way to the face of the finish line table...a good 30-40ft away. In the half second it took for me to make sure nothing was broken, I climbed as fast as I could up that table and slowly ran through the finish.


Picture: Triple Roller into the Finish Line Table


It goes without saying, but my time wouldn't come close to cutoffs. The guys that made the cut definitely deserved it. That second run was finals worthy, I'm confident of that. It's funny, I have some bad luck with this track. Two years ago it was Val and I running in the USASA Nationals Finals against each other. I had an amazing run and was in first from the gates all the way to the bottom. A turn before the finish I got bucked by a roller and sent into the wall of a banked turn. Val took first that year. Today the track beat me again. Not tomorrow...

It's about 645 local time, we just finished the riders meeting for tomorrow, and I'm already feeling alot better than tomorrow. The boys are going to Breckenridge Village for a bite to eat and a Bar or two. I'm staying in again to try and recover. I seriously hope I can pull out of this and be 100% for tomorrow...

January 18th, 2010 - Race Day

Sorry I haven't been able to keep this updated, I arrived safely in Colorado a couple days ago. As of last night, that Flu from France came back with a vengeance and I was too sick to jump on my computer.

Practice day went very well yesterday, and there are some EXTREMELY fast riders out there. It's 8am local time, Val and I are getting on the bus to the mountain. Stay tuned everyone, thank you all for the well-wishes. After about 13 hours of sleep, and 3 doses of thera-flu, I'm at least ready to go out there and get through time trials.

...stay tuned


www.LIVE-TIMING.com

Time trials will be followed LIVE on that link, look for the "Copper Mountain NOR-AM SBX race"

Shifting Gears...

Image Credit: Christopher Encina Designs, Elk Grove CA

I'll have this post cleaned up and in it's full version tonight or tomorrow, so stay tuned.

Tomorrow morning I'm heading down to Bakersfield to meet with Val Stepanchuk and one other rider for a road trip to Colorado. The Copper Mountain, Colorado event is an FIS North American Cup race. I'm still not feeling 100% healthy after my return from France, but I MUST take this opportunity. After a visit to Dr. Kwan's office yesterday, and a much needed conversation with my Dad and Grandma, things were put in the right perspective. It's about time I go out there and take whats mine!!! If I feel up to it when I arrive, I'll be racing for sure. If not, at least I'm there and I can take the opportunity if I have it. I DO NOT want to regret not attending simply because I've been sick these past few days. This is a golden opportunity for me and our team, and after having TWO events cancelled or rescheduled preventing me from racing, my time is overdue.

Here we go...

January 8th, 2010 - Race Day

January 8th, 2010 – Race Day

Well today started off just lovely. I Woke up at 2:47am exactly, and couldn’t manage to shake it off completely. From 3-4am I tossed about, too many things were going through my head. I looked outside and it was DUMPING snow still. The forecast called for 20cm throughout the night (about 8in.) with another 10cm to drop today. On the brighter side, my nightmares of a rutted out ice-capade of a race course were gone. After what seemed like an eternity of sleeplessness, I finally popped open iTunes, and some much needed Crown City Rockers music got my mind back to where it needed to be. This part of today’s update won’t be posted until everything is said and done, so hopefully when I sign back in, it will be with some decent news. I want so many things to happen today. I want to prove that I have a place here. I want to make it past time trials against a field of racers that are beyond World Cup caliber. I want to earn the necessary points to be eligible for World Cup myself. I want to do my part to show that Team Philippines deserves a spot not only here, but beyond this level of competition. Eden Serina and Jondre Mina have blazed a history making trail, and I strive to maintain what they’ve started. I’m doing everything possible to prevent these things from distracting my focus.

It’s just after 6am now, and it’s almost time to get ready. The lift chairs are on a special schedule today; at 8am SHARP they will open, but for only 15 minutes. This is to give the competitors a chance to get up the hill early and prep for inspection. At 815 the lifts close again until 9am, when they officially open for the public. If there is ANYTHING left on your mental fix-it list, this is your last shot to handle business. Just after 9, we are allotted an hour or so of practice. For those that didn’t make it on the chair lift early enough, this time will be wasted inspecting the course rather than dialing in your line at full-speed. At around 1030, time trials start. They mentioned at the end of last night’s meeting that they “wanted” to give us TWO time trial runs. This would only happen if things moved along faster than yesterday AND if the weather permitted. It turns out that some injuries on the course caused us to get behind schedule yesterday. If it starts to snow, they will go back to the original plan; one shot – go big or go home. Alex Aguilar, a dear friend from way back reminded me to leave everything I’ve got out here… so here I go.




10:19am local time (1:19am PST)

So…about 30min after I wrote the entry above, I get suited up and I’m off. I take the elevator down to the 3rd floor where there’s a side exit door to the hill down towards the village. As I approach the door, it’s noticeably darker than the past few days. I know I left a bit earlier, but there should have been at least some light coming through. When I open the door...WOW…a WALL of snow blocked any hope of getting out. That’s fine, back in the elevator and up to the 11th floor where there’s an uphill access exit. Ha, I get out that door and the “check-in only” parking lot is buried. They predicted 8 inches of snow. At least 3 times that amount fell, and it was still coming down. I know the clock is ticking, so I start trudging my happy little self across the lot and towards the hill. It was incredible; this whole place was completely buried last night.

When I get down to the village I see NOBODY. Maybe I was a little apprehensive, and arriving 15 minutes ahead of time was too early for everyone else? I can see the lights on in the room where we had our last meeting. I walk in and the FIS Europa Cup organizer, the Resort Rep, and the Course builder himself are all sitting there scratching their heads. Francois (FIS rep) looks at me and says “Sorry…I guess you can go back and get some sleep”. No…..No Way this is happening. I said “So, no race today?” “Yep, today no race, whole mountain is closed for avalanche, course is no good”

It’s hard to recall how I used to behave when I was 4yrs old, but part of me thought that this was the perfect opportunity for a full-fledged temper tantrum. I couldn’t believe this; I had travelled THIS FAR, built a GIGANTIC budget, for what? A 4 day snowboarding vacation? That’s not what I came here for.

I left and walked across to the café, just as they were opening and the rest of the riders were coming out to get on the lift. One by one, they all had their choice words in whatever language they were speaking. I saw team Japan again, one of them had talked to Francois after I did. They said that FOR SURE today’s race was cancelled, but the resort was waiting until 9am to decide whether or not to open to the public. As he was finishing his sentence, two deafening explosions came from uphill. They were doing avalanche control, which meant blasting dynamite to set off artificial avalanches (before a regular person comes up and caused the same one). That was the HUGE downside of having no trees up there; it meant the race course itself was under avalanche danger as well. The starting line sits in a gorge surrounded by hills. One mistake up above, and the course and everyone near it would be buried. By now the village café was filled with over 100 competitors, their coaches, and everyone else involved with today’s race. The final word came shortly after; “The Puy St. Vincent Europa Cup has been cancelled for today. At 2pm, we will decide whether or not we can have it tomorrow.”

For some racers, the news wasn’t a big deal. They were staying here anyways. For a handful of the other racers, INCLUDING MYSELF, the news was devastating. We were the few that were scheduled to leave tomorrow. Team Japan was going to Austria to catch the next stop of the Europa Cup in three days, the rest of us were simply going home, but now with no points. If they decide that the race is ON for tomorrow, I can’t even stay. After time trials are finished, I will have missed my taxi to get to the train station. It’s the last train leaving for my Paris connection until early tomorrow morning. Tomorrow’s train won’t get into Paris until noon, giving me only an hour to take a shuttle to the airport, check in, and board the plane. There’s no way I’m taking that chance.

All in all, this is strike 2 for me personally. The first Europa Cup event in Isola France was cancelled due to low snow conditions. This one was cancelled after too much snow fell. What does this all mean? For me it means that TWO World Cup Qualifiers were gone. There are more, but my budget won’t allow me take this loss and simply bounce over to Austria to make up for it. My next opportunity is on the 18th and 19th, during the North America Cup at Copper Mountain, Colorado. The World Cup stop is during the week of the 20th. On the 25th, Olympic Teams are announced. At this point, it is all but impossible to make it to World Cup level by this deadline. I realized this was a long shot from the very beginning, and all of these stars had to line up for bigger things to happen, but it’s only now the reality sets in. I can only deal with it with that much more aggression during my next event. I will still be racing this year; I want to get to Copper next week, Big White in Canada, and it would be a dream come true to make it to one of the events in Japan. I am flattered by the contributions and support that I have received, and I thank each and every one of you for everything you have done leading up to this event.

For now, I think it’s about time to get down to the village and plug my laptop in. it’s 2am back home. “Back home” sounds so great to me right now…