All quiet

Managed to check out the site for Air and Style over in Innsbruck last night. The stadium looked really cool without anyone in it. In  only a few hours time it will be full to capacity, Cant wait. If you’re not making it over remember to check it out on Mpora. Its going to go off!

Michaela V’s Tim

Here’s some snap shot fun we had during our trip over to Austria last night. Left Chiesa Valmalenco at 6.20pm……

7.30pm Sondrio station

10.30pm Milan

Starting to tire. 1.01am Verona

I’m loosing this game – 5.33am Innsbruck

Last leg – 6.05am Jenbach

7.03am – Success!

On the road with Michaela

Its funny how situations pan out sometimes. You can put all sorts of effort into planning a trip but sometimes it just doesn’t work out as planned. Take this for example; i started this trip off as an invited photographer lucky enough to cruise around with a bunch of Australians throughout January. Here i am now and the “bunch” is down to 2 – Michaela and myself. “invited photographer” now fits along side a whole host titles!

So we rocked up to Chiesa Valmalenco the other day and straight away didn’t want to be here. It took us 7 hours in the end to get here, there was little sign of life around the area and no ski hill in sight. Oh how things can change. Once we’d finally made our way up the cable car to the resort our mood changed. What a sweet little place this is. We’re lucky enough to have been here whilst there’s still fresh snow kicking around. We had a wicked day riding in the sunshine, got a few shots done and Michaela managed to win the competition that was the reason we came here. Job well done.

Chilling with a beer at the end of the comp

Taking advantage of all the things to jump off – so many!

So we’re killing time in a cafe right now but will be taking a load of trains this evening so we’ll hopefully end up in Mayrhofen by tomorrow morning. Air and Style this week over in Innsbruck – it’s going to be a busy one.

Times are changing

Wow, what a hectic few weeks. I’m enjoying my first proper day off since the beginning of the year. Even though its a beautiful blue sky outside sometimes your body just needs a rest. I spent the first two weeks of January over in Laax and enjoyed day after day of bluebird conditions. The Burton Open came and went with the standard of riding you’d expect from such a line up of riders. 

We lost two of the crew to injury whilst in Laax as Paul and Alicia had to fly back to Australia – I hope they make a speedy recovery. 

The World Rookie Fest has been the latest stop over in Livigno. This is where the surprises came for me. I’ve never seen such a high standard of riding and everyone being under 18. Double front flips, double backflips 180, double cork 1080’s backside rodeo 720’s…..the list goes on. Without a doubt future snowboarding superstars are in the making here.

Stalle Sandback winning the Rookie mens

On a great note, Michaela won the rookie girl competition with a run consisting of Front 360, Nosegrab straight air, Back 360, Back 540. Definitely the run of the day and deserving of first place.

We’re off to Chiesa Valmalenco on Saturday for the weekend and will be heading over to Austria on Monday for some serious park time in Mayrhofen…….

One final note, congratulations to all the winners over in Laax last week. Here’s keving Pearce destroying the mens final taking 1st place.

Our trip begins

The new year trip is now in full swing. I’ve been over in Laax in Switzerland for a week now. If you put the town aspect and the complete inability to eat any reasonably priced food (yesterdays meal plan: bowl of cereal, an orange, 1 packet of crisps) to one side then oh my god. Is Laax heaven? Could it be the best resort in the world? I’ve been to a few and this rates close to the top, if not the top.

I’ve hooked up with What feels like team Australia for the next month. Here’s the crew……..

Left to right; Paul McMahon, Michaela Davis-Meehan, Hugh Marsden, Alicia Barker and me at the end

Paul’s the coach of the other riders who are on a Fastride camp over here in Europe. We’re in Laax now to ride, to shoot and for the Burton European Open that starts off tomorrow. What can i say? Completely stoked on Laax, completely stoked on the guys i’m with, completely stoked on the weather (so far) and completely stoked on the vibe (eating for pleasure not included).

I’m going to try and do a “shot of the day” for the next week. Today was mens training for the halfpipe so it seems an apt place to start.

Sick Japanese riders name unknown!