Who ever said it's always raining and foggy at Buller?

The past two weekends at Buller have been absolutely beautiful (despite the lack of new snow...)

Last weekend I competed for Melbourne University in the Victorian Uni Games. It was a lot of fun, and  a big success, with Melbourne Uni winning the overall title. I came first in the GS, dual slalom, ski cross, and second in the slopestyle. I have to say, it was fun to get the race suit back on!

I also joined the Mt Buller Race Club for some early morning GS training on Emirates. The best thing about training at this hour is watching the spectacular sunrise!

 (Like the good old days with Mt Buller Race Club friends - lining up for the GS)

(View of Mt Buller village from Emirates chair)

(The Summit)

Having fun with Chicks with Stix

Last weekend I joined the Chicks with Stix program for a ski in the sun on Saturday afternoon at Mt Buller. Chicks with Stix was started this season by Zoe Jaboor, and was created to provide the opportunity and encouragement for young girls to take up the challenge and get involved in competitive freestyle skiing. Now that I race ski cross, I guess I can classify myself as a freestyler! Last weekend about 30 chicks of all ages rocked up, ready for some fun on the slopes with this girl-only group (sorry boys!).

Photos are yet to come....

On air with Ross and John from 3AW

This morning I went live on air with Ross and John from 3AW. The renowned duo's breakfast show has been broadcasting live from Mt Buller for the past few days. We talked about ski cross, my Olympic Games experience, and what's next in store for me...

To listen to the online podcast, go to the following link and click on "Friday morning". I am on air at 7:30am, approximately 2/3's of the way through the show.

http://www.3aw.f2.com.au/Podcast/Feeds/22.xml 

First turns for the season

So I've made my first turns for the season here at Thredbo, NSW. I'm in Jindabyne for the week for NSWIS athlete induction.

After a long 7-hour drive from Melbourne solo on Monday, Tuesday was jam packed with a medical screening, physio screening, psychology session, gym session, acrobatics and nutrition class. Yesterday I ventured to Thredbo at 6am for a 7am early morning start on snow. Supertrail has a good cover of snow making, so it's perfect for some big, fast GS turns.

I'm here until Saturday, then back to Melbourne. Looks like I'll be spending a bit of time everywhere this season; Hotham, Thredbo, Perisher, and of course Buller.

(Early morning sunrise at Thredbo)

 (Thank God for snowmaking!)

Here are a few shots from the NSWIS athlete induction on Thursday night. This is my second year as an NSWIS scholarship holder, as well as VIS and AIS.

(NSWIS Ski Cross team - Scott, myself and Sami)

Training with the boys in Sydney

Last week I flew to Sydney for what was probably the hardest week of training I've ever done!

Organized by OWI strength and conditioning coach John Marsden, I joined Australia's best male snowboarders for a 5-day training camp at the NSW Academy of Sport in Narrabeen.

In the 5 days I was there, we did over 14 training sessions. By the end of the week, every single muscle in my body was hurting. Even muscles I never knew even existed!

This is what the training week looked like....

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
	21	22	23	24	25
6:00
6:30
7:00		beach session	beach session	beach session	beach session
7:30
8:00
8:30		Breakfast	Breakfast	Breakfast	Breakfast
9:00
9:30
10:00		explosive session	bush run	boxing	explosive session
10:30
11:00
11:30
12:00
12:30		lunch	lunch	lunch	lunch
13:00	strength testing
13:30
14:00		paddling session	weights	Manly RL Training	Surf Life Saving
14:30
15:00
15:30
16:00	surf recovery
16:30
17:00		recovery	recovery	recovery
17:30
18:00
18:30	Dinner	Dinner	Dinner	Dinner
19:00
19:30
20:00

 

The training had a huge amount of variety which was fun. The paddling session was amusing, especially when a few of the guys sank an hour into the paddle! Getting into the surf every morning was also refreshing.

We were pushed to our limits. The only thing getting me through was knowing that everyone was experiencing the same pain! So thank god I had great team mates around!

Even though it was tough (and at times grueling, especially the session with the Manly Rugby Team coach), I really enjoyed being back in the 'team' environment. It was extremely motivating. I was joined by fellow Olympians Chumpy Pullin, Scotty Kneller, Scott James, Holly Crawford and Jenny Owens, as well as some talented up and coming NSWIS snowboard athletes. 

Currently I'm back in Melbourne training. I am on uni holidays for four weeks, which is nice not having to be up until early hours of the morning working on architecture projects! I'm heading to Jindabyne on Monday for a week of free skiing at Perisher and Thredbo. Fingers crossed for some fresh snow!