Blog%)
Equipment%)
Twitter
Bio
Photos
Results
Videos
Sponsors
IOttawa to New Zealand In Only 22 Hours (Plus Layovers!)
I’ve travelled quite a bit in my life so far and taken a lot of plane rides, but nothing compares to yesterday’s (or was it today? I’m not sure when I left anymore) Ottawa to Queenstown, New Zealand treck. 5 hours to Vancouver, a 5 hour layover there, 13 hours to Auckland, NZ, and finally 1.5 hours to Queenstown. I lost track of what day and time it was pretty early into the journey, but now it’s 5:30pm and I’ve been up since around 2 this morning. I’m not bogging down with tiredness though, so I hope I will avoid the worst of jet lag.
My first impression of the country is that it is simply beautiful. Flying from Auckland to Queenstown showcased the surreal terrain and snow capped mountains. As I wrote that sentence I turned around and saw this sunset.
Of course the photographer in me ran to my room and grabbed my camera to get some shots!
Needless to say I’m pretty excited for my first camp with all the World Cup guys. Sharing a condo with Jan Hudec, Robbie Dixon, and Louis-P Helie should make for a good camp! Tomorrow is our first day on snow. Can’t wait to get back on the white stuff and try out my new equipment.
Also put up some new photos on the Recent page
Some new skis
Crazy tree formations. Seems to be the norm around here
Our condo overlooks a golf course, with several ponds in front
Hot Hot Heat
The last few weeks have been really great! So great that I haven’t had the desire to sit down and write a post with any substance. But, here I am back at the keyboard, mainly due to being inside where it is nice and air conditioned, as opposed to outside where I start sweating without even moving!
Since the hockey camp there was an eastern camp, with most of the eastern based team member training at the ACC. Coming off of hockey camp and only the weekend off in between, that was a really tough week. Last week was a week on our own, where I continued to train at the ACC. It was also Canada Day week, which made for a slightly shortened week, so I took some much deserved time off from being in the gym. Mari had just come back from a camp Mt Hood with the Quebec Team and spent a week in Ottawa. She relaxed while I worked my butt off in the gym!
Canada Day was a blast! Jan Hudec was also in town for a President’s Choice event, so we spent some time with the big guy before hanging out with friends for the rest of the day. It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of techno music, and my favourite DJ, Deadmau5 (pronounced dead mouse) was playing in the market that night. It was awesome to see him play live finally, and I even got to meet him! Deadmau5 is actually from Niagara Falls and is the #6 ranked DJ in the world right now. Pretty impressive!
Deadmau5, unmasked.
Mau5head!
This week is the final eastern camp of this dryland block. The heat is making the Dome almost unbearably hot, and I come out each day fully soaked with sweat and a serious thirst. Its good when everyone is together for a week like this though. The motivation (and chirping of course) seriously help to get the work done and put the money in the bank!
Hockey Camp!!
The week I’ve been waiting for since I found out about it 2 months ago has finally come and gone. And boy, what a week it was. Each day went like this:
8am - Arrive at rink, 30 minutes of agility/warm up
9am - 10am - On ice skating & passing drills
10am - 11am - Scrimmage (White vs Red)
11am - 2pm - Eat & rest
2pm - 4:30pm - Gym workout
Needless to say it was an insanely tough week. Without a doubt the most difficult week of training I have ever done. But it was so much fun to get up every morning, lace up the skates and play hockey for two hours.
Check out a bunch more photos from the week here (I’m #32)
First morning. Lining up for skating drills
Followed by passing drills
And more skating drills!
One of the coolest aspects of the camp was that it was run by Felix Potvin, who played in the NHL for the Leafs while I lived in Toronto. It was super neat to meet my childhood hero and even play with him for a whole week. (Little known fact about me: I wanted to be a hockey goalie when I was growing up)
The Red team took the first two games with scores of 8-4 and 6-3. Being on the White team this was unacceptable! So we changed out game plan and evened the series, winning the next two games. Going into the final and deciding game tensions were high! But we managed to pull out of a 2-0 deficit after the first period and came back to win 5-4. I even scored the series winning goal a few minutes into the 3rd period!
The week really rekindled my love for hockey, which I haven’t played in several years, but am now playing several times a week. It’s great training and a ton of fun so why not?!
Let Me See Your War Face!
Our conditioning coach Matt Price has been killing it with his videos lately. Here are the latest two, “Let Me See Your War Face!” and “Hockey Skillz!”. Make sure to check out Matt’s blog. He’s updating it more and more with videos and useful training info as the summer goes on so stay tuned.
Meridian Athletic Development Blog
And as a bonus I added this one of my girlfriend Mari trying to show me up with her one handed push up skills!
Eastern Camp
After a couple of great weeks in Calgary (minus the snow!) I’ve been back home for the teams eastern training camp here at home in Ottawa. Julien Cousineau, JP Roy, Stef Guay, Louis-P Helie, Tyler Nella, Kelby Halbert, and Ryan Semple are all in town training at the Athletic Conditioning Centre (ACC) for the week. The ACC looks a heck of a lot different from the last time I trained there a few years ago!
The ‘new’ ACC layout
The rest of the dome
The level of training has stepped up this week and I’m definitely feeling it in my legs! It’s been a very similar camp to the one in Calgary, just different exercises and teammates. Matt has been doing a really good job of keeping things interesting and the usual boredom involved with gym time has been avoided, which is unreal. I’ve really been getting in to the hockey lately as well. I’m playing a couple times a week and I can’t wait for hockey camp in two weeks!
On a technical note, Tyler sent me a screen shot of the new site design so far and it looks like it will be great once it’s finished.
Oh and I wrote this whole post on my iPad, which is hands down the coolest, most incredible piece of technology I have ever used!
Dryland Videos
Did my last Calgary workout for a while this morning. I’m heading back home to Ottawa at 6 tonight. The timing couldn’t be better because it snowed for about 12 hours yesterday! Yes, snow. In May. Can’t wait to get home to some balmy 30 degree weather!
The team’s trainer, Matt Price, has been taking a bunch of video of us during dryland over the past few weeks. He’s put together a few videos of the outdoor “Rocky” workout, MMA/kickboxing workout, and some floor hockey. Enjoy!
First Dryland Camp Pictures
Last weeks camp was the first of a few team dryland camps over the summer. It was pretty cool to be around the older members of the team and see how they do things in and around the gym. It was a fun week because the trainers are really trying to step outside the box when it comes to training activities so we don’t get too bored of the usual squats and lifting.
I’ll be out here for another two weeks to be around the trainers and facilities. This week is more gym work, another outdoor session, and a possible 3 sessions of hockey. I’m rekindling my love of hockey and I’m trying to play as much as possible!
Nick Ring teaching us how it’s done
Erik testing his skills on Louis
Robbie Dixon and Trevor White
Thinking outside the box: Outdoor session
\
Manny and Jan rock throwing
Hammerin’ some tire
Nella and Kucera. Not sure what this was called but those tubes were filled with water.
Tossing a 20kg kettlebell over a tire swing
Brad Spence and I doing the tire pull/run
Louis doing the second part of the water tube exercise
*Thanks to Chad Buchholz for the pictures
Physical Testing
My time off is officially over as I’m back out in Calgary for the first dryland camp of the new season. As always, physical testing was first up on the agenda. The various bike, strength, and agility tests were done over two days without much fanfare. Nobody gets too excited about pushing their body to the limit on a stationary bike! The head trainer for the team this year is my old trainer who coached me for a few years while I was on the NCO.
First team meeting
In the afternoon of our second day of tests we took part in a hot yoga class. I had never done hot yoga before and for anyone who doesn’t know what it is, it’s exactly what it sounds like: yoga in a ridiculously hot room. Within minutes we were all dripping sweat into big puddles on the ground around us. It was possibly one of the more disgusting things I’ve ever done, but it was interesting and we’ll be doing a lot more of it over the summer.
Today was another first as we did a mixed martial arts (MMA) class with Nick “The Promise” Ring. Nick was on the current season of The Ultimate Fighter TV show, and is a pretty damn good fighter. He took us through the basics of punching and kicking and then let us kick and punch each other while wearing big protective pads. It was a good time and we’ll also be doing a bunch of that through the summer.
The MMA gym
The rest of the week will be more of the same. Gym time, yoga, MMA, biking. This week is more of an orientation week so we all understand the program, rather than a super intense training week.
Sign outside the construction zone of the new center. Click for larger image.
Good news for Canadian athletes! A new multi-sport athletic center is being built at Canada Olympic Park (COP). All I know is that it’s supposed to be state of the art (apparently even more so than the Centre of Excellence in the States) and is planned to be completed before 2012. Can’t wait!
Mike Janyk’s Olympic ring. Pretty sweet.
Revving Back Up
Sorry for the lack of posts lately.. I’ve been busy and I’ve started working with Tyler Brown (one of my first coaches and current MSM Ski Team K2 coach) on redoing my website. I like the general appearance now but updating things is a pain in the butt. So Tyler is helping me transfer everything over to an easier and better system, while also revamping the look of the site. I think it will turn out very nice!
Well my vacation is almost over and its time to start the dryland part of the season. I’ve gotten into the gym a few times in the past week and boy is it hitting me hard! The first few workouts of the year are always tough. Other than the gym I’ve rekindled my love of tennis. I got a wicked new racquet from Head and played a few times while Mari was in town, and played with the Alex and Phil Mach for a 2.5 hour monster session today. It was great and I learned a lot but my hand is simply destroyed with blisters!
At the end of last week I also had the chance to attend both the OSZ and MSM Ski Team Banquets, which were fun. Both banquets recognized the up and coming talent in the region which is always good to see! I was very flattered to be presented with a special award at the OSZ Banquet. Once again I was amazed by the support of the people in the region, and I want to thank every one of you.
As far as my schedule is concerned I leave for physical testing in Calgary on Thursday evening. I’m staying out there for 3 weeks after that to be near the ACA trainers in order to get as strong as I possibly can for the tough season ahead.
Malcolm Carmichael, a Banff based photographer, sent over a couple wicked shots the other day from National Championships in Nakiska:
Super G
Downhill
Unable to Launch Flash Player
This message is being displayed because the browser was unable to load the Flash Player required to display this content.
There are several possible causes for this;
- Your current Flash Player is outdated or it is not installed on your system. Download the latest Flash Player.
- Your browser does not have JavaScript enabled, this is required to load the Flash content.
- The Theme file used to generate this site may be missing the required JavaScript to launch the Flash player.
Downtime (Continued)
I’ve been having a lot of fun since I last posted. Lots of time off, spending time with Mari, hanging out with friends, and attending some cool events.
The first ‘event’ I went to was the WWF CN Tower climb. I got involved as a result of another organization I’m involved with (Canadian Athletes Now), and since I was going to be in Toronto at the time I said, “Why not?” It ended up being a heck of a workout and took me 13:59 to make it up the 1776 steps to the top. My heart rate didn’t go under 200 for about 13 of those minutes!
The next day I had a meeting with Eric Sprott and the rest of the Sprott Private Wealth group. The meeting was great and I got to meet the people who are involved in my sponsorship, which was also very cool. While there I was invited to the Sprott Gold Medal Celebration event a few days later, so I changed my plans and stayed in Toronto a few more days. The event was in collaboration with CAN Fund, and I was very glad I stayed for it. I met several Olympic medal winners from Vancouver and even got to hold a Gold medal. I’ve never seen a medal as cool, or as heavy as that! I also met Jane Roos, the founder of the CAN Fund. She has such a positive outlook on sport and funding, it was neat to talk to her. Each Olympian had a chance to speak, which was probably the coolest part about the event. Hearing each speech brought me right back to Whistler during the Games and made me realize how important my goals are to me and made me want to achieve them more than ever before.
You can check out some video from the event and interviews with the Olympians and Eric here
View of part of the Sprott/CAN Fund event
Everyone was given a t-shirt they could get signed by the Olympians
After Toronto I stopped off in Ottawa for about 4 hours before moving on to Montreal to watch the parade of Olympic Athletes down Ste Catherines. The turnout for the parade was unreal (tens of thousands of people) and it was so cool to see that Olympic pride is still alive and well!
I have just over a week before I head out to Calgary for physical testing and the first dryland block of the season. I’m looking forward to working out again and getting strong for next season! Until then I’ll be at home biking, playing tennis and some light work outs in preparation for the heavy summer ahead.
Downtime
Having some down time for the past two weeks has been awesome. I truly needed this break from skiing, and from any sort of schedule or serious obligations. To be honest I haven’t done much at all over the two weeks. A little shopping, a lot of relaxing, and not much else!
I’m heading to Toronto tomorrow to meet with my sponsor Eric Sprott. If you’ve been reading my blog you know Eric recently made a monumental donation to the CAN Fund. For more info check out: www.sprottgoldpledge.com. After that I’ll spend a few more days in Toronto visiting my Godfather and hanging out with friends. After that its back home and time to start moving again. Nothing too intense, I’ll just get back into playing sports and being active. Tennis, biking (road & mountain) trampolining... All the fun stuff!
End of Another Season
Another season bites the dust. As usual I’m a little sad there is no more skiing for a little while, but I really need some time off.
The Spring Series were a good time as usual. The weather was incredibly hot, above 20 degrees all week. Because of that, an uncountable number of bags of salt were laid down onto the track to make it runnable. I wanted to end the season with some confidence in GS, which worked well because I won both GS races. It wasn’t a cakewalk because there were a bunch of good american guys there, so it felt good. I DNFed the first slalom, but ended up 5th in the second one which I was decently pleased with. After that last race it really just felt good to finally be finished because my body had had enough!
Mari and I both ended up winning the Super Series Overall as well!
Along with Julian Sheiner winning the J1 title, and Chris Steinke in 3rd for J1s.
As for now I’m in relax-mode for a few weeks, before starting the engines back up a few weeks before going out to Calgary at the beginning of May. I’ll be laying off the blogging for a little bit while I’m relaxing as well, so no updates for a bit.
I want to say a big thank you to everyone who has been following me throughout the year. Your messages, comments, and support mean a lot to me and make the long tough days more bearable!
Cheers
SkiTelevision.com GMC Canadian Championships Videos
SkiTelevision.com has posted some pretty wicked videos from the GMC Canadian Championships this past week. The videos include runs from the top 3 finishers each day, along with interviews as well. The videos can be viewed here: http://skitelevision.mobilerider.com/tv/1106/#29082
I took my run from the website and put it here because the player is a little slow, so here’s my GS run from the Champs.
Having not done GS for a while before this race I can already see some old bad habits creeping into my skiing but I held it together pretty well!
Canadian Championships
The Canadian Championships in Nakiska, AB, were a lot of fun, and I’ve never seen Nakiska with nicer weather. We had bluebird days nearly every day of the weeklong Championships which made for a great atmosphere and racing. It’s always cool to go from the über-competitive season races to the Canadians where everything is a little more relaxed and everyone wants to have a good time. Not to say that the Canadians aren’t competitive by any means.. they definitely are!
The races kicked off with the downhill, in which I didn’t do as well as I wanted. The DH was probably the opposite kind of course where I usually do well (ie flat and not technical), but I had had a great training run so I wanted to do well. I finished up 6th, pretty far off the pace set by Manny. Next up was the Super G. I went in with a lot of confidence and wanted to see where I measured up compared to the Overall Champ (Erik Guay). I skied a fairly good run,if a little too conservative in some sections, and was just over a second behind Erik, good enough for 5th.
The next day was the Super Combined, which I will skip over because it was very forgettable for me!
I was starting to hit the wall in terms of fatigue but I had my favourite event the next day, the GS. I made a pretty big mistake early in the first run but the rest was decent and was sitting third. I wanted to hold my spot so I really went for it in the second run and still had one of the fastest times starting from the back and finished third! I was super excited with my first Canadian Championships podium and having a good result in GS, which I haven’t been doing a lot of lately. The result put the icing on the cake of a great season and I was really pleased to have pulled it off.
Myself, Brad and Erik - GS podium
I was having a great run in the slalom on the final day but blew out near the bottom. Oh well, that’s slalom!
After that was the provincial dual at COP for the March Of Champions event put on by GMC which was a lot of fun. Quebec was unfairly ousted from the competition after the first round but I won’t go into that!! Following that was the annual end of year party with most of the racers which was a blast as usual.
I’m at home now for a few days of rest before going out to Quebec for the Spring Series at Stoneham and Le Relais. The Springs are a lot of fun and are a nice way to end the season on a relaxed, fun note. After that I will be more than ready for a break away from skiing and just relax for a few weeks after a long season.
I normally wouldn’t post something like this but I think they’re pretty cool so here they are.. The trophies I won for (from left) Canadian Champs GS, NorAm Super G Title, and the NorAm Overall Title:
Nakiska Nationals DH Training Vid
The Canadian Nationals are in Nakiska, Alberta, this season. The first DH training run was held today on the Map Maker trail. It’s a very easy downhill track but is pretty fun nonetheless, and sometimes the easy courses are the hardest to be fast on! I had a good run today, finishing third with a 56.96. Manny won the run with 56.60, with Erik right on his tails in 56.64. Tomorrow is another training run with the race on Monday.
http://canski.org/cdns-brydon-and-osborne-paradis-fastest-in-opening-training
Overall Nor-Am Cup Champion!
I am the Overall North American Cup Champion for the 2009/2010 season!!!
I can’t believe it but it’s true! I’m completely happy and a little bit amazed at everything that happened this season, and today especially to make it happen.
Coming into today’s race Will Brandenberg of the U.S. was ahead of me in the overall standings by 18 points. I hadn’t given up yet, but Will is an amazing slalom skier so I had prepared myself for the fact that he would probably win the title. This might have helped me a little because I was totally relaxed in the start of the first run, and laid down one of the better slalom runs of my career. As predicted Will laid down an even better one from bib 1 and was sitting in second.
Going into the second run I was a little more nervous because I knew that if I wanted to even have a shot, I would need to have another run like my first. But I figured it was better to lay it all on the line and blow out knowing I had given it everything, than put down a mediocre run and know that I could have been faster. With that in mind I laid down another of my better slalom runs, made a decent mistake at the bottom, but was still in there. Mari and I were standing in the crowd at the finish watching the remaining 10 racers and I remember saying, “Well, I was second on the season, that’s pretty good right?”. I knew that in order for me to win, Will had to ski out, and I had to be somewhere inside the top 15. (The whole season I’ve been trying not to get stats and numbers in my head because that has thrown me off my game in the past) Watching Will come down was one of the most stressful things I’ve done in my career so far. As he came over the knoll onto the last pitch and into view I thought, oh well that’s that.. So when he crashed through a hairpin on the 2nd last roll in the course, I couldn’t even believe it! The crowd (mostly Americans) let out a collective groan, while I let out a mini scream of joy before I caught myself! I still wasn’t sure I had won until Travis told me I was 13th in the race and that gave me 2 more points in the overall. I was stunned. I was ecstatic, relieved, surprised, overwhelmed. It was incredible!
Will and I have had a good battle over the last half of the season and I can’t even imagine what he’s feeling right now, because we were both so close right up to the last run. If he had won I couldn’t have been too disappointed because he deserved it just as much as I do.
The title means I have a spot in every World Cup race next season! That doesn’t mean I will race every, or even close to every one, but if the coaches feel I’m ready, I’ll be in there!
It means so much to me to have won the title. I can remember a few years back when I first started racing Nor-Ams, watching the top guys and wondering how in the world I would ever be able to compete with them.. And now I’m the one on top. It’s a little surreal when I think about it! A lot of hard work has paid off this year, and although this is a big step in my career, it’s only one step and hopefully there are many more to come!
Nor-Am Super G Title!!
After moving to Burke Mountain after training in Orford, the first of two Super Gs was held there on Sunday. The hill at Burke is pretty cool with lots of terrain, jumps and blind knolls. After several delays the race finally started at noon and I had a pretty good run and wound up third! I was happy to have another Nor-Am Super G podium (my third of the year) and still hold onto a good lead in the Super G standings. There was also a slalom run to be done that day because it was also a Super Combined race. Due to the girls also racing we had to wait until nearly 5pm to start the slalom!! I had a fairly conservative but mistake-free run in the slalom portion and moved back to fourth.. 15 hundredths away from getting a World Cup spot in SC! I wasn’t too worried about it because it’s not one of my preferred events but it was still a bummer.
The next day was the final Nor-Am Super G of the season, and I was in the lead. Everyone was gunning for me to try to overtake the lead for the title, so some nerves were definitely present! Having said that I’m a pretty laid back person and I try not to let things rattle me too much, so I put all thoughts of the standings and any sort of pressure aside and just did my thing. I had a run that I’m really pleased with, just let it all hang out and went for the win. I was sitting in third, less than 2/10ths of a second behind the leader (Jan Hudec, who had just come 17th at World Cup Finals). However the race was cancelled after 10 racers because the conditions on the bottom were not going to hold up well enough for everyone to complete the race. And so I became the Nor-Am Super G title winner for the season!
I couldn’t be happier about the accomplishment, and I’m really pleased with how I handled myself under the pressure and threw down a great run. As a result of winning the title, I have a guaranteed spot in all the World Cup Super Gs next season!
ACA Press Release on the title
Now my focus shifts to the slalom tomorrow, which will decide who is the winner of the Overall Nor-Am Cup. I’m currently sitting second, 18 points back of the leader. I did a few slalom runs this morning to get myself ready to surprise some people tomorrow!
Check back soon for video from the races..
Orford Training
I arrived in St Johnsbury, VT yesterday after three days of training at Mont Orford, QC. The block in Orford was the first training I’ve had since mid-January because my schedule has been chock-full of racing and those pesky Olympics! It was really good to get back in some gates and especially to do some GS, which I haven’t even skied since racing over in Europe in January. I got back into the grove pretty fast and I’m feeling confident in my skiing again, which is really important going into the NorAm Final races starting tomorrow.
The first race of finals is a Super Combined tomorrow at Burke Mountain, VT. The final Super G is Monday also at Burke. I then move over to Waterville Valley, NH for the final GS and Slalom. These are really important races for me because I’m leading the Overall and Super G NorAm standings, and I’m in the hunt for the GS title as well. Wish me luck!
More Photos From the Weekend
Two time Olympian and fellow Ottawanian Pat Biggs is selling a special edition quilted HBC Team Canada Olympic jacket from the Vancouver games. Pat is auctioning it off on eBay to help cover his expenses for this year. So if you're interested in helping out an Olympian and owning a piece of Olympic history check it out: http://bit.ly/bR4PpH
You can also check out Biggsy's website and blog at www.patbiggs.com
Grippin' and rippin' on slalom skis
Left: 2010 | Right: 2005 | Not a lot has changed..
My dad, Brett Frip and I. Brett Frip is one of the organizers of the Ski-A-Thon
My mom and I after the medals
And for good measure a new shot from the Lake Louise NorAms in December
Rest Week
First off, can anyone believe the weather outside in Ottawa right now? Unbelievable.. But as nice as it is, it needs to get colder because I'm not finished with the winter yet!
After podiuming in the second Super G in Aspen I was ready to tear it up in downhill, but it was not to be. Evidently I like to turn (oh really?!) and need to figure out how to glide faster, because the top flats of the downhill track were killing my times. Oh well, live and learn! Even with the mediocre downhill results I managed to hold onto the NorAm overall lead going into the NorAm Finals next week in Vermont and New Hampshire.
After Aspen I returned home for a week of rest, racing, forerunning and fundraising. The first few days were nice and relaxing as Mari came to Ottawa. After a few days with her and a day of training at Fortune with the Quebec Team, my dad and I went up to Tremblant for the Boys and Girls Club Ski-A-Thon (www.skiathon.com). Todd Brooker (Canadian HEAD rep) was another guest of the event. It was a lot of fun to ski with a Crazy Canuck and the man who got me involved with HEAD skis. The event was a huge success, raising $106,000! I met a bunch of really cool people, and it was a ton of fun. I just might have to attend again next year!
The day after the Ski-A-Thon was the annual GMC Cup race at Camp Fortune. Canadian Olympians Pat Biggs and Ryan Semple (both slalom specialists) were racing that day, so my expectations were to be as close as possible to those two. Things worked out a little better than I had planned as I came through the finish of the first run to find myself in the lead. More than a little surprised, I tried to duplicate that success in the second run but it was not to be. I made a bunch of mistake and Pat ended up with the win, but I did come second, 0.01 in front of Ryan. Hundies matter!
The next day was the K1 OSZ Championships GS race at Mont Ste Marie. My younger sister Becca even convinced me to wear all of my Olympic forerunning gear. The forerunning was a lot of fun and made me realize that I really miss skiing on Outaouais because it is so fun! Rebecca didn't do as well as she was hoping, but did end up tying for the overall medal win for 1998's because of how well she did in the slalom the previous weekend. Way to go Bec!
I'm leaving for Mont Orford tomorrow for a few days of training before the NorAm finals, where I'm aiming to wrap up some World Cup spots for next season!!
Front page of the Aspen/Snowmass website
Arcing it up at Fortune. Photo courtesy of Cynthia Stewart of Photo Buddies
Mari and I after the Fortune race
Camp Fortune Podium
I think it's too big Sprout...
Handing out medals at MSM
Sprott's Gold Medal Pledge: The Final Tally
I posted a few weeks ago about Eric Sprott and his incredible pledge to donate $100,000 for every Gold medal won by a Canadian at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games. With the conclusion of the games on February 28th, and a record setting 14 Gold medals by Canadian athletes, Sprott has made his donation official. The 14 Golds means Sprott Asset Management LP and the Sprott Foundation will donate $1.4 million dollars to the Canadian Athletes Now Fund!
"Like all of Canada, I was electrified by the exceptional performance of so many of our Canadian athletes during the Vancouver games," said Sprott. "But it's the massive outpouring of pride Canadians are exhibiting towards our athletes that we wanted to capture with the Gold Metal Celebration. Nothing unites a Nation like sport."
- Eric Sprott
Several (try all) major news sources in Canada have been covering the story and here are a few places to read more on Sprott and CAN Fund:
Marketwire Press Release
Financial Post New Report
Sprott Gold Pledge Website
CAN Fund Website
Most of you know that Eric Sprott has been my sponsor for the past two years, and this past year became my headgear sponsor. I am extremely proud to have Eric supporting me, and his pledge and commitment to sport is pretty special and something I've definitely never seen before.
Many of Canada's Olympic medalists in Vancouver were recipients of CAN Funding this year. For example John Montgomery (Gold, Skeleton), Charles Hamelin (Gold, ST Speed Skating), and Joannie Rochette (Bronze, Figure Skating) were all recipients this year.
And word on the street is that Jasey Jay Anderson, the Gold medalist in Snowboarding Parallel Giant Slalom at the Vancouver Olympics and CAN Fund recipient, is at Sprott's office in Toronto today with his Gold medal to thank Eric for his generosity. Very cool!
Aspen DH Video
"Just when I thought you couldn't possibly be any dumber, you go and do something like this... and totally redeem yourself!" Kind of how I felt after messing up in the first Super G and redeeming myself in the second! Ahh too many great quotes from that movie..
Anyways here is video of the 2nd downhill training run in Aspen. The snow was a little firmer today, making the course nearly 3 seconds faster. All in all a fairly easy, but super fun track.
A Little Place Called Aspen
After my Olympic 'vacation' I hopped on a plane and flew over to Denver, then drove straight up to (a little place called) Aspen. For those who don't get the joke it's from a great movie called Dumb and Dumber!
I'm in Aspen for a week for a Nor-Am speed series. We've already completed two Super G races and start DH training tomorrow, followed by three DH races. The first two races are Nor-Ams, while the third is the U.S. National Championship race. With the Nationals so close a few of the World Cup speed skiers who aren't competing in any more events at the Olympics are here. Jan Hudec, Steven Nyman and Erik Fisher are the big names that are here at the moment.
It has been snowing for the past 3 days in Aspen so the track was extremely soft yesterday. Not the kind of snow I like but I had to figure it out regardless. I had a decent run going until I came off a cat track about half way down, got light and twisted but somehow managed to stay on my feet and make it down. I finished in 7th overall which was pretty disappointing. Today's race went much better. The snow was a little firmer and I had an early bib, so I put the hammer down and wound up second... by two hundredths! Two silly little hunnies. I guess thats the way it goes in this sport, but I am very happy with my run and the way I skied. Like Bode says, to be proud of what you just laid down is more important than your results. After having very little training for the past month, the past two days have been really good for my confidence and it felt good to lay it all on the line and come out with a result.
Flowers for my Super G podium
Tomorrow is the start of DH training. I'm excited to ski it, it looks like a laid back and fun track.
An interesting side note on the two Super Gs.... A relatively unknown U.S. racer won the first SG by a large margin; nearly a full second. He was also sitting in 5th today before it was noticed that he was on some illegal equipment. Namely his skis and their stand-height. After a protest was filed it was determined that his skis were illegal and he was disqualified from today's race. I have never experienced something like this and it was quite interesting to see the procedure and the lengths people go to get away with cheating..
An Incredible Olympic Experience
Trav, Dave (Trav and my technician) and myself moments before the start
What an unforgettable week! My Olympic experience was full of delays, snow, fog, but most of all fun. It was awesome to be at the Olympics, especially a home one. The support from everyone was unbelievable even though I was just forerunning. I ran into a ton of people from the Ottawa skiing community while out in Whistler. A bunch of them were volunteers (working their butts off!) and some were taking in the sights and sounds of the Olympics. But everyone was really supportive which was awesome, so thanks a lot!
When race day finally rolled around the atmosphere was like nothing I've ever experience before. There were TONS of people at all of the viewing areas (7,000 in the stands!) hours before the race even started. It's a pretty cool feeling when people cheer when you come through the finish.. of the inspection! Due to only having one official and incomplete training run, everyone had a chance to run from Coaches Turn to the finish. After that I had to head straight back up to the top because I would be the first forerunning and would open the Alpine events at the Olympics. 
The view from the start on race day (20 min before start). Notice the line of people forming on the top left.
At precisely 10:20 the beeps started for me to begin my run. Leaving the start and hearing the roar of the crowd up there was something I didn't expect and will never forget! I almost broke into a smile before the first gate (good thing I was only forerunning I guess). Since I was the guinea pig and the first one down, I found out pretty quickly that the jumps were huge that day. The track was way firmer and a little faster than training, but was also a lot bumpier. Coming through each viewing area I could hear people cheering, which is something I have never heard before. Coming over the last two jumps, which were massive that day, I could see all the people in the finish and was just awestruck by how many were there. As I came through the finish I was so excited to be there and that I had just been a part of the Olympics that I let out a scream and fist pump, which I guess the crowd liked because they went wild! I will never forget that moment.
A view of the crowd
So with that said I'm really glad that I had the experience of running in such a big event because of all the little things that kind of took me off guard. For example the noise, people, and cameras everywhere. I think the experience will definitely help me in the future and hopefully in Sochi 2014!!!
The volunteers deserve the biggest medal of all. It was ridiculous how much work they were doing! Even making snow-slides to clear the track. Genius.
A bunch of the speed guys training Super-G on one of the nice days
Trav and I had the chance to watch the women's Super Combi. This is Vonn after straddling and a collective "oouhhhhhh" from the crowd. Just goes to show that anything can happen in this crazy sport.
After watching the Super Combi we went up top and took a 25 minute hike to find some freshies.
Todd Brooker hooked me up with some fatties for the trip
Awesome.
Typical Whistler
Can anyone honestly say they didn't see this coming? By 'this' I mean the brutal, awful, terrible, disgusting weather that is happening in Whistler right now and for the last three days. Even though I expected something like this to happen it doesn't make it any better or easier to deal with. I really just want to ski that track again!
That being said this is still the Olympics(!) and Trav and I have been having a good time while we haven't been able to race. Yesterday we went up to the top of Whistler and ripped off a couple of sweet powder runs, then moved a little lower and did some GS training. Conditions aren't exactly ideal but it was good to whack some gates again.
Something I somehow forgot to mention was the amazing send off surprise I received from the kids at MSM. The day before I left I was given a wickedly cool banner by my sister and Rowan Courtenay that the kids made for me! I was pretty surprised and very touched by the gift and I can't wait to get on that track and represent the club when the race finally gets off!
Thank you guys VERY much!!!
During the down time I've been getting some practice playing this very neat ski game from ORF. It's got a bunch of tracks from Kitzbuhel, Wengen, Beaver Creek and even the Whistler track. If you've got some time to kill check it out here: http://skichallenge.orf.at/sc10
This has been the scene in the finish for the past three days. Pretty depressing.
More questionable signage
The most ridiculously amazing house I have ever seen!
My amazing birthday dinner at Mongolie Grill. Who needs veggies anyways?
Olympic DH Walkthrough
I had a lot of great feedback the last time I did a course run-through at Lake Louise, so what better place to do another one than at my favourite downhill track, the Dave Murray Downhill for the Vancouver 2010 Olympics! This track has a lot more to it than the LL course so it's pretty long!
It's a little crazy how different the TV cameras make the track look, compared to what it looks like while actually on course. So much so that while watching the guys come down after I did my forerun, I found myself thinking "Where is he right now?!" A little embarassing but oh well. Anyways, without further ado, here is the walkthrough:
Olympic Start House
They really built up the start gate from previous years. Its about 75 meters of straight bully before you need to turn!
This is the first section of the course. Flat and rolly. It's hard to see because
there are no panels, but the track follows the dye over the rolls.
The first "challenge" in the course is this camel hump. Light on the first one, air off the second.
After a few Super-G turns you get to a decent-sized right-leg turn.
Same right legger. You can see how it drops off at the end because it's a jump as well! 
Off the jump you need to get straight onto the left foot to make this cranker into the Weasel Flats section.
This angle gives you a little more clarification on how steep the previous section is.
The Weasel section ends with a big left-footer turn. You can feel yourself slow down
significantly through the left legger because it's such a big, flat turn.
But not to worry! You drop into the extremely steep Toilet Bowl section after the big left footer. Don't scrub
any speed on the left footer at the bottom of the pitch because that's a big flat/uphill ahead.
Following another right-footer "tunnel" jump, you drop off of the Fallaway turn. I've never seen a fallaway
like this one, or experienced a compression as big as the one at the bottom of this pitch!
After a short flats after the Fallaway, you are sucked into The Sewer. This huge sidehill is new for the Olympics.
Off the sidehill you really get into The Sewer. Sewer is by far the fastest section of the course,
and with a nearly 180 degree turn (Coaches Turn) at the bottom it's quite intimidating. 
After Coaches you come across a long, slightly sidehill, left-footer that we nicknamed The Punisher.
By this point your legs are burning and the long left-footer does little to help your legs!
After a cranky right-footed turn out of The Punisher there are a few single gates
before the final two jumps of the course. This first one is called Boyd's Chin.
The landing of Boyd's Chin and the takeoff of Murr's Hoppe. It's a fairly small flight off of
Boyd's Chin, but Murr's Hoppe can have some decent air and distance!
The view off of the last jump, showcasing the giant stands! Can't wait to see those packed full of cheering, screaming (hopefully Canadian) fans!!
Olympic Time Baby!
I made it out to Whistler last night after a long travel day and a surprise race at St. Sauveur. I hadn't planned on racing out there but I did and ended up winning (in slalom even), which was pretty cool.
Things in Whistler are pretty hectic as you would imagine. All the security glitches are being ironed out right now in the few days before the 2010 Olympic Games officially begin on Friday.
Travis and I, along with a few boys from the BC Ski Team had the chance to run the DH track today for 'TV testing'. Basically we were the guinea pigs for the cameras to make sure everything is working and they have all the angles covered, etc etc. The track is in great shape and they've changed a few things since I last ran this track a few years ago. There are a few more jumps now, which makes it even more fun! Tomorrow is training run #1 so it's down to business for everyone involved in the race on Saturday.
I don't have internet in my room so I won't be updating my blog as often as normal, but I will be updating my Twitter several times a day with pictures, videos, or whatever else is going on. If you want more updates check out twitter.com/dustincook.
That being said I will be getting up another blog post with a photo run-through of the course, which I'm planning on getting up tomorrow.
Cheers!
The Olympic Start House
Trav decked out in our forerunner gear
The stands in the finish of the DH
The back of the stands
Sprott's Olympic-Size Donation
My headgear sponsor, Eric Sprott of Sprott Private Wealth, has made an incredible donation and pledge for Canadian athletes. Yesterday Sprott held a press conference in conjunction with the Canadian Athletes Now Fund (CAN Fund), and pledged to donate $100,000 to CAN Fund for every gold medal won by Canadian athletes at the Vancouver Games. Yes you read that correctly, one hundred thousand dollars!! In addition to this pledge, Sprott donated $215,000 to help 35 athletes on the CAN Fund waiting list.
"With our Canadian athletes competing for gold against the best in the world, we wanted to celebrate their success in achieving their goals by supporting the CAN Fund, which provides direct funding to Canadian athletes," Sprott said in a news release Thursday.
You can read the CTV Olympics article on Sprott here.
I am extremely proud to have the Sprott emblem displayed on all of my headgear and I'm simply amazed by the generosity of his pledge. For more information on Eric, CAN Fund, and to donate check out: http://sprottgoldpledge.com/
What a Long Strange Trip it's Been..
As the title says, it's been a long difficult trip this year in Europe. Three weeks over here is a relatively short trip compared to the past years, but the difference this year was the crazy amount of racing jammed into those three weeks. Last year I was over here for a month and I did three races.
This year I arrived on the night of the 9th, trained the 10th and 11th, did DH training runs on the 12/13th, DH races on the 14/15th. Raced a slalom on the 16th, GS on the 17th. Finally had a day off on the 18th. Trained on the 19th, GS races on the 20/21st, followed by two SG races on the 22nd. One day off and one travel day on the 23/24th. Which finally leads me to where I am now in Les Orres where I've done 2 DH training days (25/26th) and a DH race yesterday. 13 races (including DH training runs) in 19 days. Phew, just looking at that and I now realize why I am so completely wiped out. I was supposed to race a second DH today but I am so fatigued, mentally and physically that I pulled myself from the race to take a few GS training runs and try to get some feelings back for the final race of the trip: a SG tomorrow.
The trip started off fairly well in Patcherkofel, which I wrote about earlier. Moving on from there I did a FIS slalom in Lenggries, where I was 2nd in the second run! Definitely a step in the right direction in slalom. Following that was a Europa Cup GS, where I fell which was disappointing. After that was a FIS race in Kirchberg that did go alright. It was stacked full of World Cup guys (many of them top-30 GS skiers) and I finished 14th, not too far off the pace. After that the fatigue of all the racing and travelling has sort of taken over and my skiing and results have gone downhill.
The thing that makes a schedule like this so tough in Europe is that after each event that we've done, we've had to drive 2+ hours (sometimes 5 or 8) to the next stop, immediately following the race. That means your muscles don't get to recover and you get very little decent rest.
Needless to say I'm looking forward to getting home and getting some rest! I'll be home for a week, possibly up at MSM for a day to forerun, and then off to Whistler to forerun the Olympic Downhill and Super Combined!
The first few gates of the Les Orres Downhill
Nice scenery behind the start
Questionable signage?
More Photos From Europe
The Lenggries piste 
Trav and I after Lenggries. (Trav joined the sweet shades crew)
The Geisberg pitch in Kirchberg
The famed Londoner Pub in Kitzbuhel. Never judge a book by its cover!
Jeff came 2nd at the Kirchberg FIS race that was stacked with World Cuppers
Nella got a new haircut for Wengen! 
Trav loving slalom
Some of the terrain in Les Orres
The start of the downhill in Les Orres
Patcherkofel Photos
This should not sleep two!
Site of the 1976 Innsbruck Olympics
Tom and I - Sweet Shades Club
Tom, our physio, doing what he does best
Slalom/GS training after the DH runs. (Europeans are organized when it comes to ski racing)
Innsbruck as viewed from the course
I now consider myself a wuss because this is how they used to ski downhill! No safety nets, just safety trees apparently!
Trav spent an afternoon completing this masterpiece.
Eurotrip 2010 Part 1 - Patcherkofel DH
Euro trip 2010! Very unlike the movie but fun nonetheless!
The trip this year started out very well. I used my Air Canada upgrade certificate and was flying first class all the way, yes in one of those pods that fold all the way down into a bed. After that amazing flight I can't imagine flying any other way! Following this great start was one of the worst days of my life. We landed (an hour delayed while in the air) to a snowstorm in the Frankfurt airport. Everything was delayed, lots of flights were cancelled, it was chaos. Trav (Dawson), Marie-Pier Prefontaine and myself were all going to Munich so we stuck together through the 6 hours we waited in different lines trying to get a flight to Munich that day. After many lines and tons of blatantly incorrect information (apparently there was a complete communication breakdown in the airport), we finally got to Munich, without any of my bags. No duffle, no skis, nothing. Great.
From Munich we moved on to our home base in Kirchberg, Austria. Without any clothes or anything I had to borrow a lot of equipment from the devo girls that were there, and from our physio. So for two days we trained GS and slalom in Kirchberg, me looking like a total yedi with shinguards over pants, full jacket, etc. Oh well, the training was great! I even skied well in slalom which hasn't happened in a while.
Our first races are here in Patcherkofel, Austria, for 2 Europa Cup Downhills. The hill is fairly easy for a downhill, but has a lot of little terrain changes and bumps that make it hard to master. The first two training runs went alright. I had some really fast sections and some really slow sections for some mediocre times. Today was the first race and I had my worst run so far but finished up 17th. Not a bad result, plus I scored my first Europa Cup points, but I know I can do better.
Race #2 happens tomorrow. Immediatly following the race we move to Germany for a slalom race there, then after that I head back to Kirchberg for a Europa Cup GS. My schedule over here is full of races, just the way I like!
Photo and Such
Cynthia Stewart of Photo Buddies was at the Mt Blanc slaloms and took some pretty wicked pics of me skiing slalom of all things. These are by far the best slalom pictures I've ever seen of myself. I always watch a few people from the start, and usually end up thinking "dang, those guys are good!" It doesn't really occur to me that I might look like I know what I'm doing as well haha.
I also put up some new shots in the Recent album in the Photography section of the site. Theres a bunch from earlier in the season in Colorado, Lake Louise, and some from the Chirstmas break. I got a new lens a few months ago and I've been playing around with it quite a bit lately and I love it. Let me know what you think!
Sunday Riv
Sunday River and I have not had the best relationship since I first raced there while I was on the Quebec team in 2007. Looking back at my FIS biography and in a span of three years I finished DNFed 10 straight races there, out of 12 in that time span. Yikes! It's a fairly tough hill that is usually a skating rink which leads to a lot of DNFs (for a lot of people, not just me). This year however I went in with a different mindset and a lot of confidence, and things worked out a little better than in the past.
We were originally slated to ski GS first but the 22cm of snow the hill got the day before the races caused the slaloms to be held first. This kind of ticked me off since I wanted a chance to rip some GS but what can you do? I had some serious bad luck in the slaloms. In the first race I was sitting 10th after the first run, which I was pretty pleased with. However I blew it in the second run, falling on the dead flats 8 gates from the finish and dropped back to 24th. The second day was when things got a little ridiculous.. In the first run a gate broke at the base, shot up and landed on my lap, stayed there for two gates plus a hairpin. It finally slid off and I made it down relatively unscathed and I was somehow in 11th. During the second run a gate broke in half and hit me in the back, then landed in between my skis so I had to stop skiing and move it before I could keep going. I wasn't sure about the rules for reruns in that situation so I didn't stop (I later learned I could have gotten a rerun had I stopped and asked after it happened). I dropped back once again to 20th place. I was extremely disappointed with these results because I was sitting pretty after the first runs, but disastrous second runs cost me dearly.
We finally got to GS on the third day and I was pumped. I let it rip first run and made a few mistakes but was sitting in 4th place, 2 tenths out of second. For the second run the sun disappeared after about bib 20 which made it really tough for the rest of us. I had a pretty brutal run to be honest but managed to only drop back one spot to 5th. I had mixed feelings about the result because I know I should have been on the podium, but 5th place is by far the best I've ever done in SR, so I'll take it.
Right now I'm in the lounge at the Montreal airport (frequent flying has its benefits) waiting for a flight to Frankfurt, then to Munich. It's that time of year again, the European time that is. I'll be in Kirchberg, Austria for a couple of training days before our first Europa Cup downhill in Austria next week.
Back on the Road
First off... Happy New Year everyone! After a very laid back NYE at my girlfriend's home in Morin Heights I am back on the road for a solid month of racing. Being home for the holidays was definitely nice and well deserved after all the time on the road since the beginning of November. I spent the holidays up at my family's chalet at Mont Ste Marie, skiing, relaxing and having a good time.
After a few days of R&R I did some coaching at the club which was a ton of fun! I was floating between all the age groups and got to spend at least a few runs with all the kids in the club. The kids seemed to really enjoy, which made it really enjoyable for me as well! One of the funniest moments was when I suggested to the Nancy Greeners that we should have a race, and for the rest of the runs I was with them that was all they wanted to do! I even got my first piece of 'fan mail' during the week! Julia and Nicola Gilmour (who also live across the street from my chalet up at MSM) gave me this excellently illustrated congratulatory poster, along with some champagne. Needless to say I was very flattered, thanks girls!!
The drawing is now proudly displayed on our fridge at the chalet :)
The support I received from everyone at the club was pretty overwhelming. I want to say a very sincere thank you to everyone who I talked to and supported me. I really appreciate it. I had no idea so many people followed the (non World Cup) circuit so closely. I've never experience anything like that and it was pretty awesome!
Right now I'm in Montreal with the rest of my team, awaiting an early morning departure to Killington, VT. We train in Killington for two days before moving over to Sunday River, ME for two Nor-Am GS's and two slaloms. After those races we skip across the pond for a Europa Cup filled trip to Europe. We'll be based in Kirchberg, Austria (the Canadian Ski Team's home-away-from-home), with races in Austria, Italy and France.
I'm looking forward to carrying the momemtun from the last string of races before Christmas into this part of the year!
