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Last week I headed up north, to Manchester, to compete in the English Champs. After registering we got the opportunity to head out onto the slope, scope out the course and get a few chilled practice runs in. The course was a lot more creative than set-ups here have been in the past, with multiple lines and potential for a lot of creativity, everyone was loving it. This was then followed by a verylong wait while the snowboarders did their qualification runs.
When the time eventually came round I put down two solid runs with some of my better tricks in them and managed to qualify first for finals for the under 18’s.
Finals was the same format as qualifications, two runs, best score counts. I flaked out a little on my first run but managed to put down a solid second run which I was very happy with.
I managed to walk away with a 1st for Under 18’s Male Ski and a 1st Overall! I was over the moon with this result and becoming the English slopestyle champion. My mood was then lifted even further when I looked on the score sheet and found out that one of the three judges had given my run a perfect 100 out of 100!!!
I am so happy with these results and I can’t wait for summer to start!
After spending a few weeks over New Year in Austria, the first competition of the season was coming up. The SFR stop in Val Thorens – France. I was really looking forward to this comp as I had gone the year before and really enjoyed myself!
We headed for VT a few days early, hoping to get a few days of practice on the course like last year. However, when we got there we were greeted by bad weather and an empty snow park – the course wasn’t even built. Luckily, Val Thorens are neighbours with Meribel; so despite the bad weather we rode there in the following days to get our ski legs back.
The night before practice day a meeting was called where it was announced that because of the weather, the qualifiers would be held on the day originally intended for practice. We would only have four practice runs and I was to be in heat one which started at 8:30 in the morning and I would be second to drop in my heat. So all round I was not feeling extremely confident.
The next day rolled around and I lazily got out of bed to go skiing at stupid o’clock in the morning and to my surprise, despite the bad weather over the previous days, it was blue bird and it made me more confident to ski.
We got to the park and the shapers had done a fantastic job of building the course; only finishing it at 23:30 the night before. Everything was perfect apart from the last big kicker which was just too whippy. The course shapers tried to cut it down to make it a bit more mellow but it was still too violent giving everyone problems in the first heat.
I got two solid runs down and I was happy with both apart from not being able to perform my intended trick on the final kicker due to it being too dangerous. I placed 26th overall out of 75 adults which was a giant improvement on last year. Unfortunately I missed out on qualification for finals by 6 places but I was happy with how I rode!
I also made loads of new friends, including my K2 team mates from The Netherlands.
I want to give a huge shout out to ALPOHOLICS CHALETS. Without their support I would not have been able to pay my Competition Travel Insurance. Check them out if you are thinking of heading to La Plagne their chalets are awesome!
All in all it was a rad week and I am looking forward to my next SFR comp.
I spent 6 days skiing with some of my closest friends over the new year in Austria. I had a brilliant time and managed to get some decent tricks down, plus a few new ones. I hope you like outcome!
Ever since I started skiing, I have been watching the Line Traveling circus episodes on the Internet. I’ve always loved the tricks they perform and how creative they are. They are so different to most people in the sport. So, When I got an invite to go and ski, travel and stay with them on their UK tour I was over the moon – Will and Andy have been two of my idols since I was about 9.
I had an amazing time traveling and skiing with the guys all over the country – riding indoor parks and backyard setups. We rode at Castleford, Hemel, Tamworth and Milton Keynes. We even took a trip to check out Stonehenge!
They are a fantastic group of riders and I am stoked to have had the chance to spend so much time with them – definitely another of my sporting goals achieved!
Check out some of the photos below
A massive thanks to the KCPFA and the Ivy Hawkes Bursary Award for contributing towards the cost of my GB youth training week in March. I am really looking forward to getting some expert coaching
Your support is greatly appreciated
Wow! My first sponsors Waterbird now have their very own Facebook page – check them out here – Waterbird
These guys are awesome!
On Saturday I went to Bracknell for the Southern Freestyle Jam! The slope has only recently been re-matted so within the first hour of the jam there were already loads of people scratching their faces up on the perm-snow and sliding over and hurting themselves but despite this everyone still threw down.
The day was extremely hot and stuffy! If it wasn’t for the southern freestyle crew keeping the slope watered and slippy the competition wouldn’t have been a success!
I skied well in the jam throwing down some Tyrants, super feds, super chris browns and Shifty 5’s!
I made it into the finals and threw down 2 very decent runs!
At prize giving I was awarded 1st In Under 16’s along with a brand new O’neil Jacket, a hat and some BUTTA wax!
Well done to everyone who got a podium.
Thanks to all the organisers and competitors for making it a successful day!
Check out the edit for the Bracknell jam-edited and filmed by Max Presky
I am now officially in the England B Squad for halfpipe and slopestyle! I’m extremely happy and honoured to have been selected and I can’t wait to work with the coaches to help me to progress to the next level in skiing!
In February I spent a fantastic week in Austria learning how to ski back-country.
Heading out to Krippenstein was an adventure. It was the first time travelling on my own and only the second time I can remember travelling on a plane in my life.
The second we got to the small resort it was already snowing and there was plenty of snow everywhere. We were staying in a lodge at the very top of the mountain complete with 10 huskies and loads of ski-dos.
We had a piste basher build us a kicker and spent the week riding the jump and cruising the powder on some absolutely awesome K2 Powder skis!
Our guide Andi, knew every route in detail and he took us to areas where no one else had skied and we were creating the first tracks in the snow. We hit plenty of pillows, cliffs and steep faces.
Andi looked after us brilliantly all week – can’t thank him enough.
All in all it was a fantastic week and I can’t wait for my next adventure!
Had an awesome time at Norfolk Ski Slope on Saturday – skiing in a 4 hour grom camp and learning a few new tricks.
At the end of it I was stoked to be selected along with my fellow team mate Monty to compete in the London Ride at Earls Court next week. We will be competing on the Saturday so make sure you come along to cheer us on!
Earlier this year I spent a few days being coached by Dave Young. Check out these great instructional videos he filmed for Fall Line magazine – featuring me!
[ultimate_free 1 /]
Big thanks to Dave for pulling these together.
A couple of weeks ago my Dad’s friend Dean took some photos of me while we were at the Bracknell Jam – what do you think of them?
Kent Sport have written a case study on my involvement with the Dame Kelly Holmes Legacy Trust!!
You can read all about it here:
http://www.kentsport.org/london2012/heroes_future_back_talent.asp
My case study is towards the bottom
The first of the summer comps kicked of in CasVegas last weekend.
The Jam was a 2 hour session, the set up was amazing with lots of awsome rails. As the Jam started, me and TJ Harding headed out to start warming up. After the first few runs I had really got used to most of the features, I was straight in doing K-feds, Super Feds and 450’s out. By the end of the night I had landed tons of sick tricks like nose tap 5’s and 630’s!
After the jam we had a quick break and then got back on the slope for a team event. The rules were that we had 4 runs in our teams to go mad and crazy. The whole event was about creativity. Our team captain Adam came up with some fun ideas and we put them into practice in our first 3 runs and on our 4th we put them all together. We had Liam lying upside down with his skis up in the air for us to tap or ski slide. Then we had Tim sitting behind the gas pipe with his poles in the air for us to jump through and finally, we had a guy grabbing our skis/boards and spinning us on the box!!!!!
At the presentation I was called out for second place in the 13-16 year old category, Josh Jenkins got third place and Tyler got first.
And yes, I was stoked!!!
If you haven’t already seen it yet, here is the edit that Quiksilver put together for me from their UK final at Tamworth:
If you haven’t done so already – go to the following link and click on “Vote for this Rider”
http://quiksilverlive.com/radar11/rider.147.php
Hi everyone,
Here’s that Christmas edit that I said I was putting together. you can also see it at my webpage under Vids, or on YouTube!
Enjoy!
When it starts click on the “240p” and change to “360p” to see best quality
I was in Les 2 Alpes for the new year. It was fantastic to be back on real snow – the park set up was awesome as usual and the pipe was absolutely amazing. It took me a few runs to get used to the proper stuff again but I was soon hitting the big kickers and the rails, laying down some sick tricks.
I met up with Jack Peppiette and the Smithy’s Tavern crew and we sessioned the kickers together. Jack pushed me to do my first 7 over the biggest kicker in the park – I stomped it, thanks Jack!!
My new K2 Silencers were riding amazingly, they are well good on snow.
The first day was a bit of a white out but my new Adidas ID2 goggles really helped me to see where I was going unlike my granddad who had to be rescued by Skidoo when he got motion sickness and started throwing up everywhere!
I had an awesome week and we got some great footage in the park – so watch this space for an edit coming soon!
We’ve had about 2 foot of snow in Walderslade in the past week – shame to waste it so I built myself a slopestyle course on the front drive! I had a bit of a problem getting speed up as there is a definite lack of mountains in our close but I solved that one by using the garden slide.
I managed to lay down a few steezy runs – check out my video here
Me and my sister Madi were lucky enough to be invited to spend a day with the Dame Kelly Holmes Legacy Trust at Canterbury University as part of the Backing Talent in Kent scheme being run for F.A.N.S. members.
Along with mum, dad and our freestyle ski coach Paul Webb, we learnt a heap of things about training, nutrition, dealing with the media, mental psychology and loads of other stuff.
We met lots of leading British athletes and our personal coach for the day was Tyrone Swaray.
It was a brilliant day!
I went to the London Freeze to watch the best skiers compete and while I was there I bumped into Ben from Adidas for the first time! We had a chat and got to know each other before inviting him and his wife Emma to have a drink with us.
Then we went over the brand and what I would and wouldn’t like and what I could do to promote Adidas!
Our conversation was cut short by the start of the Relentless Freeze, so we said our goodbyes and got on with the day :)
Me and my ski buddy Josh had an awesome day at the London Freeze on Sunday – we saw some amazing tricks and even met some of the stars. Here’s a pic of us with the the sickest skier of all – Bobby Brown… he was a really nice guy and even went out of his way to go and get some posters for us!
Big up to my Adidas team mate Woodsy who landed a sick double cork 12 – it wasn’t enough to get him into the finals but there’s always next year!
Meeting with my Sponsors
I had a great day yesterday up at the Metro Ski Show. I met up with Chris from Ski Bartlett and Si from K2!
I passed Through the Ski Bartlett stand to say hi to Chris and I ended up getting two luminous ski straps and a giant Ski Bartlett tall-tee, I’m not sure if they wanted me to work for the day as the t-shirts were staff uniforms so I scooted off asap!
Later in the day I got to have a chat with Si, updating him on how my skiing had been going and discussing gear for the coming season! My K2 Juvys have done a good job for me so far this year so I’m super stoked to be part of the K2 team. Si gave me a sick bag of K2 goodies – thanks dude!
It was also great to catch up with Vince and Ally from Waterbird – thanks for your continuing support and believing in me.
Thanks Si and Chris:) for everything.
Hey dudes… had a great time on the Air Bag at Chatham on Friday – check out the pics here:
http://www.mjski.com/Galleries/AirbagChatham/index.html
My ski buddy Sam Gaskin (son of Ally & Vince, my ski sponsors – Waterbird) just won a competition out of his whole year at school with a presentation on freestyle skiing that he gave – it included a video featuring some of his best tricks and also includes one or two shots of me…
You can watch the video on my private pages if you’re a mate at www.mjski.com (see the contact me page if you want to be a mate)
You can spot me when we’re on the road a lot easier now… if you see me give us a toot!
