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Chris Wadsworth

The Brits, The Oatcake Jam and Sports Aid Workshop

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Indoor Brits Mike
To kick off last weekend we had a gruelling 5 hour journey to Manchester for the Indoor British Champs. When I eventually arrived I was greeted by a perfectly groomed course. The set up provided options to be creative but also to throw some big tricks. The Format of the competition was the same as last year. Each row of features on the hill were ‘zones’ – the competitions would go through 1 zone at a time and each time the field was halved, until the final zone was reached and only a select group of riders remained. In the final there was only supposed to be 4 riders, but the competition was so tight the judges decided to allow more than this through. The Final itself has to be one of the closest finals I have ever ridden in – every single rider threw down! I was more than happy to walk away with 2nd overall, alongside Chris Wadsworth in 3rd and Chris Mccormick in 1st.

Kisdgrove
The day after the Brits we took a short drive to Kidsgrove ski slope for their opening day, as well as the Oatcake Jam! Despite it being autumn in the UK, it was still pretty hot! After a lot of laughs and some good, classic, sweaty British Dryslope skiing I was so Happy to find out I had ended up in 1st place! Chris Mavin and the folks at Kidsgrove put on an awesome day at a great new venue.

Mike Olympic Torch
Recently, I had the privilege to go up to London in order to take part in a SportsAid workshop organised by my SportAid supporter – Prudential. The workshop gave me the chance to learn how to be interviewed successfully, how to use social media to raise my profile and also how to tailor my diet to suit my body’s needs as well as the physical requirements of skiing! It was an excellent day!

Westbeach In and Out at Milton Keynes

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My rugby injury

Yesterday I headed up to Milton Keynes for the “in” part of the Westbeach in and out competition. Unfortunately on the day of the competition I injured my leg playing rugby and it was very swollen and bruised.

When I got up to the slope I started to get ready but my swollen leg wouldn’t fit into my boot so while everyone was out on the slope for the warm up I was sitting with my leg elevated, getting some ice to it trying to reduce the swelling. Eventually, I was able to ski just in time for the qualifiers. For the first 5 or 6 runs I was just trying to get used to skiing with the bad leg. After that the pain-killers set in and I was able to ski ok although it still hurt whenever I landed!

I was pleased to get into the super finals where I laid down 2 good, solid runs. When prize giving came I had bagged myself a 1st place in the under 16’s category.  Well done to Monty for 2nd and Lewis for 3rd.

 

Respect to Chris Wadsworth for getting best trick, 1st in his category and 1st over all!  Also a huge thanks to MK and Sue Garlick from Westbeach for a sick competition!

Mj 1st at West Beach

The British indoor Champs and The Wham Bam Thank you Jam

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Last weekend I headed up to Castleford to compete in the British Indoor Champs and the Wham bam thank you jam!

The first half of the Competition was 2 individual judged runs, both of my runs went well and almost how I planned!

The second half was a completely different format than usual. Everybody got put on the slope for the competition. It consisted of a 1 hour long jam. The Entire field got cut in half and the people who didn’t make the cut got sent off! We then had a 20 minute jam session on the first set of features. At the end of this the field got cut in half again. This continued the whole way down the setup until there were only 4 riders sessioning the bottom features. I was lucky enough to be one of them along with Andy Collins, Chris Wadsworth and Monty Wright.

MJ Gold at the Brits youth men Jam

When Prize giving came around to my surprise I was presented with 1st Youth men. Unfortunately I didn’t make the overall podium for the Wham Bam Thank You Jam but I am more than happy with coming 4th overall out of 42 riders!

Super-stoked at the Mini-Brits in Norfolk

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Just got back from a brilliant weekend in Norfolk where I had a fantastic time seeing all my ski mates while competing in the mini-Brits!  

On the Saturday we arrived early enough to search out the local Sainsbury’s for a good breakfast to set us up for the day.  When we got to the slope we were stoked to see a good turn out and a challenging set-up for the slopestyle. 

we kicked off with a rail jam  – I got to work straight away, getting the feel of the slope and tried out as many tricks as I could.  At the end of the session Pat announced that I was the winner of the Jam for the Youth Mens section. I was stoked with that! 

Slopestyle  

After the rail jam we began the slopestyle competition where we got three runs each – my earlier practice during the jam session paid off and I laid down some steezy tricks with my best run  including a K-fed on  the top gas pipe followed by a switch-up, pretzel 270-off on the box rail and then finishing off on the  down-up-down with a slide followed by a 450 off.  

Slopestyle Results  

MJ wins the Mini-Brits Youth Mens
MJ comes 1st in the Youth Mens Slopestyle

At the end of the day we had the awards and I was announced as the winner of the Youth Mens Slopestyle which was fantastic for me as I was up against 14 of the top guys in the country.  TJ Harding came a close second with my Southern freestyle squad team mate Tom Saunders coming third.  

MJ gets 2nd overall in Slopestyle
MJ gets 2nd overall in Slopestyle

After the rest of the awards were announced they moved on to the overall positions for the day and when they called out the results I was stoked to hear that I had been placed 2nd overall in the mens Slopestyle across all age groups – 52 competitors including most of my heroes.  Local legend Tom Coe secured the top spot with an awesome run while Chris Wadsworth came third.  

Big Air  

There was an entertaining quiz night where some of the adults took may be a little too much advantage of the local hospitality but the Chatham Chavs did well to finish second against some stiff opposition. 

We got to the slope early on Sunday and started with a practice session for the Big Air.  My best run in the comp was a cork 720 which Pat said I had put my own style to, but I very nearly landed a cork 9 in my final run. 

When the results were announced I was mega-happy to find that I’d come 4th in my age category against 14 other competitors and 12th overall in a field of 45!!  Super-stoked!  

SkierCross  

SkierCross was a total riot!  I put down a respectable time of 16:56 seconds in the timed heats which put me 6th in the heats – not bad for a freestyler!  I got through the quarter finals, despite having to run the race twice! I finally got knocked out in the semi-finals after a very tight battle that saw me cross the line holding three ski-poles – what a fight!!  

Special thanks to my sponsors Waterbird for continuing to support me with my skiing and to Ski Bartlett and K2 for supplying my skis.