James Colclough

12 06 2011

What a Month of Skiing!!

Mike Comps, Slopestyle James Colclough, James Machon, MJ, Murray Buchan, Pat Sharples, Tom Coe, Tom Saunders, Tyler Jay Harding

The past month has been amazing! I have been skiing at my best in a while and to my luck this month there has been three comps – the first and second legs of the Southern Freestyle Series and the Oakley Grom Games!

Swadlincote – Southern Freestyle Leg 1

Swadlincote Win — 1st in the under 14's!

The first of the month saw the first leg of the Southern Series, which was being held at Swadlincote dry slope. The competition was great with a fairly good atmosphere. Everyone was throwing it down, especially Tom Coe and Kiki Patel with his wizard tricks…
At the end of the day I walked away with the 1^st under 14’s male title.

Oakley Grom Games

MJ 2nd in Grom Games age category — 2nd in the 13-17 years old category

Next up was the Oakley Grom Games which, the same as the year before was being held at the Chill Factore. When my family and I got there we signed in and then went off to catch up with people we hadn’t seen in a while. When I finally got out on to the slope I saw how sick the setup was. After skiing for a while I started to get the feel for the flow of the course and from the way everyone one had skied during the jam I didn’t think I was going to get a podium at all (as my category was 12-17) but to my surprise I was called up for 2^nd place!!

Grom Games Final — 3rd Overall in the Grom Games 2011 !!

I then was even more amazed when I found out I was in the finals with James Machon, TJ Harding and Murray Buchan, who had all been skiing really well. It was a sudden death final and in the first round I was drawn against TJ Harding but because of my bad choice of line and his sickness I didn’t beat him. So I then competed against Murray (as he didn’t win against James Machon) to decide the 3^rd and 4^thplaces. I corrected my line and beat Murray for 3^rdplace overall with James Machon in 2^nd and TJ Harding in 1^st. Pat Sharples put on an amazing games it was totally awesome – can’t wait for next year!

Chatham – Southern Freestyle Leg 2

The final comp of the month was the 2^nd leg of the Southern Freestyle Series which was at my home slope Chatham. As soon as I got there the atmosphere was already fun and intense and everyone wanted to go up and ski as the setup was really good. Everyone skied really well throughout the day especially Tom Coe, Tom Saunders, Kiki Patel and Ollie Powell.

The finalists were then announced and I was one of them. After a short break, everyone put down their final runs… there was such a high standard. At the end of a fantastic day, it was time for prize giving – I was called up for 1^stunder 14’s and 2^nd overall.

2nd Overall at Chatham — 2nd place overall at Chatham

Now all that is left is the final comp at Bracknell. So let’s wait and see what happens.

13 06 2010

Southern Freestyle Jam Series – Warmwell

Mike Comps, Slopestyle Darren Schmidt, Dave Saunders, James Colclough, John Prince, Kyle Wood, Madison, MJ, Paul Webb, Tom Coe, Tom Saunders

This weekend we went to the final event of the Southern Freestyle Jam Series at Warmwell in Dorset.

We arrived nice and early and got straight out onto the slope. Warmwell is amazing – a small but fun slope with built-in kickers in a fantastic surrounding and the park staff were all really friendly.

We had an hour to warm up – the built in kicker was really nice and the rails were totally smooth although the SnowFlex was running pretty slow in the heat.

The Comp
As soon as the comp started, I got straight to work stomping 7’s on the kicker – landing them every time. Hitting the street-rail was fun – getting 4’s off.

My skis were pretty sticky in the heat so lots of thanks to Chris and Sally at Ski-Bartlett for “lubeing” me up with a huge bottle of lube!!

We had a brilliant fun session with the skiers trying to land the longest airs, while the boarders had a high-ollie comp – man those guys can jump!

At the end of the comp I was stoked to hear my name called – making it into the final 6 against some of the big guns!

The Final
In the final, I put down two solid runs on the big kicker – landing two solid 7’s with a slight cork. I followed this with two runs down the rails – landing a 4 off on the first run, and narrowly missing a 6 on my second.

The Results
Then it was time to announce the results…

MJ wins the Warmwell Event — MJ Wins at Warmwell

I was made-up to be announced as the winner of the day in the under-14’s category but was blown away to hear that I had also come second across all age categories for the day.

MJ comes 2nd across all age groups! — 2nd against the big guns!

I still can’t believe I beat some of the the big boys!!!

MJ Wins the series — MJ wins the Southern Freestyle under-14's Series

Finally, I was announced as the overall winner of the under-14’s category for the entire series – winning a trophy, a camera and a host of goodies.

Well done to my ski buddies Tom Saunders and James Colclough for coming second and third in the series.

Madison is the under-14s series champ — The Madster wins the series

Oh – and my sister Madison also came first in the female under-14’s category on the day and for the entire series… we’ve got matching trophies on the mantle-piece at home now!

The only downer on the day was England’s performance in the World Cup – couldn’t even beat the Yanks!!

Big Up’s

Big up to John, Darren, Paul and Dave for organising such an awesome event… can’t wait for next year’s – I believe we’re going national!!!

Big up to Chris and Sally at Ski-Bartlett for the lube!

And finally, thanks to Vince and Ally for their continued support!

Cheers,

MJ.