Earlier this year I was lucky enough to be invited on a road trip to help out my mate Tom Coe by hitting up some urban features in Finland for his university film.
The result speaks for itself – grab yourself a comfy seat and enjoy!
It’s been a hectic month or so! In February I headed out to Finland for a spot of urban. With a sick crew and a rented 5-man RV, we spent just over a week shooting and logging shots for Tom Coe’s Uni project/longer cut movie. We had plenty of sites lined up in Helsinki but unfortunately, it was lacking one thing – snow!! So we set off in search of features in Finland but also covered Sweden and as far north as Lapland.
We hit some sick but potentially dangerous features and a good time was had by all despite Webbo dislocating his knee doing possibly the raddest attempt at a trick on an urban feature that I’ve ever witnessed and the fact 9 of us were sleeping in a 5 person RV!
Just three days after getting back I headed off again. This time to Vars for the SFR slopestyle comp! The course, as always, was incredible … and big! Unfortunately, I didn’t have the best of days and only managed to get 10th in my heat! Overall I came 34th out of 78 riders so it was still a good result for me. Overall, I had a brilliant week skiing with friends and getting some tricks down!
Early tomorrow, I’m heading off again for the European Cup in Switzerland, the Junior World Cup in Italy and finally, a couple of weeks’ training in Austria – Watch out for updates!
Stoked to feature heavily in Half Way Home – an all British ski film production. After a lot of filming and many trips both home and abroad, Unity Productions have released their 2013 season edit. Check it out below.
I had an amazing time riding with Rob and the crew last season – you can read all about it in their latest edition of Sequence Freeski Magazine
The last month or so of my competitive season have involved a lot of travelling and competing.
A few weeks ago I took a gruelling twelve hour flight to Japan to compete in the Asia Open. I was so happy when I got the invite to travel out and compete. During my stay in the Japanese mountains I got to experience a lot of the Japanese culture. I ate some very strange food and took public baths. I also got to hang out with some of the coolest Korean guys. I skied on only a couple of days but for those few days leading up to the competition we had perfect bluebird weather. Unfortunately, come competition day high winds rolled in and every competitor only got one qualifying run. Luckily, my qualifying run set me up in fourth place overall. The weather didn’t improve and the finals ended up being cancelled so the podiums were decided on the first run score. I was stoked to make the journey and to come so close to a podium position.
A huge thank you to Dean Kistler for inviting me to compete and for looking after me while I was out there in Japan! And thanks to Kent County Playing Fields Association for helping to fund my trip!
After a week back in school I headed away again. This time for the Brits in Tignes. The Brits are usually held in Laax so this was a big change for the event organisers and the competitors. I think everyone handled this really well but a few things like lapping the halfpipe during practice on a 20 minute long lift and the small size of the jumps could have been improved.
The first competition of the week was the first EVER ‘Bangers & Cash’ rail jam. The course was banging.
You had two chances to qualify for the finals as the qualification rounds were held on 2 different rail zones. After an exhausting 1 hour jam hiking and hitting rails I was so happy to find out I had qualified 1st in to the finals with a front 360 switch up 270 out on the down flat down. I was even happier when I found out that after the second qualification round on zone 2 my 1st place overall qualification still stood.
All 8 riders slayed it in the final with everyone stepping up their game. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to hold my first place but ended up with second overall! Well done to Chris McCormick for his first place and £1,000 cash prize!
After ‘Bangers & Cash’ came skiercross. I came first in my category last year so I had to prove myself. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to hold on to the title and came third in the Youth Mens to the excellent racing Fennely brothers in second and first.
Wednesday was Slopestyle and the weather for my favourite event couldn’t have been better. Perfect blue skies, no clouds anywhere and low to no wind. After my two qualification runs I wasn’t too happy. I didn’t think I was going to qualify for finals. But as it turned out I actually qualified in third! My first run in the final went better than all of my earlier runs of the day. The second however wasn’t too great.
At prize giving I was awarded Gold in Youth Mens and and was absolutely stoked to get on the overall mens’ podium in second place overall! Congratulations to my Planks team mate Julian Ball for his overall first and to Tom Coe for his third position!
The weather the following day for pipe was not so good. Heavy snow and poor visibility. But everyone pushed through it and managed to get two qualification runs in! I was so stoked to find out I had qualified for finals as pipe isn’t one of my greatest strengths and I have little opportunity to practice this discipline. The finals got called off because of the bad weather. Unfortunately I just missed out on a podium in Youth Men and ended up in fourth.
This year big air had been scrapped this year and was replaced by an invitational big air Britain Vs France. I was overjoyed when I found out I was invited. I had tons of fun showing off to the crowd and beating the Frenchies 
!!
A massive thanks to all of my sponsors for supporting me and helping me to continue to add to my medals collection!
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!
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.
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!
I’ve just spent a fantastic summer in the amazing park of 2 Alpes, France learning some new tricks. I won a couple of competitions including the brilliant Kumi Yama.
I was back in the UK in time for Gap Nation at The Snow Centre, Hemel. The layout was really good for an indoor slope. The Kicker was a decent size and the rail setup was really creative. It was really good to see everyone after 8 weeks abroad and it was even better to get some riding in with them!
I was more than happy to walk away with a 1st under 16’s!