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.
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!
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!
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 1st under 14’s male title.
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 2nd place!!
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 3rd and 4th places. I corrected my line and beat Murray for 3rd place overall with James Machon in 2nd and TJ Harding in 1st. Pat Sharples put on an amazing games it was totally awesome – can’t wait for next year!
The final comp of the month was the 2nd 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 1st under 14’s and 2nd overall.
Now all that is left is the final comp at Bracknell. So let’s wait and see what happens.
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
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.
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.
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…
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.
I still can’t believe I beat some of the the big boys!!!
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.
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.