British Freestlyle Team Arrive in Deer Valley
I didn't realise until I got to Park City that The Freestyle Ski World Champs overlapped the Sundance film festival, second in size only to the Cannes film festival. Although it was pretty cool seeing Quentin Tarrantino in the foyer of the Marriott hotel, it pretty much scuppered my plans of getting in early, finding a room and then checking out the competition slopes, set up etc. Not only did they have to wait for Sundance to leave town before getting into the nitty gritty of organising the event, rooms were running at close to $500 a night. So the first night was spent in a cheap Salt Lake City hotel and the second couch surfing with the Swiss team.
Not only did Sundance have an impact on the price of hotels it also means rooms are limited, this is compounded by the fact Park City's also hosting the World Junior Bob Sleigh Champs. The result is the GB team are split over four hotels - Slopestyle and Halfpipe sister disciplines are split over three up to 10 miles apart. Definitely not a way to run a rail road.
Saturday was an opportunity to look around the resort and check out the slopes. My new Salomon Pro Pipe skis had turned up hours before I flew out so I got them mounted in resort and spent the day booting around the slopes. Compared to most freestyle skis these are a step up in performance. Stiffer they behave more like a conventional ski on piste and they contain an incredible amount of energy just wanting to boost every little mound or jump. Gold star to Salomon, I have a new favourite freestyle ski.
Sunday I spent the day running around like a blue bottomed fly trying to finesse the hotel accommodation, get everyone's credentials. World Champs are the only time when all disciplines get together so it's also a chance to meet up with coaches and technicians and find out what's really going on.
First into resort on the athletes side was Andy Longley and his coach Jeff Fozzard, they've spent the last few days training on the Moguls piste in Park City. Andy's been coming back from injury so it's good to see him looking well although although it seems to have caused the hair to fall off on either side of his head. For the officianados it's apparently a 'Plake' look.
Woodsy (James Woods) and Andy Matthew rocked up next. Apparently Woodsy is suffering the same affliction as Longley except only on the left side of his head. I'm worried that it's catching so just gave him a tentative shake of the hand. Andy Matthew has grown a Mexican beard which doesn't seem to have affected his popularity with the ladies of Utah. Apparently he's a dead ringer for James Franco the 'hunk' starring in the film 127 hours. As Sundance has just finished I'm wondering whether they think he's the real deal - he was certainly getting a few looks as we went to check out the pipe and slopestyle courses.
Jeff Sadis the Ski Cross coach meets me later, an American he has a dry wry sense of humour, I blame it on the two years he spent with the New Zealand Ski Team, I like him immediately. It's also a chance for us to sit down with Gordon Turner the TASS physio to discuss any injuries the athletes have so Gordon's prepped to give the best support. He's setting up a treatment room so we can deal with all the injuries a season of competition throws up. The Ski Cross athletes turn up over the next couple of days.
Pat Sharples turns up next with Katie Summerhayes and Vanessa. I'm very pleased to see Pat, and find that he's already scoping out a technicians area to set up our "Snow and Rock" tech lab, the amount of kit they've provided is tremendous. On the downside that's additional hours of work for Pat and me in the evenings.
Monday is the first day we get the slopestyle skiers together and the first chance to get up close to the course.
