Peanut Butter Rail Jam - Innsbruck

This Saturday a few of us went down to Sane Rinn jib park, by Innbsruck to compete in the Volcom Peanut Butter Rail Jam.  This is a really fun competition that I have done the last few years, and the top 5 from each category qualify for the overall European Finals....and I was one of them :) hooray. 

There were actually loads of girls there, about 25 I think from all over, i guess Innsbruck is quite central, an there are loads of good mountains around. So the level was high, as was the set up. But I actually really liked the rails, single barrel handrails - One long down rail with stairs, One (very long) Flat Down Flat, and One shorter down rail which had the option of a large gap, or side on from the left hand side. We had some time to practice so I felt quite happy, and started trying some new tricks on the shorter down rail.

The first heat went well, you have to hit all three features and your best score on each counts. I managed to get my tricks on each feature quite early on in the 15 minute heat, so then spent some time trying a switch back blunt 270 out on the rail. I just about got one (not all that neat, but ok) in the heat, and got into the finals.

Finals then also went well, I got the tricks i wanted on the first 2 rails straight away, and then landed a much cleaner new switch back blunt 270 on the third rail. I had some time left so tried to improve my tricks, but was just stoked to have got the new trick :)

Overall I came 5th, which gets me a place in the European finals in Avoriaz at the end of the month! I'm really happy as it's in my 'home' resort (kind of) so i'll get to see all my friends there! I'll have to learn some tricks if I want to place, as I'm sure the level will be ridiculously high!!! 

Mid Season Edit

I've recently got a new clothing and outerweat sponsor, Westbeach, so have made a little mid season edit in some of my new gear :)

Mid-Season Edit, Mayrhofen, 12-13

Double Upside Down Loopty Loop Waterslide!

It's been a fun couple of weeks! On Monday, after a little ski in the morning, we headed out of the valley down to a place called Worgl to go to the L2 Waterslide for Coreys birthday! But not just any waterslide, this one goes round in two upside down loops!! Everyone was really excited....and I was actually pretty scared! We warmed up first on the little slides, then headed the 25m up to the bigun! I was kinda hoping Polly would chicken out, so that I could too....but she's too brave and went for it, so I had to to! It was really fun though once i did it! My heart was racing and it was over in a flash. I had my eyes closed the whole way! :) Then we went up to do it again!!

On Wednesday we went on a trip out of the valley again! Over to another ski resort, on the Tirol snow card, Steinplatte. It's the first time we've actually gone to ski out of the valley, and it was loads of fun! We had a good crew as some friends have been going the last few weeks as 'Big Wednesdays'. So hopefully we'll start going a bit more often...although I usually have to work Wednesdays :( The park was really fun, we didn't have the best weather, it was pretty flat light and snowing lightly....but the jibs there were really fun. A nice long park with a variety of features, you could get about 12 hits in a run!

ANNDD this week I also got sent my new Westbeach outerwear :) Which is all really nice and very exciting!! Hopefully we'll get a few better visibility days this week and can get some filming done, i'm hoping to get a short edit up by the end of the week! So, that's all for now folks!

Sun's out, Bums out!

Christmas and New Year have whizzed by! We cooked most of the Christmas dinner at our house, as we're the only ones with an oven! We cooked a huge turkey and a chicken, then got picked up in the car and driven to Mayrhofen to eat it all together as one big happy family! We then headed down to the Igloo to have some drinks...but it was empty, so went back to the Gasthof and played drinking games...obviosuly. Anyone who has been to Austria...Stroh was involved! The rest is a bit of a blur...not quite sure why?

We've finally had some good snow this week again, after a fair bit of rain and sludge over New Year. I had a persistent cold that dragged on so I havn't been riding too much since Christmas! But, I'm feeling better now (yay) and we went to Mayrhofen today to ride some freshies!

We bumped into Kyle, Corey and Ben and rode a valley we found last time it snowed, just above the park. It's nice and accessible and the snow was pretty good out of the sun...our first run was a bit crusty. Hiked a little natural hip a few times and got a few pictures. Corey was sending some HUGE backflips...to flat unfortunately as the run out was prety non-exsistent. Then we went for a short hike and found some smooooth powder! Definitely have to head back there next time it snows! We got the awesome picture 'Suns out, Bums out' just after our hike!

I've just started making some weekly goals...a few for jumps and a few for rails. Nothing tooo crazy but just to try and get myself to start doing things I normally try to avoid. Like spinning backside and hitting bigger jumps! So...gonna head over to Mayrhofen tomorrow and hopefully start trying some new stuff! Wish me luck!

Mayrhofen

Mayrhofen!!

I have just moved over to Austria for the winter season. It's the first time I've been here, but I had heard great things from friends and seen some cool videos of the park! I like to try and go to lots of different places, rather than going for the easy option (usually Morzine); so even after hearing how tough it was to find a place to live, I rocked up with my boyfriend Nathan homeless and jobless! 

The snowy view from our balcony,
with Kaltenbach in the background

Everyone was right, it is really difficult. We ended up door knocking for over a week in and around Mayrhofen, using our limited German to try and find an apartment, room or even just a bed! We must have walked miles! Eventually we realised we were going to have to live right out of town if we wanted something soon, and we just wanted to go skiing! We found ourselves a place in Stumm, which is a 25 minute train ride from Mayrhofen. Its really nice, which is what won us over...although it is a good 15 minute walk from the train station across a snowy field and over a tunnel! That'll keep us fit anyway!

So this week we've finally got to go riding! We are close to one of the Zillertal resorts called Kaltenbach which is sick on a powder day! (We've pretty much had powder days everyday!) There are loads of pillows and drops that are really accessible from the lifts...and not even that many people riding them. Lets hope it stays that way once the Christmas crowds get here.

Me and Charlie up at the Hintertux glacier

We've also managed to get up to Hintertux glacier a few times, again we mainly rode powder...but i think we'll be giving that a miss now the other resorts are open as it's REALLY cold up there! I got a bit of a frostbitten nose the last time we were up there in -30 something degrees with windchill!

The baby park in Mayrhofen was open a few days ago, so we went and had a play there on the funboxes for the afternoon....just having a play and getting back into it. But I've heard the jib line might be opening tomorrow so will have to go check that out! 

Travelling the South Island

Chug Chug

Well, the season came to an end and we had a bit of time before flying out of New Zealand and heading over to Austria. So, Nathan and I went on a little road trip around the South  Island in our friends old van, chuggy. I didn't have time last year as I was saving all my pennies to head to America, so it was nice to get to see a bit more of this amazing country. 

We headed up the west coast first, but unfortunately were faced with 3 days of solid rain. Although this apparently is pretty standard at this time of year. It was still great to see all the rain forest running along the coastline. It was so different to the desert like drive up to Snow Park. 

Once we left the west coast, we almost instantly were greeted with sunshine! yay! We could actually leave our little chug chug without getting drenched. We found an awesome spot by the sea to camp for our first night up in Nelson. 

We then headed up to the most northerly point of the south island, Cape Farewell. The nice thing about travelling around New Zealand is that there aren't loads of tourist attractions...there are just lots of nice natural things to do. We walked around lots just taking in the scenery and surroundings (and sheep, baaa). We found an amazing white sand beach called Wharakiri Bay, it made a lovely change to be by the sea after snowboarding all summer.

We then head south through Christchurch with a quick stop off to see our friend Jon. He was a very good tour guide as he studies geology, and following the earthquakes it was very interesting to see the effects and it is amazing how the locals have coped with the situation.

We also got to see lots of seals and seal pups on our travels...but unfortunately only saw one little penguin from really far away. They are quite shy compared to the little sealy pups! It was a great trip and after having a nice summer (ish) break i'm ready to head back to Europe and shred the gnar!! haha

Snow Park NZ!

Snow Park finally opened at the beginning of the month. We we're all so excited after patiently waiting for the snow to fall! We still haven't got heaps, but it's been enough to get us going. I got some pictures with Tom (TJ) from SWAY COLLECTIVE!  Thanks for the shots Tom!