Whistler 2011 Week 2

Tues 23 Nov

Everyone freshly hit the slopes today after a good nights sleep, the jetlag has finally gone! Our Ski & Board Coaches started the break down of bad habits today, working on Stance and Balance…everyone has some bad habits they need to shake.

All the Campers were keen to venture in to town tonight and see what the village had to offer. The Crystal Lounge Karaoke night was in full swing and rammed with budding singers, no one was keen to get up and sing at first,  but after a few beers  a Robbie Williams song was cranked out by the group clearly illustrating why they are doing Instructor Courses and not signing a record deal!  We then ventured on to Tommy Africa’s and some great Dance moves were breaking out, Mike (Gaylord) was making full use of the pole, Kev cleared the dance floor completely and Rob found someone to play tongue hockey with… who was MIA later on….

Wed 24 Nov

Amazingly everyone made it to lessons on time after last night! Go team! However last night was still on a few people’s minds as they were heard singing  Angels aloud on the slopes.  Today the camcorder came out for Video Analysis, the borders managed to tackle the technical riding of a mogul field, work on  switch and started to look at each others riding for analysis. The skiers continued working on their stance and balance, doing helicopters in partners down the slopes (ski ballet) and also added pivoting drills to the mix.

Prior Factory Tour

After on hill training a few of us piled into Dave and headed to The Re-Use Centre for some inspiration and preparation for 80’s night in a few weeks time! We then went on to the Prior factory for the tour to see how Boards and Ski’s are handmade, it’s was a great insight for the campers to understand how they are made and why certain materials are used…Amy & Jo were clearly on the ball and had been listening as they won themselves Prior T-shirt’s….I think the boys were still suffering from the night before… early night boys!

Thurs 25 Nov

Blackcomb Opens!

Blackcomb mountain officially opens today for the season, many eager people out there grabbing some untouched powder…the best is yet to come!

World Cup 2010 FIBT Whistler Sliding Centre

Tonight we headed up Blackcomb mountain to get our fill of lycra! The World Cup was on so we went to watch the opening events, Women’s Skeleton and the 2 Man Bobsleigh..The Women’s Skeleton kicked off first with Marion Thees of Germany slightly faster in both runs and finished the race in first place in 1:48.98. Melissa Hollingsworth was second in 1:49.40, while Anja Huber picked up the bronze in 1:50.07. Once the awards were presented for skeleton, the Men’s two-man bobsleigh got underway. But not until we had viewing time watching them prepare and warm up! It’s good to be at the starting line to watch them get ready, there was more flesh happening up that end than lycra that is for sure – sorry guys you will have to come tomorrow night to check out the Women’s warmup!  The end results for the men, Germany picked up two more medals. The Germany 2 sled of Manuel Machata and Andreas Bredau was first in 1:44.06, while the Germany 1 sled of Karl Angerer and Christian Friedrich tied Rush and Wright for second with a time of 1:44.25.

After standing in the snow and cold for hours we headed down to the welcoming warmth of the Dublin Gate pub where we filled our bellies with some great grub and beer of course!

Fri 26 Nov

Did a few runs with the boarders today to see how they were progressing… it’s been a long week for everyone and tough on the legs with the powdery chopped up conditions, but they have been having a great time and pushing themselves to get the most out of this awesome snow and you can’t wipe the smiles of their faces.

Tonight we met at Cinnamon Bear for a few drinks and then went on to Moe Joe’s. to check out the talent. After a few shots and games of pool some people started to work their magic and introduce themselves to some of the locals…some got to know the locals better than others (not mentioning any names)… and some are hoping to get to know the locals a bit better after that night of number collecting!