It felt like my birthday today on that mountain. The combination of sunny skies, groomed pipe, snowmobiles and some good friends made for a truly terrific day of “training”. I was able to ride yesterday, in fact that was my first day back to snow after taking a break in Canada, but the jet leg hindered my performance. Today was different.
The start of the day went great, I slept well (which is detrimental to athletes), woke up and ate my regular training day breakfast. This consists of slow cooked oatmeal, a banana and yoghurt; I started eating this meal for its health benefits but have now fallen in love with it. I left my house on time and went to pick up my teammate Ryan; we were on the hill by 9am. Today my friend from the Polish team, Paulina, was not feeling well and her kind heart gave me her sled pass for shuttling up the pipe on snowmobiles; this was the key to one of my best days ever.
Whether I was riding down the pipe on my board or up the side of it on a sled I was having the time of my life. So many times I thought ‘this feels like my birthday’. I had to have ridden at least 20 laps, screamed out loud 30 times and given out 100 high fives to my friends who were enjoying it just as much as I was.
Every time I got to the top of the pipe and tuned in my Walkman to a song that pumped me up I felt so lucky to be where I was. I would remember what my coach had me working on, gave a quick look around to see if anyone else was going to drop in, turn my board parallel with the pipe walls and go for it. As my base made contact with the snow friction was released and speed gained, I glided along the coping if the right wall and slowly weighted my back side edge to make the board roll down the 22ft wall and into the pipe. I keep eye contact with the top of the left wall and before I know it I am sailing out if the pipe, flying though the air grabbing my board, I look at the lip under me as I come back into the pipe, land on my front side edge and prepare to do the same on the opposite wall. This is the best feeling of the day, my makeshift birthday.
At the end of the run I unstrap my bindings, get some feed back from my coach and run back to the sled waiting to take me up for another try at perfection. Not only am I progressing but so are the other athletes who are training in the pipe. Guys are throwing amazing maneuvers, like double inverts, and with each trick landed the whole pipe crowd erupts with cheers of recognition, everyone is stoked. This aura that surrounds the pipe is an uplifting feeling which each person can sense.
Finally the mountain patrol closes the pipe and riding for the day is over. Ryan and I make our way back to the Fun Top to throw our boards in and retract the roof. We drive down the sunny road with huge smiles plastered across our faces. My day is concluded with two good friends, Ryan and Paula, on the sun deck of the gym stretching and doing Cosmo quizzes. It is days like this one when I try to treasure every moment because I know that not everyday can feel like your birthday.
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