This summer I had the opportunity to spend a month in New Zealand with my new pipe team. To say that it was one of the funnest most joy filled months that I’ve had in a while is an understatement.
I got to go to New Zealand for an opportunity to get some extra training and to compete in my first ever World Cup.
My other goals were to “get the hang of pipe skiing” and just to see how far I could get within a month. I didn’t really have any set tricks that I wanted to do, because I honestly didn’t really know what to expect. How much training was I going to get? How much was I going to focus on the World Cup? How was I going to train? So I left it open and went in with no expectations or set goals.
Cardrona is the ski resort where we trained, and it is definitely an eye pleaser. We would always be on the mountain around 7 15-ish which in the first week or two meant being there while the sun rose. The first thing I noticed about Cardrona, is that the park is the main attraction. Boom smack dab in the middle of the resort is where they put the park. I also quickly noticed that there are way more freeskiers, snowboarders than there are alpine skier, which was a bonus in my opinion.
Ok so before the whole being in NZ I somehow had to get to NZ, which meant 2 days of travelling. The first flight was from Zürich to Singapore which was way more stressful than it should’ve been, cause we accidentally got there too late. Luckily travelling alone I was able to sneak my way through lines and catch the flight. I think within the first thirty minutes of being in the air I knocked out. I woke up around thirty minutes before landing which made the flight feel like it was 5 minutes long. In Singapore I met up with the sweetest human I know (also known as Martijn) and flew straight to Auckland. In Auckland we had a layover so I could finally get some food in my body. And obviously when in Rome, I got a marmite bagel. Tbh I still don’t really get the difference between vegimite and marmite but either way it really hit the spot. After finally landing in Queenstown Pete came to pick us up. After what felt like ages I finally made it to home for the next while.
First day of skiing went a lot smoother than I thought it would. I didn’t really have any problems with jet lag and it just felt good to be on snow again. I spent the first few days just skiing on the slopes and exploring the resort.
The daily routine usually consisted of waking up at …. and a forty minute drive up the hill to the base of the resort. The road up Cardrona was straight mud. And at least once a week we had to stop o put on chains, or at least the others pit on chains, I just stayed in the car and made sure my kit didn’t get dirty. Once we made it to the resort, we would get changed in the locker room, do a small warm up and then walk to the foot of the pipe.
Every training was obviously different, but it would mainly consist of, first working on straight airs and focusing on amplitude and grabs, then start with the easier spins like 360’s to switch 360’s and then the bigger tricks/ goals.
After the pipe closed, which was usually around 10:30 – 11:00 I would go down to the locker room, eat something small or a small lunch depending on how hungry I was and then switch over to park skis.
Then I spent the rest of the day, usually till 2 or a bit earlier skiing the park.
After getting back down the hill, we would go eat lunch. Somedays that meant at home, but we often went to little places around town. My favourites were the pie shop, the food trucks and a little crepe stand.
Downdays meant training in the gym and recovery of course. In the second week I went to an amazing physio there who did all sorts of test. The results showed that I needed to work on my landings when jumping to minimise knee injuries. After the visit I got a detailed plan for the rest of my stay. Which I actually am still doing back in Switzerland.
I also spent a lot of time learning how to golf and frolf (frisbee golf) with friends. But I can confidently say that I absolutely suck at both.
Speaking of friends, I made so many new friends :))) I think meeting all these new fun people is one of my favourite parts of skiing, except for the skiing itself of course. But meeting all these hard working people who enjoy the sport as much as I do really made me realise how cool it is to get to do something as cool as what I’m getting to do right now.
The main event that I can’t forget about, the World Cup!! WOW! What an experience! The feeling of dropping in with people I’ve grown up watching on TV is something I truly cannot explain. Even though my skiing wasn’t exactly the best, just having the chance to ski I a World Cup really made the whole becoming a pro skier feel not as far away as it used to. It actually feels like my dreams are starting to happen!!!
Anyways to sum it all up, I had so much fun, ate a lot of good food, met a lot of cool people and skied hard.