TSC IN BRECK

By 6am this morning, the house was unhappily up and about. It was the day of our first competition, and after some stuff up’s with the USASA slopestyle at Copper, Will and Iver had to leave at 6am to be first in line on the waiting list for the Gatorade. All the other crew, who had pre-registered, got to sleep in for another half hour… a big deal for these guys.

Will and Iver got in, then once the others arrived, it was up the Vail park lift for training. The course was less then perfect, but a longer then normal training session allowed everyone to get comfortable. Well, nearly everyone. Benny was having a bad day, and his shoulder tweak from a few days earlier got the better of him. He took prime position on the viewing decks to cheers for his peers. Leons punished himself for the first few runs, but after about half an hour, he stomped his planned run in training. I guess it was quite overwhelming, because once the relief of landing came over him, so did the pain from his bruised heel which also put him on the sideline before the heats.

The remaining tsc’ens headed in for a quick hot chocolate, then were back at the top for the heats. Robbie and Alice ( DeCampo’s new parents) were there to support too.

Iver, Woods and Will rode in the first heat. Each landing their planned runs well. Unfortunately so did the rest of the competitors, and Willy just missed out on finals by one place. He definitely got robbed.

In the second, DeCampo had some speed issues and had trouble keeping his board on the ground. But on the rail line, he made up for it getting more technical than most of the other riders. Jack and Tim also rode in heat 2 and stomped their planned runs too. They also qualified for finals.

So after a quick rake of the lips by the Vail park crew, the field of 10 riders on the final list, included 4 of our boys, as they dropped in for their final runs. After battling a shoulder tweak too, Nick had trouble holding it together and skidded out on both his runs, but  he left a happy man due to landing a bunch of new tricks he learnt the week before in his qualifying runs. Jack also had trouble come finals. But after only being on snow a week, he also was happy with his result. Finally Tim and Iver both landed their runs in the final.  At this time we know they didnt make podium but may have ended up in the top 5. No results posted yet, but stay tuned.

At this stage it was 3pm, and the sun was getting low. After practising their last training runs about 5 hours earlier, DK and Michaela strapped in for their first runs of the junior jam and female finals. Although the afternoon sun did make for lovely photo’s, it was a long wait for the two.

Michaela, after riding twice as strong as any other girl in practice, just couldn’t quite get her run clean enough to register a solid score on both her runs. On the other hand, DK, after having trouble in training, put it together in the final stomping a hung back 3 to take out the under 13′s event.

He was even more excited when he took home a brand new Gatorade esky as his price. Not sure how he’ll fit that one in his board bag.

Day off tomorrow for a little recovery, then back to training for the Rev Tour and Keystone stop of the Gatorade.

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