The Trade Off

I have been home about a week now and have just started my second week back at work. I'm now a second year plumbing apprentice [working for my dad]. The life of a tradie is a bit different to snowboarding every day, but it's nice to have a change after four months living in the mountains. Anyways, here are some juxtaposing photos I took over last week.




Thats it,

JW

Home... For now.

Yes, I just arrived home to Aus after 32 hours of travel door to door. I arrvied to my Mum, Dad and Sister at the airport and have already indulged in good coffee and BBQ Shapes, but what I was most excited about was seeing my dog Ziggy, who has just about tripled in size since I left to the states [I've been playign with him all afternoon]. All in all I had a pretty productive and fun trip, but boy am I glad to be home.

Heres a quick clip I caught on the plane about an hour out of Sydney as the sun was rising this morning.



Check back soon, I'm sure I will fins something to blog about.
Peace, JW

Milano

This is a little belated, but I thought I would post it anyway.

On my last day in Italy I caught the train from Bardonecchia to Torino and then on to Milano. It was a lot nicer than catching the Franston line as the train went through some beautiful classic Italian towns. Once in Milan I caught yet another train to check out Duomo di Milano [The Cathedral Church] and also the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. Both are incredible buildings. [Side note: I got a a latte in the Galleria which was served by this guy in a suit, right next to the Louis Vuitton store, and set me back 6 Euros... thats a 12 dollar coffee!] Anyways I put together this little touristy video, its a bit shakey because I was tired and it was cold... but you get the idea. Enjoy.



JW

Bardonecchia

So I just got done with my World Cup debut in Bardonecchia, Italy. I wish I had incredible news to report but unfortunately I did not qualify for finals. I was bumped by .2 of a point I think [seems reminiscent of Junior Worlds actually] and eneded up placing 13th. I could blame a myriad of things: new boots; soft board etc. however the pipe and the weather were perfect, I trained well the 2 days before and it just boiled down to my being nervous and not performing on the day.

I am glad to have my first World Cup out of the way and pumped to blow 'em out of the water at the next one I get the opportunity compete at. I guess now there is nothing to do but accept the silver lining that I am in this beautiful country, with great coffe and awesome weather and enjoy it while watching my compatriots Nate and Holly [Who both qualified first] smash it in the finals.

[Side note: it has taken me 3 days to work out how to order a double shot latte, the first day I got given a short black, the second day I ordered with the help of a multilingual bi-stander and today I got it right! or perhaps the barrista just remembered what I had yesterday.]

I have another 2 nights here in Bardonecchia and then I am catching a train into Milan to fly back to the States. So it will be nice to relax and check out the town a bit more, although I would much rather competing in finals tommorow.

Anyhow, until next time,
JKW

Beached Whale for Christchurch

Sean Roley

Hello everyone! Just a little filler post.

This is my friend / pseudo American little brother Sean Roley.
He is 12 and absolutely killing it and I am super proud of him! So I thought I would share some photos' with you.




JW

Revolution Tour - Boreal

Hello strangers, sorry it's been a little bit of time between post's but I have not been up to much of interest the last few weeks. Anyways this is what I have been up to this week.

On Tuesday I flew across to Reno, Nevada via. Pheonix [where I had a 3 hour lay over because I missed my connection. I did meet a cool POM called Baz in the bar who kept me company though, which made the time fly]. My friend Ally picked me up from the airport and we headed down to Truckee, which is where I have been for the past few days. On the way down from the airport when Ally was filling up her car I managed to lose 10 dollars in the pokies in a matter of seconds. When in Rome...
[How ridiculous is it that the have slot machines in service stations and the airport - Nevada is crazy!]

Anyways the purpose of my excursion to California was to compete in the Revolution Tour. On Wednesday we had training and I had a pretty average time trying to adjust to the pipe [It is a pretty small 18 footer in comparison to Brecks 22], and was struggling to put together my run.

Comp day was Thursday, I had'nt put together my run yet but hoped that in the pinch I would lay it down. I was in the second heat and dropped second to last, so I got to watch all the other competitors. I landed my run first try [thank god] and posted the highest score of the day thus far, Qualifying me first for finals.

My run was Cab 720, Frontside 900, Backside 900, Stalefish, and I stupidly through in little back 5 which was unnecessary. This video is of my qulaifying run - courtesy of Hannah Trigger.



I did the same run in finals hoping to stomp it first run so I could mix it up and put a Cab 1080 instead of the 720 but I over rotated my back 9 so had to put down the same run for my second finals run. I was nervous as all hell being the last rider to drop of the day, and not yet having landed a run in finals but some how I managed to hold it together and posted the highest score of the day. This earned me first place. I would have to say this is my best result ever, so I am pretty happy about that.


As for the other boys, Jason unfortunately fell on both runs, and Samboss, despite landing a big and styley run, didn't qualify for finals. I guess the judges just didn't think it was good enough [It definately was, but hey thats competitive sport for you].

This has been a marathon blog post, so I'll wrap it up now.

JW