SMS was assembled and warming up before anyone else in coppers superpipe this morning. The aggressive hike from the 10,000 foot base of the hill makes for a great circulatory warmup to precede the light stretch and easy fundamental runs to that begin the day.
After four hikes the Dev crew headed off to some different terrain for edging drills. This crew is learning to identify with many skills they already use and adding flexion/extension range in the ankles and knees for more dynamic turns and edge hold. When Ross Powers and Scott Johnston are demonstrating each drill the gang is seeing and following near perfect execution.
Rejoining the Elite and Pro Am crews we found that a few of our riders had been chilled and stuck on the chair that malfunctioned while most had the pipe to themselves. Rick's gang has been rebuilding their base all week and really getting ready for the Grand Prix contest in two days. The uncrowded training was an extra bonus toward that end. Joe was linking seven to seven. James landed a 1080. Shelby is bringing back her five forties and amplitude. Jin is smoothely adding back five to his air to fakie, cab seven to front nine routine. And Jen Cohen is bending her board with front side air grabs. Check the photo.
Kevin Mattice is still working like a seasoned pro in his first pipe camp. He has learned and linked front five, back five, front seven faster than Ive ever seen. Hunter is riding through pain and doing his biggest pipe airs consistently. Roomet's rail skills are blowing Ian's mind and Kirk is one of the planet's rare adults who know the names of most every jib. That's a hard mind to blow. Mike Perle is continuing his large smooth tech mix. Connor Hudson landed a back seven and took a hard fall trying back nine. He is in fine health tonight and ready to push the progression again tomorrow. Chris Tierney lapped with Brendan Conroy throughout the day and they both steadied up the backside spins to consistently link with their fs fives and sevens. Style counts for much on a snowboard. Check theirs in tonights photos.
I just can't mention everyone in each blog but today one big highlight of the camp for me. It's clearer than ever when I loaded the photos. The mornings hike is always a proud time to be coaching and there is a photo here. Every other photo shown today was snapped in less than two minutes near the end of the day. SMS was rolling on copper mtn and I have never seen a tighter happier group of snowboarders.
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