MJ's Ski Blog

Shifty 4

The first of the summer comps kicked of in CasVegas last weekend.
The Jam was a 2 hour session, the set up was amazing with lots of awsome rails. As the Jam started, me and TJ Harding headed out to start warming up. After the first few runs I had really got used to most of the features, I was straight in doing K-feds, Super Feds and 450′s out.  By the end of the night I had landed tons of sick tricks like nose tap 5′s and 630′s!

Nose tap 5

After the jam we had a quick break and then got back on the slope for a team event.  The rules were that we had 4 runs in our teams to go mad and crazy. The whole event was about creativity. Our team captain Adam came up with some fun ideas and we put them into practice in our first 3 runs and on our 4th we put them all together.  We had Liam lying upside down with his skis up in the air for us to tap or ski slide. Then we had Tim sitting behind the gas pipe with his poles in the air for us to jump through and finally, we had a guy grabbing our skis/boards and spinning us on the box!!!!!

Results

At the presentation I was called out for second place in the 13-16 year old category, Josh Jenkins got third place and Tyler got first.

And yes, I was stoked!!!

MJ bags second place

Last week me, my Mum, my Dad and my sister got up at 4 o’clock in the morning to make a twelve hour journey to Laax in Switzerland for the Brits! On the way there we got lost a couple of times but one of the worst was when we got lost in the roadworks around Zurich. The Sat Nav just kept us going round in circles! Eventually we got there and we were ready to go!

(Click on the photos to get the full picture)

Day 1 – Halfpipe

Getting air in the Pipe!

MJ grabs silver in Halfpipe

Stoked with silver

The first event of the week was the half pipe. We got up the mountain for half past nine. I got loads of practice runs. In my first competitive run I threw down some big air out of the pipe with solid, tweaked grabs. I tried to keep the style into it with a big 540 at the end! Unfortunately, I did not land my second run cleanly as I tried back to back 540′s and crashed on the last one…The pipe was running well and there was some stiff competition but I was pleased with my runs and I landed a silver medal!

Day 2 – Protest Slopestyle

Nosepress in Slopestyle

On the second day, it was time for the slopestyle. The top part of the course was a awesome setup of boxes, rails and gas pipes. The bottom half were three booters! On my first run I landed the top part of the course with loads of technical moves on the boxes like K-feds, Blind switch ups and stalls! I came down to the booters and got a styley 360 with a nose grab but then on the second jump I overcooked it and nearly wiped out! On my second run I landed everything I wanted to! I walked away from the comp with a bronze medal!:)

MJ bags bronze in slopestyle

Day 3 – Trespass Skiercross

Cruising the skiercross

Day 3 brought the skiercross. A day earlier, on the lift I had a chat with a boarder who was in the GB team for boarder cross. He said that the course was bad at the moment and bits of rock on grass were showing! On the day of the comp they still weren’t covered up which meant a really long wait for the comp to start! Finally it got underway, we only got one run and somehow I managed to miss a gate? Apparently loads of people missed it.

Day 4 – Giro Big Air

Nose grab in Big Air

It was time for the final Brits event of the week – the Big Air! I had been hitting the big jump, getting styley threes off of it! So I did a huge, styley three with a nose grab off the big kicker for my first run. On my second and final run I did a 720 off of the middle kicker! I didn’t think I was going to win a medal as Tom Saunders really pulled it out of the bag with his run! In the end I think it all came down to the cleanness of the landings…it was a close one but I just managed to get the bronze medal!

Bronze in Giro Big Air

Overall

I had a brilliant time competing in the Brits this year – as the youngest in my age category I really wasn’t expecting to land any medals, so to come away with three medals out of the four competitions was absolutely amazing!! I even won a light sabre for showing off my moves on the rails in the Stair Wars event!

I had tons of fun messing about and having fun at the freestyle academy.

I also want to say thank you to all of my sponsors for your support and gear (Adidas eyewear, Ski Bartlett, K2 Skis, Kent Reliance Building Society and Waterbird ) and a big up to Pat Sharples for giving me a few pointers throughout the week to help me achieve my goals!

Won a lightsabre in Stair Wars!

My sis did pretty well too!

Fantastic day at the Brits in Laax today – I was competing at the Youth Mens Half Pipe comp which is for under 16′s – I was the youngest person in my age category and ended up finishing in second place with a silver medal, placing 14th overall out of 28 male entries in total!! 

MJ steeze in the pipe

Absolutely chuffed with my result and a brilliant way to kick of day 1!!!!!!!!!!

If you haven’t already seen it yet, here is the edit that Quiksilver put together for me from their UK final at Tamworth:

http://static.quiksilver-europe.com/www/soap.quiksilver-europe.com/html/upload/videos/20110302192418VIDE383724199606dmlkZW8=_480p.mp4

If you haven’t done so already – go to the following link and click on “Vote for this Rider”

http://quiksilverlive.com/radar11/rider.147.php

Stoked with my prizes

The prizes that I won for coming first in the Male under 16′s Westbeach Backard Jib video competition finally arrived this week!!  Here’s a photo of me opening my prizes – they were awesome.

Thanks Westbeach!

You can check my winning video out on YouTube or watch it below:

Hi everyone,

Here’s that Christmas edit that I said I was putting together.  you can also see it at my webpage under Vids, or on YouTube!

Enjoy!

When it starts click on the “240p” and change to “360p” to see best quality

I can now post blogs from my mobile!

My Silencers and ID2s were amazing

I was in Les 2 Alpes for the new year.  It was fantastic to be back on real snow – the park set up was awesome as usual and the pipe was absolutely amazing.   It took me a few runs to get used to the proper stuff again but I was soon hitting the big kickers and the rails, laying down some sick tricks.

I met up with Jack Peppiette and the Smithy’s Tavern crew and we sessioned the kickers together.  Jack pushed me to do my first 7 over the biggest kicker in the park – I stomped it, thanks Jack!!

My new K2 Silencers were riding amazingly, they are well good on snow.

Showing off my sponsor's gear

The first day was a bit of a white out but my new Adidas ID2 goggles really helped me to see where I was going unlike my granddad who had to be rescued by Skidoo when he got motion sickness and started throwing up everywhere!

I had an awesome week and we got some great footage in the park – so watch this space for an edit coming soon!

Slidestyle

We’ve had about 2 foot of snow in Walderslade in the past week – shame to waste it so I built myself a slopestyle course on the front drive!  I had a bit of a problem getting speed up as there is a definite lack of mountains in our close but I solved that one by using the garden slide. 

I managed to lay down a few steezy runs – check out my video here 

MJ & Madi hanging with Kelly!

Me and my sister Madi were lucky enough to be invited to spend a day with the Dame Kelly Holmes Legacy Trust at Canterbury University as part of the Backing Talent in Kent scheme being run for F.A.N.S. members.

Along with mum, dad and our freestyle ski coach Paul Webb, we learnt a heap of things about training, nutrition, dealing with the media, mental psychology and loads of other stuff.

MJ & the Madster working with Tyrone

We met lots of leading British athletes and our personal coach for the day was Tyrone Swaray.

It was a brilliant day!

MJ & James from Adidas

The Morrow Jam at Hemel on Friday night was sick!  The layout had loads of crazy obstacles including the “Rainbow of Death” which eventually died!

I had a wicked time meeting up with James from my sponsors Adidas Eyewear who brought along a heap of glasses for me to try out.  I chose some sweet sunglasses and a wicked pair of reading glasses that are unbelievably light!  Thanks James – I’ll be wearing them soon!

It took me a few runs to get the hang of my new K2 Silencers but I had a brilliant time hitting all crazy stuff on the slope.

It was a really fun and relaxed jam and everyone had plenty of time to show what they could do.

Results

Today I received a big parcel, full of tons of gear from Adidas Eyewear!  I got two amazing pairs of ID2 goggles, along with loads of stickers, a pair of sick sunglasses, some Adidas pens and a tee shirt! I can’t wait to wear my sick gear next time I ski!

Thanks to Woodsy, Ben Ashlin and James Hendy for putting me on the Adidas team and for all the gear!!

K2 Silencer Skis

I used to ride on kids K2 Juvy’s but at my last session in the Chill Factore I managed to destroy both skis!  We got in touch with Chris from Ski Bartlett and he said he would talk to Si at K2.  A couple of days later, a pair of 149 K2 Silencers (my first adult ski!) arrived in the post - they looked amazing.

On Sunday night the skiers of the southern freestyle squad were invited to do a display for the public at Bracknell which was followed by an amazing firework display!

My brand new skis felt a little heavy compared to my old skis but they rode sooooo smoothly - I absolutely fell in love with them and I am sure you will be seeing pleny of photos of me riding them on my blog in the near future!

Meeting Ben from Adidas-Eyewear at London Freeze

I went to the London Freeze to watch the best skiers compete and while I was there I bumped into Ben from Adidas for the first time!  We had a chat and got to know each other before inviting him and his wife Emma to have a drink with us.

Then we went over the brand and what I would and wouldn’t like and what I could do to promote Adidas!

Our conversation was cut short by the start of the Relentless Freeze, so we said our goodbyes and got on with the day :)

Me and my ski buddy Josh had an awesome day at the London Freeze on Sunday – we saw some amazing tricks and even met some of the stars.  Here’s a pic of us with the the sickest skier of all – Bobby Brown… he was a really nice guy and even went out of his way to go and get some posters for us!

MJ & Josh meet Bobby Brown

Big up to my Adidas team mate Woodsy who landed a sick double cork 12 – it wasn’t enough to get him into the finals but there’s always next year!