Happy new year to everyone!
Today was an amazing day and we decided to go and do one of our favorite local backcountry runs with my brother William Bankes. There was a bit of snow left from the snowfall two weeks ago so it was a nice day. The top of the run was slightly wind blown but further down the snow was nice.
Next weekend will be the Puy st Vincent boardercross with the first European cup of the season.
See you then
Tom
Just got back from ten days training with the British team at the Hintertux Glacier, I had a great time and the fact that there was only a small number of us there made it a very intense week, but with some good results to show at the end of it!
We were extremely lucky with the weather as we were able to go up on the mountain every day that we were there, even though the two last days were cold and snowy, the rest of the time we had clear blue skies.
Hintertux is rather large for a glacier which is nice as there is slightly more variation than there is normally. We also had a track and were able to work different technical sections, including starts, kickers and banks, which will come in useful later on in the season.
There was a good team spirit the whole week and had lots of fun with Myles, Jennifer and Marlies. The only bad news came when it was announced that our first competition of the season which was supposed to be in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy had been cancelled due to lack of snow. Therefor the first competition will be at Home in Puy St Vincent on the 6-9 January. It was rather ironic as the news came as the whole of Europe got the first major snowfall of the season, but it was not enough to make a proper course. I am defiantly disappointed about that as the first competition of the season is always good, and was looking forward to going back there and not getting helicoptered off the mountain!
Anyway, back home now and there is fresh snow around which is nice to see, the weather has become distinctly wintery and the season is well on it’s way!
Last week was my first snow training this winter, the start of this season went really well. It was really nice to be back in the open after a couple of weeks in the UK working in front of a computer!
Carving in Zermatt
The first day on snow was a lovely day, blue skies and hard snow, perfect to get back into carving down the pistes. It was also time to meet the new arrivals on the GB team for this season, Tom Akass, Myles Mcneany, Tom Farrow, Jennifer Osbourne and Marlies Neuner. with quite a drastic change from last season, there were five new arrivals and it was nice to get to know everyone and meet back up with Jamie Barrow and Maisie Potter from last season.
Cold, eating luch on the glacier, trying to get out of the wind
Our first day finished with fitness training, which took place in Zermatt, to see how everyone was faring after the sumer. It all went well, with everyone doing well in most things.
The next couple of days the bad weather came in, with the resort closing down on our third day due to snow and 85 km/h of wind. Instead of going up the mountain we had fitness and I concentrated on my university course work as I was slightly behind on it!
Simon and Jimbo, the coaches
Then next three days we went back up on the mountain and had an amazing time. The weather was never amazing apart from the last day, but it didn’t stop us from making the most of our first time on snow this season.
Everyone progressed a lot on this camp which was great, and leaves me and everyone else hopeful for the upcoming season that looks rather packed. here is my 2011/12 calendar.
View of the Matterhorn from thefirst of three lifts
The camp was great, we were lucky with the weather, and the location is amazing, boarding next to the Matterhorn is an experience. We were also able to do lots of different things, carving of course, but there is also a half pipe that got thoroughly used and some kickers so it didn’t get boring!
The last day, the chair lift down to the mid station opened which allowed us to go for much longer runs, and we all had a go on getting the fastest speed down the slope, which was a lot of fun for the last day! I only got 98.3 km/h whilst James Foster, thanks in part to his impressive physique beat everyone else with around 110Km/h.
I am now of to relax in Egypt for a couple of day kitesurfing and the next camp will be in Sweden on the 26th of December.
Thanks to Norton Rose Group , Jimbo and Simon.
The last couple of weeks I have been in London working and training.
It was actually more more fun than I expected, and I defiantly enjoyed the riding to work on my bike the most, it got the adrenaline going early in the morning!
I also go to go on some nice runs and bike rides along the canals where I saw some amazing canal boats and such, and the atmosphere along the canals was such a stark contrast to the busy centre of London.
I got a gym pass for the GLL leisure centre at Mile end which was just up the canal from my flat, so was in a great location, it was a really nice facility, and really quite empty at 6 in the morning which was great for me as it meant I got some amazing sunrises and I had to go to work around 9.30 anyway.
My desk at Norton Rose LLP
I had 10 days work experience at Norton Rose LLP, in the web development section, and actually had a good time although, I don’t think office work is for me quite yet anyway! I did learn quite a few things, and Clement, my boss had his own personal whip that he used to keep me working as fast as possible!! Only joking, got on really well but just getting a bit of revenge for doing all the work he didn’t want to do!
Getting onto the ferry on the way to Zermatt
After my work experience, I met up with my TASS hub at the hertfordshire university and had a good preparation session where Ed made me a cool S and C program for the upcoming season.
Then was the time for my drive down to Zermatt for our first training camp of the season and to meet the new members of the British team. I’ll keep you updated on that shortly.
Tom
For my break before doing two weeks of “proper work”, (work experience at Norton Rose) I went off to the Bitches to enjoy a week of the equinox tides!
There I met Deb Pinniger and Sam …. For the weekend we were joined by Nouria Newman
It was a really amazing week as we enjoyed the welsh heat wave! This meant that we had good weather and it was sunny for most of the day! This, given that we were camping in a field overlooking the sea was definitely extremely appreciated.
Given the times of the tides, we were kayaking at the beginning of the week in the evening, until sunset, and at the end of the week at sunrise. This, with the beautiful weather and the breathtaking landscape made it, a unique experience.
The wave is formed by the sea water rushing between the mainland of Wales and the island of Ramsey just before high tide. This flow has a lot of power given the amount of water, by far the most volume anywhere in Europe.
This makes a really beautiful wave on which you can have a lot of fun!
The paddle out is quite long, around 40 minutes in our short freestyle boats, so the banter had to be good otherwise we wouldn’t have been very fun!
Once out there though, it was worth every moment of it!
The wave changed every time you went on it because of the flow changing constantly due to the tides. This meant that you always had to be ready and try and get the best ride you could every-time!
At it’s peak the wave almost made a tube and riding the face in front of this tube was a lot of fun!
Once back on land we would go biking and walking around and generally had a lot of fun!
Since then I am back in London, doing a bit of work experience at Norton Rose LLP before the snowboarding season starts again, with our next camp in Zermatt from the 20th October.
Thanks to TYF and Norton Rose Group and everyone I went there with!
Thomas Bankes
