Dear Interweb,
How did we (Mike Riddle and I) manage to compete in the WC Finals halfpipe (France) and Euro Open slopestyle and Halfpipe (Laax, Switzerland) which were practically happening simultaneously? Right after competing in qualifiers for slopestyle at the Euro Open on Wednesday, we grabbed our bags and travelled 9 hours by car/train to La Plagne. I especially enjoyed taking the train ride from Zurich to Geneva, watching the beautiful Swiss countryside go by.
Riddle hitches a ride on the trip to La Plagne!
Right after competing at the WC on Thursday, we did the same 10 hours trip back to Laax so we could compete in finals at the Euro Open for slopestyle on Friday and Halfpipe on Saturday.
Stripping down to my baselayer in the parking lot to make a quick getaway
Tired Teamies!
Yeah, we were all exhausted, even Trennon who rarely shows any sign of fatigue. Why did we do it? We did a similar trip from Italy-Laax-Italy-Laax last year so, at the last minute, we decided why not? And, Trennon believes that supporting the World Cups is key to getting Halfpipe skiing into the Olympics. And it is fun, from time to time, to do something that intense.
Sincerely,
Roz
Post-script: I really missed my other teamies on this trip as we had such a great time all together last year between the Euro Open and World Cup Finals, seeking “booze and glory” and managing to achieve both!
Driving between the World Cup Finals Ceremonies and the European Open party in 2008
Dear Interweb
The European Open is one of the best events of the year as the courses are in perfect condition, the mountain and town are beautiful and the parties are amazing. Plus, accomodation and meals are provided for the invited athletes, which is always a nice change.
Here is my coach Trennon’s report:
Laax, SUI
Fresh off a third place finish at the World Cup final event in France, team member Rosalind Groenewoud carried her momentum into Switzerland for the European Freeskiing Open.
Starting the week in the slopestyle event, Roz qualified easily, and then threw a couple of highly technical runs in the final, which consisted of a switch 540 to a 720 to a 900. Showing that she is a truly well-rounded athlete, Roz placed 4th in the slopestyle final, just missing the podium by 0.5 points, and proving that she is much more than just a “halfpipe specialist”.
On to the halfpipe finals, where Roz once again landed a couple of fantastic runs, putting together a complete package of amplitude, technical difficulty (right 540, left 540 and switch 540), and grabs. When the final scores came in, Roz was awarded 3rd place, her second halfpipe podium result in less than a week!
Our team was also represented at the European Open by Mike Riddle in the mens events. Unfortunately Mike had a bad crash in the semifinal, and suffered a concussion which rendered him unable to compete any further. Mike is healing fast and should be in good shape to ski at our final event of the season, which will take place in Whistler in April.
First hit!
Podium for Halfpipe! (I'm making a funny face...)
RozG
Post-Script: After the halfpipe event, my awesome roommates, Kaya Turski and Jess Cumming, and I hosted an amazing girls-only party. It’s always fun to hang out with a bunch of wonderful ski girls!
Kaya, Jess and I rock our sunglasses at night!
Left to Right: Whitney Wickes, Mirjam Jaeger, Sofie Winsdet, Me!, Em Lonsdale, Jess Cumming, Kaya Turski, Keri herman, Claudia Bouvier, Anais Caradeux
Just like last year, Team Canada managed to compete in two events in different countries at the same time: The European Freeskiing Open and World Cup Final. Though it was chaotic, it was worthwhile and a lot of fun. (Check back for how we did it and a report on the Euro Open)
Here is Trennon’s Report from the WC:
La Plagne, France
Every season, the FIS World Cup Tour is capped off by the World Cup Final, which took place this year in the beautiful French Alps.
Due to some injuries, the Canadian Halfpipe team was down in numbers for this event, with 2 athletes, Rosalind Groenewoud and Mike Riddle, carrying the torch for the team.
The halfpipe was in great condition, and the top athletes from the World Cup standings were all taking full advantage of it. One thing that stood out more than anything at this event was the crowd! Multitudes of fans were packed around the halfpipe, and their energy level was beyond belief! Screaming their heads off, blowing airhorns, and waving pom-poms, the super stoked crowd (many of whom even had painted their faces the colors of the French flag) went off like a rock concert every time somebody dropped in for their run.
In the start gate...
Mike Riddle had a rough go in training, as he was still not fully recovered from a brutal fall at the World Championships in Japan earlier this month. Despite not finishing a run in training, he was able to make it through the pipe in the event, and even though he had some wobbles on the way down, still managed to pull off a respectable 5th place finish. The mens’ event was won by hometown favorite Kevin Rolland of France, closely followed by David Wise of the USA in 2nd. Nils Lauper of Switzerland finished in 3rd.
Rosalind Groenewoud was on her game right from the start of training, hitting some of the biggest airs of the competition, and showing a lot of technical diversity by including left and right spins, as well as switch spins, in her run. When the final scores were announced, Roz ended up in 3rd, adding another World Cup medal to her growing collection. The womens’ event was won by Anais Caradeux of France, with 2nd place going to Virginie Faivre of Switzerland.
After the medal's ceremony with my cute trophy and my flowers
Kristi Leskinen’s Homecoming Invitational Event was unique and special for me. Along with the opportunity to ride slopestyle with most of the best females in the slope game, ski and snowboard, Kristi took care of every detail and made us all feel like rockstars! Everything was taken care of from the transportation to deluxe accom and delicious food at Seven Springs plus the added luxury from Kristi’s awesome massage therapist and facials from snowboard sisters CC and Lisa. I haven’t skied slopestyle all season so it was fun (and a little frustrating at first) to get back to it. I competed a sw540 to 360 to 720 and did a few 9s. Other girls were also throwing down- Kaya Turski was crowned Homecoming Queen for a run with a sw900. And we didn’t just ski! I shot a gun for the first time plus there was bowling and partying(!!). We all enjoyed skiing with the local skiers and made some new friends in the snowsports world. Finally, ‘Homecoming’ isn’t a Canadian tradition, so this was my first! Thank you to Kristi for creating and executing this inspired event!
All the girls in our best 'Homecoming' pose..(check out our sweet sashes!)
My first time shooting a gun!
Pulling out a pole trick in the rail jam with the local kids! (PA was even fun with no snow)
Post-script: It was a great opportunity for me to see my teamie, Sarah Burke (who was head judge for the event), and see that she is doing great. I’ve missed her.
Sarah and I hanging out on the shooting range
I accomplished a lot away from the halfpipe while I was in Summit County for the US Open. I opened my first American bank account (in order to stop losing $$ with the current Canadian exchange rate), skied a pretty fun jumping day at Breckenridge, made this website of mine far more attractive (thanks to some assistance from Jeff Cedeno!) and killed it at the Silverthorne gym. If you ever find yourself at the gym in Silverthorne, I recommend you jump on one of the stationery bikes with the dragon-chasing video game attached. It’s the greatest invention ever: you can chase dragons and earn points by cycling, resulting in the time passing way faster than it normally would and you work way harder.
Also, I have begun an independent study university course, Political Economy, which will be occupying all my time that was otherwise reserved for facebook, newschoolers and youtube. Thank you to everyone at Quest University who has helped me organize this!
The most entertaining thing I did off the ski hill was visit the newly built Woodwards training facility at Copper. Check the pics!
I heart Trampolines
Snow flex ramps: A contraption that combines my two worst fears of water ramps and foam pits
Skate Bowl! There's also a pretty sick mini ramp on the other side of the gym
I am writing this on a flight from Denver to LA that we caught right after the event. We’ll go on to Tokyo tomorrow to compete at World Championships in Inawashiro!
Roz G
The US Open just wrapped up and was a completely different event than past seasons. Previously, the US Open had been the busiest, most chaotic, worst organized and most important Open event of the season. With the drop of the slopestyle and big air events due to the flailing economy, the competition took on a far mellower vibe. With 50 athletes competing, opposed to 250, everyone was able to get more training thus the overall stress levels dropped significantly.
The weather really cleared up for semi-finals and finals. (On Friday, for qualifiers, it was puking wet snow and extremely foggy.) I ended up 4th in finals as my safe run wasn’t quite enough to get me on the podium and I crashed my 900 on my more difficult run. Though it was a disappointment to end my podium streak in the US Open (2nd in 2007, and 3rd in 2008), it was also good to get a few 900s out of the way after my bad crash at the end of January.
Photo from Freeskier! Thank you Shay for putting my site on your Freeskier reports!
More of a success story: my two Canadian teammates, Justin Dorey and Mike Riddle, ended up 1st and 3rd respectively. I was so stoked to see both my boys kill it!
My Canadians in matching outfits on the podium
I think this is my favourite picture of Justin, Mike and myself. X-Games 2009
I could write my own report, but my coach Trennon put it so nicely that I’m just going to use his for now:
Northstar at Tahoe, CA Sunday marked the end of the inaugural Winter Dew Tour season, with the final day of competition. Sunday’s events were the snowboarding Mens and Womens Superpipe, as well as the final event for our team, the Womens Ski Superpipe.
Unlike the perfect weather that we had been treated to earlier, we woke up Sunday morning to the sound of rain coming down, and when we arrived at the hill we were greeted with more of the same, mixed with some very wet snow. This did not seem to deter either the competitors, or the crowds, who showed up ready to brave the weather for a chance to watch the best in the World perform.
Team member Rosalind Groenewoud was on her game from the moment the pipe opened for training, and did not let the conditions slow her down one bit. If anything, she was launching higher out of the pipe than ever before. In her first run she put down the most technical run of the competition, spinning both left and right 540s, and adding switch landings as well as switch spins to her run. Her score came in just under Mirjam Jager of Switzerland, and at the end of the first run she was sitting in 2nd place.
I'm going to say that this is 13-14 feet out...
On the second run Roz went even bigger, but had a bit of a washout on one of her 540s, so it was her first run score that held through. While the other women put down some great runs, nobody but Mirjam Jager was able to eclipse Roz’s first run score, giving Roz 2nd place, and her first Dew Tour podium!
The podium was an international affair, with Switzerland, Canada, and France taking the top 3 positions.
Myself, Mirjam and Anais
Top 5 results:
1 - Mirjam Jager (SUI) 2 - Rosalind Groenewoud (CAN) 3 - Anais Caradeux (FRA) 4 - Jessica Cumming (USA) 5 - Angelie Van Laanen (USA)
The top 3 runs were shown later in the day on NBC’s Sunday Afternoon Sports Update. I’m going to try to track down the show to post here!
Mr. Macgregor
For the last few weeks I have been hanging out at home in Calgary after an injury sustained during the World Cup in Park City. I needed some downtime so I spent a lot of time with my dog, Dante MacGregor (border collie).Dante, who also answers to Mr. MacGregor, is a killer companion: very smart, very affectionate, funny and protective.
Dante's favourite 'work'...
While I was home, I snapped a few pictures of my pro-model glove prototype that I had designed for Kombi in the fall (with help from my brother who has those computer graphics skills). I recently found out that the glove was well-received by buyers and will be mass-produced for next season!
Tops of the hand
Palm of the glove
My original design was purple but the glove will be produced in various colours, including this red and an aqua blue (though for me, it’s all about the purple!) Roses mean a lot to me: my name comes from Rosalinda, meaning ‘beautiful rose’ in Spanish plus my beloved Grandma has a lifetime passion for roses. The zebra print started as a random inspiration because I love black-and-white (border collies, for example). When I thought about it during the process I remember that zebras are cool because no two zebras have the same stripe pattern—they recognize each other by their individuality or unique ‘style’, much like how I recognize skiers.
Glove Love!
Peace out!
After X-Games, I drove to Park City with my two of my favourite ski girls, Jen Hudak and Jess Cumming. The girl-talk filled hours were a lovely break from the time I had spent in X-Games and was much needed female time before spending time in Park City with the Rossi French contingency: Xavier Bertoni, Kevin Rolland, Coach Greg, Arnaud Peyrin, Matt Lopez and the young Armada rider, Benoit Valentin.
We spent the next two days shooting photos/video. It was endlessly amusing and very French. My presence seemed to make them blush a lot but it didn’t stop their ongoing antics, inside jokes and comedy routines. I did tire of “fart capsules” (don’t even ask!) and consistently being the only person wearing pants (those boys definitely get their money’s worth from their underwear sponsor, Pull-in….) but I really enjoyed getting to know them all.
Departures were consistently delayed with the Frenchies as something or someone always seemed to be forgotten. It became a form of a French farce.
Waiting...again...
On the road..finally
I pretty much gave up trying to use my French because I couldn’t understand their rapid slang and inside joke-filled French, which was even more confusing as there was never less than 3 of them speaking at the same time.
Monday, January 26th was my first day skiing out of the park since Christmas and I got some excellent powder turns. I was still on the Rossi park ski, the S4, but I still managed to (almost) keep up to the guys on the S6 (powder ski) and S7 (rockered powder ski).
It really burned my little brother who was in Canada at our home hill (yay Castle Mountain!) with spring-like weather and no new snow in the forecast. Aw.
RozG (Rozzy)
The ski industry is a big family with too many boys so I have a lot of “bros” who treat me like their little sister. They tease me and make me laugh and/or squirm….and sometimes they find out my secret and tell the www …
http://kevinkruse.wordpress.com/2009/02/03/busiest-girl-in-the-industry/
Kevin Kruse, the Scott Team Manager, is definitely one of my loving ‘bros’, enhanced by the fact that I’m dating one of his ‘children’. But, how did he figure it out? I was so sneaky, even claiming to not like pop music. I’m blaming the red lipstick! Ha!
Post-Script: No, I’m not sponsored by Scott—my goggles are Electric, baby!
