Preparing for Norway!

Kelly and I are emailing from the Noris Green public Library, here in the UK internet access is free, wonderful!

Today Kelly and I decided that we needed to go shopping and get all our food for our 2 week stint in Norway. Last time I was in Norway, I had to spend my last night in a hotel near the airport, as we had an early flight, we arrived at the hotel quite late and the only place to eat was at another hotel up the road, it wasn't the flashest of hotel's but had a nice restaurant, I ordered the cheapest thing I could find on the menu, a hamburger and chips. It cost $50 NZ dollars. Kelly and I are really concerned about running out of money, and we just don't have the money to pay for food in Norway, Norway makes the UK look cheap, and since we have a 3 piece luggage allowance, if we juggle our bags around we can include a box of food.

Food in the UK is quite expensive but if you stick to the ASDA brands (ie the cheapest no name brands) you can get some real good bargains. So here is a list of our supplies for Norway.
(the pound key doesn't work on this computer)
6 Cans of Kidney beans 11p each
8 Cans of creamed rice 15p each
8 cans of peeled tomatoes 20p each
2 cans of evaporated milk 28p each (for teas and coffee)
2 cans of carrots 9p each
12 cans of tuna chunks in spring water 50p each
1 can of sweet corn 15p
Sweet chili sauce 77p
Instant coffee 2.08p
Tabasco sauce 1.20p
2 cans of black olives 98p each ( we can have 3 on each meal!)
7 tiny cans of tomato puree 24p each
honey 1.38p
pickle 88p
1kg brown rice 77p
2kg white rice 1.68p
4 boxes of cup of soups 25p each
2 packets of spaghetti 17p each
3 500g packets of pasta twists 19p each
Tea bags 81p (fruit)
Digestive biscuits x 2 packets 25p each
cookies 27p
2kg porridge 88p
Normal tea bags 148p

We spent about 30 pound, $NZ100 I would hate to think what it would have cost if we got it all in Norway.

We'll need to get some bread and some ham and cheese for lunches, but other than that we should survive. Kelly's 8kg of protein bars that she has lugged around all season will start to be handy.


In Norway, 10 athletes are sharing cottage accommodation, it will be the race HQ for New Zealand, Denmark, South Africa, Netherlands, Finland and Czech Republic. It will be pretty chaotic, especially if we are all cooking separately, but Kelly and I are really running out of money, and you've got to do what you've got to do, it is certainly going to be an adventure!

I hope you all have fantastic New Year celebrations, I will write again from he Lake District.

We are in Liverpool.

We arrived in Liverpool yesterday, my cousin Liam drove us from Coventry. I didn't finish telling you all about what we got up to in Coventry, like I said, we had a great feast for Christmas dinner, and watched a couple of videos.

On boxing day, Kelly and I went for a walk into town and and signed up at the library to use the internet, when we left we head back the way we had come into town, but somehow we got lost and ended up in all the wrong places, some of the under passes we went through were sooo dodgey, the kind of places your told never to go at night (at least that's how they felt to two lost kiwis). Eventually we got directions back into town and retraced our steps and finally made it back to my aunts our 15 minute walk home took over an hour. On the 27th Kel, Mattie, Rosie, Liam, Emily, Elanor (cousins) and my aunt and uncle Fel and Jimmy went to see the Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King. What a fantastic movie, I loved it. It has been a bit of a tradition to go and see the lord of the rings on boxing day, this is the 3rd year in a row that I have had Christmas with my family in England and gone to see the lord of the rings with them. Seeing the scenery on the film always makes me a bit home sick, I would love to have a kiwi Christmas, with a barbecue, sunshine, beaches, cold beer and snoopies Christmas!? For some reason I really miss hearing that song on the radio, they play it heaps over Christmas in NZ.

Today Kelly and my cousin Mattie and I caught a bus into town, just to have a look around, some of the buildings stunning here in Liverpool, we have been for a walk down to the docks, and down Bold St with thousands and thousands of shoppers clogging up the road. It can be quite overwhelming with so many people around you.

The best thing about Liverpool are the accents, I love them.

On Wednesday Kelly and I are going up to the Lake District, to visit Marks parents Dave and Di (My boyfriend Mark and I met while I was working in the Lake district 3 years ago, he now lives in NZ). Dave and Di just returned from a 3 week holiday in NZ, it will be nice to see Ambleside again, I worked there for 7 months while I was on my Big OE before I started skeleton racing.

Well must go, I hope you all have a wonderful new years eve.

(Some of you will be pleased that I have gone through and spell checked my last few entries, it was quite entertaining.)

Merry Christmas every one

I just signed as a member at the Coventry Library, it means that I can have free email access. The trip from Innsbruck up to Prague was very stressful, we drove into, through and out the other side of a nasty blizzard, Czech drivers all have a death wish, not only did we see 9 road accidents on the Czech roads we nearly hit 5 teenagers and a dog who decided to step out in front of us while we were going about 100kmph on a snowy highway, with summer tires on, down hill,right on dusk... I am amazed that the wheels did not lock up as Kelly slammed on the anchors, if they had we would have hit them. The drive north took 7 and a half hours, we took a 2 minute pee stop and a quick re-fuel, and made it to the airport 10 minutes after our last check in time, we then began explaining why one of the wheels was damaged, and how they nearly killed us by sending us out with summer tires. There is no way we are going to pay for the repair fees. When we checked in, it became apparent that our ticket was not valid because we were booked on a CSK flight, and CSK is not part of the Star Alliance which means our Star Alliance around the world ticket should have never has that flight printed on it. AAAAHHHHHH, we thought there was an issue with our 3 piece baggage limit, but it was even worse our tickets were not valid. Thankfully Lufthansa who is part of the star alliance put us for no charge onto one of their flights and did not question our 3 piece baggage limit. The flight was due to leave in 30 minutes so we hurried off to gate. At the gate, the funniest thing happened. Kelly has the amazing ability to attract the attention of drunk old men who don't speak English, this 30 stone 6 foot 4 drunk Russian came up to us and started speaking in Russian, we both said in sign that we only speak English, so he reach over and Kelly a much unwanted drunken bone squashing hug and said 'Russian'. AAAHHHH poor Kelly, we were in the queue for the security check and couldn't move away, this whale like Russian stood behind Kelly making dodgy comments to his Russian friend and kept bumping Kelly in the back with his huge belly. YUCK. We were soon on the plane bound for Frankfurt, and then onto Manchester, where my aunt Maggie collected us, we were supposed to head for Coventry but ended up on the wrong motorway and found our selves half way to Liverpool, we decided to drop our sleds off in Liverpool before heading back to Coventry. As we were unloading the car in Liverpool ( about midnight) Kelly went to put her runners (blades) on the foot path but was quickly told not to in case the young lad walking up the street took the opportunity to run off with them, you should have seen the look of horror on keels face as she snatched her runners back off the foot path. Welcome to Liverpool Kelly, it isn't that bad. WE arrived in Coventry about 3.30am, a world away from the snowy Christmas market in Innsbruck and the track in the cute village of Igls.

Christmas has been a great feast with my aunts, uncles, older cousins, little cousins, cousins kids and my grandma, Cec. We had a traditional Christmas dinner, and drank lots of wine and baileys, then watched the Pirates of the Caribbean........
I must go as the library is closing I will finish the story later.....

sliding in the snow in Insbruck

Innsbruck is beautiful right now, it is snowing and the christmas market is open, just stunning, we slid this morning in lots of slow slow snow, but it was a real good run, will be back there tonight at 6 pm, then kel and i leave tomorrow and drive to Prague and fly onto Manchester, looks like christmas will be at mz aunts in Coventry and not Liverpool.

Ah, it looks like that computer did work after all!

I have 10 minutes to tell you all about what we have been upto, the last computer that i tried blogging from crashed everz time i posted my blog, but by the looks of it it worked. after i last made an entry, i headed to hospital to see if I coud get my chin stitched, since the wound has opened up and was big and gaping. However I was told that was too late and would have to live with it, it has since healed, i should have a nice little scar. The sliding I did was good in Konigsee, but it was expensive, and I still have to qualifz for the world champs to be able to get there wich mans not running out of money before then. Please for give all the spelling mistakes, the kez board is all crayz over here in germanz and i am paying per minute. In Konigsee we stazing in a verz nice holidaz home which we shared withthe dutch team, unfortunatelz it was more expensive that we had expected. Yesterdaz we (ben, kel and I) headed to insbruck where the Igls track is, but befoe we could leave we had to change the bent tyre that kel and i had squashed on the way down from prague, I was packing in mz room when i heard a larged bang, and then heard ben zelling, he had managed to put the Jack through the floor of the rental car, it was verz funn, then when he got the jack in the right spot, he cranked it up and got half of the bolt out when the jack slipped and the car cam crashing down with the wheel hanging half waz off. verz funnz, although i think ben had nearlz had enough. Then a while later ben lets out a damsel in distress call "Girls, help!" the car was missing the bent tyre sitting on the concrete with the axel and the wheel break thingy that is inside under the wheel was on the ground with the jack bent and stuck under it all. Ahhhhh, ben was readz to throw his toys, but we manged to get the jack back and with the help of the kitchen chopping board we steadied the jack got the car up and the tyre on, and on the road to insbruck. We had sent our sleds ahead withte italians, an interesting storie, but no time to tell it.....later. we slid thismorning in igls, such a nice easy track, took 3 runs, 3 fun runs, we slide again tomorrow then head to the uk, must go. will write again soon

Konigssee

Well finally I have found a computer with a key board. had a busy few days, our trip to Prague went well, we made the flight,
and arrived with all our luggage, but when Kellys runners came around the
conveyer belt they were hanging out ouf their tube with no runner guards
on! She is sooo lucky that they did not get all scratch up or fall out
compleatly. So we arrived in Prague at about 1pm, and got our rental car,
a very small Skoda, and started driving south, the further south we got
the more it started to snow, it took 7 hours to get 400km down to
Konigssee, and our car has summer tyres even after we especially requested
winter ones. as we arrived in Konigssee we droped down a steep hill and
lost control of the car on the ice, thankfully there was a big stone wall
on the bend in the road that stoped us falling over the edge, we dented
the the wheel rim and lost a hub cap then crawled the last 10 km to our
holiday home that we are sharing withthe Dutch team, we arrived at about
midnight. We slid at 11 am the next day Kel was tired so decided to
watch, it was snowing heavily which I was happy about, I didnät mind my
first run being a slow one, Konigssee has a 360 degrees kriesel corner
like Calgary, but in this one you have to steer up real hard to avoid
flipping on the exit, this is my 3rd time here, last year I flipped and
ended up in hospital with a very bad concussion, so on day one of training
i was a little nervous. I came out of the corner and flipped but rolled
back over pretty quickly, i didnät hit my head, but i got a small cut on
my chin, so the american medic super glued it up and put 3 butterfly
stitches on it, all was good, untill the butterfly stitches came undone
last night, and we notice that the glue has not worked and i have a hole i
could stick mz little finger into on mz chin. Very nice, I will try to
find a doctor at the track to put stitches in it today at the track.
Yesterday I took 2 runs and got out safely, so did Kel, she was here last
year for the Junior Worlds and flipped nearly every run, so she is pleased
at getting 2 safe decents yesterday. Lots of people are flipping this
week. We have 2 more days of training, then we are onto Igls for a few
days, then on the 23rd we fly into the UK for christmas.

Germany

Well finally I have found a computer with a key board.

Calgary Americas cup race #1

Ouch. I hurt. Raced today, and I got a personal best push!!!! One hundredths faster than I did during the World Cup here, a 5.98. My first run was fast and rough, I really get frustrated when you have a bumpy painful run and find it is half a second faster than your previous nice clean run, I guess it is because you are carrying so much more speed through the corners that your steering is out, hence the hits, but I shouldn't complain about a crap run and all my new bruises and pains when I got a my fastest time for the year. So I wont. I finished 10th after the first run and 9th after the second and came 11th overall, Kelly came 18th in the first run, 18th in the second and 18th overall, and only one athlete ended up in hospital. Nice.

The athlete before me on my second run crashed and so while I was waiting at the line there was a "hold on track" and I was sent inside then they called me back out to the line, then they decided to send a fore runner ahead of me (to check the timing or whatever), and I am in bob shoes which you can't walk around on the wood in because they clog up with bits of wood Io i am walking around on my heels, getting cold outside, ah the fun and games of sliding. My second run was less painful and bit cleaner, a little more satisfying... hence a little slower, this is a crazy sport. I love it. The girl who crashed went to hospital for stitches and xrays.

Russ (team NZ) managed to flip onto his back coming out of 8, he got back over onto his runners pretty quick and finished with a time of 60.92, which is crazy fast for crashing, he was aiming at a personal best, hopefully tomorrow he will get it.

I get the vibe that there is a little more cheating going on in Americas cup than on the world tour, I am really looking forward to next year when all the runners everyone are currently using become illegal on world tour, and then Americas and Europa the following year, I think you will see some changes. With standard metal the race will more on the athlete and not the equipment.

We both got really good start numbers for tomorrow (Calgary Americas cup race#2), Kelly is off 5th and I am off 7th, depending on the conditions, the ice can be faster for the first group of sliders so you want to be up at the start of the group but not 1st.

Well it is 8pm and kel and I have to get sanding, we use automotive high grade sandpaper to polish all the scratches out of our runner, so they are super fast and smooth for tomorrow.

Send super fast, high knee, long stride, quiet, still, painless vibes our way for tomorrow.


Hey Matt thanks for your email, keep the news coming, it all sounds exciting.

Race day today

We are off to the track in a couple of hours, yesterday training was alright, i did a time that was about a half a second faster than during the world cup, but I was real tired and scratched from my second run, no need to push my self this week. Kel was still runner testing yesterday, so we will get it together for our runs today. Poor Kel drew a shitty number again, and is last off, number 31, I drew a better number and I am off 19th, it is going to be a long day with 75 athletes to get through. I'll let you know how we all do. Send fast,quiet and stealthy vibes our way.

Awesome training runs.

Just got back from the track, I had a pretty good first run, so I decided to put my rock up even more, I have never ridden such high rock but I want to know how high I can go before I loose control, so now is the time to try it. So the second run was going fantastic, it felt fast and smooth, until the exit of kriesel, I think I was carrying more speed through the straight away from 8 and into 9 than I was used to (116kmph) and with the higher rock ( which gives less friction, a touchier (or finer ??) balance point, makes the sled more reactive and harder to control, but fast if you can get it right) got my timing wrong on the exit of 9 and came out hard, I was then late into 10, dropped a runner out of 10, late into 11, looped it, late into 12, missed my timing, and caught a 2nd pressure and was real late in to 13, looped it, hit before 14, and did this real strange skid while up on the wall in 14 (never done that before) and went very low into the belly of the curve then came out of the corner on one runner. It was cool, a whole lot of endorphins, I scared my self. Good buzz! So I was thinking I was going to have to drop the rock for tomorrow until I looked at my splits and compared them to the World Cup race. Well, my time through the bottom of the track was faster with that crazy run than it was during the race. And the down time was the fastest I have done this year (61.14)

I am looking forward to tomorrow. But I may be wearing a bit more padding...

You can all send your good luck emails, and show us your support (we need all your support) for the race on Friday by clicking here.

Here is a note from Kel to all her fans...."Hi everyone, hope you are all reading Lou's diary lots and finding out what we're up to. As you've probably read, this season has started off with a couple of hitches but, fingers crossed, we've seen the last of them. Hope all is well in Aotearoa and you aren't all getting too sunburnt (buggars!). Take care and I will be talking to you soon. For those who want to email me, my email is kel@surf.co.nz Later."

-5 , blue skies and sun shine, a stunning day for training here in Calgary

The ice here in Calgary is so beautiful, the track crew have made the smoothest, most wonderful ice to slide on. My two runs yesterday were alot of fun, the track is cut in a very smooth forgiving way, I was extreamly high on the exit of corner 9 on my first run, I dropped out of it and hit the wall but the hit was nothing, no pain. The ice in Lake Placid was so bad that I got a head ache after a run, so it is good to be on some nice ice again. Turc (Alberta Skeleton Association president, World cup athlete from last season, and good mate) and his girlfriend Natasha took Kelly and I out for dinner last night, where we had chocolate wontons with caramel sauce! YUMMY. We have been working on our sleds all morning, Kelly is having runner issues, but the main problem is that her sled is older than she is. We both really want a Davenport sled, they are very expensive, but most athletes on them have good results. All our runners will become illegal at the end of this season too. Any one want to sponsor us a couple of sleds and a few sets of runners? Oh well. We are due to be at the track in an hour but still havent found anyone who can give a lift there, we think Russ is in an exam, looks like we may have to catch a taxi. Good news, i have found a real cheap rental car for next week when we are in Germany, $500 kiwi dollars for 9 days! that is cheap (although it is a skoda!).

A rare treat... A sleep in!

How wonderful, today we got to sleep in, for the last two world cups training has been at 8 and 9am which meant getting up around 5 or 6. I am so glad training this week is not until midday.

Well today we did all our washing and walked to the gym, it is cold here again (about -15 during the day), and the colours are like nothing you would see in NZ everything is white or grey, there is a hore frost on all the trees and snow and ice on all the roads and hills, and a low mist made it quite eerie. The hot tub was much needed, and appreciated, but all my bruises ensure I get plenty of odd looks while in the pool.

At 6pm Kelly and I went to the team captains meeting for the Americas cup race, it is going to be a huge race, there are 75 athletes here, 31 women and 44 men, from USA Canada, NZ, Japan, Mexico, Bermuda, Finland, Israel, Lebanon, Australia, Brazil and Turkey. It was good to catch up with friends who are not on the World Tour.

Kelly, Russ and I are the only kiwis sliding this week, Ben has gone to New York for a few days then onto Germany for a few days rest before we slide in Koniggsee next week, and Liz has retired. But I wouldn't be surprised if we saw her back at a track somewhere in the world.

We slide at noon tomorrow, I will keep you all posted on how we do, but these two races do not contribute to our world rankings or our world cup/ world champs eligibility and I must try and consider this week as a training week and not a competition as I need the rest, this is a good chance to get to know my sled again, and play with a few different driving styles and settings.

I am hanging out to hear about what everyone is up to back home so email me now!

Back in Calgary

Well, what a couple of days it has been. Yesterday was race day for the Lake Placid World Cup, and from the entry I made yesterday you will see that I did not do as well as i had hoped. The last day of training went really well for me, i had two runs which were both about half a second faster than my race day run, which is a bit frustrating. After the race, Kelly and I went back and packed up all our things at the Shea's, and headed out to a memorial service at the Lake Placid Hall of fame which was held for Jack Shea, 1932 Olympic gold medalist, Jack died just a couple of weeks before the 2002 games where his grandson won gold in skeleton. After the service, we kicked back at the hostel where, the rest of the Kiwis, the Danes, the South Africans, the Scottish, and Peter were staying. The night after a race is when all the athletes get to go out and have a bit of fun, so we all headed out to Zig Zags for a few beers, and onto Rumurs for a bit of a dance, it was a good night. Kelly, Peter and I left at about 2.30 am to drive to Montreal, the weather was terrible, the storm that snowed on us during the race had shut New York and Boston airports, our 2 hour drive to Montreal took about 4, in very snowy, slippery conditions (Don't worry, Peter was driving and had got several hours sleep before we left). We made our flight in time and Turc picked us up in Calgary. On the way back to Peter Simpsons we stoped at the Speed Skating World Cup that was being held at the Olympic Skating Oval here in Calgary, we snuck in and got to watch the final 4 heats for free, those athletes have the biggest thighs you have ever seen!

Despite a poor race result, I enjoyed my time in Lake Placid (Kelly and I have a laugh where ever we go), and i am sure I will have a good result on this track in the future.

We are back here in Calgary for race 3 and 4 of the Americas Cup tour, providing you are not ranked in the top 15 in World rankings you can also compete in the Americas Cup Tour, not many athletes do this but I have done for the last two years. Competeing in an Americas cup race is very cheap training, we only have to pay for the race entry and we get 10 runs as apposed to paying for each individual run. Training begins on Tuesday, with races on Friday and Saturday. It will be good to get some runs in with out the stress of World Cup or world rankings depending on them, we both need some time to relax on our sleds and since we were here last week, we will not need to worry about what to do in the corners but instead concentrate on relaxing and enjoying our runs, and focusing on form. There should be about 65 athletes here for these races, which is huge, even bigger than the World Cup field... Skeleton is growing.

Oh yeah, for all my friends and family who are reading this regularly: drop me a line and let me know what is going on back home, I would love to hear from you all email me here

Take care,

Lou

Lake Placid world cup

Not much time to write here, this morning it started to snow which is not a good thing for race day. I had a very dissapointing run, half a second slower than the training runs I did yesterday, and finished 22nd, Kelly finished 24th and Liz finished 19th, I did however have a very good push, it was a personal best by one tenth of a second, but I wasn't driving very well in the snowy conditions, oh well that is the way it goes. Ben had a rough run and finished 24th and Russ got a PB by half a second and finished 30th. We are off to calgary now for the americas cup.

Moose lasagne for dinner last night...mmmmmmm.

Lake Placid World Cup training

We finally got on the track yesterday morning, since NZL was in the first group we had an early start and arrived at the track at 7:30. It was cold and snowing, about -15, and the ice was the coldest I have ever slid, it was -13. When the ice is cold, our runners (blades) do not dig in as much and we can loose a bit of control, well I have been carrying around a pair of "cold ice runners" which have a sharper knife/spine/blade (the back half of a runner has a knife/spine which gives us control while the front half is polished and rounded), I have taken them on tour for 3 seasons now, but have never taken more than one run on them. I decided to give them a go during my first run, but I had my trusty other runners with me just in case. I was also wearing my downhill mountain biking body armor since my bruises from the last race have not healed yet. Well the run was totally out of control, I did not feel my blades grip once, which meant that in the straight aways and transitions I was heading anywhere but straight. In the break between runs I switched my runners back to my lubas ones, and took a second out of control run. AHHHH. Very frustrating. Thankfully Lake Placid is a very forgiving track; you can have a horrendous run and not hurt your self.

Yesterday evening, Kelly, Peter, Jim and Judy Shea and I watched a documentary of the 2002 Winter Olympics, it had the opening and closing ceremonies and told the stories of some of the most successful gold medalists, including Jim and Judy's son Jimmy, it was a fantastic documentary, Kelly and I hope to bring a copy home, great for a bit of motivation for when you don't want to go to the gym.

2nd day of training, the two groups are in are in reverse order, so we got an hour sleep in. I cant work on fixing the track and getting good runs if I cant even steer the sled in any direction, so I decided to crank up my rock by 3mm to a setting that I have never ridden before and see what happens , I was very nervous, the sled becomes more reactive with the higher rock (bow in runners) and that is only good if you have the skill to control a more reactive sled, but the surface area you are sliding on becomes smaller and there fore there is more pressure, and hopefully you dig into the ice a bit more. I was so nervous that I couldn't eat breakfast! On my first run, on the exit of corner one I steered off and entered the long straight away between one and two and went dead straight, put my heat to the right just a little and drifted to the right... I have control. I am sure a lot of athletes would think that upping your rock is the logical thing to do, but us kiwis dont get time to train on tracks, and play around with our settings on our sleds, we just get to race, and if there is only 6 runs before a race you too busy learning the track. My time was alot better than day one, but still not good, so in run two I took off my body armor and pushed a little harder, I concentrated on my form and keeping my feet off the ice and together, as I entered the last bend I dropped my head right down, and WHAM, just after the last timing eye there is a 20th corner and I hit the right wall with my head and ankle, it serves me right, I wasn't looking were I was going, I was just thinking about getting over the finish line, but here in L.P. there is an extra corner after the finish just waiting to get ya..... The German physio, Rudy, has put a bunch of ointment on my ankle and bandaged it up, it is bruised, and very sore to touch, but not broken or twisted... while I was busy cursing at my stupidity at not looking where I was going, Kelly was looking very excited, I had taken 1.5 seconds off my first run. Very Nice. Only 20-40 hundredths of a second off a bunch of Americans and Canadian. Got to be happy with that. Just got to go faster tomorrow.

Kellys first run was real good, but she lost a lot of time in the top section in her second run. Liz hurt her hand during the first run and did not do the second (but should be all right tomorrow). Russ had a smoking second run and Ben an awesome first run after forgetting his helmet and running back in to find it seconds before he was due to start.

If your wondering why the guys tend to go faster, alot of it has to do with weight, a lot of the guys sleds are 10kg more than mine and then the guys are heavier too, when your on ice, the heavier you are, the faster you go (providing you don't hit too many walls ;-)

Times

Day one of training
Lou 62.33 and 62.80
Liz 61.24 and 62.91
Kelly 63.01 and 62.79
Ben 60.12 and 59.93
Russ 61.15 and 60.37

Day two of training

Russ 60.03 and 59.62
Ben 58.11 and 58.79
Kelly 61.48 and 61.94
Liz 61.23 and DNS
Lou 61.59 and 60.25

Sliding has been cancelled

It sucks when the officials can cancell paid training (training which is not part of the world cup, that we have to pay for and is arranged for us by the nation hosting the race). We were supposed to train this morning, 2 runs at $US18 per run, But the truck carrying a lot of the sleds from Calgary has not arrived in time, which is not a surprise because the same thing happened last year and we missed out on 2 days of training. All the Kiwis carried our own sleds with us on the flights so we have our sleds here but we still cant slide. But still it was worth going to the track because we had a huge snow ball fight instead.

It snowed all night and it is supposed to do it all week, which makes for a bit of a pot luck race. It should be interesting, we are going down to the track in an hour to do a track walk again and watch the womens bobsledders who are here for a world cup, there should be a lot of crashes, since Lake Placid is hard for bobsledders, it is more of a skeleton track.

Lake Placid is a beautiful place, and from the track you can see the Adirondak mountains and the lakes, it is really wonderful, a big change from Calagary which is in the city.

Well I'll let you know how sliding goes tomorrow.

Oh my God, we missed our flight...

I travel around the world a lot, in fact, I was clocking at least 8 flights a year when I was at primary school, and never ever did I miss a flight, but yesterday morning when Kelly and I arrived at the airport at 8am to check in the smiling chirpy check in staff told me my flight left ten minutes ago, I was speechless.

Kelly had told me the time we needed to be at the airport and arranged us a lift there, I should have checked my own itinerary, I always have in the past, but I didn't, and we missed our flight. AAAAHHHHH. So my seriously small budget that I am trying to spread over the whole season has not only diminished by the size of a new down jacket but also a one way air ticket to Montreal. The bonus was that we were not charged excess baggage for our sleds like a lot of other athletes.

We arrived in Montreal at 6pm last night, on the same flight as Liz and Peter (Dutch athlete who we spend a lot of time with). Since Kelly, Ben Russ and me are all under 25 it is very expensive for us to hire cars, so Kel, me and Stu (Scottish slider) are sharing a car with Peter as driver and Russ, Ben and Liz are sharing with Liz driving. Peter hasn't got a credit card so I booked the car with mine, but when we came to pick it up they were not too happy with having my credit card and Peter driving, we got around that one with Peter signing up as "Mr Corcoran" and eventually got on our way. It is a 3ish hour drive to Lake Placid.

Kelly and I have arranged to stay with Jim and Judy Shea, they are Jimmy Shea's parents, Jimmy won the Gold Medal at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake. They have a wonderful house in the woods just up the road from the lake and walking distance to town, and tonight Judy cooked us........MOOSE! It was delicious; we are having moose meat patties later on this week.

We went for a track walk today, the track looks very bumpy and rough, hopefully I dont add to my bruises. The temperature was -5 today but it is forecast to drop to about -25 this week so I am lucky I got my self a new down jacket, I am going to need it.

We slide at 9 tomorrow, I'll let you all know how it goes.

Calgary World Cup.... 17 place!

I finished 17th, that is an excellent placing. I was up to 12.30 last night preparing my sled. When the alarm went off at 5am this morning I did not want to get up, but I hauled my tired body out of bed, and Kelly and I were picked up by Ben and Russ at 615am. We arrived at the track at 6.20am and I set my rock (which is the amount of shape or sliding surface I have in my runners/blades) and headed off for a track walk, a track Walk is when we walk in the track prior to sliding or racing and just see what the ice condition is, visualize what we are going to do in each corner and see if the track workers have changed anything during the night, there is an hour set aside before each training and race day for track walks. The track looked fast and clean. It was very foggy this morning and about -8 degrees (so I am glad I purchased a replacement down jacket).

At the team captains meeting last night our start order was drawn, Kel got 12th, I got 15th and Liz got 23rd. My training runs have been pretty rough this week and I was covered in bruises going into the race. In all my training runs I fixed what I was focusing on but the other sections of the track that I wasn't focusing on were pretty poor so today I had to put them together, which I pretty much did. Nice. All except the exit of 13 on the first run, I dropped out of the corner and hit the right wall sooooo hard that going around 14 all I could think about was whether or not I had a broken arm.... No just the biggest bruise you have ever seen, about 20cm by 8cm down my arm. I usually go Skin to Win, which in part mean not wearing any protective padding on race day, but in my second run I wasn't brave enough and tapped a shin guard to my arm, but my second run was fantastic, and I made sure I did not hit my sore arm. I don't usually get so bruised, I think it is because this season I haven't had much training prior to the races starting.

Kel had an awesome run, she finished 21st with a time of 61.93, she only just missed out on a second run, which is only for the top 20, Liz finished 20th in the first heat and 19th in the second heat with an overall placing of 19th (61.79,61.55) I finally pushed under 6 seconds, in my first heat my push was a 6.00 and in the second it was a 5.99, a personal best.

Ben Sandford had a brilliant first ever world cup race finishing 12th overall (58.08, 57.75), but Russ had bad luck with his visor fogging up half way down the track, which left him sliding blind, he finished 33rd with a 61.39, you can check out all the times and placing of different nations at www.fibt.com

The Kiwis and the South Africans are off to dinner tonight and then every one is meeting up at Cowboys a night club down town, it wont be too much of a late night, because Kel and I fly out to Montreal at 9 am tomorrow morning.

I will write again when I am in Lake Placid. If any one want to contact me my email is lou@nzskeletonracer.com (I am still looking for a sponsor)

Race tomorrow

We have had a couple of very hectic days, here is a run down

Yesterday morning Kel was told her runners were illegal! AAAHHHHH, they are 1988 runners (blades) and had just been worn out with all the sanding they have had over the years, luckily a dutch slider had a spare set that she is able to use, then after training we all had to go and have our sleds inspected, this is the first time that every one has had an inspection and it took a while to get through the 60 sleds, Ben and Russ's sleds failed and at 5pm 2 days before the race we had to find somewhere to get .5 of a mm of steel welded onto their bumpers! AAAAAHHHH, luckily again with the help of Peter a Dutch slider the problem was fixed. Oh yeah and before the sled inspection I was given 4 licences back and told that Ben, Kelly, Russ and Liz all had invalid licences because their doctor had not put a stamp next to their signatures. AAAAHHHHH. After about 1.5 hours of searching for a doctor with a stamp who would stamp their licences with out charging the earth, Uli (FIBT race official) changed his mind and let them use their race licences as they are. Then after all this when we got home I realized at about 10pm that my jacket was still at the track, and in the morning it was gone, and it hasn't been returned, life in a very cold climate like this with out my Mountain Hardwear down jacket is rather numbing... Oh yeah we slid as well... I have been having trouble with the bottom half of the track, losing a lot of time there, and I have about 20 different sized bruises all over my body from exiting Kriesel and hitting the left wall, the good new is that today I fixed it and got two good, painless exits of Kriesel corner, so I just need to put it all together tomorrow for the race... Wish me luck

(I have replaced my jacket, cant live with out it, I just hope my travel insurance will repay me, I also lost my sunglasses and my 10 pass ticket to the local gym :-( - they were in the pocket)

Well must go to bed, I have just finished sanding my runners, and cleaning my sled, as the race is at 8 am Saturday morning Canadian time, ( about 5 am sunday in NZ) I better go and get some sleep.

Well the world cup has started

We have had two days of sliding so far, and well, yesterday was a kick in the pants, I thought that since I had such good, nice, friendly, painless runs last week when I was here that they would continue that way so I put up my rock a little... Oh no, the track has been changed a little, and my first run yesterday was a shocker, I was not in control and I hit the wall entering corner 8, which sent me into 8 late and on the exit I was pushed out into another wall, the impact made my hips twist on my sled and I spent the 80m strait away trying to wriggle my way back into position, which meant I entered corner 9 late and hit real hard on the exit of 9 and did the twisting thing again.... My time was pretty poor so before the second run I lowered my rock again, and had a slightly safer but still bumpy run, my left hip bone is nicely bruised thanks to exit 9. Last night I padded up my sled so I wouldn't hurt my hip again, and today my runs were a lot better. Kelly and I got to the track early and watched the first half of the athletes (there are 60 here) going through the first 6 corners, my goal was to get the first 5 corners clean with out any huge time consuming skids or hits. Well my times and my split show that I did exactly that, my first 3 splits are only about 2/10th of a second off some of the top girls, in the bottom splits I am 5/10th off, so tomorrow I will be concentrating on the bottom half of the track.

Today was not injury free though, on my last run, I hit sooo hard out of Kriesel (corner 9 is a 360 degrees corner) and I now have a very sore, tender, hot and bruised left arm, right the way down my upper arm and my fore arm, I am glad I came stocked with a roll of Chinese bruise tape, it works wonders.

Kelly first run of the season yesterday was "a bit of a blur" as most first runs are, but today, she felt much more comfortable being back on her sled.

Here are the Kiwi's times from today, the first day of official training for the Calgary world cup...
Ben Sandford run one 5.60 20.01 27.04 36.19 48.72 58.72
two 5.64 20.07 27.07 69.21 48.71 58.61
Russ Ward 5.60 20.22 27.46 36.92 50.23 60.92
5.63 20.28 27.49 36.94 50.55 61.45
Louise Corcoran 6.02 20.81 27.98 37.46 50.63 61.25
6.31 21.23 28.43 38.05 51.18 61.69
Kelly Moffat 6.39 21.62 29.13 38.74 52.05 62.80
6.33 21.46 28.97 38.68 52.10 62.79
Liz Couch 5.95 20.86 28.12 37.61 50.71 61.28
5.95 20.75 28.01 37.49 50.56 61.10

Oh yeah, I tried out bobsled shoes which are allowed to be used this season, they have about 100 tiny little spikes rather than the 6 larger spikes that skeleton shoes usually use. I used them my first run and my push was a 6.02 which was a bit faster that it has been, on my second run I put my skeleton spikes on and slipped on the ice and got the much slower push of 6.31......I think I will be buying the bobsled shoes!

Time to go to bed, I am real tired after 2 full on days here at the track and I even managed to fit in a session at the ice house. I'll let you know how we all go in training tomorrow.

It got to -27!

Well, what have we been upto... on the Saturday morning Kelly and I headed off to the ice house (a sprint track on ice that is simalar to the tope 50m of the real track) with Turc, outside the air temperature was -27, that is seriously cold it feels like youve been slapped in the face and you cough if you take any deep gulps of air. Kel had only got about 2 hours sleep and was pretty wacked all day so she didn't slide, but I had a good session on the ice, I was 8 hundredths slower than the previous day but that would have been due to tired legs. I also gave the one handed push a go, I think I could probably get it but there isn't enough time to start changing things with the World Cup this week. Yesterday Kel and I headed off to Dave Grahams to get Kelly's sled adjusted, it now fits her properly. Thanks Dave.

This morning Kelly and I have been out to the gym, it is a little warmer about -8, so we didn't get too cold walking over there, the waterslide at the gym provided plenty of entertainment...

Tonight we are off to the World Cup reception, and tomorrow we are sliding at 11.30 Yaaaaayyyyyyy. AT LAST.

Ice house training

Kelly (who arrived late last night), Liz and I had a training session in the ice house this morning, it was really worth it, my push has improved since last year, but it is hard to tell how much by because the conditions in the ice house are very variable. Since Kelly and I have seriously tight budgets we have not rented a car and had to taxi to the track, but it was only $CA10 which wasn't too bad. After our 1/2 hour session Kelly and I had a track walk with a local slider who is helping us with our lines, it took us 2 hours to walk to the top of the track and walk slowly down though each corner, but the time wasn't the problem, it was about-22 degrees out there, so you can imagine how ridiculously cold we were when we finally made it back to the ice house the warm up. However we now have some good hints on how to find speed on the track. 6 hours out in the cold is really tiring, so we will both sleep well tonight. The temperature is not meant to change till next week so we are in for a real cold weekend.( the funniest thing in real cold weather is when your nose hairs freeze!)
We might get some more time in the ice house tomorrow, then two days with no ice, unofficial training on the track in on Tuesday at 11, with official training (2 runs) on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and the Calgary World Cup on Saturday at 8am.

I will let you all know how our weekend goes.

Banff, Lake Louise, and lots of snow

There has been no sliding for the last couple of days, but I have kept my self busy with trips to the pools, the gym and a day out at Banff. On Tuesday, Tim Cassin took me on a tiki tour out to Banff, on the way we stopped off in Canmore at a welding work shop where skeleton sleds are made, it was interesting seeing the different jigs used to manufacture the different components of our sleds, quite a bit of work goes into it. After a mocha and a tuna melt at a laid back cafe in Canmore we headed onto Lake Louise, on the way we stopped on the side of the road to watch a huge elk that was happily sitting about a meter of the road, nestled into a deep patch of snow, this animal had no fear of cars or the people taking photos from him, when I get a chance I'll try to get the photos put up of him.

Lake Louise is beautiful, there is a HUGE hotel there, built in the late 1800's right on the edge of the lake with mountains towering around it. The lake was frozen with a layer of snow on top, and we passed a bunch of people heading out snow shoeing onto it.

We then headed out to Banff, which is similar to Queenstown but with no lake, we stopped in at the hot pools there, and Tim provided plenty of entertainment to all those in the pool with the "historical swim suit" he rented, covered from thigh to neck with a little skirt, blue and white stripes and buttons on the shoulder, I wish I had my camera.

It snowed all day yesterday and there is more due this weekend, it is a balmy -13 outside and a cold snap has been predicted for this weekend!

Kelly arrives tonight, and we have training in the icehouse booked for Friday and Monday, with training on the track (probably 2 runs) scheduled for Tuesday, World Cup training begins on Wednesday. I can’t wait.

Skeleton, rugby and a night dancing

Well, at 2am Calgary time last Saturday morning the kiwis all got together at Dons house (retired NZ skeleton racer, FIBT official and Russ's dad) to watch the All Blacks get hammered by the Aussies, it was a sad game to watch (but it was entertaining listening to the Canadian commentators mess up all the kiwi names).

It was official training for the ASA club race #1 on Saturday night and as fore-runner I was first off, so at 7pm my name was called to the start line, once your on the start line you stand there with you sled standing in front of you, when you get a green light and a buzzer goes off you can put your sled down and go, your adrenalin gets pumping when your waiting for that green light to go, and you usually only have to wait about 30 seconds, after about 4 and a half minutes I was told to go inside because the back up generator was not going and they needed it for the back up lights, although no one had ever heard of the main lights failing, so I headed inside and 10 minutes later they announced that if they couldn't get it going so training was cancelled. We were all pretty gutted. A bunch of us decided to go to a local bar for a beer, then onto a club where Michelle Kelly (Top ranked slider from last year) was celebrating her birthday, it was a good night. Clubs in Calgary are not quite like the ones back in Dunedin, with half the bar staff looking like play boy pin ups and the prices of drinks reflecting the cost of their boob jobs!

Last night was the ASA Cup race, I only got one run, and the first half of it I was very skiddy, I haven’t skidded since last season, and it took me a while to get the sled back under control, but from half way I had a pretty decent run (6.22/62.10). Ben and Russ got to slide in the Race as they both live here, Ben finished 2nd and Russ finished 14th. Ben also won the Grudge cup (a huge bottle of wine), a prize for who ever had the fastest time and was out drinking the night before.


So I have had my 5 training runs and now I must wait for the World Cup on the 26th to slide again. I have sorted out a membership at a local gym which is walking distance up the road, with a huge indoor running track, weights, bikes, hot pool, hydro slide, wave pool, ice-skating rink and climbing wall, so for the next ten days I will be down there getting ready for the World Cup. There is a fantastic training facility here in Calgary, an indoor ice house, that simulates the start of the track, it lets us practice our sprint with out having to run the rest of the track, unfortunately it costs $200 Canadian an hour to hire out, once a few more international athletes arrive in town I hope to share the costs so we can get on it.

Well I will let you all know how the training is going later in the week.

Day two of sliding was even better.

Well last night sliding was even better, I pushed a little harder, and relaxed alot more. When you slide at night or when it is warmish (ie 0 to -5) the ice can get a layer of frost on it, this slows the track down and makes the ice a bit sticky. Last night it was frosty,and it slowed most people down by about 1-1.5 seconds, but rather than being slower my times were even faster. Which is fantastic. Liz Couch made her first run after taking a year out of sliding and was pretty pleased. This morning I decided to fight the jet lag and get up at 7.30am, and head over to the track to watch the Canadians and Japanese train at 9am, since I am really short of funds this year I haven't got a rental car so I headed off on foot. I stayed here at Peters two seasons ago, and the walk to the track was pretty straight forward, but since then hundreds of houses have been built between here and there and I took a wrong turn onto a new street and got lost. My half hour walk became a one hour adventure accross building sites, barbed wire fences and several padocks covered in a foot of snow, at least I know the neighbourhood now.

It was also Russ's first run of the season.

It is official training tomorrow for the ASA cup race, I will be fore-running.

My times push:6.15 (38.37kmph) finish 62.25 (113.89)
6.09 (38.72) 61.97 (114.22)

Ben:60.36 and 60.02
Liz: 65.51 and 62.53
Russ 67.85 and 62.62

think fast thoughts for us

Lou

Yeeeeehaaaa first run of the season was awesome!

God I love this sport. I was pretty nervous when I got to the track and decided to walk up from the bottom to refresh my memory as to which way the corners go here in Calgary, I have been on seven other track since I was here last and remembering all of the corners can be a challenge. Calgary track is on a mini ski field, with a snow board park and ski runs only about 5meters from the track, so with night time skiers and boarders taking air off jumps next to me, music playing, bobsledders getting their sleds ready, lugers finishing up their session and a start house full of skeleton racers, the atmosphere was just awesome.

Last night was the Alberta Skeleton Association club session, I have been given special permission to slide with them, I was 28th off the top, so had a bit of a wait before my first run, in fact I was talking to Tim Cassin, Irish athlete (and all round good-guy/coach from last season) when he told me that they had called my name and I had only a few seconds to get my helmet on and out to the start line. AAAHHHH. It really was the best way to have my first run, if I had been paying attention I would have gone out to the start line far too early, and spent several minutes stressing out, instead I just ran out there grabbed my sled and went, no time to think about it.

The run was brilliant, you forget how fast it actually feels, and how you can feel yourself accelerating, corner 8 (which was my enemy for my first two seasons - it flipped me onto my back 6 times in the past) was real good, no issues there. I am really impressed that in my first day of training, I managed to feel the pressures, I could tell when I was high and low in the corners, it usually takes me a while to be able to sense them.

In my second run I was a little more prepared and I ran off a little faster, and had a pretty decent down time, the extra speed really increased the G's and my head was forced on to the ice a few time, hence a rather sore neck this morning, but that is standard for the first week of sliding.

Ben Sandford, a Kiwi World Cup athlete, who lives here and is a member of the ASA club, was flying he had the fastest down times of both runs last night, faster than a Canadian world cup athlete! The Kiwis are going to have an awesome season.

My times: (first 50m) (finish time) (speed @50m) (speed on straight away kmph)
Run one 6.40 63.67 37.76 110.73
Run two 6.16 62.16 38.57 111.90

Bens down time both runs 58.63

I am sliding again tonight at 7pm, I can’t wait.

A beautiful crisp, cold winters day in Calgary!

I am here at last. Yesterday I flew from Dunedin to Wellington to Auckland (where I got to catch up with my mum - love you mum), i was delayed in Auckland for a few hours, then on to LA and after about a 7 hour wait I headed off to Calgary, I had no worries getting my 3 pieces of luggage on the planes,( a huge thanks to Grant and Andrew). Russ, one of the NZ world cup team members who lives here in Calgary picked me up and droped me off at Peters. If any family or friends want to get in touch with me here the number is +1 403 249 1313 (please try not to call in the middle of the night!). I am about to put my sled together and see how it survived the trip, I should be sliding tonight about 7pm, I am real excited and a bit nervous, the first run of the season is alway very exciting, but i am sure it will be a good one.
I'll tell you how it goes later.

Thanks to every one who has helped me get here, there is a huge supportive team behind me, who believe in me, with out all of your help I couldn't have done it.

lou
PS I have added a few new links to my website, go and check them out.
www.nzskeletonracer.com

I leave tomorrow! At last!!

Wow, what a crazy few weeks, and it is all about to get even more full on (Yehaa). I leave tomorrow at 11am from Dunedin and head to Calgary via Auckland (where I'll get to see my Mum!) and LA. I have found a wonderful family who are willing to let me and Kelly stay with them in Calgary, so thanks a lot Peter that is a huge help.

I am still about $7000 short of funds, but I can’t let that stop me. Armed with my credit card I am heading off to race. I have got one day to acclimatise to Canadian weather and time zone, and will be sliding on Wednesday and Thursday night, and I may even get to fore-run a race on the weekend. I was really starting to get worried about showing up at my first World Cup race having not been on my sled since last February in Nagano (and I don't remember much about that because I was concussed), but thankfully it has worked out and I will get a few runs and get in with the flow of it all again.

I have got a new product sponsor on board, Nevada Sports is providing me with a fine pair of Merrell boots to keep my feet warm while I am hanging around the track in the snow everyday, and a funky pair of slip on every day shoes, they will be nice and comfy for the long plane journeys.

I have several speaking engagements booked up for next year when I return, no doubt I will have exciting and inspirational stories to tell.

If any one is interested in sponsoring my participation in a race then please email me lou@nzskeletonracer.com .

Well, keep checking in to see how I am doing, because it is all about to get pretty exciting.

Sliding soon
Lou

Head Back to my website here

It has been a busy month.

So a month has gone buy since I wrote here last, and a recent email has reminded me that there are actually people reading this with interest in what I am doing.

I was originally meant to leave yesterday to head for Norway for some training, but that didn't happen because I still haven’t got any funds for accommodation, but things are looking good, I have managed to get help from the Business Marketing professor at Otago University, John Guthrie, we sent out a pretty impressive flyer to 25 professionals around Dunedin offering my services as a guest speaker for company functions for next year, and I got this email reply from John yesterday evening:
yippeeeeeeeeeeee

I think we've pulled our first couple of people!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

one of whom will blow you awayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

I can’t wait to find out what that means!

So it looks like I might just be able to make it to Calgary on time.
I have received special passes on all my university papers because I wont be here for exams, so no exam stress while I have sliding stress.

I can’t wait to get sliding.

My helmet has arrived!

I received my Orb helmet from Uvex the other day, and I must say it is very nice; it makes my old helmet look rather battered, beaten, scratched and unsafe. It is a significant sponsorship as it is my first overseas sponsor, and hopefully the first of many. I have also managed to pick up a motorcycle visor for $5 that will fit perfectly. Still no good news as far as funding goes, I have lots of replies from people who wish me luck but unfortunately none of them can sponsor me. I approached 5 more companies today, so hopefully I will hear back from them soon.

If any one has any suggestions please email me lou@nzskeletonracer.com or call +64 21 158 0728.

The day I didnt pay for my air tickets...

Well, today is the 18th, I am supposed to pay for my air tickets today, but I wont be, I will need to re schedule and hopefully fly out at a latter date. Even though I have got the funds for my air fares, I havent raised the funds to cover my accomadation, food, training fees or transport so I dont want to purchase tickets that might go to waste...

Is it possible to find sponsors out there?

I got an email the other day from an aussie guy who is a huge Dion Nash fan, he gets sportzah taped and posted to him in Australia, and he was really impressed with the interview and with what Kelly and I are trying to achieve, it was good to get his email. Sadly though it was the only response I had from the sportzah interview and the 4XO radio show.

On a more positive note I have got a sponsored helmet from UVEX (yay!), I am getting the Orb, which any one who watched the Winter Olympics would have seen 100's of athletes wearing, it is a fantastic skeleton helmet because it is smooth and airodynamic.

The "mad butcher" called me this morning! We had a good chat, he can't sponsor me but gave me some advice, most of which I have already tried, but I was impressed that he called back, he does sponsor childrens charity groups but finds that athlete sponsorships are not value for money. Oh well, I'll keep looking.

I still havent heard from the Academy of Sport, but I am keeping my fingers crossed they might still card me and give me a personal grant because of my perfomance last year at the world champs (I finsished 16th).

Well I have got 3 assignments to do for uni, one on iron deficeincy in todlers, another on nutricional needs of university students and the 3rd on coahcing methods, so must get on with them.

If any one has any sugestions please email me lou@nzskeletonracer.com or go through my website www.nzskeletonracer.com.

Television and radio interviews...will they lead to sponsorship?

Did you see it? Skeleton racing on prime time tv in New Zealand, what a great interview, the guys from sportzah did a fantastic job of showcasing our crazy sport, they had awesome race footage from Eurosport, with a great crash scene and footage of Kel and me racing side by side, I hope to get a copy of it and put it up on my web site www.nzskeletonracer.com. This morning I got a call from 4XO a local Otago radio station and I am going to be on air with Brefney, Damian and Ron on Tuesday morning at 9am, make sure your listening.

Well, if any one watched Sportzah last thursday, you wouldnt have seen anything about skeleton. Very frustrating, between Kelly and I we had probably over 100 people watching. I spoke to the producer and apparantly they had to pull it at the last minute because the Eurosport footage did not arrive in time. But they have assured me that it will be aired this thurday night at 9:30 on TV3. So make sure your watching, it sounds like there will be some good race footage, and a point of view run taken from a helmet camera.

Tickets are all booked, at $7000 plus taxes, they are a bit cheeper than last year because there is no flight to Japan, I am starting to get excited, I really hope the funds come through and we have enough to go to Norway to train before the first world cup.

Kelly has her own website now, and mine is www.nzskeletonracer.com
Lou

Hi great new again.... another donation to help pay for our airfares, still about $5000 short for our air fares, and about $25000 short for the accomadation costs, training costs, and car rental, I have given up on getting money for coaching this year, I just want to get the money to get over there. It starts to get pretty scary from here on, as I booked the air tickets yesterday, I hope to leave on the 20 October, but I still havent got any money to do it, I just have to believe it will all work out. I am on Sportzah, a TV3 sports show this thursday, so make sure your watching. My training hasnt been going very well for the last week as I have had a cold, once i have kicked it I will be back into full swing. If you know of any one who might be interested in helping me out this season or sponsoring me please let me know, email me on lou@nzskeletonracer.com or go through my website www.nzskeletonracer.com. There is a news article on skeletonsport.com about the New Zealand Team who will be racing this year onthe world cup, you should check it out, also on this site you can look up the bios of all the kiwi skeleton racers old and new, so go and have a look.

Lou

A couple of weeks ago I did an interview for Freeze TV, well if your in NZ you can watch it on Sky SPORTS 1 tonight at 9-30pm, same time next week on CH9 in Dunedin. I hope to get a copy of it and have it on my website some time in the future. Thanks Antony.

Enjoy!!

Lou

Great news arrived in the post this morning, Kel and I have got some funding for our airfares, it is the first positive result from our fundraising drive, so thank you New Zealand Community Trust. It is amazing what one positive result does for your motivation after reciving 16 negatives in the last month or so.

Yesterday up at the snow farm we had a fantastic time. Mark and I left Dunedin at 7am and arrived in Wanaka at about 11, the drive up to the snow farm was challenging for our little mini 1275gt loaded up with all my gear, but she made it up there. The Sportzah tv crew where already there and so was Dion Nash, our interviewer for the day. John Lee at the snow farm was a huge help in letting us use his ice facilities, which are designed for testing winter car tires and car computer systems on, he sent 3 of his guys down to help us cut the groove in a natural ice rink, the size of a rugby field on a high plateau on top of the Piza range. Kelly (who had driven from Christchurch) and I spent about 4 hours running around on the ice in our speed suits, trying to avoid hypothermia. It was alot of fun, and I am sure it will be a great snapshot of our sport when it airs on TV3's Sportzah show on the 28th of August, so look out for it.

So Kelly and I are a step closer to being ready for this season of racing but we still need to find a sponsor, there is alot more costs involved than our airfares, if any one has any ideas, then please email me through my website.

Sliding Fast

Lou

Hi

How exciting, this blog has made it onto the search pages, I hope that means that people are reading it!
It is a beautiful day here in Dunedin, and I have just been out for a coffee in Port Charmbers with my boyfriend Mark.

Tomorrow Kelly and I have the interview with Sportzah, all is going to plan, John Lee at the Wairau Snow Farm has agreed to let Kel and I rout a 45 meter groove down their tire testing ice shed so we can demonstrate our sprint start! I have cleaned up my sled and put new stickers on it saying "kiwis can fly" "advertise here", "your logo here" and "let it fly".

I have put alot of different messages on my sled during races, my favourite is Kiwis can fly, others I have used are "hold on tight", "dont let go", "nuclear free NZ" but the one that started it all was " knees here" at one end and " this way forward" at the other.

One of the stange things about representing NZ is that because there are few athletes, I found myself able to enter international races with no experience, my first race, the Calgary Americas Cup in 2000 was 1 week after I had first ever seen a skeleton sled. My first televised race was only 3 months later, broadcast to millions across US, Canada and Europe. This is a fantastic way to learn, you set your standards and goals far higher than other beginners who start in a club and stay there for 5 years before they get their first international race, but there are some downers. The whole world gets to see your mistakes (that all beginners make), the flouresent, donated 1980's speed suits, the home made ones that are see through when you bend over, and the time your sled was put down back to front, and you were so busy trying to controll the fear, andrenalin and doubts that you forgot to check, and took off sprinting, only to load onto the sled to find your handles by your ears and not by your thighs! This resulted in making an executive life saving decision and I jumped off the back (or was it the front?) of the sled as I entered corner 4 (in Park City). My sled some how flipped it self around and crossed the finish line with out me and I skidded through the corner on my belly, gratefull for my helmet and elbow pads, crawled out of the track and slowly took my shaking, freaked out self back to the start where the officals where stressing because no one could find me, they thought I might have fallen under the track. I always put my own sled down on the ice now.

No fundraising news, I am hoping that this interview for Sportzah, will generate some more interest and lead to a sponsor. I did recieve an email from Kevin Roberts, the CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi, he has a really interesting personal web site, I emailed him a while back for some advice, and to my surprise he replied.

His advice to me was "You need to find a product that fits, that is used by skeleton racers, that is used by people who love skeleton racing and that is run by a CEO who has an interest (or a kid) who's a fan!! " so that is my mission. Ambitious. Can any one out there help me? if you can, then email me through my website .

Well must go, I have an assignment to write up for my pedagogy class, it is about teaching styles and learning styles.

Lou

Hi,
8 oclock training session this morning, it was good. It is about 14 degrees today, which is quite warm for me considering I in my 9th consecutive winter!

More bad new for funding today, another declined gaming machine application. I think that part of the problem is that we are a national federation( the NZ Bobsleigh and Skeleton Association), applying for community funding, and the local trusts (there are hundreds) will give money to local groups first, and since we are a national organisation we fall to the bottom of the list and since we need so much, we fall even further and then since it is only two athletes who will benifit we end up at the bottom of the pile and I guess that when they get to our application all the money for that month has been given out, or the person who makes the decision has never heard about skeleton racing or seen it on tv (because it isnt shown in the southern hemisphere), and doesnt know that there are 5 kiwis out on the world tour, or that we used to have a world champion or just isnt interested. Very Very frustrating.

You know the New Zealand Government gave 30 million dollars to the Team New Zealand Americas Cup team to keep them going for the next round of racing. The Americas Cup is one of the richest races around, the richest people in the world contribute to and own teams, the Swiss won because they could afford to employ all the best kiwis on their boat, it is not a sport that should be propped up with government money when a lot of other sports, olympic sports, kiwi world champions, recieve nothing other than an airfare to the olympics, if the NZOC thinks that they will finish in the top half of the field.

It is not all bad though, and if it was easy, every one would be doing it. I have been on TV several times this week, on Freeze TV, a program showcasing NZ's winter sports, visiting athletes and the general scence on our ski fields (YES contrary to most European and American beliefs, we have mountains and snow, lots of it, we actually have more snowy, icey moutain terrain that switerzerland and Austria!), Freeze TV shows on prime time TV slots on Sky sport 1 and 2 ( shown just before the rugby) and other local free to air channels. Hopefully this exposure helps. I also have a TV 3 interview with the "Sportzah" crew on monday, Kelly and I are heading upto the Wairau snow farm in the Cardrona Valley, and doing a bit of training on ice for them!!! So if your in NZ keep an eye out for the thursday night sportzah show.

Dont forget to check out my website

Lou

Another site that will tell you lots about skeleton racing is www.skeletonsport.com. And the international governing body is the FIBT.
Enjoy.

Hi guys,

Today I have been filling in funding applications, if any of you have been involved in fundraising you'll know what i meen by saying I love them and loath them, they give me a life line to my sport, my passion, but the negative returns can drain your enthusiasm and motivation. I have recieved 15 declines so far no positive results, the concerning thing is that all of the trusts who have replied and declined my applications, granted me funds last season and i was hoping that they would support me and Kelly (my team mate) this season. I hope to leave for norway in mid october, but I havent even got the money to pay for my airfares yet, let alone the rental car, hostel, or training runs at about $NZ45 per run, and then theres the cost of the races and Coaching ( i must be dreaming). There has been some positives, i talked to the university student association and it looks like they will be able to help me out with about $500, and the Skeggs Foundation who support Dunedin athletes should be able to help out, they gave me $700 last year, but that still doesnt even pay for my airfares... maybe my excess baggage for one flight... I travel with about 100 kg of equipment, and no money which means that i have to find a way of getting out of excess baggage charges, I believe that i am quite talented in this as I was only charged once last year. The most difficult airline to sweet talk in air new zealand! I guess my accent doesnt get me any bonus points when I am at home. If you can learn to cry on demand it can get you out of the most expensive excess bagage charges! Any way time for me to go, i have a 1.30 pilates appointment and some lectures this afternoon, followed by assignments to do for both History of Sport and Pedagogy. Make sure you check out my website www.nzskeletonracer.com

I live in NZ in the off season, and I am a student at the Univerisy of Otago, I am doing a physed degree, slowly.
Along with all my lectures and tutorials, assignments and exams, I also train, fundraise and spend time with my boyfriend Mark.

Fundraising and getting publicity for my sport and my self is the most time consuming part of it all. There is no government funding for skeleton racing, which sucks. NZ had a world champion skeleton racer, and this coming season there will be 5 kiwis competing on the World Cup Tour, which is only open to the top 12 nations. We dont have a home track, in fact there are no tracks in the southern hemisphere! We all have to find all our own funding. So I am currently hunting sponsors who will support me in my qualifying bid for the 2006 Winter Olympics and beyond. The sponsors I already have on board are Dirty Dog Eye Wear, Icebreaker (merino clothing manufacturer) and Mainland Great Outdoors.

Well it is time for me to head off to uni, I have a health promotion lecture, and an appointment at the Pilates clinic.

Lou

Hi
Here is a chance for you to see what I get upto as a skeleton racer and a future Olympian. This is how it all started back in New Zealand in 1999.

"A Sunday Star Times article read … 'adventurous kiwi women wanted…' and I thought, it had to be me. The article was about this exciting sport called skeleton racing. All I knew was that these full on athletes speed down the bobsleigh track head first on their stomachs. That was how it all began.

After reading this article, I contacted Bruce Sandford, the 1999 World Champion skeleton racer from Hamilton and after our talk I was hooked.


So without any knowledge of the sport, I headed to Canada to give it a go. After a 5-Day school at the Calgary Olympic Park, I was a qualified international skeleton racer! I entered my first international race the following weekend, representing New Zealand.

In true Kiwi O.E. fashion I slept on floors, hitched lifts, borrowed speed suits and sleds, and made it happen. Foreign athletes and officials ensured I was looked after and arrived and made it to each of the following races.

Despite not having a coach or my own sled my progress was surprisingly good. Three months after my first ever run I was representing New Zealand in the Park City World Cup. Today with 3 International seasons under my belt, I am ranked 18th out of 33 in the world circuit and I finished 14th in the world Cup final in Altenberg, Germany.

I am currently preparing for my 4th World cup season, with my goals set on finishing in the top 10 at the World Championships, February 2004 in Konigsee, Germany."