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