X GAMES!!!!! WAAAAA???

I am soooooo excited that I get to go to X Games this year. This is one of the biggest events in the snowboard world, big as in media exposure, and also big as in MASSIVE JUMPS.

I had had so much fun racing the last 2 weeks that I contemplated going to the next NorAm, but decided against it. My original plan for this year was to do less contests and more freeriding so I decided to go home to Canada and had a powder road trip to Golden and Nelson planned.
While in the airport with my friend/coach Candice, she asked my why I wasn't going to X Games this year. I told her that I emailed them a month ago asking, but no one got back to me and that the selection this year was based on results from the first couple World Cups (which I did not go to). Candice being Candice, helped me right another email right at that moment, asking if i could pretty please come to X Games. We also emailed Nate Holland and Seth Wescott so see if they could do anything to help. Lucky for me some girls had pulled out of the event and the next morning I got a call at 7 Am saying I had a spot! Yipeeeeeee!
back to the airport for this girl. If only I would have known I could have stayed in the States, but I flew home for 2 days and then came down to aspen.
It was a scramble trying to find a place to stay as everything was so last minute. But luckily a very nice man by the name of Weems was able to help me out.He is my dads friends brother-in-laws friend. I am staying at his and Dina's house. Thanks guys!

MT HOOD REWIND

ahhhhh Mt. Hood. Good times.
We started everyday much too early, waking up at 530AM. I usually don't mind mornings, but i found this exhausting. We had to catch a flight at 6 Am the day before, so I wasn't getting any good, solid sleeps.
The hood course was really mellow, but still fun to ride. It had lots of turns in it, which was good practice for me because that is what I needed to work on.
I had good starts, getting the whole shot every time. All the heats were really close because there were no challenging features to separate us. This made for some good passing!
Girls on the NorAm level have really stepped it up in the last year which is AWESOME to see! This pushes all of us to get better and is exactly what needs to happen. Even though this was such a mellow course, it was probably one of my favorite racing weekends. No heat was easy. Because the features were easy, it made it that much harder to get through to the next round.
I ended up 2nd both days...... i don't like to win, i don't like perfection! just kidding, one day I will win a race.

Day 1 podium (stolen pic from Matt)

Day 2 podium

Day 1 final heat (I'm in the black jacket)

(also stolen from Matt)

BIG WHITE REWIND

I did my first competitions of the season the weekend of the Jan 15/16, at the familiar Big White BC. We were all pleasantly surprised with the course at Big White! They defiantly stepped it up since the last time I had been there and added some challenging start features.
Our training day was too foggy too ride the whole course, so we just rode the wootang start features and slipped the rest. My first training run I got inverted (not on purpose) and came close to completing a rodeo maneuver (a back flip 180). But landed on my head, not snowboard. Next time I will have to commit, and rodeo off the wootang.
The next day was a complete change in weather with nice sunny, blue skies! I can't remember where I qualified, but it wasn't great! I am pretty used to not being happy with my qualifying time, racing heats is my strength. I had really good starts all day, but seemed to fall every heat. I always got up and made some passes down the course. This got me into finals, which followed the trend of the day- wipeouts!!!
The 4 girls in the finals consisted of Jenna Feldman, Chloe Banning, Carle Brennamen, and Me! Unfortunately only one of us made it past the first berm, Chloe, who easily rode down all by her lonesome to take first place. Carle did a Bum-Drop on the second feature (and left a nice hole) and Jenna and i got tangled up in the first berm. We both had to hop around gates, luckily i was a faster hopper this day and got 3rd place.

Day 2
A foggy day, but things went smoothly.
I had my first heat with my teammate Carle. Both of us were in front, pretty far ahead, but close together. Unfortunately I fell, making Carle fall behind me. I had lots of practice falling and getting up the day before, so i was able to make it through the next round, but Carle was not able to get up and go quick enough (sorry Carle!).
I had a really good race in finals with my friend Michelle. We were really tight through the whole course. I almost passed her at the end, but she got me by half a board length. I ended up in 2nd place.
All-in-all a really great day! I had so much fun!

We have just arrived in Mt. Hood. Its been a loooooooong day, we left Big White at 3:45 am to catch a plane for 6. It was extra hard to get up at this time because we just finished a weekend of racing at Big White. To make matters worse we had an extremely chatty shuttle drivers, who loved statistics, Big White, and statistics to do with Big White.

The place we are staying at is a 7 bedroom house in the woods. Its really neatly decorated with funky nik-naks all over the walls. My moms dream home.
I just bought a camera today and have been bothering the team taking hundreds of pictures. Here are some that I took of the house....

Bee hive hung on the wall

megan, during room selection meeting

(picture number 109, notice the middle finger)

Now that I have successfully stayed up until 8:30 I am going to bed!