With a Break in the Race schedule I have headed back to Kimberley in Canada to join the race programme for some serious training. The training schedule is hard work with 5-6 days a weeks training doing drills and gates. I have now been out here for a month and have made some great improvements and built on my great start to the season in Europe. My Mars Refuel has kept me going on the hill as well as popular with the locals.

Tonight we are been joined by the rest of the British Team with the build up to the last couple of races of the season. A couple of Speed races here in Kimberley Two Super G and downhill then off to Sun Peaks for two GS and Slalom races.

After training hard in preparation for these races I am now looking forward to them starting and hopefully doing well. If the right competition is present at the races with good low points then these races could be a great chance to drop my points and ranking and even qualify for the world cup circuit next season. Make sure you come back and see how the team and I do. 

Villars 24hr Charity Race

After been invited out to Villars by Disability Snow Sports UK for the 24hr race again this year I jumped at the chance as long as I hadn’t qualified for the world cups or it didn’t clash with any other races I was there. Although we weren’t really putting in a competitive team its great to be able to show face and show off after DSUK were the main beneficiaries a couple of years ago.

I was also thrilled to be able to be joined by my brother and ski with him for the first time since my accident. (When I say ski with him I mean leave him in my wake!!!) It snowed continuously for the 1^st 12 hrs meaning conditions were tough leaving me to do a lot of the skiing. For an endurance feat like this Mars Drinks were out in force to keep me and the others refuelled throughout the 24hr race.

Yet again the race was a great success and a great laugh to be a part of, and a real privilege to ski with some truly unique characters!!! Skiing through the sunrise in the Alps is amazing and makes all the hard work worth it. Thanks to all those that were out there to help and the teams that raised more money for DSUK. The experiences they offer people are fantastic and often taken for granted by some people long may their work continue to help people enjoy the ski slopes and my passion.

Happy New Year

After a whirl wind week home for Christmas fitting in seeing all the family and some friends it was straight back on the plane out to Innsbruck for the next race in Rinn. With it been so close to Christmas it was a reduced team with only Sean, Jo, Craig and Coach Jane making it out. With Rinn been no higher than 900m the snow was limited and high winds prevented us to from getting the higher race run. This meant it was two Slaloms rather than just the one and a GS run. The run was not the most challenging but the competion was still very strong on the first day Jo, Sean and Craig all failed to finish leaving me as the only Brit coming in 16^th the 2^nd day was a reverse with me been caught out by a gate in the 2^nd run. This time Sean was able to put in a good result splitting up the top 6 of Austrians!

After a great celebration after the last day put on by the organisers with a demonstration dual slalom. I was on an amazing train journey through the alps off to Villar for the Charity 24hr race I attended last year with Russ.  

Busy Start and Europa Cups

So far this season has been non stop since getting out on the snow for pre season training in Hintertux in November. After getting down to some hard skiing with the Royal Engineers in Stubai I was home for a couple of days rest before heading back out to Pitztal for the first race of the season. 

Pitztal is always a hard race with early mornings, cold conditions and the toughest competition there is. This year was no different with 20 nations and over 170racers taking part. After a couple of days training and getting used to the surroundings it was an early start for the first race (Slalom everybody’s favourite!) The race really begins at 6 in the morning with the race to beat the Germans and Japanese to the lift which only takes 9 wheelchairs at a time (when there are over 70 this means if your last you can be waiting a long time in the cold)

In the first race I skied well finishing 14^th but in the 2^nd run I thought I may have missed a delay gate which was confirmed when I was disqualified! GS the next day did not get any better after pulling out a stormer of a first run finishing 0.4 secs behind Sean and beating Russ just outside the top 10. I was pumped for the 2^nd run but several gates in I hit a cross rut and my ski came off. (I will always double check that before a race now!) the super G was very flat and I struggled to get up to speed early on the flats but still finished in the top 20. Overall I was frustrated with the races but despite not finishing in the GS and slalom I had skied well and now knew that I could get up there with the best in the world. Kutai followed straight after and I was a lot more consistent with 3 top 20s. The rest of the British team all had our ups and downs but overall the team was off to a great start with podiums coming from Sean, Jo and newbie Jane and also good finishes for Talan and Russ. The races were also a great eye opener for the new members of the development squad. Showing them how much work needed to do to get to the top.

Start of the Season

Well after a summer of strength and Conditioning, Fitness, Water skiing and several months off the snow and generally dreaming of skiing, the Season has finally started again.

The season has got off to a great start with the snow conditions been excellent compared to last year. Plenty of snow which hopefully means that Europe will have a good year this year. (Fingers crossed that Canada has some snow for when the team are over there. ‘I don’t ask for much!!!’)

 The first two weeks of November were spent at the Pre-Season camp in Hintertux with all the team and coaching staff. (another big thanks to all the coaching staff, everybody at Redpoint Holidays and of course all those that came out to help. Especially Geoff!)

 It was great to get back on the snow and I was feeling good. unfortunately with all the snow we couldn’t get in to the gates as much as we wanted but probably a good thing to allow everybody to get back in to the grove of things!

After a successful two weeks in Tux Myself, Jane, Kev (the blind speed demon) Johnny (his guide) headed off to Stubai for another two weeks training where we were then joined by Sean after he had rested his old body!!!
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Charity Golf Day

I would like to thank my uncle, Dave Masefield for his great achievement of raising the money for me to be able to buy my own race chair. These are expensive bits of kit made to measure for each individual. Without it competing in anything like the Great North Run would not have been possible. I hope that I will be able to continue to do many different races using the chair and raise as much money as possible for different inspirational charities.

Dave and Steve Knight played 102 holes of golf on 5 different courses in one day walking and carrying their clubs on each course. He also held a charity golf day at Kington golf course to help raise the remaining funds for me to be able to buy my own chair. Thank you both very much for the enormous effort and time you put in and to everybody else who supported the Golf Day in Kington. The Chair will allow me to push in Richmond Park and help get me fitter for my skiing. Thank you

The Great North Run

After the success of the British Disabled Ski Team competing in the Great North Run last year to raise funds for the team it was decided that we give it another go. This year saw Dave Chugg retired racer doing it for his third time myself and Russ Docker returning for our 2^nd up hill punishment and Jane Sowerby and Talan Skeels-Piggens heading up to Newcastle for the great event for the first time. Talans wife Jo also ran the race for the team. 

The Great North Run wasn’t just a great way for the team to raise much needed funds for our continuing improvement over the next few years leading to the Winter Paralympics but also a great way for us all to get in to good shape for the forthcoming season.  

Last year I borrowed a friend’s race chair and had a good few months to train. Due to complications this year I didn’t get a chair until three weeks before the race. I had been in the gym and swimming all summer but this was no real compensation for time pushing in my own race chair. As soon as my new toy arrived I went straight in to vigorous training.  

I headed up to Newcastle with my new race chair and Mars Refuel Drinks to give me the energy I needed to face the Hills. The Race went well and thankfully it was a pleasant day with no rain. I definitely felt the hills a lot more than I did the year before due to lack of training but was much stronger generally. I was on target to beat my time by a couple of minuets A mile from the end there is a steep hill in to a roundabout where they have put hay bales just for people like me as I tried to stop and slow down so I could turn left in to the final mile my breaks locked and despite all the officials waving at me to slow down and turn I went straight in to the hay bales at full pace!!! Just a little CRASH really but enough to mean I had to push the last mile with a wonky front wheel slowing me right down!! In the end I was 2 minuets slower than last year with a time of 1:17 

It was a great effort from all the team to do a challenging race and we managed to raise some much needed funds but we didn’t reach our target total so if you would like to sponsor us please go to www.justgiving.com/bdst. Every penny counts and its not too late!

 

The British Disabled Water ski Nationals, 15th September

 Over the Summer to take my mind of the rolling snowy mountains and all that skiing I am missing over in places like New Zealand, Australia or somewhere like Chilli or Argentina. I have taken back to the Water. Just a day after coming back from the Back-Up youth ski course in Sweden I was on the water enjoying the April sun thinking this is going to be a good summer.  

Water skiing is another sport that I loved before my accident and it was rare for me not to do it at least once every summer with friends. It is of course another activity that one might think impossible to do if you are ‘disabled!’ but was in fact one of the first things I did after my accident. I have always said that I never did enough and was hoping that a good hot summer would give me plenty of reasons to head down to my local lake just outside Stains and improve a little. Well we all know what the summer has been like but despite been a fair weather water skier I did manage to get some time on the water.  

On September 15^th I entered the British Disabled Water Ski Nationals in the Rookie competition (people who weren’t in the British Team. The British Guys retained the world champs in Aus this May by the way! ). Although I entered just for a laugh and to have some fun my competitive nature meant that of course I wanted to do well. On the day I managed to come 2^nd in the Slalom event and wasn’t expecting to get anything in the trick skiing as I’m not great but after pulling off a 180 and almost a 360 (which I have only managed to do once the day before the comp) I was awarded silver in that too! You have to be in it to win it and I had a great day and look forward to doing more when the sun comes out again next summer but my heart still definitely lies the skiing! So its time to hang up my trunks and get out the skis!

Snowdon push

Three years ago when I was lying in a hospital bed having been told I would never walk again I never thought that I would be sitting at the highest point of Mt Snowdon having just pushed up it.  

Of course been a skier sitting at the top of the occasional mountain is not unusual for me these days but it normally involves a lift up and a quick run down. In May this year with a team of 10 from Deloittes we took part in the Snowdon Push a challenge event run by The Back-Up Trust. With there been no snow on this mountain the push was a real challenge with Snowdon having the toughest terrain I have been over since been in a chair, I was very grateful to have the help and support of the guys and girls from Deloittes. What really made a difference was the chair that RGK lent me. It was one of the chairs from the TV show ‘Beyond Boundaries’ and without it the challenge would have been a lot harder. 

I would like to thank all of those from Deloittes that helped me in this challenge and RGK for the use of their chair. The satisfaction I felt after reaching the top was incredible. I never thought I would push up a mountain. I would definitely say now that I built for going down hill!!!

London Marathon

I would like to congratulate my sister, Sarah Franklin, who this year completed the long 26 miles of the London Marathon raising money for The Back-Up Trust. She completed the long run despite spraining her leg after the 8^th mile. My family and friends have been a continuing support for me and I was very proud of Sarah accomplishment.