Jacob Wester

Hey everyone

Just got back in my room after a great day in wanaka, NZ. this is my 5th year down here, and it’s starting to feel like coming home, almost.

Today we woke up to bluebird skies and a nice +5°C outside, so we went straight for the hill. Unfortunately we didnt find a reasonably priced rental car at the airport yesterday, so we were off hitch-hiking. This truly is a very hitch-hiker friendly town, in the morning all the cars are going the same way up to the mountains, so they all pass a little bus-stop where the hitch-hikers gather. The best part about it is that people actually stop to pick you up, as opposed to most countries. Where else in the world would anyone in their right mind pick up a scrawny looking kid in giant pants and snow goggles sagging over his nose? This morning me and Oscar got a ride all the way up to Cardrona ski resort with a great family from Christchurch. Thanks!

me and Oscar waiting

met up with Kim Boberg in the lift line and took a few runs on the rails.

Today was also the slopestyle finals of the NZ freeskiing open. I was supposed to do it but I got the dates all wrong and flew in yesterday so I wasnt exactly in shape to do a competition the first day of skiing. I was also pretty happy just to watch as I’ve been super jetlagged all day, every single move takes tons of motivation and will-power. The finals was a good show, Bobby Brown killed it and ended up winning with Tom Wallisch and Henrik H rounding up the podium. On a sidenote, if big air competitions were getting out of hand last season, this season it’s time for slopestyle to go the same way. Everyone in the finals except 4 guys, did some kind of double cork, and at least an unnatural spin over 900. This on a icy 60 ft stepdown table. I can’t wait to go ski some powder and think about something else this winter:)

So today was a good day for me to get my feet back under me, took a couple runs in the pipe doing a bunch of straight airs, and hit tons of rails and boxes. It was pretty icy up there though, so my worn down alpha 2′s werent the best weapon of choice. Going to hit the pipe tomorrow so I’ll probably rock the AR6 with brand new edges for that.

And I will also try to shoot more pictures and perhaps a little bit of video. Today was too much fun skiing to take out the camera!

More extensive blog update to come tomorrow, so stay tuned/J

~ by jacobwester on August 19, 2009.