Off the mountain, but in good company

I am in Vancouver at the moment and am getting a bit fed up because my heel is still hurting from the injury I got in the X games a couple of weeks ago. Because I don’t want to make it any worse I can’t ride on it which means I am getting a bit bored that all I can do is gym work.

I do have nice place to stay though! I am staying with a family right by the water in Vancouver bay. The parents are called Jon and Roisin and they have 4 great kids, Rachel, Adam, Connor and James who are always running around which is delightful and it is great for me to be in a family environment instead of in a hotel like I normally am.

The family threw a cheese and wine party a few nights ago where I met a load of great contacts here in Vancouver including one of the people of VANOC who are the organizing committee for the Vancouver Olympics and the owner of Grouse mountain where I am now hoping to betraining in the run up to the Olympics. Thanks to all the Borrill family for letting me stay. (I even got my own room, which is massive and has a flat screen TV!)

Thanks again to the whole family, you are awesome.

I did get to go up to Whistler mountain the other day though, not to train on the mountain but to watch the Bob Skeleton world cup which was on up there. Bob Skeleton is where athletes slide down a bobsleigh track face first on a sledge. On this course they were going at speeds over 130 KPH!

I went to watch the British girls who were competing. One of them was Shelly Rudman who got silver in the last winter Olympics. The other girl was Amy Williams who trains at the English institute of sport in Bath in the summer the same as I do so we know each other quite well.
It was really fun to watch, I was a bit restricted from where on the track I could get to because I couldn’t walk far with my heel so I watched from the finish area which turned out to be the best place to be.

The best part about going to watch was that Amy won silver! It’s really great for her because it’s the same track there as it will be for the Olympics next year so getting a medal here is a very good sign for her chances.

I have another 4 days of rest for my heel before official training starts on the course for the next world cup snowboard cross competition which is being held on Cypress mountain where the snowboarding events are for the Olympics next year.