15 March 2010 - Text Olivier Gittler

2010 started off so well. So much hype and good vibes amongst all riders in the 3 or 4 perfectly shaped halfpipes we rode before Olympics, riding in places we would have never thought of going for snowboarding. This is a little report of how thing went, from being greeted like kings in a private ski resort, to how things could change in a second.

Just after the European Open, Arthur Longo and I were planning on heading to Mammoth to join the rest of the French Team for some perfect training conditions. Therefore, not even 8 hours before our flight, my bewared mother calls me saying a huge snow storm is heading their direction. It was impossible to book a shuttle from Reno airport to Mammoth: the only one we found wanted to charge us 400$, knowing that it wasn't even sure that we would make it to Mammoth! So I consulted my good ol' friend Pepe Regazzi (Swiss team coach) for some advise on what to do. He hooked us up with an incredible opportunity to train in a private halfpipe, 3 hours north from Detroit, in a resort called the Otsego Club. We changed all our routine, and went straight over there.

We arrived late night in Traverse City, a little town 1 hour away from the resort, residing in Gaylord, Michigan. What a cool name huh? Waiting for us were maybe the 2 most passionate snowboarders I met on the east coast, stoked to meet french riders. They took us to the resort, gave us everything we needed and we fell asleep in a flash. This is what we woke up to:

As you can see we had an airbag for us to train on, kindly brought to the resort by Marc-Andre Tarte's company (yes, you read well) Acrobag. Straight away, Arthur and I were working on our doubles and superman front flips, you can check out this little video. We even had a couple session with Marc! It was so much fun to meet him again after all his incredible riding years.

We could also ride at night, that's what we did on the first day of riding, where we would see Kazu Kokubo bust some mad high mctwists.

We stayed almost all our time there with the most hilarious snowboard team, the Italians. Manuel Pietropoli, Roberto the coach, and dream maker FRANKY "JACKY" MOOKS the filmer. I spell his name in caps because that's how big of a man he is, not size wise of course. He's the type of guy who would go to Australia for 2 months, alone, with no preparation with one goal in his mind: learn english tying to avoid the speed the drugged truck driver's would take while he was hitch hiking across the country.

Unfortunetly for me, on the 3rd day, I overspun a little bit on my mctwist, didn't land properly and hurt my ankle really bad. I did a couple checks on it, but nothing seemed too serious, but it hurt like hell. Thanks to NZ's physio Sheryl, the healing process went a lot faster, even though my trip in this fabulous place defined itself as over.

Calgary world cup was our next destination and my ankle was still swollen like a scared diodon fish. Stupid as I was, and that to be a lesson for me, I still went for the comp. I didn't do any training what so ever and dropped in straight for my qualie run. I still managed to go through semis, but couldn't even walk back to the chairlift after that. That's how bad it was. Nevertheless, this is what my first hit looked like:

That being done, the only reasonable option was to go home, rest and heal up for the upcoming shoots this spring.

I finally got home, disappointed and sad obviously, but with the support of my friends, the netherlands team, the italian team, the swiss team, the nz, the aussies, the belgian team, the germans (SNOWBOARDING BRINGS SO MUCH AMAZING FRIENDSHIP!) and my family (viva Apero Club!) I got through it. I went for other scans and found out my ankle didn't just have a bruise, it was broken in a part where it takes at least 2 months to heal 100%. I guess that painted the picture: school work!

That's all for this report, hope my writing isn't too lazy, as I've been sitting around not being allowed to run or jump since I got back home. Here's a photo of me and my new Volcom team mate Valerian Ducourtil watching our friends ripping at the Olympics:

SEE YOU SOON ON THE NEXT TRIP, BURTON AVORIAZ SHOOT AND THE MYSTERIOUS VOYAGE THEY PLANNED FOR US AFTERWARDS!