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I qualified (Kirkwood North American Freeskiing Championships)

post #1 of 16
3/19/09 at 8:59pm
Thread Starter 

Hey Everyone - just wanted to let you know that I qualified today for the Day 1 of stop #3 of the Freeskiing World Tour at Kirkwood.  Had a good run today and it was enough to get me in.

 

So tomorrow I am in the field of 64 men starting from the top of the lookers right half of the Cirque.  Super stoked, and super nervous....it is GNARLY and steep (no-fall zones) up there right now.

 

The comp will be broadcast LIVE via streaming webcast tomorrow starting at 11 AM PST at www.freeskiingworldtour.com

 

Gotta run...lots to do :)

 

 

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post #2 of 16
3/20/09 at 2:01am

Congratulations and good luck!

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post #3 of 16
3/20/09 at 4:41am

Good luck.  We're rooting for you.

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post #4 of 16
3/20/09 at 8:52am

 

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tyrone Shoelaces View Post

 

Hey Everyone - just wanted to let you know that I qualified today for the Day 1 of stop #3 of the Freeskiing World Tour at Kirkwood.  Had a good run today and it was enough to get me in.

 

So tomorrow I am in the field of 64 men starting from the top of the lookers right half of the Cirque.  Super stoked, and super nervous....it is GNARLY and steep (no-fall zones) up there right now.

 

The comp will be broadcast LIVE via streaming webcast tomorrow starting at 11 AM PST at www.freeskiingworldtour.com

 

Gotta run...lots to do :)

 

 

Ron, I'll be watching! 

Crossing my fingers!

Getting out my pom poms............well, I don't have pom poms, but.......

I'll be cheering for you!!!

 

 

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post #5 of 16
3/20/09 at 9:10am

Outstanding, Ron.

 

Good luck today.

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post #6 of 16
3/20/09 at 10:12am

Way to go, T!

 

Keep it safe--but let it rip! We'll be watching!

 

Best regards,

Bob

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post #7 of 16
3/21/09 at 5:02am

O great - Tyrone's on top of no fall zones broadcast live with giant crowds while I was on a snowboard crashing on a 3 foot box in front of 6 people. How the hell am I gonna get any sympathy?

 

Or

 

respect?

 

 

Hope you had an Epic day Ron!

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post #8 of 16
3/21/09 at 6:44am

Hope it went well, Ty-rone!

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post #9 of 16
3/21/09 at 8:46am

My sympathies, Rusty!

 

 

Ron--I watched the live video for a while, but had to leave before your run. I hope it went well, that you had fun, and that at least you arrived at the bottom with both skis and all body parts intact (which did not happen to everyone--there must be a bunch of lost skis in the woods around there!).

 

Looking forward to a report!

 

Best regards,

Bob

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post #10 of 16
3/21/09 at 2:49pm

I'm sure most of you know Ron crashed and is out, but is okay.  Great try under very difficult conditions.  Too bad the competition couldn't have been on Monday, which is expected to be clear with 2-3 feet of new snow.

 


Edited by Cirquerider - 3/21/2009 at 10:06 pm
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post #11 of 16
3/21/09 at 4:38pm

Nope--didn't know that, Cirque. Thanks for the news.

 

Glad to hear you're all right, Ron. From the runs I saw, it looked like at least half of the competitors crashed. Few appeared to be holding back, despite challenging snow conditions.

 

Report?

 

Best regards,

Bob

 

 

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post #12 of 16
3/21/09 at 6:21pm

Ron,

 

Sorry to hear about the crash.  Now, is that skiing or rappeling?  I'd never even stand on the top of something like that let alone think about skiing it.  My hats off to you bro.  Impressive no matter what happens.  You've got more than enough of what it takes.

 

Terry

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post #13 of 16
3/21/09 at 6:28pm
Thread Starter 

quickie report as I'm checking in from Kirkwood where I've been the past few days.

 

yep, as Tom mentioned I crashed pretty good waaay up at the top of the course.  Alot of competitors were taking it easy and getting fairly competitive scores, but the few guys who went into the zone that I crashed in all came out within the top 5 or so, so I wanted to go in there.  Problem was I underestimated the firmness of the snow above the bottom air and it bucked me and threw me.  When I was staring down I hesitated because I realized I went too far into the line but couldn't back out. 

 

I'm mostly fine except for a few bruised ribs.  I didn't lose any skis or anything on the crash.  just rolled, came to a stop, let everyone know I was ok, and just burned some GS turns to the bottom. 

 

Oh well.  I'm bummed I fell...but I'm kind of glad I didn't have to compete today.  Conditions for the Finals were HORRIBLE.

 

This morning, I still had my competitors bib, so I used to get early ups on the chair this morning and get into the Cirque with the other competitors for their inspection run.  The conditions were so firm and icy it was nearly terrifying to be skiing that stuff with so many no-fall zones around you.  The competitors were just shaking their heads at the conditions.......but despite that....they really through down.  The level of skiing given the conditions was completely off the charts.  If you see any footage from the Finals today, just realize that most people wouldn't even contemplate doing the stuff they were doing on a powder day let alone on a day where conditions were blue ice, mixed with coral free, concrete, and old avy debris.  uughh....

 

Anyway, dumping here now and tonight...and bruised ribs or not, I will be surfing some powder tomorrow.

 

I have POV footage of both my qualifying run and my crash from the semi-finals which I will edit in a few days and make a little TR out of.

 

There is a video of my qualifying run from Thursday here (just click on my name in the video player):

http://www.aboutlaketahoe.com/ski_resorts/kirkwood/09-comp-videos.htm

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post #14 of 16
3/22/09 at 3:26am
Quote:

 conditions were blue ice, mixed with coral free, concrete, and old avy debris.  uughh....

 

From the video, it looks like visibility was pretty poor too. Ugly--doesn't look like much fun. But tomorrow does!

 

Thanks for the report, Ron. I look forward to your video trip report. Enjoy the powder tomorrow!

 

Best regards,

Bob

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post #15 of 16
3/22/09 at 4:02am

  I have a tremendous amount of respect for competitors of this caliber.  Thanks for sharing the video.

Go eat some powder.  I wanna know what it tastes like! 

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post #16 of 16
3/23/09 at 12:54pm
Thread Starter 

I'm uploadin my helmet cam video to YouTube now with both my qualifying run and semi-final run...errr, I mean...crash ;)

 

I guess I will put it up in the trip report section.  should be up later this afternoon.

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