Hi,
I'm now in La Parva, Chile with the whole British ski team for the first part of our main summer training camp. So far we've been training mainly slalom and giant slalom and the plan is for me to do more speed stuff towards the end of the camp when Finlay, Jono, Bud (the Aussies), and me will join up with the U.S downhill team in Portillo.
So far my form has been kind of mixed with slalom going well since I got a new model of skis from Elan, as soon as I stood on them they were great. In giant slalom I've been going fine but making a lot of mistakes so I'm trying to iron them out and I'm sure I'll be right on track. As I said I didn't do much speed as yet but in the one day of downhill I was happy with the way I skied, in super-g I felt a bit rusty and crashed on my first run, nothing major though.
My coaches have shuffled a bit from last year, I will still be working closely with Mike Pilarski he is now in charge of the technical team with Mark Tilston covering the speed side of things. Jono Brauer from Australia has joined up with us and we will make up our combined team that will go between the speed and technical groups with Dave Smith from Aviemore as an assistant coach to travel with us, Dave also does a lot of work with us on the fitness side of things.
I raced in a couple of races here in La Parva and El Colorado which didn't go as well as last year when I had 2 wins, but in slalom I was flying but went out just before the finish, in the giant slalom I finished 3rd after a poor 2nd run which was disappointing but these races are mainly used for training.
Well bye for now I'll keep you updated with my progress towards the season.
Noel
