Latest News
Learning to Wakeboard
I never want to stop trying new things that keep me active, before my accident I was just starting to learn to wakeboard and it was something I thought I would never be able to do again. I had done a couple of water ski sessions with Sportability as tasters and the last one I managed to convince them to let me have a go on a wakeboard. For me it was a dream come true even though the feeling sitting on a wakeboard was really different to standing on one.
30 Aug 2011
Icelandic Challenge Public Launch
For many months now we have been flying kites, designing rigs, creating media and doing many other tasks to launch the Icelandic Challenge. It's been fantastic to work with a team that is so focused on making this work. Long hours have been put in by everyone and we really want to get your support now. Please visit our website, have a look at our Facebook page and keep track of what we are doing. This really is a worlds first and the whole team is so excited about it.
25 Jul 2011
Icelandic Challenge Rig Testing
Designing a rig for the Icelandic Challenge to cross the Vatnajokull glacier has gone from a drawing in Autumn 2010 to a functioning prototype that we can modify to test different setting that will be suitable for the crossing. As with any prototype sometime we go in the right direction and sometimes we don't. But that's part of the process and even when you go slightly in the wrong direction it helps with the overall design.
07 Jul 2011
Icelandic Challenge sea kiting
The Icelandic Challenge team wanted to get as much cross training in as possible, this took me and the team to Hunstanton Water Sports to fly kites in the sea. I don't think the sea around the UK is ever really warm but we were all excited to get in the water and try the new kite type. It had amazing power and the guys at Hunstanton Water Sports really pushed the boat out for us and gave us a day to remember.
23 Jun 2011
Icelandic Challenge Learning to Fly
The key skill we have to learn to enable use to complete the Icelandic Challenge is to be able to fly larger and larger power kites. All the disabled team members have spent lots of time on snow and we will be designing a rig for us to ride the Vatnajokull glacier. We all accept that the challenge won't be an easy one but we have a great team behind us so we can get up to speed as fast as possible.
27 Apr 2011
Park City NORAM
We drove 8 hours to Park City in Utah to take part in my final races of the season; I had planned my season training in the US to end with the GS and Slalom races there. Although these are not my favorite race styles it’s still important to be able to run in all race classes. After the long drive to Park City it was brilliant to finally see the location of the 2002 Olympics and I was pretty excited to race on that hill.
13 Mar 2011
Winter Park Wells Fargo Cup
The Winter Park Wells Fargo Cup is an event that is organized by the NSCD in Winter Park, Colorado to raise funds to allow the NSCD to provide support for people with disabilities. This includes ski lessons and lots of other activities that allow disabled people to get out and try things that they wouldn’t normally have the chance to. I first visited the NSCD in 2008 with Back-up when I went to ski for the first time, that provided me with a spring board that changed my life.
06 Mar 2011
Kimberley NORAM
It was great to be back in Kimberley after training there for the previous two years, I got to catch up with some old friends and everyone there was so friendly. We had a massive field of skiers from 11 different nations; it was basically a mini World Championship for Downhill and Super-G racers. We had pretty much the top 10 sit skiers from around the world which is pretty daunting when you are lining up against them.
13 Feb 2011
New HOC Sit Ski (mono ski)
After much deliberation I decided that I needed a new sit ski that was capable of working across all the alpine disciplines that I’m racing. My current sit ski has been a great ride over the last two seasons, but a change was needed for me to progress. My current Bramble sit ski is a fantastic speed rig, but really struggles in the technical events. It is possible to ski them but you really have to put in 110% effort to produce a result, which means there is no margin for error.
10 Jan 2011
Winter Park Open GS
Lots to be happy about today with the GS event, this was my second ever GS race and the course looked pretty hectic and had some real technical challenges. We didn’t have great weather today but a little snow falling does make you warm up more and starts to test your vision a bit.
04 Jan 2011
