Feel free to reply to my thoughts, experiences, and whatever comes out of this head of mine. blah blah blah

Monday, March 19, 2007

Home Again Home Again Jiggity Jig



So I leave Europe and arrive home to 75 (25c) degree weather! Then I hear it snowed 50+cm in Europe!!! Too weird. It feels nice to be home. The season was a long one full of highlights and some low spots, but overall it was perty darn good. Once again I learned several things that will hopefully carry me further next season.
Lenzerhiedi was a good experience. I was skiing well there. If it werent for one big mistake I could have been on the podium or had the win. It was good to feel the balance and speed under my feet once again.
Now I am back on American soil up in Alaska enjoying the cold temps (-10c) and some excellent skiing. The Nationals are going to be a lot of fun. I want to enjoy myself and ski my heart out. It feels good to experience winter once again.
Before AK I went to Steamboat Sprigs, Colorado for Nastar Nationals. It was a lot of fun. It was good to see the fire in a lot of the peoples eyes. There were participants from the ages of 93 to 3!!! I was there setting the pace on the courses so they could compare to my time and see where they stood after they calculated their handicap. How this all works I don't know??? But I had a good time seeing 1300 people competing and enjoying themselves.
I documented the trip with my camera of course and we had several adventures.
Enjoy



92 in 65

Oink Oink, 50, Pigs

Fillin Up

Fighting? Mating? Playing?

Only in Vernal

Blake new rapper name, Genuine







Tail Press no poles

Blake, pissed after not making the finals when
he was by far the best skier there. Judged
events are lame.

IZZZZZ

Saturday, March 10, 2007

Night Shots Norway








Here are some images I caught during my nights in Kvitfjell. So far the races havn't turned out as well as these shots. But I still have the SG left tomorrow!

Saturday, March 03, 2007

The Love of the Lense


Leon dosn't like to Blog or talk about himself so I will for him. Hes too busy resting right now anyway. The man has been hard at work developing the new skis for next season. We were planning on gettting a lot of testing done in Italy after Garmisch but that was held up by my back. I think it has all worked out for the better though. Im getting the rest I have needed and Leo was looking quite worn down and stressed as well. Were going to be recharged to the final leg of the season!

Macaroooons


Here is the sight I had when I just went into the kitchen!!! All but one cookie was left in my cookie bag. I bought them yesterday and at the time it contained around 40 cookies. Well now its down to one and I decided to partake of it before anyone else got to it!!
By the way the cheese in the back ground is my favorite as well. What its name is still remains a mystery to me but it is a Parmesan which Leo gave to me. Here's a little cheese lesson for you. In Italy to name a cheese its proper name it has to be made in that region. So whoever made this Parmesan cant call it Parmesan because it wasn't made there. But who cares it delicious!


My Dads jealous now! his favorite cookies are Macaroons!

Friday, March 02, 2007

Im not invincable


Blake, Black, Blanche, Doobus

Michael, Mick, Miguel, McDoogle

My brother Blanch in my opinion is the most pleasing skier to watch

Luke Charges harder than any kid I know

Luke going big. He didnt land this one! He really dosn't land anything

Brothers, Mothers, Fathers

Pleasing

One Day

A quick recap from then to now.

Aare was awesome!! I loved being back there in the homeland!! Its where my ancestors are from and I feel very comfortable there. The moment i got there I felt like something special was going to happen. My skiing was back i felt strong and confidant in my abilities and i was ready to see what I could do. The trip also started off with a powder day where I got to rip around with Julia Mancuso, the best women's skier in the world in my eyes. We skied from 10-3pm and I was beat but I couldn't pass up a powder day like that in a year like this!!!
In the SG I went for it. I had tried some new bindings in training and felt extremely good on them. There were only 4 pair in the world and i had one of them, it turned out that they were amazing so I had to try them in the race, its just the way I am I guess. Well turns out that they were too powerful. they were flinging me out of the course and taking me for a ride!!! What a mess it turned out to be. With three huge mistakes on the course I still pulled off a 12th place .6 off the pace. Once I harness the powers of those bindings some amazing things could happen. I was quite surprised that bindings could make such a difference in my skiing!
Then came the Combi. During all of the training days I had been skiing DH in the morning and SL in the afternoon. It felt great. My slalom was coming around on some new stiffer skies I received and my energy levels were up! I thought I could handle the heavy loads during worlds. Along with that I was also enjoying myself as well, I hadn't had the opportunity to ski like that all season so i was taking it all in.
Combi Race day was perfect. I skied the DH portion pretty well. I had one mistake on the bottom, which put me in 4th place. Then came the slalom. I was feeling very confidant in my skills and in the feelings I had in training. I kept telling people the skills were there but they didn't believe me so I had to let them out. My Mom told me that even the Euro sport announcer said "here's Steven Nyman, he doesn't stand a chance in the slalom." It ended up being a very good run. I was in the lead at the split half way down and then really let it rip down the final pitch into the finish!!! 7-8 gates before the finish I got a little late and wheelied around a gate and lost all my speed before the final flats!! I knew I had lost it but kept pushing. I crossed the finish line 1.19 behind!!!! If I hadn't made that mistake I could have had a podium if not the win!!! At least it was a conformation that my Slalom was back!!
That day my back started hurting and I blamed it on the beds. But little did I realize I had been skiing 7 days in a row and I still had 3 more ahead of me. Every day the pain got worse. I found a chiropractor and got adjusted and I kept trying to find some sort of a aid but nothing helped.
The DH didn't go as planned. I knew what i needed to do and I went for it but I was in a lot of pain. It affected my energy and my movement. I couldn't settle into my tuck and let it go. I still had some impressive splits but on the crux of the course my skis got away from me and I made a spectacular recovery after sliding on my side!! It was rush and I'm okay, I ended up 20th place which was a huge disappointment because I knew I could have easily earned a medal in that event. Worlds ended and my body was aching, it felt good to get out of there.
Home sweet home!!! My whole time home was focused on trying to feel better and it never happened. I saw my guru Doc and he helped by balancing me out once again but I was still in a lot of pain. I thought it would subside so I kept playing on it and seeing what I could do. BAD IDEA I TELL YOU. Now that I look back on it I hadn't rested in a long time. It had been gogogo for me all winter! I needed rest. But instead I skied, rock climbed, hiked, drove my car every where never allowing my back to relax.
I did buy a new SLR digi camera, its NIKON D40 and it takes some muy bueno shots. Maybe I'm just getting lucky though. (You can find them at the top and bottom of the page!)
Then back to the land of no snow. We arrived in Garmisch and it was 16 degrees Celsius!!! it was hot out. I Climbed up a mountain one day in shorts to go eat but they didn't take credit cards, it was a nice jaunt, luckily i brought water and a corney (a sugary German delicacy) bar. The skiing was horrible, soft, flat, mushy, peeley, warm. It sounds funny but I wanted the -30 Sweden weather back!!! The races were tough as well. The early runners did well but the guys in the back were suffering. I was 12th in the first DH with a few mistakes then the second I felt really good but kept messing up! I ended up 26th. Once again with fast splits then a few that were really bad so it didn't add up too much.
After the races the pain set back in!!! I went to Italy and trained but was hurting and tired. I called it after two days and took off to Germany to get my back checked out.
I was told about this Dr. who works magic for healing. His name is Dr. Muller and he is the team Dr. for Bayern Munich the soccer team. He was gracious enough to make room for me in his busy schedule. I ends up I met him and his assistant at a soccer match I saw last year with Bayern Munich in it. I got some X rays and MRIs. It turns out I had 3 bulging discs only one was really serious so he went to work! He claims I will be 50% better after the first treatment which I got on Thursday. I am going to try and go back in Monday for another right before fly up to Norway. As of right now I feel very tight in my back but I envision healing occurring at a rapid rate! We will see what happens in the next few days.
On the bright side of things, this is giving me ample time to catch up in my emailing world!!! hopefully i cans stay updated!
Enjoy some of my shots!