Comps done, NZ Season 2011 over and out...

Thats it for me snow-wise in NZ in 2011. A bit guttted to have missed loads of good days riding towards the end of the season as uni started to catch up with me. Was a short and sweet winter down here. Packed with good times, great memories, probably some memory loss too... and some epic riding, but seemed to come and go a bit quick for my liking. Can't wait to get back over to Europe in a few weeks as soon as I can get done with uni down here - Hoping for some pow this time around.

Dropping Day 2 at the Export33 Extremes Whakapapa.
After a difficult 1st day (sitting in 11th) had a better run day 2 and climbed back up to 6th.

Ended up 5th in the K2 Chill Series at Cragieburn/Mt Olympus and 6th at the Export33 extremes at Mt Ruapehu. Two highlights for me would be qualifying top on day 3 of the Chill comp, as well as putting down a half decent run on the final day at Ruapehu to climb back from 11th after a tough 1st day of competition. And with names like Will Jackways, Colin Boyd, and Ruapehu local hero Jordan Decker all having put down solid scores on day one it was always going to tricky to pull back. So I was pleased to have got back a few places on my first time riding the 400m-vertical epic 'day 2' venue known as 'Policemans'. I was blown away by the high level of riders about competing, especially up at Ruapehu. I was really stoaked to be competing against some top NZ and International riders. A bit dissapointed not to get any podiums along the way but did enough gain some valuable Freeride World Qualifier points which should qualify me for some comps while Im over in Europe this Summer.

 The groupies chilling - K2 Chill Series, Cragieburn

 Check out some of the action from the lenses of the boys at The Daily Dump Snow Report

Cheers to my man Big James O, for putting us up in Natty P for another year. And was stoaked to catch up with a good old school mate Emma and her fam in Raetihi. Best couple of runs of the trip were getting shown about the Whakapapa slush by her little bro Alex. Just as much, of a buzz as the last time we went for a shred 6 or 7 years ago! Snowboarding with good mates just doesn't seem to get old.

Ski Bumming - Heading to the North Island.

Always Good times tho travelling about with Vinny Rayner. Made it even better having finished just ahead of him in both the comps (not to mention the boardercross), as I couldn't have handled the smack talk on the drives home if I hadn't. Nice to catch the Bond Fam briefly as we passed through Wellington, and had a good night out on the town there with very few drinks paid for thanks to a Verbier connection working behind the bar. Thanks also mum for letting us steal your new car for the trip!

A choice time lapse shot round Mt Ruapehu...