Dominique Vallée

27.08.2007 | comments [0]

Well summer was short lived for me as we didn't get the best weather in Whistler this summer. Lots of rain and pretty damn cold as well. So I had to go to Quebec and spend some time at my family's lake to recharge the battery before heading to the cold winter once again in New Zealand. I got here about a week ago right on time for the New Zealand Open. Started riding the first day and Oh MY!!!! Was is ever cold but it warmed up pretty quick doing fun laps at Snow Park and realized that everybody that I knew almost in the snowboard world was here. Every year it seems like everybody migrates here for a few months during their winter, from all the pros to all the little snowboard clubs. So after a few days of getting our boards underneath us, it was time to compete once again. Slope style was first but they had to cut the finals short and use the semi-finals results due to bad weather. That night was supposed to be the crowd-pleasing 1/4 pipe session but that too got cancelled and the wind managed slam the scaffolding with all the lights smashing onto the ground. The day after was even more of a weather disaster as we got up at 6:30am to get ready for our 8am practice and realized that all of the village was out of power and the weather was still coming in hard. So finally after a forced day off, Sunday was our big day. Got up to the hill to the beautiful sun rising to a perfect cold winter day with everything frozen around with fresh snow. The pipe semi-finals went through and then followed with the super finals with winds sometimes making it tricky. Then, it cleared up a bit again and we managed to run the 1/4 pipe till sunset. We had to start from the top of the hill, and bomb the entire pipe, staigh-lining to the 1/4 pipe with head-on winds and new snow really slowing us down. SO it was no mind-blowing 1/4 pipe session but still fun as you went into it thinking you were going to dye but only went 6 feet out. So the NZ Open is now done. Now I'm here for another 3 weeks just to ride, learn new tricks and enjoy the best of NZ with my French-Canadian house by the lake Wanaka. I'll warm this place up for you Chicas that are meeting me here later. See you later. Dom