No Standing Only Dancing: Summer to Winter to New Zealand!

Shredding at Mt Hotham for Chicks with Stix

I feel like I often say this but this week more than ever has been a CRAZY week! Not that I'm complaining! After having an incredible trip with my dad I landed back into Melbourne for a quick coffee and then booked it up to Mt Buller. There were some trip ups along the way- I managed to leave my wallet it a service station in Yea and then celebrated it's loss with perhaps one more red wine than my jet-lagged body could handle.

Despite all of this, waking up on Thursday morning last week felt good- it was my first time skiing in Australia for the season and after all the hot weather all I wanted to do was shred!

Sarah and Emma from the Australian Aerial Development Team

One of the main reasons I raced up to the snow was to help coach the Aussie Aerial Development Team. These girls are taken from gym programs and taught to ski. After many long years of training on snow, at the water jumps and in the gym the girls are then taken to jump on their first aerial single. Their career progresses from there. I always love to work with these girls, they are so driven and tough, their program is cut-throat to ensure the highest level of ability and I can only watch them with awe as they work through all their challenges!

2012 Volkl Kinks

Another reason to go skiing (as if you need one) was to mount up and play on my new Volkl Kinks! The Kinks are the newest addition to the Volkl freestyle family. They are cambered in the center and have tip and tail rocker for added fun. I found that they were super poppy and were great to shred in the slushy, variable conditions that Buller was blessed with at the end of last week.

After Thurs and Fri at Buller, I drove the vroom vroom down and out to Glenrowan to meet up with these two cheeky girls.

Torie and Karinya enjoying some delicious wine (thanks Torie) and the best caramel slice I've ever tasted (Karinya that is all your fault)!

From Glenrowan we drove up to Hotham, preparing ourselves for a weekend of fun at the Chicks with Stix Freeride Session. Read the blog for all the details on the session!

Karinya, Mez, Zoe, Torie and Ali D

As a coach in the program it's awesome meeting new girls and sharing some of the things I've learnt over the years. In some ways what is even better is being able to catch up with some chicks I've been shredding with since I was a kid. These girls have influenced me for so long, it's great to be able to go tear up a line with them!

Saturday at Hotham was a bit cold and windy but fun nevertheless. After a fun day skiing we hankered down with wine and lollies, painted out nails and made a feast!

Two little chickens pecking up spilled cheese

Sunday was even better. I woke up early to go for a sneaky shred with Volkl Australia manager Nick Hill. The sun was beaming down and the snow was fresh!

Bluebird pow morning with Nick Hill

The weather came in later in the day but CwS still had an awesome afternoon finding sneaky powder stashes.

My thermals were a little damp after this

After lunch we were back on the road, I managed to slip the chain of the backside of the wheel and got to go for a swim to find it. After 4 days and jetlag I was exhausted but I still had 220kms back to Melbourne in the rain. Me and Florence made it back safely!

After such an exciting weekend, it was big new that made it even more action-packed. In an unexpected turn of events, I'm going to be heading to NZ a few weeks early to what I hope will be some GREAT skiing and good times. More details to come!

In lieu of that, Hilly and I saw it appropriate to mount up some new skis for the trip!