Winter 2015

Tis the season of ski jumping, the world cup starting in a few days. As a group we have made the decision and Canada is not going to be represented at the opener. We have looked as a group towards the main goal of the 2015 World Championships in Falun, SWE.

Summer of Trevor

This summer has been fantastic, I have done nothing but relaxed and enjoyed life. I filled my time with a lot of photography which i'm finding to be a rewarding challenge for me to pursue. I was lucky enough to get down to Montana for a week vacation with a bunch of friends. Although I tried to distance myself from ski jumping as much as I could, I still found myself there often. Either coaching beginners or just watching the boys eager to compete against me. 

The time has come to buckle down the notches in the belt again and lose the weight needed to compete. If you are not aware, the only reason I came back to ski jumping was to compete in a ski flying event. There are three events this year, Kulm, Vikersund, and Planica. All of these jumps are capable of flights over 200 meters! One catch, I have to score points in a World Cup event before I can enter the flying events. This means a top 30 result, which does not come easy.

As you may know Ski Jumping is the only Olympic winter sport not funded by own the podium. This makes this challenge staggering, leaving us with the bare minimum if coaching, training, and equipment. The entire team is in limbo and unaware of what to expect and where to go. Although we are classified as a individual sport we still need each other to push and pull.

We have set a plan to get 2 guys and 2 girls to the world championships in Falun, SWE.  The new Mix team event has been really good to us and allows us to be very close to the podium a couple times now. Getting a world championships medal would be a huge help in our fight for funding.

This will be the season of "lets see what happens". I am fully committed to this sport for the next 6 months. If I am honest with myself that I have given all I can to the sport, I believe I can achieve something great. Also knowing that I have done everything I could do to be great, I know ill be able to retire from this sport and not let it haunt me for years to come.

Thanks for reading these rambles,
Trevor

P.S. my hair: I have decided to flip a coin on December 1st to see if ill shave it or keep it for the winter.

2014 winter finished!

 

My first season back as an athlete has come and gone. It was a crazy roller coaster of ups and downs. Not making the vital points in Norway and Finland, then having our last competition cancelled looked to be the end of it, but we moved our last chance trip over to Japan. The first competition in Japan was bliss, finally after years and years of competing. I put two jumps together to show a good result (11th), which was the best of my career. These points put in into the lead for the final spot on the Olympic team. The next day Dusty Korek brought his best to the table and ended up 4th place. Bumping me out of the spot, which is still a shock to him and everyone else. That night I sat back with a couple of necessary beverages, thinking my season was over and reflected on what I done and what I could do more. The final Olympic Quota List from FIS was released a couple days after we got back. Because I had scored many points in 11th place we had allocated another quota spot for Canada.  Then another rule set into place by FIS basically states they want 12 four man teams to compete, and since there was only 11 we ended up qualifying 4 guys! 

The Olympics are always amazing. Just the shear amount of money being spent and being made is awesome. The ski jumping complex is 7 times more expensive then any other in the world. For reasons stated as "trouble with the bedrock foundation" haha... All of the politics aside, all the venues were built as well as they could have been. The main issue I had was the schedule with the jumping times. Prime time Europe is after dinner 8pm, and we had 2 hour time difference, this had us starting to jump at 10pm which was something i've never done before. My jumping wasnt effected by the harsh schedule, but I think my Olympic experience was. We would get back to our village and everything closed at 10. The arcade, library, gymnasium, the food tent was half closed, and most of all the lounges. Not getting to mingle with the other athletes, simply because everyone else was asleep. Then have to go to bed at 3am and try to sleep as long as we could. Everyone already thinks ski jumpers are lazy and here we were sleeping until noon everyday....

The season finished with Canadian nationals in whistler, we all were burnt out and really didn't even want to go, Dusty did not even come. When you get to the jumps in whistler something comes over you and everything is OK. We had 3 days of open training, and I was jumping great and was getting excited for the competition. Two days before the 90m comp we were in the gym playing volleyball. I went up to block a shot and came down on a teammates foot, twisting my left ankle so badly the bone hit the wood floor. I knew instantly it was bad and all I could think of was "I didn't come all the way out here to watch the comp!" that night I had a few necessary beverages... and went to bed hoping I'd wake up to a fixed ankle. That didn't happen, It was worse it had stiffened up overnight and was really painful to walk on. I didnt want to call it quits completely but I had to drop out of the 90m competition the next day. I ended up volunteering as manual distance judge, where I mark the jumpers with my eyes just in case the video marking system fails.

The large hill comp was the last day we were in whistler. I woke up in pain as usual and made the decision to risk it and jump with my bum ankle. I went straight to the cold tub, and grabbed an icepack for the trip up to the jumps. When I got there I got my ankle taped up in a 90 Degree position, which if you know anything about ski jumping this is not good. Making my inrun, flight, and landing positions pretty tricky.  I skipped the trial jump and took my first jump in competition. As I left the start bar I knew I was going to be OK, just the jump was not going to be great. When I went to jump I tried to balance out my weaker leg with my jump and it surprisingly worked out pretty well. I flew 105 meters which was good enough for 3rd place. After about 1 hour of debates and protests we ending up cancelling the second round due to snow.  To my advantage I only had to take one jump with my ankle.

To sum up the winter I would say it was awesome, to get paid to travel to world is something most people dream about and something I take for granted a lot of the time. I got to represent Canada and all of my sponsors: Scotia Mcleod The Melhoff Group, Kayden Industries, and Elan Skis.
Thanks to everyone who supported me though the thick and thin (literally) and I hope to really show what I can do next year!

The "O" show

If you haven't heard by now, I have been named to the Olympic team! Team Canada ended up qualifying 4 spots so the entire national team is going! We are all currently training in whistler for our pre Olympic camp, getting in the final touches before the games. The training here is fantastic, along with the awesome facilities everyone has inner energy knowing that something special is about to happen. Should be an interesting few weeks! 

Winter start

Busy is not the right word to excuse myself from not posting in a long time. I have been to England, Norway, Finland, Germany,  and Japan in the past month alone. I was battling two other jumpers for the last spot on the Olympic team. Although I had very little training this winter and not in top physical condition I did not let that get into my head. The entire time I was only thinking about how awesome it was to be able to travel the world and be able to compete again. I've never felt more relaxed in any competition, purely because I was focusing on being happy. Sometimes even forcing a smile when it is -10 and snowing, made me feel better. My last trip to Sapporo was the most condensed trip I've ever been on. We had 4 full days, and every one had a competition. The second day I finally put two good jumps together and ended up 11th place. This personal best result for me catapulted my name to the top of the list for Sochi. Then we moved to the large hill where I haven't taken a training jump in 4 years. I knew I wasn't going to place very well, but still had some good jumps to prove I could still do it. The final day I had calculated the standings and as long as the other two guys did not get into the top 14 places I was going to Sochi. Dusty Korek landed at 19th after the first round. I ended up not making the second round, so I was able to go up to the coaching stand to watch the take offs. Dusty went and landed a 139m jump! The furthest of the entire weekend, this was awesome for him. On the other hand I literally watched as my Olympic spot floated away. He ended up 4th place which was by far the best result of his career. The broad wave of emotions that flowed through me in the next 4 hours was amazing. I did not know what I was feeling or how I should react. All I knew is that I needed a beer. 

All weathered out

I am sitting in a coffee shop writing this post during our latest snowstorm. These past two weeks have been horrible conditions for outdoor sports. I have jumped 16 times since my comeback started, I leave for Europe tomorrow! Having no control over the weather is something I am used to, but the problem comes with my choice to go for a training trip. The jumps opened here in calgary in record time, I was really happy and wanted to make the most of it. We have a  perfectly prepared jump and we are not able to use it because of cold weather (-40 wind chill) or snow day after day. Makes me second guess my choice to stay home and train. 

Right now I am faced with the reality that a mass of training jumps is not going to happen, I need to work on a few things but that is going to have to wait.  With my first competition jumps right around the corner it is not time to try anything new. Trying to do more then what you are capable of will usually backfire and result in showing worse jumps then normal. 

I am looking forward to this trip and cannot wait to jump again!

Cheers,

Trevor

One week

Unlike myself...time has flown! Last thing I remember I had 2 months to prepare for the first competitions. Although I couldn't be happier about getting to compete again I am getting a feeling in my head like I am not 100% ready to show my best. Having only 15 jumps this winter is frightening, but I know that mentally I am strong. One week from today I am jet setting east for the first COC events of the season. The second tier competition is nothing to take lightly, many guys with tons of experience will be there and it is a great chance to show myself what I can do. I have a few more days of jump training and need to take full advantage of this next week! 

Thanks for reading,

Trevor