An Update from Adaptive Snowboarder, Carl Murphy

Wow, it has been an awesome past few days. Filled with lots of travel, training and some great racing and awesome results.

After finishing off my race preparation, in Whistler BC Canada, Adam Dooney (my coach) and I left for Mont Tremblant in Montreal Canada for the 2010 Canadian Adaptive Snowboarding World Cup.

We arrived in Montreal to very unseasonal weather for this time of year with temperatures reaching into the 20's for most of the week. This made training and racing even more of a challenge. However, the warmth was very welcome after the cold of Colorado and Whistler.

The World Cup race was scheduled for yesterday the 2nd of April and the organisers did a fantastic job building a course, given the snow conditions in the summer type heat. The boardercross course was the most technical course ever put together for an Adaptive snowboard event. It was also the longest course we have ridden on, over 1min 30sec for the top riders. Endless features throughout the course made it a challenge for not only the adaptive riders but also the able bodied men and women also racing on the same course.

The race format was to be 3 runs your fastest 2 runs counted. The times are worked out with a classification system, similar to the system used in Paralympic skiing, with a percentage given to each rider against their disability. The more disabled riders get more of a percentage taken off their finishing time.
The decision was made early on race day that the race format would be reduced to 2 runs with the extreme conditions affecting the condition of the snow.

I was feeling confident as I lined up in the start gate for my first run. I had an awesome start with a good line through the top section of the course. However, I came unstuck halfway down the course having a massive crash seeing me flip upside down and bruising to my hip and pride!
Not to let it get to me, I made it to the finish but with a time not worth writing in this email! As the race format had now changed to 2 runs, with your best time counted, it was now pressure time. As I lined up in the gates for my second run in the back of my mind I knew a mistake in this run would have put me out of medal contention.

Fortunately I put in a solid, mistake free, run finishing with a great time. It proved to be good enough for second place, being only half a second off first place, yip, that’s only half a second!

So all in all it was a race full of serious tough competition and drama with lots of crashes and a few injuries. The Canadians put on a great event and I hope to be back there again next year for the World Champs.

Here’s what’s coming up for the following week:

- 6th April USA World Cup Copper Mountain CO
- 6th April USASA National Championships Boardercross
- 8th April USASA National Champtionships Slalom
- 9th April USASA National Championships Giant Slalom.

I will keep you all posted on my progress throughout the week.

Thank you all so much for your on going support.