Double Gold for Carl Murphy at the USASA National Championships

A note from Carl Murphy:

It has been an up and down few days since I last sent an update.

It started off on Tuesday with a mixed result in the WSF Adaptive Snowboardcross World Cup at Copper Mountain, Colorado, USA. After a great build up and placing 2nd in the Canadian World Cup, the USA World Cup proved to be challenging on many levels. Variable weather conditions and a talented international field was tough work and I came home in 4th position. I just missed the podium by 0.01 sec, so close yet so far. It was very hard to swallow, especially after all the hard work I have put in and the dedication Adam Dooney, my coach, has contributed towards my development. I would like to congratulate Tyler Mosher of Canada for coming in first, closely followed by Evan Strong, USA and Ian Lockey, Canada in third.

Over the next day or so I regrouped and focused on the next two races at the USASA (United States of America Snowboard Association) National Championships. In the Slalom I raced against some of the best adaptive riders in the world. I woke up in the morning feeling fired up after the last race result, confident and ready for the challenge. I ended up winning GOLD with a combined time of 52.77 seconds, almost 3 seconds ahead of second place, Evan Strong, USA, with a time of 55.62 and Tyler Mosher, Canada, in 3rd with a time of 55.77.

Today I lined up for Giant Slalom hoping to continue the moment from the day before. After coming in 0.07 seconds off first place after the first run I knew in the second run I would have to step it up. I lined up in the gate with some insightful advice from Adam, "smooth and fast". A fast clean run saw me finish with a combined time of 77.54 sec enough to win my second gold of the USASA National Championships by almost 2 seconds over Tyler Mosher, Canada, with a time of 79.49 sec. Ian Lockey, Canada, had the bronze medal with a time of 80.49 sec.

To sum up, it has been a great Northern Hemisphere campaign with a silver medal in an able-bodied event at Crested Butte, Colorado, second place in the WSF Adaptive Snowboard World Cup at Mont Tremblant, Canada and two gold medals at the USASA National Championships along with a 4th place in the World Cup at Copper Mountain, Colorado USA.

I can not thank everyone enough for all their support and help in getting me to North America this season. I am so happy with my results and can't wait to improve on them for next year.

I also would like to give a huge thanks to Adam Dooney, my coach and good friend for helping me out and taking his own time to work with me and my riding. Without his coaching and friendship my goals for the 2009/2010 season would have been so much harder to achieve.

I have attached a couple of photos from my podium results and look forward to seeing you all very soon.

Snow Sports Athletes Shine at Central Otago Sports Awards

Wanaka, NZ (10 April 2010) - Olympic snowboarder Rebecca Sinclair, Queenstown ski racer Adam Barwood and longtime Wanaka snowboard coach Rachel Newton each captured top honours at the Trail Journeys Central Otago Sports Awards in Alexandra Friday night.

Snow sports athletes and coaches were finalists in five of seven categories, taking each of the first three awards presented for performances in 2009.



Olympian Rebecca Sinclair with Paralaympic Gold medallist Adam Hall take time to celebrate at the Trail Journeys Central Otago Sports Awards Friday night

Sinclair, 18, took home Junior Sportswoman of the Year following a string of top performances at World Cup level during the 2009 season, capped by her selection to the New Zealand Olympic Team in early 2010.

Barwood, 18, who is currently still racing in the U.S. and whose father Marty accepted the award on his behalf, took first in the slalom at the Pontiac Cup in Norquay, Canada. He is the reigning NZ National Junior Champion in Giant Slalom and Slalom and posted numerous podium results throughout the year.

Barwood nosed out Wanaka’s Byron Wells, whose top-10 finish at the Winter X Games was one of the highlights of the 2009 season.

Newton, who edged out Wanaka’s Bruce Wells for Coach of the Year, coaches numerous developing and elite-level snowboarders in both New Zealand and Canada. Her athletes are fixtures on the podiums at the New Zealand Junior Nationals and other notable contests worldwide.


In the Senior Sportsman of the Year category, three snow sports athletes were finalists, including recently crowned World Champion Jossi Wells, Paralympic Gold medalist Adam Hall and Olympian Tim Cafe. All three are likely repeat finalists next year based on their results in early 2010.

Wanaka’s Beau James Wells was named to the Roll of Honour for Junior Sportspersons for 2009 in recognition of his overall accomplishments for the year.


Article care of Snow Sports New Zealand

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.