The following day, we had a much-needed down day to relax. This day was different from others for the reason that it was right after North Korea had openly talked about a terrorist attack on South Korea. For this reason, we saw a huge bump in security around the hotel and the event. Walking in our hotel, there were members of SWAT, along with attack dogs, and tons of extra police around. That afternoon we decided it was time to get out and explore, so a few of us decided to go check out the Woljeongsa Buddhist Temple. We had a blast walking around this temple, and were just so happy to get out of our hotel to see something new and interesting. After a solid dinner, it was off to bed early to get rested up for Finals.

When I awoke, I was checking through emails, and found out that I got my official invite to the X Games in Oslo. Happy with the news, I started checking flights, and frantically found one to book. After running around during the morning, it was time for Finals. The course and weather were perfect, which is something that almost never happens for us. After a solid morning of practice, it was go time. In my first run, I was able to put down my rail run, but was having troubles with my Switch Dub 12 and landed backseat. On my second run, I felt very slow going into the last rail feature and tried to do a different trick. Ended up not making the transition, but was able to put down my best jump runs of the day. On my third and final run, I went a bit too fast on the first rail, and wasn’t able to land it very clean. At the end of the day I finished dead last in finals. It’s always frustrating when you don’t do as well as you hoped. Especially when you know that you were skiing well, minus the few bobbles. Although it wasn’t my day, I’m happy to be healthy and ready for the next contest. Major congrats to Alex Bellemare for crushing it on his 3rd run to come out with his first World Cup win.

The next day, we took the shuttle down to the airport. A few of us had later flights, so we took the train into Seoul and walk around and get some food before having to fly. Really wish we could of had an extra day to check everything out, but happy to experience what we did. I flew out of Seoul the following day, and headed back to the States for 20 hours, before hopping on my flight to Europe.

Big thanks to US Freeskiing for inviting me out for the Olympic Test Event. Loved Korea, and looking forward to coming back in the future.

Next up X Games Olso!

-Noah

Photo.

Korea Part 2