Following a solid week in Colorado, including hanging out with some good buddies, dressing up as street fighter, and picking up a new sponsor thanks to Nick from Bio-One! I was off to Portland for the Annual Ski Fever Snow Show! Been apart of performing for the Ski Fever Show the past few years, and it's always been so fun. From getting to meet people in the Portland area, and learning from the ski legends; Bob Howard and Dan Schindler. After a weekend of trampoline shows, learning dance moves, getting to see some family and friends, I was out Monday morning to make my way back to Austria.

For the past few years, Stubai has been the resort for everyone to flock to before the season gets underway. With early season big jumps, a quick lap time, it’s an ideal place to train. Last year I went to Austria to do the Prime Park Sessions at Stubai and ran into some bad luck with the weather. A rare, insanely strong wind came in after the first few days of us riding, and the park was shut down for most of the trip. This made the majority of the national teams all leave, and for us who couldn’t drive home, we spent the two weeks trying to make the most of it.

This trip I’ve had much higher hopes of the weather not being as bad, and hopefully much more productive. During the first two days of riding, the weather did not disappoint. Towards the end of the second day, although still a bit exhausted still from travel I wanted to keep skiing. While filming a few laps with Czech homie, Daniel Hanka. I came a bit short on the first jump, and slightly bruised my heel.

Unfortunately this meant a lot of down time for me for the majority of the trip. First taking a full week off and after experiencing some serious cabin fever, went up to try and ski again. Wasn't feeling that great, so took a few more days. Skied again for a day, then took a few more days off. This unfortunately made me have to pull out of the Milan Big Air World Cup. On the plus side, I got more sunny days on the glacier this fall with a bad ankle, then all of last season. Thankfully by the time the Stubai World Cup started, my heel was feeling much better for me to compete. Pretty frustrating couple of weeks, but very happy that my heel is already feeling much better. 

Next up on the blog, Stubai World Cup!

-Noah