Hi, I am slowly beginning to catch up with all my news since the Christmas holidays and the New year!

Saturday 17th December 2011

This Saturday would see me competing in one of the most unusual and coolest competitions I have done in the UK so far. I had been invited as one of only 5 female snowboarders by Snowsport Scotland to attend the Edinburgh Invitational Street Session.

This was and I quote ‘Scotlands biggest urban snowsports festival celebrating the UK’s best ski and snowboard athletes, turning the centre of Edinburgh in to a world-class ski resort’. Basically the slope was erected on Princes street under the shadow of Edinburgh castle, built of scaffolding and 50 tons of real snow imported from the Sno!zone at Braehead.

I travelled up to the competition on the Friday night having just taken ‘Best Female’ in the Nike Chosen event at Hemel Hempstead. My Mum and Dad drove all through the night and some very heavy snow conditions to arrive at my friend’s house near Edinburgh at 5 am.

I was staying with my fellow Junior GB team member and good friend Vailla Chapman who was also competing in the event. Vailla lived close enough to Edinburgh that we could catch the bus in to town, it was really funny with just the two of us all done up in our snowboard gear and carrying our helmets and boards sitting on the bus with all the shoppers and tourists. We did get some very strange looks, but we just laughed and had a lot of fun. We then had to walk for a bit through the Edinburgh streets, before turning the corner to see the mighty construction of snow and steel.

The slope consisted of three features to hit,as you looked up the slope a flat box on the left in the middle a very tall side hit round bar street rail and on the right hand side another side hit  flat up flat kinked rail. The atmosphere of the whole event was really exciting and the setting was amazing, a crowd of Christmas shoppers had already began to build, and it felt like we were on a stage.

The competition was organised into a rail jam format with both skiiers and boarders taking turns to hit rails. The snow condition was struggling with the days slightly raised temperature and speed was an issue as well as the wedges on to the features collapsing. But Greg Bow and his team from Sno!zone did a fantastic job of keeping the slope intact and groomed.

After a couple of hours of shredding the rails we had a break, while the finalists would be decided, so I grabbed a chance to have something to eat and drink and try to dry out a little. I was really soaked through as the snow melted so quickly on you, that it felt like I had been swimming.

The finalists were announced and I was so pleased to be one of only two female snowboarders to go through. Myself and Orla Doolin would be competing against the two female skiers. Sissy Herant and Anna Vincenti for the top female spot. It would be a bit unusual to be competing against skiers, but all I wanted to do was try my best. I had my own mission, as I really wanted to get some better tricks on the middle side hit rail as it had been very difficult to hit in the qualifications.

With the darkness gathering and all the Christmas lights in the street and park as well as the awesome back drop of the castle all light up against the evening sky, the atmosphere took on a magical quality. The crowd had really grown now and you could feel the excitement had increased. The compere could see that I was trying hard to land a trick on the centre rail. He soon had the crowd all willing me on and  after one failed attempt,I dropped in and locked my board onto a sick lipslide all the way down the feature.The crowd went wild at the bottom of the slope and I felt amazing! Orla and I were encouraging each other on, and trying to pull out as many different tricks as possible. I was pleased to get a nice board slide on the

kinked rail as well as a back lip on the centre rail, frontside and 180 rotations on and off the box. But both our attempts were in vain as the overall place went to skier Sissy Herant, who rode amazing the whole evening. There was no disappointment in the result as everybody had had such an amazing time in a fun and unique event. I discovered a love for street rail jam sessions, and the atmosphere is so different from any other event.

Finally all that was left to do was to say goodbye to every one and Vailla and I had to go and find the bus for our journey home.

BeXx x