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.

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Been feeling a bit sick the last couple of days, but today was made to feel so much better! My sponsor Dragon Alliance have sent me some brand new APX Goggles, and they are soooo lush, I love them to bits.

Thanks so much Sam and Craig

BeXx x x x

Friday 16th December 2011

Just before Christmas, I was so stoked to be invited to attend and compete in the ‘Nike Chosen Series’ big air competition, at the Snowcentre at Hemel Hempstead. This event would see one of the biggest indoor kickers seen in the UK, a lofty 13m to the sweet spot. The invited riders would compete for the evening sessioning the massive kicker showcasing their best tricks.

The size of the kicker!!

My first impression on seeing the huge kicker was how massive it looked in an indoor setting. I have hit bigger kickers on the mountain, but I was a little worried that I might not be able to get enough speed on the indoor snow. With no option to drop in from higher up the slope, I would have to wring every bit of speed I could find.

With this in mind, I waited a little bit to see some of the other riders hitting it and then did a couple of speed check runs. I would ride up to the lip of the takeoff to feel how the run in felt, before actually fulling committing to the jump. With this done, there was nothing left to do but go for it. I dropped in and held my speed and my nerve, as I left the lip of the kicker I felt a little unstable in the air and waved my arms about a bit. But I landed in the sweet spot of the landing and rode away clean.

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Hi, sorry I have not updated my blog sooner, but it has been a really hectic few months. Loads of competitions and events as well as keeping up with all my school work. Plus my numpty Dad went and dislocated his elbow trying to keep up with me snowboarding. He is ok though but out of action for a few weeks, hurry up and get back on your board soon Dad.

Ok so what has been happening;

British Snow Tour Championships 2011

Due to the current financial state of the country the British Championships has been reduced from 6 events all over the country to just one. A real shame as the tour has always been a really fun and enjoyable event.

Saturday 24th September

This was a really busy day, not one but two competitions in one day. First off was the British Snow Tour indoor championships at Castleford, then the Burton High 5 competition at Tamworth.  The day would see me having to ride for 16 hours, give or take some time off for prize giving and travelling.

The Protest Slope style Course

I went up to Castleford on the Friday night and stayed in the local hotel, this was fun as I met up with fellow competitor Vailla Chapman from Scotland. After a good nights sleep I got up early in the morning to register  for the competition. The format for this years competition was brand new and would involve all the snow boarders hitting a complete run of box features on one side of the slope. The skiers would then be hitting the rail features on the opposite side of the slope at the same time. Then after two judged runs we would swap over.

The action kicked off at 9.00am with an open practice session, and before long there where skiers and snowboarders everywhere trying out all the features. Once the practice was over the girls were up first, and as I had finished in 2nd place in the British Championships last year I was seeded to run second to last. This would at least give me the advantage of being able to see most of the other competitors runs first.

I was really pleased to qualify through to the finals in 2nd place, but a slip out on my box run meant that I slipped back to 4th place Overall. Was still pleased with this result and my 2nd place in the Youth category.

Youth Podium, Natalie Silkstone, Katie Omerode, Becky Menday

Overall Female:

1. Katie Omerode

2. Laura Berry

3. Faye young

4. Becky menday

Youth Category:

1. Katie Omerode

2. Becky Menday

3. Natalie Silkstone

After all the prize giving it was a mad dash from Castleford down to Tamworth to compete in the first of the Burton High 5 series. I was feeling really sleepy after having ridden for what seemed like the whole day. I started riding at 9am and did not stop until about 5pm, except for a break for lunch. Now I would have to compete until about 1am it was going to be a long evening ahead!

My Frontside on the flat down rail

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Westbeach Snowflex Series 2011, Halifax

Becky gets her 'Steeze on'. Thanks to Dave Allen for the pics.

Saturday 10th September 2011

This is my first post for a while, as I have spent most of the summer in Cornwall staying with my Nan. But after a Summer filled with sea, sand and sometimes sun, it is back to the UK snowboarding competition season.

This kicked off on Saturday morning with a 6:00a.m. start, way too early for my liking. I was off on my travels again with my Dad at the wheel, taking us up to Halifax for the Westbeach Snowflex series 2011 at Halifax dryslope. We were first going to stop in Leicester to pick up Lucy Prior one of my fellow competitors and friend. So as I was very tired I had a good power nap until we picked Lucy up.

Once back on the road Lucy and I had a chance to catch up as we had not seen each other for a while. Dad made very good time on the journey and we arrived at Halifax in what seemed like no time at all. In fact we were so early that the place had not even opened up. Another of my fellow competitors and friend Cerys Allen had also arrived early so we just chilled out and waited. Once the doors opened Lucy and I rushed in to get to the comfy sofas!

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Hitting the Nike 6.0 stair set in Landgraaf Holland

Friday 22nd July 2011

Today I went to school like any normal day, but this was even better as it was the last day before the Summer holidays!  I had only been back at school a week, as I had only just returned from my GB Team training in Les Deux Alpes. It was a really cool day,  I had just won The Gifted and Talented award for all my sporting achievements; and for the work I had done as sport ambassador for the school. It was a bit embarrassing as I had to collect it in front of the whole school. But it was a cool shield style trophy with my name and year engraved on it.

As soon as I came home from school I had to pack up all my snowboarding gear again. This time I was off to Holland! Now when you think of Holland you generally think of it as a flat place with no mountains to shred on. This is very true, however it is home to one of the largest indoor real snow slopes in Europe. I was really looking forward to riding in the massive  ”Snowworld” snowdome  it is so large that it has a six seater chairlift going up the center!

My shop sponsor, Boarders Boards had organised the trip for the shop team members, friends and shop staff.  Dad and I collected a journalist Kaz Willmer from ‘Gone Boarding’ Internet Magazine, from our local train station and started our travels to the Boarders Boards HQ in Weedon. Here we waited for everybody else to arrive. Finally with everybody sorted we set off at 1am in the morning, we drove to Dover in a convoy of two vehicles belonging to the Boarders Boards shop .On route we picked up the trips photographer Andy Jay from a service station on the m25.

At Dover we boarded the ferry to Calais and tucked into breakfast, well it was 7am. While waiting to disembark from the ferry, the guys in the other van opened up their side door and played this old Neil Diamond song through some huge speakers fitted in the van. I thought other people waiting would get cross, but they all seemed in high spirits and joined in with the fun. Back on the road for what seemed a far longer trip than I remembered  from when I went with the Mum and Dad two years before. We finally arrived at ‘Snowworld’ at 12 o’clock. YAY! I had been sitting in the middle seat in the car I was travelling in; and it was really hard and uncomfortable and when I tried to get out of the car once we arrived in Holland I couldn’t feel my bottom at all!

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Monday

Well another start to a new week here in Les Deux Alpes; Katie Omerod and Aimee Fuller left to go watch the Roxy surf team on Sunday. But they have been replaced by my friend Natalie Silkstone and fellow Dragon Alliance Team member, Gemma Marshall.

I have ridden and spent a lot of time with Natalie at events such as the Burton European Open and the British Championships; but I have not ridden with Gemma very much and this would be a good opportunity to get to know her better. We had also now been joined by the GB Team main coach Hamish McKnight and I was excited to see how he would coach us.

Today it was amazing! to start the day off I got to see all the new people riding and this was really inspirational for me to try new things. Hamish was getting everyone to spin out of the mini pipe because the big one was closed. By spinning out the pipe I mean spinning and landing on the top of the pipe (the flat bit before it curves)! He soon had me spinning backside 360′s out of the pipe. At first I was not able to do them, but then he showed me how to prewind my shoulders and with this help,  I landed them every time. By this time the landings on the kickers were becoming soft, so we went over to have a session hitting them. Amazingly I managed to get enough speed to get over the kickers. I had two warm up runs with my method safety trick then went that straight into backside 360s. Once I was spinning my speed was a bit of an issue but i still managed to nearly get it round I was really close and hamish said by the end of the week I will have them nailed and not only that but also looking stylish! I can’t wait till tomorrow to try them again!

BeXx lovin' the hippy moment

Friday 1st July

Arrival Day
Friday morning found  me at home all excited, I was waiting for  fellow Boarders Boards team member Calum Paton to arrive. Our big road trip to Les Deux Alpes in the French mountains was about to begin and I was so looking forward to riding the glacier again. The last time I was at Les Deux Alpes was my second time ever on a mountain and I was 10 years old back in 2009.

My Mum and Dad drove Calum and myself to a service station on the M4 where we were going to meet up with our GB Junior Team coach Dan Wakeham. Dan then drove us to pick up a friend of his called Emily Williams who was also coming with us and finally we set off for dover.  On arriving at Dover we missed the ferry by 3 minutes and had to wait to 9:00pm to get the next one. Being really hungry we all  decided to have a burger king and that filled me up lots. On the ferry I did some Home work and then slept!

We arrived safely in France and once back in the car I fell asleep again . I got woken up by a sudden stop; I thought we were there but it turned out we were stopping for breakfast, after breakfast at the sketchy services we carried on our  journey. After about ten hours or more of car travel I was really pleased to arrive at the mountains, and a few games of ‘ping pong’  later I was ‘so happy’ to hit my bed for more sleep. I love the mountains to bits, but the endless travelling in cars sucks and it is so hard to stop the boredom.

Sunday

Today Katie Omerode and Aimee Fuller arrived and it was great to have their company. I was really looking forward to hitting the mountain with them on Monday. We did not have much to do today as we were all settling in. I took the opportunity  to make sure that I had all my school work completed, that way I would not have to worry about it and could concentrate on my riding.

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More Snowboarding Videos

Saturday 28th May 2011

Today and another car trip, this time to Chill Factore in Manchester for another indoor snow competition.

This was the second ever Oakley Grom Games the last one was held at the same time last year. I came 2nd in my age category at that event and also met the amazing gold medal winning Jenny Jones, you can read about that event using this link

www.beckymenday.co.uk/about-bex/12-competition-and-event-news/25-oakley-grom-games

So with that event in my mind I was really looking forward to see what this year would have to offer.

Despite having to avoid a nasty accident on the M6 on the way up, and a bit of a diversion to avoid the heavy traffic build up we made it to Manchester in good time.

I have to say that I was really excited looking at the park set up, as this looked like one of the best set ups I had seen at Chill Factore. As friends and fellow competitors began to arrive my excitement began to rise.

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