US Team Update #2

The Jr. Team came down last week early for some pre-training at Gliding Soles Barefoot Camp.  Everyone started off on the right foot with Laura showing us that she was our foundation!  Laura improved her wakes by one full point and stood up every run in slalom and tricks!  Let’s see how she does on Wed.  Al is the man for tricks and slalom while Mike was mostly on the team for jumping.  They both foot on Wed. with slalom being the first event of the Worlds!  Billy Benoist will be the alternate and he also skis on Wed. in slalom and tricks.  This will be the elimination round so it’s important that the skiers stand up their trick runs and make sure they’re super clean in slalom with a quick pace!

On Tuesday I decided to take the team back to Tampa for some last minute adjustments!  We got Stephanie Sternagel squared away on her jumping and I do mean Square!!  She landed two beautiful jumps after several attempts, so I said, “Let’s take one more and make it 3 for 3!”  The last jump turned to disaster and Stephanie landed on her butt but then got launched to her feet.  Her helmet caught water and got ripped off completely.  We raced back to her and she was in pain saying that she heard her back crack!  I was pretty scared but knew that Stephanie was a tough girl and could get back out there if I asked.  I didn’t ask her to jump again but gave her a brake and she got right back out there and skied her trick runs anyway!

Laura once again stood up everything, and Al went 3 for 3 on his jumps!  Mike had a bit of a hard time not landing as many jumps as I’d like to see but the ones he did land were large!  70ft.!  Again, it’s so important that in the first round Mike lands a jump to go onto the semi final round.  The first two rounds count as team overall points so to make it to the second round is huge as far as a second chance.  When I say second chance, that means more overall points for the team and you can improve your score as well as making it to the finals for an individual medal. 

I’ll keep everyone posted here on BFC so check back everyday and I’ll have pictures as well as results!

PICTURES