The Journey

So....How does someone not from a skiing background at an international competition level, or with a historical general interest in skiing end up deciding that a career in Downhill and Super G is for them!

Well...its pretty straight forward really....After a decade in investment and finance banking around currencies and commodities which ended with a career burnout having just hit my 30's, I tried redemption of the soul through assisting those in need for a couple of years across East Africa and parts of Asia, which also ended in a burn out and a lesson that it was time to discover my inner me, after first finding my inner me....This turned out to be easier than expected as my recreational kicks during a corporate career involved either speed or heights or both, Sky diving, in line skating, flying planes, you name it, I have done it. The only problem I had is that all of these things I have done, just doing them has not been enough. For the true extreme junkie, it takes doing them to highest standard, then testing whether you have the highest standard to truly be happy, and the only way that standard can be tested and pushed is in competing. So here I am after 4 months of physical muscle development and training, with 4 weeks of 12 hours per day 6 days per week skiing crammed into a schedule of studies for my joint honours degree in physics and mathematics and hustling for sponsorship and the appropriate race licenses (which in itself is a freakin nightmare for a rookie let me tell you) but thanks to some good friends, lots of peanut butter for energy, and a lot of determination, here I am, at the junction where I must now fly the nest which for me has been the Snow Centre in Hemel Hempstead England, and head to the slopes before the Europa cup season starts so i can get some FIS non cup races under the belt before competing as a rookie in in the Europa cup and hopefully getting into this 2014/2015 world cup season where I will stay and do battle with the toughest, hardest, bravest of pursuers of speed, G forces and a constant plentiful supply of dopamine and adrenalin.

So here goes nothing, and to those considering a similar journey, not from a skiing background, know this, the system does not want you, so if you want to get in, you have to fight it, using every tactic available to you, be a businessman, be a hustler and be an athlete, because of your not all of these things, then unlike the Rudyard Kipling poem, yours will not be the glory, it will be pain, and there is enough pain in skiing with the physical injuries without making life harder by not been prepared to do what I have mentioned, including adopting dual nationality!!!

Peace out and here's to a prosperous 2014/2015 season for all. May your journey's breathe life into your soul, and may your accomplishments be beyond yours and yours watchers expectations.

Best wishes
The rookie

P.S To my potential partners, this isn't about the money (all sponsor money over the next 4 years is been given to a particular ministry of sports in a homeland country of mine to give chances to those less blessed than me in terms of inner strength), this about the glory, this is about the chase, this is about the challenge, this is about been Number 1, this is about mastering speed and physical forces and experiencing life chasing the optimum line of trajectory for myself as a human missile strapped into ski's that along with the human body, an engine of immense power, propel me through curved lines of white, crisp, injected ice surfaces to the finish line, alive, and alive, and ready for the next course! Kitsbuhel, Wengen, I'm coming for you :-)

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The Challange

On the face of it, we see talent and normally we can find a way to instantly develop that talent. If we see someone good at football, then we can get them into a squad and even on a pitch competing at the highest level just like that. My talent is skiing, a recently acquired talent, but none the less a talent, so as a mature adult one can imagine my frustration when finding a home to develop that talent competitively is blocked because of bureaucracy by governing bodies.

The irony in the protection afforded to ensuring nobody can just walk in and enter the discipline of Alpine skiing and particular downhill, super g and giant slalom, is that Britain has consistently failed to produce a skier of exceptional top finishing talent within the mens world cup or Europa League for...well...ages, so what's to protect, surely, if someone is good, let them race, help them to race, nurture them with pace, not over years, but within 1. I have come across so many times these recent months the following saying by many coaches and heads 'it takes 4-5 years to develop a skiing career'. Well my friends, that just isn't true, the key to doing anything well is muscle memory and the development of particular muscle memory groups. I train for 10 hours per day on average and within the first 3 weeks, a pair of 170 length carving skis felt like slippers on feet, riding the edge of my ski along a sweeping curve felt as natural as putting on my boxer shorts in the morning or brushing my teeth. The statement I make of progress in such a short term, by no means states that it has taken me such time to develop to a world class style, but quite simply, I wont, and nobody will ever know if they are world class talent, unless these compete at a world class level.

This post feels like a rambling, which in some way, it is today, but the underlying point about developing talent is non disputable, I cant help but feel some of the people I have encountered along the way so far are interested mainly in protecting there own jobs! Tomorrow's post is called, 'how I ended here', and should have been today's, but an email to a ministerial government official overseas to create a winter sports program to help support my getting a winter ride under different nationality to my British born roots, has left me perplexed that I have had to create such complicated structures to get to do something, that really should be a lot simpler, compete.

Hiho Hiho, its of to training we go - 6 hours solid skiing today, no breaks, already nutrient loaded, just waiting for the dopamine to feed through my body over a one hour warm up so I can really get this engine flying today and put any pain to the back of mind and focus on the results of pushing yourself to the very edge of every comfort zone you know.

Hasta la pronto peoples :-)

The Question

Can a never before competed, freshly trained over 5 months, previously inexperienced Non 'BASI instructed' 'rookie skier' turn pro making it into the FIS Alpine World Cup, all within the 2014/2015 race season, through non traditional teaching, 10-12 hour 6 day week training, social media platform instructional video tuition by the likes of the Austrian born former Alpine World Cup Skier, 'Harold Harb; and through comprehensive analysis of the top 1,2,3 FIS World Cup Skiers, cut his teeth on FIS non Cup races, move into Europa cup Alpine races and make at least 1 FIS Alpine Downhill and Super G World Cup race all within a 7 month race season beginning October 2014 ?????

So begins the blog log of my epic adventure into the elitist, sometimes referred to as class discriminatory, world of competitive Alpine skiing in the disciplines of Downhill, Super G, Giant Slalom and Super Combined international races during the 2014/2015 Alpine Season beginning October 2014. Hope you all enjoy the journey as I have so far in simply getting to the point of physically been able to compete, and to the haters of such audacious ambition, as to think a rookie can go through every competing level from bottom to top within a season, your welcome to your opinion :-)

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