Junior World Championships and World Rookie Finals!

Last week I travelled out to Italy for the Junior World Championships in Valmalenco. It was a super fun event and the course was great!

                                          View from the top of the Gondola in Valmalenco.

I had a really good qualification day, qualifying straight to the final in 1st with a score of 93 on my second run! I was really stoked and my team mate Rowan Coultas also qualified straight to the final as well, which was really cool!

I had the best training before finals landing my run three times in a row so I was really excited for the comp runs to start. I landed my first run clean, but unfortunately not my second, but it was still good enough for 3rd place. Well done to Rowan who came 2nd in the mens event!

After a quick stop in Mayrhofen, we were on the road again to Ischgl for the World Rookie finals. The weather wasn't as good here but the course was still really fun.  I was stoked to qualify 1st into the final, but even more stoked to win it!!! Well done to Rowan who came 5th!

                                           
 It was a super fun competition and make sure to check out the final edit here:

http://vimeo.com/91183605

2012/13 Season

This season has been my best ever! Having the opportunity to compete in the World Cups and world champs has been the most amazing experience. The first world cup was in the US at Copper mountain. The course was great and I had my run down in the practice days, but unfortunately on the competition day, the bad weather came in and it made putting a decent run down almost impossible for me! Oh well!

 The next comp was straight to Canada for the world championships. The course was HUGE and icy-probably the scariest challenge I've ever had to face; but I managed to get a clean run down and placed 10th overall! My best result ever!

Flying upside down in Quebec!

The next trip was to Laax for the Burton European Open and due to bad weather, this comp was cancelled, followed by another cancellation of the Sochi World Cup! Despite this, I went to Czech Republic for another World Cup.

A Czech River

A week later I went to Spain and I was really eager to get a good run, but again this was cancelled due to too much fog! Typical!

Sierra Nevada!

After this, I went to a Roxy shoot in France which was really fun and I had the opportunity to try my first ever back country jump and powder lines! So much fun!

 Method in the back country of Sainte Foy!

Also, between all these events, I made a quick stop to Tignes where I competed in the British Halfpipe championships! It was a fun event despite a pipe full of powder and bumps and was great to see a lot of familiar faces there. I ended up coming 1st overall which I was very happy about!

British Halfpipe championships in Tignes, France

I then travelled to Mayrhofen, Austria to do some training with the GB team. It was a really productive week as I landed my first ever double backflip! Sooo stoked!

Check out the video here:

Double Backflip

I am now at home and currently in the middle of doing my GCSE's. Next stop is NZ in August!

Travel, Snowboarding and comps!

Yesterday I arrived back at home after an amazing couple of weeks in Europe. However, Before venturing out to the Burton European Open, I travelled out to the US for some training and then the first world cup Olympic qualifier in Copper mountain. This event was amazingly perfect in practice; but unfortunately when the competion day came around,the weather was not too kind and the riding conditions were tough. Although this may have not been the best experience ever, it made me even hungrier for the world championships which were to be held a few days after in Quebec, Canada.

View from my window in Canada!

Once settled in Canada, I made my way to the Slopestyle course and found that it was HUGE! Although this scared me a little at first, I took it as a challenge and gave it my best shot in practice. Again, just like the world cup in Copper, the weather was not that good on the competition day and having to ride in strong winds and -40C was not all that fun.However, postponing the contest till the next day must have been the best idea ever as my runs went really well and I finished in 10th place! I was stoked!

Then I went to Switzerland for the Burton European Open and despite the women's contest being postponed day after day after day, I still had a blast riding the powder with friends and shredding around the mountain. Eventually, it was announced that unfortunately the competition had to be cancelled due to strong winds, snow and flatlight-Gutted!
After hearing the news that Sochi had been cancelled, I took a train over to Mayrhofen in Austria to ride the park and have some good weather for a change.

Now I'm at home catching up on school work; but next stop is Czech Republic and then to Spain! Can't wait!

Copper mountain!

NEW ZEALAND

Mid August I headed out to New Zealand with the GB Freestyle Snowboard Team and Roxy.  It was a long flight, changing at Singapore and Sydney - was great to get a sneak peak at those places too!

Me at Shangi Airport Cactus Garden

 

After nearly 30 hours of travelling to the other side of the world, I was pretty jet lagged; but it was well worth it! The scenery was phenomenal and SnowParknz was amazing! The park was so much fun as it involved a pro line, a medium line, a pipe and a very cool jib line. I was so stoked as I learnt loads of new tricks and gained loads of new experiences. Despite doing tonnes of Snowboarding, I also enjoyed doing a hard core morning workout before having a fun shred up the mountain and then to finish the day off by hsving a Yoga session lead by Lesley.

 







 SnowParkNZ

 

 

I was also very lucky as it was my 15th Birthday out in NZ and for one of my presents The GB Team treated me to the Nevis Bungy Jump. Myself, Jenny, Aimee and Rowan went down to Queenstown to do some Bungy Jumping and it was soooo much fun-especially as everyone sung happy birthday to me just as I was about to jump! I never thought I would be throwing myself off a 134m platform on my 15th Birthday!

Jumping off a 134m platform in Queenstown

 

I also had the opportunity to take part in the Roxy Photo shoot which was really cool as I got to model some really nice clothes-Just loved being part of the Roxy Team! Here is a link to my page on the Roxy website: http://roxy-uk.co.uk/en/snow/riders/20120719175236RIDE258427334038/Katie-Ormerod%20.html

 

Overall, I had the most amazing time in NZ! Loved being with the GB Freestyle Snowboard Team and Roxy, I learnt so much in my five weeks out there and really enjoyed being on snow again!

 

                                                                                                     

I think there were more Sheep than people in NZ!

 

 

 

Lake Wanaka!

 

Flying Upside down!

 

Once I had returned home, I was informed that I had won all 3 rounds of the Rokt Masters Rock Climbing competition; but as I was in NZ when the final was on, I placed 2nd; but still recieved a 6 month free climbing pass!Stoked! Now I'm just in the middle of school work and final year of exams; but super excited to go to Hintertux next month! :)

Also, here is a link to my GB Freestyle Snowboard Athlete page

http://www.teambss.org.uk/ski-snowboard-teams/snowboarding/freestyle-snowboarding-team/katie-ormerod/

 

 

 

 



 

Corvatsch and Scotland Training camp!!!

In May I travelled out to Corvatsch in Austria with the GB snowboard team for some private Air Bag training. It was really cool as we had the whole mountain to ourselves and a phenomenal air bag with a twin kicker set up which was really cool as we could learn new tricks on the airbag and then perfect them on the real jump.

We were also very lucky with the weather as it was always very sunny which made the run-ins really soft, and after a great days riding, it was great to cool down with some yoga and a walk to the lake.

The View from the top of the mountain!!!






https://vimeo.com/44734937 Here is a link to The British Freestyle Snowboard Team training camp video.

I also travelled up to Edinburgh a couple of weeks ago for another GB training sesh. It was extremely fun as we went to an amazing skate park where I learnt to skate! We also went to a little gym club to do some Gymnastics and I had the chance to experience wakeboarding at Foxlake Adventures which I loved and I crazily attempted a backflip off a jump-It was so much fun!The nights were spent down in Glasgow for some rail shredding and the set-up which included an amazing canon, was great as we managed to get hundreds of repetitions in and loads of new tricks learnt.

Overall, I had an amazing couple of months winning Cheerleading competitions,training with The British Freestyle Snowboard Team, going to the Fivers for Tranneys comp at Castleford which was really fun. I have also been training at Gymnastics and Rokt Climbing gym, where I have just placed 1st in the round 1 of the Rokt Masters competition! My next trip will be New Zealand in August-can't wait!!! Also, massive thanks to Roxy for all their support!!!

The Brits!

Last week I went out to Laax, Switzerland for the Brits and it was epic. The week started out not so great because the weather was flat light and snow , so the jumps were a definite no go! However, The next day was lovely bluebird so I could have a real good practice day on the Slopestyle course which was good.

Frontflipping in the snow!



The first of the competitions was Halfpipe and it was running very smooth and fast in the morning which was perfect; but as the day progressed on and into the finals, the sun came out and the pipe gradually got slower and slower. After having a Big air practice inbetween runs, I nailed my run in the final and finished in 1st in my age group and 2nd overall!

The overall podium!

Going BIG in pipe!(Also thanks to David Allen for this picture)

The next day was Big Air and having practiced the big 20m jump the day before, I was more than ready to get stuck in and start throwing down some tricks. After qualifying in 1st into the finals, I landed a sweet back 3 over the big one and then I went all out and went for the back 7 and I got it...never been so stoked! I ended up finishing 1st in my age group and 1st overall!!!

Big Air (Photographer: Sam Mellish)

Thanks again To Sam Mellish the photographer for the British Snowboard Championships!










Following Big Air was Slopestyle, my favourite event! I knew the course would be slow so I had to stick to the medium jumps to keep speed. I had two good qualification runs which qualified me in 1st position into the finals. Finals came around soon and I had two more great runs and my first run consisted of: Boardslide to fakie out of the box into Cab 5 indie, front 1, cab 1, back 3. My second run consisted of: frontflip off the box, back 3, front 1, cab 5, back 5. After having my final runs in Laax, I finished 1st in my age group and 1st overall, also winning a free surf holiday in Fuerta Ventura-Stoked!

Frontflipping off the box! ( Thanks to David Allen for this picture)

Overall Podium!

Burton European Open

Earlier this month I returned from the prestigeous Burton European Open, Laax, Switzerland, where I was competing in the Junior section. The weather was great and the slopestyle course was even better. We all had 3 runs, my first 2 were not so good as I fell on my cab 5's - had been landing them solid all practice!!! The pressure was on for my 3rd and final run - I nailed it with cab 5, straight air nose grab, back 3 and back 5 over the kickers - this was my safe run, shame I didn't get it earlier as wanted to go for my 7's but this got me on the podium so pretty stoked with 3rd place.

The second day was Halfpipe, not really my preferred discipline as I dont get to train in the pipe but thought I'd have a go just for fun. The weather was awful that day but managed to pull out some back to back 3's and 5's which was enough to get me on the podium for the 2nd time in 2nd place - even more stoked!

Me in Halfpipe!

Slopestyle podium winners Chloe my Roxy team mate on the left, Miyabi centre and me on the right.


Back at school now doing some GCSE work - Friday I'm heading off to the mountains again for the British Championships in Laax again. Can't wait for this trip as my Mum, Dad and little brother are all coming with me.