4 states this week

Since Wednesday this week, we've been in 4 different states, but before I explain why and where, I want to start with the beginning of the week, which was with Breanne and Ryan Dodd.

On Monday Tycho and I arrived at Stillwater lakes eager to be coached by Breanne and Ryan, since we had such positive experiences last times. The day we arrived the water didn't look very promising, luckily on the side of the lake that we couldn't see, the conditions were actually surprisingly good. I was happy with my slalom set, especially because Breanne helped me ski some of my easiest passes ever, although this still has to translate to some of my best passes ever, I'm happy with the improvements in my technique. Sadly, we could only stay for 2 days, but I will take the tips I got and work on them back home in order to really improve my technique.

Due to the limited time, I decided it would be best to dedicate 2 sets per day to jumping, because there is probably a reason that Ryan is world jump champion. Due to the wind, all 4 sets were spent on drills and not actually jumping. Of course I would've liked to actually go over the ramp, but at this point, getting comfortable on my new skis and improving my technique is most important. The fun thing about the drills is that I can actually feel a difference in my balance and stability from the beginning to the end of a set. I'm glad I spent some time on the basics and hope if I continue these drills back home too, that I will be adding some meters to my jumps soon. The focus of these training days was not really on tricks, but I did get some very useful pointers regarding my 540 wake turns.

Now for the explanation as to why we've been to 4 states since Wednesday! After encouragement of multiple people, we were convinced that a visit to potential universities in Louisiana could be very beneficial. I've been thinking about going to either the university of Louisiana at Lafayette or Monroe for quite a while now. I applied to both some months ago, since these universities could allow my dream of combining my study with intensive water-ski training to come true. Initially the plan was to drive up there and visit one university per day. However, since it was good Friday this week, our plans got completely thrown around, leaving no room to drive. On Tuesday, there were probably 5 people looking at which plane tickets were cheapest and early enough to allow for our plans to continue. A little last minute, definitely, however, we were able to pull it off, thanks to Joke, Pierre, Talisa and Tycho Hof and my parents. The flight left Wednesday morning, at 6am.... from Miami. Since we only knew we were doing this Tuesday afternoon, we still had to drive down to Miami at some point. This point turned out to be 10pm on Tuesday, and since we had to be at the airport close after 4am, there was no point in getting a hotel. In stead, we parked the car on a parking lot and tried to get 1 or 2 hours of sleep. Then on to our first flight to Atlanta, Georgia, state number 2 after Florida. From there we had 20 minutes to make our connecting flight to Louisiana, state number 3. We landed in New Orleans, from where we would drive to Lafayette, where our tour started at 1pm, after barely any sleep. On Thursday morning, we made our way up to Monroe to visit that university. It was great to hang out with the skiers all afternoon and for dinner, though I was a little jealous, since we didn't take our skis on the plane. On Friday, we drove back down to New Orleans, through Mississippi, state number 4! Since our flight back to Miami is Sunday morning, we had some time to enjoy the culture in Baton Rouge and New Orleans. I was really impressed at how beautiful New Orleans is, and I would love to come back and see more of the city, possibly when I go to a university in the same state :D. I'm extremely happy I got the opportunity to visit the universities, because it definitely got me one step closer to reaching my dreams. I can't wait to have everything finalized and on black and white, so I can start enjoying the fact that my dream will come true!