OTF!

After the succes stories of last week, I was brutally hit by a reality check. I crashed in my jump set on Monday. It was my first out of the front crash. As I was practising the ¾ cut I had just learned the week before, I approached the ramp feeling quite late. I felt like I would barely get both ski's over the ramp, but just before I was at the ramp I decided that I was still on time enough to go for it. However, because of that moment of doubt, my position on the ramp wasn’t good anymore. I had my ski's flat on the ramp, where normally you should continue cutting on the ramp towards the top left. With my ski’s flat, I still tried to kick off the top, but in doing so, I pushed back my right ski too far, which caused me to fall more and more forward. At that point it was a question of waiting until I hit the water. I was lucky that my ski's went off immediately when I hit the water, because that saved my joints. It did mean that I landed on them with my legs, arms and face, but that takes considerably less time to heal… After a short moment of being a little disorientated and taking in all the pain I felt to identify if it was actually bad, I was able to finally say I was oké. After a moment of processing what happened, I had to get back on the water and take some more jumps. This is necessary to keep confidence in yourself and not develop a fear of jumping. Of course, I didn’t do more ¾ cuts right away. I started with some single cuts, but was so scared that I tried to stand on my heels a lot all so that I wouldn’t go out of the front again. This is unsafe though, and I ended up falling backwards causing my back to hurt quite a bit. It took a couple of jumps to have some confidence again and it wasn’t till the training with the Dutch team back in the Netherlands that I felt comfortable with trying a ¾ cut again, but it went really well and I jumped Friday, Saturday and Sunday without any hard falls, so I am fully confident again. 

After I came back from France on Tuesday night, I had one free day at home. I thought the most important thing to do was go to the fysio and check out everything that I hurt by overusing it and the crash. Since the federation planned 4 days of training for the team with Coyotte, I wanted to be sure that I could ski without causing lasting damage to my body. He said ideally I would take a weeks rest, but since we both know that was out of the question, he taped my shoulder to help the blood flow to help it heal quicker. Also he told me to take some painkillers so that I would keep moving normally. Now I can say that it did help and I skied the past 4 days mostly pain free. In the end both my shoulders and my back hurt a bit, but that is no surprise really. Luckily it didn't stand in the way of having 4 great days of training and I was still able to learn a lot. Only slalom wasn't going exactly as I was hoping it would, but I have a whole week and a 4 round competition coming weekend to get rid of the issues I was having. Hopefully I will be able to prove to myself that I can still slalom well, because after the 4th set of not skiing the way I wanted to at all, I was seriously starting to doubt myself and wonder where everything I had learned in the past week went.

Flying to the mountains

Since Tuesday I have been training at

Vinneys ski school in Toulouse. Since the first day the skiing had been going really well. I hadn’t been slaloming a lot at home because of the conditions, so I was a little anxious going back on the slalom ski. Still the first set was already good, and every set after was getting better and better. I have been working to fix my gates for quite a while now and every coach that I go to identifies it as a problem. Now finally all the tips that I have received to make it better are falling into place and I am improving. This gives me more time in the course, during which I can work on all the other tips as well. Because of this, I am able to ski with a much better technique than before; I feel more powerful behind the boat, more in control of my ski and all my passes feel much easier. This is my third summer skiing with Vinney, so he knows my skiing quite well, and he says that it is as if there is another skier behind the boat, since I improved on my turns so much. Now, I am sure a new PB is not far away. 

In tricks, we worked on putting all my new tricks in a run. Especially in toes, I have a lot of new tricks that should be ready for my run before the next competition.

This results in a toe run that is almost worth more than my previous hands and toe run together. In hands I am also working on some new tricks, these require a bit more work, but I am sure I will be able to put them in for my next competition. In total, my new run will be 4500, if I am able to do every trick credit and in time. This will most likely not be the case in the beginning of the season, but I hope to work towards that score before Europeans. 

In jump I have spent a lot of time on the water without a ramp, practising a ¾ cut. This time, I made the cut towards the ramp, but let go just before. This way, I was still not actually jumping, but I could get used to the feeling of cutting towards the ramp and also work on the timing. Today was the first time also going over the ramp whist doing a ¾ cut. After 2 single cuts, I went for my first ¾, and fell. The second time, I went too early, so I had to pass the ramp. However, the next 4 jumps, I was able to make and land safely. Each jump I dared to go later and cut harder into the ramp, and it was an awesome feeling. I felt like I had more time in the air and I’m really excited to work more on the cut, so I can work towards a new jump PB.

When I came, the temperature was more like I had become used to in Florida rather than the cold of the Netherlands. This was great to ski in again but I could see on the weather forecast that it wouldn’t last. There were a couple of days where I had to ski in the rain and everything was quite cold. However, I must be made for those conditions, because I actually tricked really well!

Ultimate Ski&Wake

Ready to jump around behind the super air Nautique GS20!

On Monday this week I went back to my fysio for the first time since skiing in Florida. It was time to
check up on everything and put some vertebrae back into place. He told me that it would be good to give my body some rest for about two weeks. I immediately thought that's not possible, because I will be leaving to train in France next Tuesday and I was way too excited to ski after last weeks clinic. As luck would have it though, the boat at my club was broken for a couple of days, which forced me to take at least 4 days completely off skiing. I still believe that maybe the fysio just broke our boat; I'm kidding of course, and I'm thankful for all the volunteers who helped fix it. On Friday I got to ski again, so that was at least some rest for my back, but I did keep working out and running in between.
Friday I had to work the entire day, but it was also my last day there. I decided it was too much to keep working there when the season really kicks off. Therefore at the end of the day I had a lot on my mind and I was quite sad to leave all my colleagues behind. I called up the ski club to find out if there was still a spot for me to ski, which there was, just before it got darker. I was really happy to get on the water and get everything out of my head for a while. It went to show that water-skiing also helps me to deal with everything else that's going on. Just jumping the wakes as a warm up instantly put a smile on my face. Afterwards, I also had a good set in which I worked on my new tricks from last Sunday, so I ended the day perfectly at the lake with the sunset.

Find the photographer on instagram: @albertomta

On Saturday, the Dutch team skiers were invited to give demos at the Ultimate Ski & Wake event.
This was an event in Brielle, where we could test some awesome boats, browse through some watersport brands and raise money for the charity of forgotten children. It was well put together and I was immediately approached by multiple people to test some of their products. First of all the wetsuit brand Glidesoul, which I also skied in at Whitney McClintock's clinic, asked me if I would want to ski in their suits so they could shoot some pictures. The suits look great and are really eye-catching so I was very willing to do that. Also this allowed me to ski in a new and, more importantly, dry suit every set that I went on the water. Because it was still pretty cold and it also rained for a while, it was perfect to be able to put on something dry before each demo. Afterwards, I was asked to ski behind a boat with a 60HP engine. He had made a system with which you are able to ski behind a boat with an outside engine. I was skeptical at first, but ended up having lots of fun behind it, and it is capable of keeping a straightline and pulling me on a slalom ski, which is impressive! The main event of the day was testing the super air Nautique GS20! This boat was awesome on the inside, but just as good to ski behind. The wakes were really awesome for tricks, whilst also being low enough to slalom behind when you want to. All in all, I had a great day at this event and hope it can continue to grow each year so that the watersports get more and more support!

Back in Maurik

This week I was really back home, because I got welcomed back by my personal trainer. She had a couple of really heavy workouts planned this week, just in case I forgot about her! The focus was more on intensity than strength in order to raise my heart rate and get back into action mode. We did do some strength exercises to test my level compared to when I left for Florida, because last time I came back having taken quite some steps back (also due to my birthday cake and Christmas meals...). This time I came back stronger and more ready than ever to kick some butt. Even though I was still strong in my muscles, which I'd also been using a lot on the water, I hadn't done much cardio, therefore the high intensity was quite hard. After each session this week, I couldn't bike home directly after, I had to regain some strength in the changing room! I did however really enjoy the workouts and I'm excited to get back to working hard in the gym as well as on the water.

Still, nothing quite measures up to the days on which I can hang out at a lake all day and get 4 sets of training in. Especially not when those sets are with an awesome trainer who has some unusual tricks, that really helped me improve my tricks. Today was one of those days! I went to Maurik, the ski club where I started dreaming of participating in competitions, after revisiting for the 2013 youth Europeans, that dream turned into participating at a E&A championship. Those goals I have now met, so I decided to set a new one. This season, I will learn a flip, I've said it before, but now I have a deal that I have to respect!

In Maurik, Coyotte - who trained our national team a couple of times last year, and will again this year- was coaching for the day. I was super stoked when I was asked to come by and ski there, because this meant great coaching from Coyotte, but also skiing with one of the people that trained me in my first youth camp. She was one of the people who inspired me to want to be good in water-skiing and helped me along the way. Now we were really excited to ski together once again, and hopefully we can meet more often. Even though it was pretty cold today, I wanted to ski until I felt I had taken everything out of today that I could. Since I have 2 suits, the third set I was wearing a wet one, so throughout the set I got colder and colder. still I was having too much fun and learning too much to want to stop, so I kept skiing until I was told we really had to go back. After this, I had some difficulties getting warm, but there were still some tips I really wanted to work on, so I wanted to get back on the water one more time. Luckily Coyotte had brought a suit for himself, but didn't want to ski in the end, so he let me borrow it. It was a bit too big, so despite our efforts to keep water out by folding up the sleeves, after each start I had collected a pool in my leg, where the water couldn't escape. Still this was much better than starting a set already cold. I did a new trick almost first try, which was awesome and I didn't expect to do so in the 4th set of such a cold day. Furthermore I improved many tricks and am on my way to learning some new tricks. I'm also content with my slalom set, since it was the first one on the colder water, which always feels a little different than warm water. I can't wait to keep working on those tips in the three weekends the federation has booked with him for the national team!!

All in all a great day today, especially after having done my SAT yesterday. This test is a necessary step towards going to university in America, but it took from 8 till 14.00, so I was exhausted by the time I was done. It was also quite stressful, because it can earn me a good academic scholarship, which I will need in order to finally achieve the biggest goal I've held over the past couple of years, which is to combine studying at a university with water-skiing at a collegiate level. Now all I can do is wait for the results, which won't be for another month or so....

More about my experiences in Maurik in:
New PB!!
The Rookies