Skeleton Luge Well, the Olympics is over which means it is time to go back to work. Love the Olympics, always a good excuse to sit on your backside for two weeks and watch tele. With no snow around we have to have something to inspire us! I managed to catch a fair bit of the action from Vancouver. Obviously besides curling which is always a favourite, the highlights had to be the mad people on skeleton luges careening head first down the track at 140kms an hour and the ice skating.

Every time the Olympics comes on there are always heated discussions to be heard as to whether ice skating is a real sport or not. Clearly this is divided 50% down the middle with the girls yaying and the guys naying. Now it is a mystery to me as to how people can't accept that jumping off a razor thin edge, spinning in the air (in a non-gravity assisted way) and then landing on said edge is not sport. The competitors are super strong and talented athletes although of course they all look like rakes. I very much doubt I could stay standing up on the ice for more than 10 seconds wearing crampons and holding onto the edge so kudos to them all!

Halfpipe at Cypress Somehow I managed to miss the most important part of the entire games - Shaun White landing a double McTwist 1260 – first ever to be landed in competition. Amazing! Well I imagine it was anyway, unfortunately the IOC seem to have removed all videos from the internet showing his performance and unless you live in the US you can't see it anywhere.

 I did however catch most of the action from the girls which was pretty impressive. Torah Bright blowing away the competition again. How do those Aussie girls get so good? Clearly I am now inspired to greatness in the half pipe. I did have the same aspirations last year and managed to make it within half a metre (ok maybe a metre) of the top of the Olympic sized half pipe at Cardrona. Once there however my life flashed before my eyes and I could go no higher. The Cardies pipe was actually made by Kiwi John Melville, the same guy that built the pipe at Cypress Mountain and is certainly nothing to be sniffed at!!

Soko Yamaoka At least I could console myself with the fact that I am now the ripe old age of 33  – no spring chicken any more. Unfortunately my self-consolation was shattered when the commentator announced that the rider just been - Soko Yamaoka from Japan - was 35, she absolutely ripped in the pipe while still managing to be kawaii. Not to mention Wanaka rider Julianne Bray. At 34 years of age she is still she is still performing strongly in half pipe competitions around the world. Maybe this year I will catch a glimpse of how different the world looks from the lip of the half pipe???

I can’t let this blog go by without saying a big hello to two of our Craigieburn Adventurers from 2009, Jamie and Casey. They somehow managed to score a house in Vancouver for the duration of the Olympics. Hope you guys had fun, we are not jealous at all. Look forward to hearing all about it.

Simon thinks my blogs will be boring so I had better not write any more.  Apparently he needs to ‘get inspired’ before he can write anything. Seems pretty easy to me - sit down, type a load bollocks, done!

Ange

P.S The Australia NZ cricket series has just started and I now have another legitimate excuse to stare at the TV all day. Nice one Kiwis on your nailbiting Twenty20 win and your success last night in the day nighter at Napier.

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