Kazui Bounces Back from Injuries

This season has gone a little crazy. First off I was in Colorado training and I broke my arm. I didn’t have enough pressure on my outside ski and my ski popped off I went down hard. I was back on snow in a couple days but I could not ski gates for about another month. Then on new years I had another crash. I went over a whale and landed sideways. I was knocked out for a while and I was rushed to the Albany Hospital immediately. It turned out I broke my arm again, broke my ribs, bruised my lungs, and punctured my liver. When I woke up in the hospital I knew that my season was in jeopardy.

I couldn’t walk for a couple days and couldn’t even get up to go to the bathroom! I was released 4 days later and rested at my house for about a week. From the doctors at Albany, to my local pediatrician at home, they all said my ski season was over. They said a normal person would take 3 months to 6 months to fully recover and progressively start gaining their normal strength back. I will be honest I was sobbing under my bed sheets crying that I couldn’t ski again. But, when I checked my email or looked at my mailbox people were there for me cheering me on.

I wondered why I thought of giving up when the people around me weren’t. I cut the crap and I gave it all I got. My first race back was a nice and flat GS at West Mountain. I came in 3rd behind Colin and Peter Martens (my nemesis for this season). The next day I had a steep and icy SL at Windham Mountain. I came in 2nd in the first run but the course just wouldn’t hold for the 2nd run. I DNF’d and went home without a medal around my neck. I wasn’t really pleased with a 3rd and a 2nd but this secured me A seed at states this year. I had Super G the following week. This is when fitness came into place for missing a month of skiing. I couldn’t hold my tuck all the way down, caught massive air off the final pitch and ended up in 8th place. I wasn’t to pleased with that either but I guess it’s alright for the first real Super G I ever raced.

I hope that I will have a successful season and not get destroyed by mother nature again.

.)) Kazui Kusumi

Serina's Off To The Junior Olympics!

WOW! The junior Olympic qualifiers are out of the way, and we are off to the junior Olympics. This weekend I had a lot of fun but I also had some pretty good results. To start out the weekend we had Slalom, with my first run coming in 14th and then my second run I came in 8th place. Finally on Monday we had GS. First run I finished in 6th and then second run starting dead last I finished 8th. Junior Olympics here I come!

.)) Serina Kidd

:We miss you Kendal but good luck at Topolino!

Serina's Update from Steamboat

Hey there! This weekend we just had the Smartwool race in my home town Steamboat! It was a fun but good weekend. On Saturday it was GS and I had an ok result coming in 17th overall and 7th for the j3's.Then on Sunday it was Slalom and I ended up 10th overall but 5th for the j3's. My next race will be in Eldora, which is coming up this weekend and then were off to Winter Park for the Junior Olympic qualifiers!

Good Luck :)

.)) Serina Kidd

Middle School College Racer!

Hello race fans. Last weekend I raced in my first USCSA college race at Winter Park, which is kind of strange since I'm still in Middle school. There was allot of people some 22 and had never raced and some j3s that were pretty good and even a kid with 20 GS points and low SL. I got OK results and scored some good points in both events.

.)) Andrew Hancock

Katelyn Drops In to Say Hello!

HEY! It has been a great year so far here at Burke Mountain Academy although very hectic. We started out the year in Valle Nevado, Chile with almost 3 great weeks of training. Four weeks later we headed up to Panorama in British Columbia where we continued to put the hammer down with two more awesome weeks of slalom, GS and super G training. Only a week after our return to the states, a group of girls and I headed back to Canada for some FIS races at Val St. Come. They were not my best races but I scored some good points and it was sweet to get back into racing. Back in the US I had already lowered my points by 30 in the first Eastern Cup race series was super psyched for some more starts. Since then, it’s been all skiing all the time and I LOVE IT!

I have just recently gotten back from Speed Week at Sugarloaf in Maine. I can honestly say that it is the best week of the year! Although there was no Super G due to weather conditions, I came home with a first and second overall and two first place J2 awards for both downhills. However, now its time to switch over to tech as a group of girls head over to Jackson Hole, Wyoming for a two day race series of two slaloms and two GS's. Its going to be a tough field out there but I know its going to be so much fun! Maybe I’ll see some of you out there! Later Gators!

.)) Katelyn Barclay