I'm finally back in the US!  The trip to Europe was fun and productive (and long).  This was my first time to Europe and I spent four weeks there traveling from Germany to Austria and to Italy through France.  My first race was in Rinn, Austria, the second was in Abtenau, Austria, the third was in Sestriere, Italy, and the last was in La Molina, Spain.  I was qualified for each event except for GS in the three World Cup races (Austria and Italy) and was qualified for all events in La Molina which was a Europa Cup race.  While I didn't receive all of the results I was looking for, I gained invaluable experience that helps to prepare me for the Paralympics in Vancouver!  Next up is a NorAm in Kimberley, British Columbia!

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January 6

Greetings from Rinn, Austria!  I spent a great week at home for the holidays with my family and Julie.  It was perfect timing for some time to relax.  Afterwards, I was in Colorado for about a week for some last minute training and a few more days with my parents who came out to Winter Park for four days.  Now, I'm in Rinn, Austria for the first of three World Cup races in Europe.  I arrived, yesterday, without my duffle bag of clothes, which probably spent the night in Chicago.  I'm pretty much adjusted the time zone already, but it was a rough process!  This morning, we went to the hill where we're going to be racing to do a bit of free skiing and sight seeing.  The scenery and location are amazing.  With the afternoon off, a few of my team mates and I are going to take the train to Innsbruck for some more sight seeing.  More to come tomorrow!

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December 20

Today is the second day off I've had in just about a month.  Most of yesterday was spent resting and catching up on all of the errands and some of the Christmas shopping I've been putting off.  As I mentioned on the 3rd, I was training at Copper Mountain with the USAST for about two weeks.  This included a visit to St. Anne's Episcopal School in Denver and mentoring young racers at Breckenridge.  Unfortunately during Super G training on the 7th, I suffered a high ankle sprain and was off of the snow for a week.  While it was difficult to watch everyone else training, it was the right decision.  I wasn't happy with my performance on the 14th in the GS race because my ankle was still bothering me.  The next day was better, but I was still wary of my ankle and had a mediocre result.  After a day off on the 16th to travel from Copper Mountain to Winter Park for the second race, I was very tentative during my first Super G run since spraining my ankle and suffering a season ending knee injury at Whistler last year.  Friday was my best racing yet.  I skied reasonably well during the Super G portion of Super Combined and the same during the slalom portion.  The Super G was scored as its own race, so I think I finished well for that race and the combined.  Due to factoring difficulties, the official results have not been posted yet, so as soon as I find those, I'll post my results on the site.

I head home on Wednesday for Christmas to see my family and Julie.  I'm very excited to see all of them!  If I don't have the opportunity to post before then, happy holidays to all and happy new year!

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December 3

Only 99 days until the Paralympics!!  It's hard to believe that in just over three months, I will be participating in the opening ceremonies and preparing to race in Whistler.  Even sooner, the racing season officially begins on the 14th!  Righ now, I'm in Dillon, CO and training at Copper Mountain at a USAST camp.  The last two days were spent training GS.  This time was well spent and I was able to make more improvements.  Today, we went down to Denver and spent the morning with St. Anne's Episcopal School where we played basketball against the 8th graders.  Everyone had a great time!  Tomorrow, we get back on the snow and begin training slalom.  Until next time!

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November 23

Early season training is quickly coming up on regular season training.  For the last two weeks and change I have been on the snow in several locations: A Basin, Copper Mountain, Keystone, and Winter Park.  Lately, my time has been mostly spent at Copper Mountain.  Winter Park is the most convenient, but the terrain that is available is not as good for training as is what is open at Copper Mountain.  The US Team coaches have been great at being available to coach us and helping us out.  On Wednesday I head back east to Maryland to spend time with the family and Julie for Thanksgiving.  I can't wait!  Hopefully Peter is still up for the eating competition.  If I don't make it on here before then, happy Thanksgiving to all!

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November 4

I'm back from a short trip to Oregon where I spent some time with Julie, her Mom, and her older brother.   It was a great time and I'm thrilled to have finally met her brother!  Now that I'm back, it's time to start dialing in the new equipment and to jump back into the gates.  I head over to A Basin tomorrow morning.

In other news, I have a new head sponsor for this season!!  Millennium Technologies in Butler, NJ has generously agreed to support me this season and to help promote my website.  Please help me in thanking them!  Their support helps me to compete overseas this winter and to achieve my goal of representing the United States at the 2010 Paralympics in Vancouver.

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October 24

Day 1 down, 5 1/2 months to go!  I began the fall training season at Copper Mountain today.  The snow conditions were great and it's looking like the snow season is going to be a good one ***KNOCK ON WOOD***.  My skis have arrived at the tuner and it's only a matter of time before all of my equipment for this season is ready to go.  That's all for now!

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October 19

The race season has begun!  With my schedule made and my car packed, I am starting my annual 1,800 mile drive out to Winter Park to begin the on-snow training for this season.  I'll be stopping with family friends in Wooster, OH and at hotel just outside of Omaha, NE.  The early snow reports are sounding very promising.  I'm very excited to continue improving on what I focused on in Mt. Hood this summer.  Hopefully my new skis and boot will be ready for me when I arrive (fingers crossed).  Anyway, my schedule is incredibly full for this winter with several training camps and lots of racing.  Here's to a great season!  Oh, and anyone in southwestern CT who is interested in a phenominal workout, look up Leighton Edwards with Body By Leighton for some top notch personal training.

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September 18

The website has a new look for this year!  (Incase you hadn't already noticed.)  Like it?  Hate it?  Have a brilliant idea for the site?  Let me know!

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September 17

My summer hiatus has come to an end and the 2009/2010 season is virtually here.  Since April, I have been in Stamford, CT working for a sports gift company called ChalkTalk SPORTS.  Between work, the gym, and life in general, this has unfortunately left me with little time to sail.  One of the coolest things I got to do this summer was to participate in the 42 mile New York City 5 borough bike ride.  I spent two weeks in Mount Hood, OR at the end of July and in the first few days of August training GS and Slalom.  I feel that I made great progress in both events and have started my momentum in the right direction.  Right now, I'm back at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, CO for general health and athletic testing.  Not much has changed here, but it's always a help to come back and find the areas I've improved in and the areas I need improving in.  Equipment-wise, I'm staying with the same great companies, but on new equipment.  I got to try out some new skis in Oregon and am very excited about what is coming!  Housing-wise, I'm still working on that, but am making progress.  I plan on being back in Winter Park by the middle of October to resume on-snow training.

My new schedule has been posted!

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March 30

The verdict is in.  I have been diagnosed as having a bone bruise/microfracture with a large hematoma on the medial (inside) of my right knee.  Unfortunately there isn't a stated recovery time.  Basically, I have to take it easy until my knee feels OK and I get my range of motion back.  While I'm out for US Nationals, I'm hoping to get in another day or two of skiing during SkiTAM in Vail, but this year's race season is finished for me.  I'm disappointed with how my season ended, but ski racing is a risky sport and a crash like this can happen to anyone.  I'm actually pretty lucky that I wasn't injured worse and that this is my first time being taken off of the race course on a taboggan in 14 years of racing.  I'll knock on wood now.

I received several short videos of me racing this winter and I am in the process of putting those on my webpage.  Keep checking back!

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March 18

Quite a bit has happened in the last week-and-a-half.   I flew up to Vancouver on the 8th where I met up with most of the US team for World Cup Finals.  Once everyone arrived at the Vancouver airport, which is one of the nicest I've seen, we drove the 2 hours to Whistler on the Sea to Sky highway.  If you get the chance to drive this road, I highly recommend it.  It's a beautiful drive where the first half runs along a Pacific bay and the second winds through some mountains.  Once we got to Whistler, the IPC assigned us to the Fairmont hotel.  Nice would be an understatement.  The 9th and 10th were downhill training days on the course that will also be what we race on next year in the Paralympics.  It is an awesome course on an awesome hill!  It is set very well and follows the terrain very nicely.  The 11th was the downhill race day.  Unfortunately I made the same mistake that I had made in Kimberly which is tipping in and losing my edge on a relatively key turn.  The 12th did not go well at all.  This was the Super G and Super Combined race day.  During the Super G run, I misread the fall line going into gate 7 and hooked my shoulder on the gate.  This spun me around and my ski unloaded its energy which threw me into the air.  Somewhere between being launched and coming to a stop on my side, I injured some soft tissue on the inside of my knee.  At this point I don't know what exactly is going on, but I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow afternoon.  I'm pretty bummed that I crashed and got injured since I was really looking forward to Super G, Combined, and Slalom.  I'm crossing my fingers, toes, and knocking on wood that it's nothing serious, so I can race in US Nationals here in Winter Park.

I'm back in Winter Park now and my Parents are in town and it's great to see them!

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March 1

Wow, this spring is really beginning to fly by!  Since I last updated, I spent three days in Stamford and Ithaca visiting Julie and the Ithaca College Ski Team.  Upon my return, I spent the next two weeks training in Winter Park.  Today was the last day of the Wells Fargo Cup which is one of the major fundraisers for the National Sports Center for the Disabled (who I will forever be grateful for).  Friday was the qualifier race for the Corporate Challenge that was held on Saturday.  I was matched up with the family of Ces Grant, who purchased two teams for this event, and we were called Team Egg.  Ces' other team was Team Chicken.  Team Egg won, so the question was answered: yes, the egg does come before the chicken!  We were eliminated in the semifinal round by the team that ended up winning the Corporate Challenge.  It was a blast though.  Friday and Saturday nights were spent with my team at the house they rented for the event.  It was great to catch up with all of them from last year when I was matched with that group again.  Today was the World Disabled Invitational where 16 men, including myself, raced against each other in an elimination type race.  I finished in second behind Adam Hall who won for his third time in a row.  Eventually I'll get to the top of the podium!  Hopefully it'll be this season...  Anyway, I have tomorrow off, but am training this week in preparation for World Cup Finals being held in Whistler, BC.  I leave for that event next Sunday.

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February 12

After nearly two weeks on the road, I am finally back in Winter Park.  I drove back to Winter Park with Brad and Elitsa immediately following awards today.  It feels so nice to be back right now!  Getting to Park City was pleasantly uneventful.  We flew out of Cranbrook on the afternoon of the 7th and arrived at the hotel in Park City around 7pm.  I took the 8th off from skiing with the rest of the team to recuperate from traveling and to allow our muscles to rest up for the races.  We used the 9th to train on the race hill.  It was a brief training session, but it was well worth it.  The GS race was on the 10th.  My first run was a bit too conservative and my second run wasn't the cleanest, so I ended up in 5th and pretty far behind the 1st place time.  The 11th was the first day of slalom and I finished in 3rd; only 0.03 seconds out of second place!  Monte and Brad, two of my USAST team mate, were on the podium with me.  Today was the second day of slalom and I finished in 3rd again.  I had a big mistake in my first run, so I wasn't as close to Monte and Brad who were both on the podium with me again.  These two slalom results have lowered my slalom points to a level where I can now compete in slalom on the World Cup level!  Tomorrow, I head to CT until Monday evening to see Julie for a long weekend.

I have posted some new pictures that were taken by Jess Tidswell during the Huntsman Cup!

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February 6

One race down, one more to go in this stretch.  Today was the last day of the Kimberly DH and SG NorAm.  We left Winter Park for Salt Lake City on the 31st where we flew out of.  Flying out of Salt Lake makes getting to Park City easier than flying in and out of Denver and then driving to and from Park City (a 7 hour drive).  On the 1st, we flew from Salt Lake to Cranbrook, BC and then took the 20 minute shuttle to the hotel located at the base of Kimberly Ski Area.  The accomodations were great!  Each room has a small kitchen, so we were able to cook our meals in the rooms and save a lot of money.  Plus, it's nice to be able to relax on the couch after dinner or head straight to bed afterwards instead of dealing with a restaurant every night.  Anyway, we free skied on the race hill on the 2nd to get better acquainted with the terrain which is very different this year due to the lack of snow.  Each bump and roll in the dirt was apparent in the snow cover.  The 3rd and 4th were spent training on the downhill course.  It is mandatory that racers run the downhill course at least once in training before racing it for saftey reasons.  Small terrain variations can seem small during inspection, but are much more significant at speed.  Yesterday, downhill race day, was not very good for me.  After three successful training runs in the two days previously, I did not finish either race.  We ran one race in the morning and another in the afternoon.  I made some mistakes that I thought I had fixed earlier in the season that ended up causing me to slide out of the course on the first run and crashing on the second run.  Aside from a bruised hip, I don't have any injuries, thankfully, but I am disappointed in my performance.  Today, Super G race day, was much better.  It was another two-race day with one run in the morning and another in the afternoon.  First run was extremely foggy and made it difficult to even see one gate down the hill, but I still finished in second.  Second run conditions were clear and I finished in third.  I am hoping that these two results will drop my super G points below 80 (the lower, the better).  All of my bags are now packed and loaded into the cargo van and ready to make the trip to Park City where I will race GS and SL!  I load myself onto a plane at 1:30 tomorrow.

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January 27

Well, not much has changed since I last posted.  Julie came out for a visit from the 15th to 20th which was a great change of pace.  Aside from skiing, we made an afternoon trip to Hot Sulphur Springs, had a birthday dinner at Sunspot, and went snowmobiling up to Corona pass for two hours.  Since her departure, I have been training five days a week in preparation for the NorAm in Kimberly, BC and in Park City, UT.  Kimberly should be two DH races and two SG races.  Unfortunately, the weather isn't very good up there, so if there isn't enough snow on the hill, we'll have two GS races and two SG races.  There's still time for some good snow to roll in, so we're all keeping our fingers and toes crossed!  If you have a good snow dance, please use it!  The other half of the USAST returned home last night after some mixed results in Europe.  There's talk of some of them going to Park City which would be great for competition!

We finally got some more snow in Winter Park this week.  It has been close to three weeks since any new snow has fallen.  The first two days were so so for powder skiing since it was more like east coast snow - wet and heavy.  Today would have been a great day for it since temperatures were in the negative digits last night and the snow froze and dried out.  Instead, we had slalom training on Butch's Breezeway which was almost as nice.  I haven't spent much time in the slalom gates lately, so it felt nice to get back in them.  Training conditions should be great tomorrow.  The groomers will pack down the snow and the even colder temperatures tonight will make tomorrow's snow nice and firm... and fast!

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January 14

As of yesterday, I am a year older!

I apologize for not updating more regularly.  I have been training and planning the rest of my season since I last updated.  George, one of my USAST team mates and a guy I've been skiing with since I was 13, asked if I wanted to fore run the downhill and super g during Speed Week in Keystone.  I immediately jumped on this opportunity.  Speed Week is an opportunity for second year J3 racers through J1 racers to become acquainted with speed events through a few days of training followed by some racing.  I got to fore run twice a day (once before the women and once before the men) for five days!  The first three were downhill.  They set us on a run called Go Devil which isn't a very long course and is a tame hill for the first 2/3 of the course, but then drops off onto a very steep pitch before coming into the finish area.   On the second day, the first day of racing, I was clocked at 70mph at the bottom of the Go Devil pitch!  I ran a 1:13:76 which was my fastest time of the three days of downhill.  The fourth and fifth days were super g on the same run.  I had a lot of fun in Keystone and this provided me with great training before going up to Kimberly, BC to race DH and SG.

On the first day I arrived, one of the girls had a bad crash in the finish arena resulting in two broken legs; one was a bad break and the other was easily repaired.  George and I were at the base to see ski patrol loading her on the toboggan and realize the gravity of her situation.  Recognizing that her speed suit was going to be cut open, her ski boots cut off, and her season was cut short, we decided to give her a new world cup speed suit with a note written on the inside of it from each of us wishing her a speedy recovery.    Both of us hope that this crash will not deter her from racing downhill in the future.

Julie flys out here tomrorow, so I will be picking her up from the airport in late morning.  The next few days will be spent with her, then it's time to kick training into high gear in preparation for Kimberly and Park City in  February.

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January 3rd, 2009

Happy New Year!  Now that the holiday season is over, I am now focusing on the rest of the race season.  I was not selected for the European World Cup either, so I am now working on plan B.  There are several NorAm races and Europa Cup races this season that I can select to compete in instead of going to World Cup.  The ones I have chosen so far are Kimberly (NorAm in Kimberly, British Columbia), and Huntsman Cup (NorAm in Park City, UT).  I will also compete in the Wells Fargo Bank Cup, a fundraiser for the National Sports Center for the Disabled.  Unfortunately those are not until February, so January will be spent training in Winter Park.  I will be going to the Canadian World Cup in Whistler, BC in March before US Nationals.  There are a few more options for me to consider for racing in between the Canadian World Cup and US Nationals.

I hope everyone's holidays were as great as mine!  I went back to the east coast on December 21st to see Julie and have Christmas with my family.  I flew back to Colorado with my parents on December 27th and am now back into the swing of things.  Yesterday, today, and tomorrow are being spent mentoring and coaching young racers in the hopes that they will continue with disabled racing.  Hopefully I will be able to forerun a GS tomorrow as well!

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December 19th

Happy holidays!  I arrived back in Winter Park on Tuesday, after training and racing in Summit County and testing at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, for the Winter Park Open on Wednesday and Thursday.  Unfortunately GS didn't go as planned.  I finished my first run for the two for GS, but my leg was so fatigued that I withdrew myself from second run.  The idea was to minimize the bad results for the event.  One GS and two Super G races were scheduled, so I was hoping to have two good Super G results and a DNF in GS instead of having bad results in GS and Super G.  While it was a tough call to make, I think it was the right one because Thursday went much better.  I finished in 5th place overall and second for the Americans in the first of the two Super G races.  I was still feeling some of the same fatigue that I did on Wednesday, but it was not nearly as bad and was much more manageable.  When it came time for the second Super G race, the anticipated weather blew in and the snowfall severly limited visibility.  For safety reasons, the race organizers cancelled the second Super G.

I head to Connecticut on Sunday to see Julie for a short visit and then down to Baltimore for Christmas with the family.  I can't wait!

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December 12th

The first two days of racing this season resulted in some unexpected results for myself.  Slalom, which is typically my strongest event, was less than stellar and I skied very well in GS, which has been my weakest. 

Unfortunately, I had to hike twice in slalom after skiing the previous portions very well.  My vision down the course was inconsistent during first run, so I almost skied past a gate coming out of a flush (two gates set up in line with the fall line, resulting in three very quick turns) and had to hike back up hill to make it.  I must have gotten too excited about the upper 2/3 of my second run because I became impatient with my line and boot-topped a gate coming into a hairpin.  In english, I began my turn too early coming into a hairpin (one gate set up in line with the fall line, resulting in two very quick turns), so I shinned the gate with the top of my boot.  While this may seem like a good idea because I can ski a tighter line, it isn't because I have very little leverage over the gate that low down, so it kicks my foot back and tosses my upper body forward.  Long story short, I had to hike to make the second of the two quick turns.  Needless to say, I was disappointed with my performance.

The next day during GS, I thought I skied a bit conservatively, but ended up finishing in 5th and was the second best American performace.  I guess this strategy paid off!  The first run was a pretty standard and well set course and the second was a very turny and fairly relentless course to the finish.  Second run did not feel very good to me, but I had the third fastest second run time!

I am still staying in Dillon, but am now skiing in Breckenridge and mentoring a young racer from Maine.  The USAST has been doing this since Wednesday and concludes tomorrow with a coporate race and a level 1 race for the mentees.  We head to the OTC on Sunday for testing and the second race of the season, the Winter Park Open, begins on Wednesday.

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December 7th

Preseason training is officially over and racing begins tomorrow!  I have been training at Copper Mountain and staying in a condo in Dillon since December 1st for a USAST camp.  (Incase you hadn't noticed yet , the US Disabled Ski Team is now the US Adaptive Ski Team.)  We trained three days of GS and two days of Slalom follwed by a day off today.  I'm making progress with GS and I'm happy with how I'm skiing Slalom; however, there's always room for improvement.  For my day off today I went to watch the able-bodied men's GS for the Birds of Prey World Cup race.  This was very cool to watch in person some of the guys I had read about for the last several years.  Ted Ligety finished in second by the slimmest of margins: 0.01 seconds!  Tomorrow is the first of two days of the Ski Spectacular NorAm and I will be racing slalom.  So far this season, it seems like my best event.  Not surprisingly, it will likely snow.  As the saying goes, if you want snow, hold a race!

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November 27th (Thanksgiving)

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!  I'm down in Denver right now after having dinner with family friends for the holiday.  I trained for a little over two hours this morning at Copper Mountain with Brad Alire's NASC camp doing slalom.  I've been at Copper for five days working on GS for the first three days and Slalom yesterday and today.  I'll be working on Slalom again tomorrow.  I need to be working on GS the most and I have been lately, but it's been a nice change of pace to get back on my slalom skis.  (Slalom's a much better event.)  I almost have all of my new pads for this season, so I should be getting back into the full slalom gates soon!  After tomorrow's training I'll head back to Winter Park for three night's rest in my own bed before heading back out to Copper Mountain and Breckenridge for days for a US team camp and NorAM.  Only 11 days until my first race!

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November 16th

As of today I have skied for 11 days and 10 of those have been training.  Since I've been back, I skied at A-Basin with a few of my US teammates and coaches for three days and in Winter Park with a few of my NSCDAST teammates and coaches for three days.  I have been mainly focusing on GS drills and getting used to the new ski boot.  The boot is very different from what I had last year and has required lots of tweaking.  Snow conditions have been pretty much as you might expect for fall conditions: mostly man made with a little bit of natural snow.  Many ski areas have already opened to the public already and Winter Park opens officially on Wednesday (only two more days!).  I will be training at Copper Mountain for the next two days with Team Summit and the men's US Ski Team.  I'm coming back to Winter Park for opening day on Wednesday.  Each afternoon usually includes a trip to the gym to work on strength, endurance, or balance.  Speaking of which, time for the gym!  Hope all is well.

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November 8th

Today is the last day that I am in the British Virgin Islands.  I have been here since October 30th to help out with the annual ProAm regatta.  This event pairs up some of the top sailors in the world with guests at the Bitter End Yacht Club and provides several days of racing and fun.  I wore about four different hats while I was here: mark setter, photographer driver, launch driver, and umpire.  Each morning of racing, I set the course before breakfast, then adjusted it with the wind throughout the day, and finally pulled the marks back out of the water after racing had concluded for the day.  After five days of racing, we pulled off 15 IC24 (J24 sailboats with modified cockpits) races and 8 Musto-Scuttlebut (two of the sponsors) races.  While I was moving marks around during the day I usually had one photographer on board and sometimes a spectator or two.  The last day I was not only the mark setter, but was also one of two Umpires on the course -- with the help of a much more experienced member of the race committee.  I was lucky enough to have my girlfriend, Julie, accompany me for six of the days.  While she was only on the boat with me twice, we visited the Baths, Norman Island, the Willy T, and the Indians during different parts of the event.  I think we have a new future sailor...  Anyway, I head back to Colorado tomorrow and immediately begin training again on Monday.  I unfortunately wasn't selected to go to World Championships, but still have high hopes for being selected for the World Cup team.  All I have to do is train hard (both on the snow and in the gym) and post some good results at the Ski Spectactular and Winter Park Open races.  Easy enough, right?

To my current supporters, thank you very much!!  And for anyone new, I thank you in advance for any support you are able to offer!  Until next time!