[vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_column_text]Bounce Inc ambassador Harrison Tullberg is training in Utah with the Flying Kangaroos, the Australian aerial skiing team. Tullberg, who is a former elite trampolinist and now a developing VIS aerial skier, writes about his life in a skier’s winter wonderland.
Monday
After enjoying a blissful day off yesterday, our Flying Kangaroos’ team was straight back into the hard yards at Snowbasin in Utah. We spent the morning developing our feeling for the snow. We took part in this crazy exercise, whereby we had to trust our partner entirely. We skied with our eyes closed and relied on our partners for direction. This exercise was terrifying, although my feeling for the snow definitely improved.
Tuesday
Each training session is getting tougher and tougher. But each of us from gymnastic backgrounds just push through the challenges on the slopes. We spent the day working on short turns and carving technique – edging the snow with our skis – on the mountain. Afterwards, the team split up to enjoy boys’ and girls’ nights out. The guys ventured to the Huntsville barbeque joint. Nothing better than smoked barbeque meat to finish off the day.
Wednesday
Today we visited a huge trampoline complex to practise our aerial skills. The floors and walls were covered with black trampolines. It was very similar to Bounce centres, which feature dozens of awesome, Mr Trampoline (Steelfast) mats. After practising our somersaults and twisting, we drove to Powder Mountain in our team’s Chevy. The mountain is different of our usual training base at Snowbasin. Powder Mountain has its own quirks, from groomed terrain to soft snow in the trees. Our team loved the skiing conditions, especially the small skiing crowd on the mountain compared with Snowbasin. We took advantage of the light traffic on the slopes and had a blast!
Thursday
Our team enjoyed Powder Mountain so much yesterday that we decided to revisit today. The landscape was breathtaking with picturesque views of nearby mountains and pine trees in the background as we skied the slopes. Today’s aim was “to have fun and enjoy” – and we did just that. We manoeuvred through trees in steep snow and played with the natural ramps created in the snow along the cat tracks. Everyone was exhausted, so we relaxed for the rest of the afternoon – either watching movies or playing video games in our condos at Moose Hollow in Eden.
Friday
After an intense week on the slopes, we were given some hard-earned rest. I spent most of my day reading and playing a puzzle video game Portal 2. I have to keep the brain active, especially with university creeping up! I will join an elite athlete program at Deakin University while completing my Law degree. I also said my goodbyes to our head ski coach, Leigh, and another teammate who had commitments back home in Australia. At night, the rest of the team watched a live ice-hockey game – the Utah Grizzlies played the Bakersfield Condors. It was my first time at the ice hockey. You never understand how intense and aggressive the sport is until you watch it live. We had an awesome night out.
Saturday
Today I started to feel the exhaustion kicking in. We had a long and tiring week of intense skiing. After having a much-needed sleep-in, we visited Gold’s Gym in nearby Ogden to work on strength conditioning and join a Pilates’ class. Yet again, the Pilates was another first. We were really challenged, especially our flexibility. My teammate Lachie and I had forgotten how inflexible we had become after retiring from gymnastics … but we were definitely reminded!
Sunday
What a tremendous way to finish off the weekend today! I partnered with my teammate Lachie and spent the morning having our first free ski. We spent the day hitting up the small ramps at the terrain park. Although we’re not at the same level as X-Games skiers, it would be fair to say we felt the same amount of adrenalin by performing simple jumps as to them doing triples. We’re very excited to start jumping off ramps soon. We spent most of our time on steep groomed black runs getting some great GoPro footage – thanks to sponsor Adam Richards, of Mr Trampoline, who provided the GoPro gear. I’ll use the GoPro to track my improvement on skis over time. Wildflower is our favourite run at Snowbasin – big time. We both had a wicked time.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_gallery type=”flexslider_style” interval=”3″ images=”4219,4220,4217″ layout=”3″ gallery_style=”1″ onclick=”link_no” custom_links_target=”_self” img_size=”600×400″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
