Saturday, January 1, 2011

On snow - good. Off snow - bad


I have had a great Christmas, I spent it in Albertville in France with all my family who were over there on holiday. (see picture of me with my Nephew Zadin shopping for Christmas dinner)

I have been out on snow for a few weeks now. On the snow it has been going well. My knee has held up well with the riding, a few niggles but nothing serious. I have been riding jumps in the park this last week.

Off the snow it’s not been going as well as I got some very bad news last week regarding funding from UK sport. They have decided not to continue giving world class funding to snowboarding. For the last 4 years this funding has been the main contribution towards my programme paying a large part of the costs of my coach, technician, physio, and their travel. The funding is guaranteed till April 2011 but after that it will be no more. Another massive thing I am going to lose is access to the English institute of Sport in Bath. That is where I have been based each summer for the past 4 years and had access to a strength and conditioning coach, physio, doctor, sports psychologists etc. Again I have this till April 2011 but not after that.

This was a massive blow obviously but I am still carrying on. I have an idea of how to fund my programme, this is to set up a business. I have a few ideas of different things I could do but I need a business mentor so I am looking for a mentor in the business world to help me out giving me some direction so I can get a steady business going to give my programme good funding and allow me to continue my aim of getting to number 1 on the world and winning an Olympic medal, preferably a gold one. If there’s anyone out there who thinks they would like to be a part of this by coming on as a kind of business mentor for me please let me know.

I celebrated new year is chattel, France last night. There were loads of teenagers setting off fireworks in the street, and off balconies nuts!

I hope you had a good Christmas and new year!

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