It's been a great day out here! Had two good sets behind the 210 in the morning. Had a good warm up with some inverts and HS 360, then went on trying toeside 540s. They're nothing close to ride away, because I start spining so early it throws me off axis and out of control. That's something I still need to work on a lot.
Then on the second set went straight into switch Tantrums, it took me ages to set up, but when I started doing them every next one went better and better, after 3 good tries and letting the handle go I finally landed one! Then Carro was shouting from the boat to do a Halfcab Roll which ended up looking like a switch Backroll where I let my hands go once upside down. Got it all the way round, just still have no idea where I am in the air. Haven't worked them out on the trampoline either, so it's a bit tricky travelling that direction.
Anyway. After that got straight into another 2 switch Tantrums in a row! Felt so good as if I've been landing them for ages. Then another Halfcab Roll attempt, this time I actually made it closer to it, but still letting go half way up in the air.
Got windy in the afternoon, so we decided to wait for our sets and get some tan. Instead of calming down the only thing the wind brought was cold air and showers, so more riding postponed to tomorrow.
And thanks to Manyasha my today's sets are in video, that's a start for a montage!
Started riding yesterday and had a super-nice first set, did most of my tricks and then started working on switch toe 3. I've landed it a few times, but it's nowhere near being consistent as I keep over rotating. So today I started going for the switch toe 540, got the spin around, but ended up back foot heavy as I obviously took off early.
Then on the second set today I decided to give a go for the Scarecrow again, focused really well on doing it just like on the trampoline and landed my first one way out into the flats! Felt so good! Then tried Indy Tantrum, but my energy was so low by then I kept on missing the board, haha! Finished the second set with a clean Frontroll landing, so happy about that! It's only the second time this season I've done it!
Will take my camera down for the third set so I actually have some footage from Spain. :)
EDIT:
It went cloudy in the afternoon so video shooting is postponed. I had a nice third set, got that Scarecrow massive and out into the flats with the first try again! Then went for the Toeside Backroll, it's pretty close every time now, just have to fix that bending on the last part of it.
I did a lot of stretching after my set, so it's a bit easier. Then Carro and Dylan went out for a set each. Carro did insane, throwing Whirlys and Raileys like it's no big deal. With Dylan I actually had trouble recognizing tricks, had never seen a Front Mobe, so impressed!
It's moments like these when I get my inspiration, I see someone doing it, so it feels real and achievable. Looking forward to tomorrow!
Here's an awesome video we did with TravelOutThere.
Riders: Lauma Ildena and Vita Valheima.
Camera: Ivars Veiksa.
Boat: Ivars Ildens.
Riding at Udensklubs.
I've had a great summer wakeboarding, teaching others to ride, working as a waitress and simply having fun. The heat hasn't been an often visitor and I switched to long suit in middle of August already! (Last year by this time it was still boiling in a shorty!) Since end of Aug I'm riding in my new Billabong Synergy 5/3 2013 Winter wetsuit which keeps me warm for an hour easily so I can continue longer trainings as the Autumn sets in.
This year I opened the season extremely late, around June 12, so I'm willing to have that bit of extra riding before the long (I mean loooooooooong) winter comes. Also to extend the wakeboard season a bit me and my friend & student Anna-Maria will be going to have a week of riding at Xtreme-Gene, Spain this October. It's been 4 years since I was last there and I'm anxious to meet everyone and see the new site!
I've spent a lot of time in the Olympic Gymnastics Centre to prepare for the season and now restarting the trainings to stay in shape for Spain in October and ski instructor courses later in November, a big shout out to www.gymnastics.lv for supporting me the third year in a row now!
This season I'm riding with the 2012 RONIX Faith Hope Love board and boots, it's a brilliant ride I get to use thanks toour local dealer Uģis from Aquasports.
As we counted in the Udensklubs ride register book until August 25th I've been on the water for a total of 13.5 hours, including a set on mono-ski, hydrofoil and wakeskate one each. I've added a few hours as I'm writing this post, but it's still surprising how little it's actually been this year.
Here's an edit my dad made from a set earlier in August.
I've been focusing on learning those backside spins a lot, I've always known how to initiate the spin, but I was never able to land one until this year in a training I just felt the urge that I HAVE TO try them again. Been working on them every set from that day on and finally getting the understanding of where exactly I am in the air.
Another great week was when I went to have some sets on the System 2.0 with Jonty Green coaching and that being my first week on the System I learnt the air Railey! So excited! I really want to bring it to the boat, but my brain's still saying not to do it. Oh well, later then.
New boat trick of the season is a Switch TS FS 360.
However I'm still very inconsistent with my spins as I work very little on them. It's getting better now, but it's still a long way to go.
I've been trying to get the TS BR back, but I rush it so badly on the small wake there's no chance I could ever ride it away like that. I've tried a couple of other switch inverts, they're missing some pop on the toeside jumps and holding on to the handle on heelside, haha! I'll keep working.
Another news you might not know yet I've started my University studies as a Nutritionist. Should keep me interested!
My biggest goal now is to save up enough money to be able to go wakeboarding to Florida the next summer. I know already that my salary won't make it within this time (unless I find a much better paid job), but I really hope there are great people around able to help and if it's meant to be then things will sort out.
Starting from Monday they say the weather is getting warmer and the wind is calming down. Can't wait to set up a photo shoot with Eduards Glotovs (www.eduardsglotovs.lv) it's been way too long since we last did one! I'll keep you updated.
This has been a hard week for my body and mind and I was more than glad to have my day off. Since it’s been warm the last few days and snow has turned into slush, I decided to take my Oxess out for a ride this morning. Went up to Gipfelwelt, through the tunnel along with 4 other crazy German guys I met on the way. As we did not want to walk back up there was no other choise but to take the ski-route. Not a problem on a fine sunny day. The thing is, all we could see was a plain white cloud everywhere we looked.
So, aiming for good luck and laughing that if we go wrong it’s going to be 5 of us climbing back up we started travelling down. That was the second time I got dizzy at the top of Kitz. First one was early in the season when it was storming and the Gipfelbahn was stopped halfway due to wind. But this time I had my board on and was riding down somehow.
Boy, how happy I was to see the first slope marking! It was the only object that wasn’t plain white! The slopes were perfectly groomed and not to mention that we were the only ones travelling down from the very top. I did have a feeling I’m going fast, but since the Oxess board is so stable and visibility still wasn’t giving any clue, I realized the speed when started to brake to catch the T-bar up once more. Took at least twice as much time and effort as I expected to actually stop.
Kept travelling down, still no clue about speed or terrain, so returning to Alpine Center in one piece was a great feeling!
Although cloudy and even rainy in Zell village, went out for a walk, some shopping, went on the lake to watch some kite-skiers, then around the lake back home, met some lady on the way offering to tell my fortune to which I declined.
It’s been an exciting month! Much fun working and improving skiing. For a while had a really nice evening job, waitring in a restaurant. Too bad they have enough staff, I’d like to continue it!
In the beginning of the month had a 6 year old Russian boy who I had to train for some competition back in Moscow, that was a nice week, we were able to start the morning with going down a black run.
The last two weeks I’ve been changed from private lessons to intermediate children groups. First week was an impressive test, had a tri-langual group: German, Russian and French!
This week began very intense, Sunday morning I had a group of 14 kids! Good thing I had someone to help me, because when I was nearly at the bottom of the baby-slope, the last kid had just barely started moving from the top, haha! In the afternoon the group was split and with 9 kids we already went up to the real slope.
Two 7 year old cousins are Danish, one 4 ½ year old Russian boy and 6 English kids. They are such an amazing group together, when someone falls down they help each other to get up, even the smallest one did it! He gets picked up earlier from the group, because he still needs to have his afternoon nap :) Everyone’s doing the exercises, hitting the bumps and half-pipe, willing to race and even behaving on lunch time!
The best thing I heard today was one of the girls saying „no, daddy, I don’t want to ski with you, I want to go with Lauma, because I feel safe skiing with her!” I’m really looking forward to tomorrow to see who is going to win the race, they’ve done such an amazing work during the week, I can’t stop smiling! :)
