So to start with, June 17th was my graduation in secondary school. Despite of all the travelling and busy days earlier I managed to be one of the rare to finish with excellence, receiving an honour medal. Have to admit I was very surprised and pleased about such fact. My window sills were full of roses and other flowers I don't know names for in English for more than a week after, an enormous thanks to everyone who made it to see me.
With my class teacher.
With principal.
My ex class 12A
All graduates with teachers.
I don't remember if this was before or after the 17th but at some point this month I managed to land a switch toeside 540 with the very first attempt. Imagine my surprise! Now for the rest of the month all I've been working on is spins, spins, spins. Mainly on the handle pass as that's the slowest thing happening up in the air for me, haha.
Soon enough, on the 23rd and 24th it was time for Midsummer celebration. As most years I did it in a 100 year old country house as a kinsfolk reunion, sleeping in hay, picking wild strawberries, eating fish smoked on a bonfire and grandma's delitious bakery aswell as a good bottle of beer and some activities. Ofcourse, my sleeping rhythm always sets me up on Midsummer night and when everyone's supposed to wait for the sunrise I went to have a nap. As the alarm went off at 4 AM so I could get up to see the sunrise, it was too warm and cosy under the blanket to get out and actually watch it. HAHA, next year, again!
From the roof top. Mom's cousin on the right working to get the honey out of the bee house.
There it is, have a look!
At the bonfire with my Mom & siblings.
Just across the field, mhouuuuu.
Where history and the 21st century meets.
Two days later, some relatives came over and had a great day on the water, both parents had a ride on waterskis and we taugh the same to their 6 yo daughter, although scared, but she loved it!
For now as I am back in the city, going to the lake and working on spins again. Since it's really windy the last couple days for tomorrow I decided to go to the gymnastics hall and get some shape back there. Other great news is that thanks to company CBI I am sponsored for a weekly training camp here with Adam Dennis. That surely will help before the start in IWWF World Wakeboard Championships in Milano, July 13-17.
The last 3 days I was at the lake having a great time! And the weather's been fantastic too, the water temperature is already 23 C (73 F).
On Saturday I had a set behind Tige RZ4, a monster wake! Though the water was super rough due to wind, other boats and jetskis it was really cool to land a proper wake to wake Tantrum without any help from the driver, though he wanted to, the boat simply was too heavy, hehe.
Picture taken on the day before when I wasn't there for the flat water, typical, haha.
Sunday was a random set working on tricks I know, but had some trouble there. Only landed like 2/7 Backrolls and 1/4 Frontrolls, for some reason at the middle of the set I figured out to do a Heel 360 and ended up with a solid, mercyless back edge, oops. Outta bindings immediately, decided to stop there before I do anything else stupid.
On Monday (today) didn't feel like wakeboarding, but did something else to stay in shape. Had a run on monoski and tried some jumps on wakeskis. It's unbelievable how much the working muscles differ from wakeboarding to skiing!
Later on today went to gymnastics hall. Tried some tricks on the balance beam and a bit of trampoline work, that Crowmobe really feels stable, so I should definitely be able to get that Scarecrow down on water with 100% success rate, right? :D
Speaking about tomorrow I'm going to a radio show to talk about wakeboarding (what else, haha?). It's a really cool studio located in the centre of the city and it's completely transparent, people walking on the street can see the whole studio through the window. Live stream tomorrow 9 AM (+3GMT)
I just want to say thanks to my supporter Gymnastics Olympic Center for giving me the opportunity to train in the best hall in the country! www.gymnastics.lv
Zero updates for almost a month now, oops. Been quite busy with school works since came back from travelling the world for 6 weeks, not very clever in the final year, but no regrets, hehe. I sorted it all out, graduating with excellence and already done the English exam, now coming up on the schedule is Math, Latvian&Literature and Biology.
Last weekend I finally rode for the first time since I'm back from Florida. Nothing big, just a short run to practise my arms a bit and a Backroll in the end for the audience on the shoreline. The weather is getting warm and the water temperature is +20C which is really good for May.
June is going to be a very fun month, once all the exams are done, the first stop of Nationals will be on and a week later it's my official graduation, finally! Then in less than a week it's Midsummer celebration!
There's a couple more interesting news coming up, I'll post when they're more definite. :)
As a complete opposite of the storms last week, my final day of riding was super sunny and hot, and it had the best sunset too!
The pressure I put on myself on week three was enormous and at some points it was my best friend, but some my worst enemy. As all the inverts were so close I wasn't ready to go home with an "almost" trick. April fools Friday was when I got down my Switch Roll which took less than 10 attempts. I think that was the moment when I understood what Andy meant by saying that I have to believe I can ride away from the trick and not expect the magic one. And if I can do two inverts switch, why couldn't I land all those in regular?
Monday. Giving every new invert a go wake to wake. Then second set going for the Tantrum until I finally got it. And not just lucky one, but three in a row! Stoked! Third set was my fun ride in the beginning, though obviously too excited about the day, took the worst Frontroll crash I've had. Just as I was thinking of really over rotating to do a pretty landing instead of the ugly butt slide, didn't take enough momentum and caught my edge on the second wake which was followed by a mercy less full body slam. No way I'd end up my trip with that, so got a couple more passes with fun stuff when Andy said let's go for Toeside Backroll. For some reason my legs would resist to jump high, but they did enough to make me ride away!
Lauma Ildena, Amber Hansen.
Joni Hansen, Lauma Ildena.
Once again in this trip I was speechless for a second. Two inverts in one day? I though I was dreaming, but thanks to the boys it's caught on video.
From being scared of even trying a new invert, within three weeks I landed five. And I'm sure that's nowhere near to stop. When I first saw some pro videos many years ago, my favourite trick became Whirly Bird. And back then I told myself laughing "I'll become good enough to land one someday!" without really believing it... the thing is...... now I finally DO!
Whirly, Lauma Ildena, Andy Hansen.
Most likely that wouldn't have happened if I hadn't rode with Andy. The amount of my fear was insane, because trying something new might mean going out of control, fall, getting injured and being forced to quit wakeboard, snowboard, dance and pretty much anything else my whole life has been built around. But Andy found a way to get the lines out of my head and go for it. Well... for a good while I was still going for the trick with the lines in my head, haha. But I was actually going for the trick and that was huge! Then later on not only going for it, but landing! I truly admire Andy for all his incredible skills, the positivism and encouragement he gives out and the patience he's got to tell the same things over and over again. I wish every wakeboarder could experience that amazing feeling I had while being in WWC.
It took 5780 votes from all over the world to help me win the contest and get there, and I really can't express in words how thankful I am to all the people who believed in me and made this dream come true. Wakeboarding is the passion I want to live through and they gave me the start. What I now hope and pray for is that I'll have the opportunity to continue riding more and more to get ready for the 2011 IWWF Wakeboard Worlds in Italy, July 13-17 as well as later on this year the Europe & Africa championships which will take place in South Africa in December. More trainings in Florida please.
