Translate

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Ruda has been arrested!

this news basically says that Ruda has been accused of creating fake documents and has stolen 11 millon dollars that should have been invested in building the venues for the winter Deaflympics. He was caught trying to leave Slovakia after being told he was not allowed to leave the country and was arrested. http://www.h3.tv/deaflympics-slovakia-2011/ruda-is-accused-fraud/ (in international sign language with transcript)



and watch this funny segment of the news reporter in Slovakia making fun of ICSD for overlooking the major red flags. http://www.h3.tv/deaflympics-slovakia-2011/world-by-mr-hudak/ (has captioning in English)

Monday, February 14, 2011

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Deaflympics Cancellation

As most of you has already heard, Deaflympics has been cancelled as of yesterday just 5 days before it was supposed to happen. This came as a HUGE blow and a shock to the deaf community worldwide.

I don't know what my next plan of action will be. I am supposed to be in Washington DC right now to prepare for the flight to Slovakia, but for now I will stay in Colorado and wait for the dust to settle down.

Here are the links with all the news I've been coming across since I discovered the news yesterday morning. I only know as much as you do at this point.

http://www.usdeaflympics.org/articles/article/2011/feb/11/cancellation-winter-deaflympics/
http://www.2011deaflympics.org/en/news
http://pakistanvoices.com/current_affairs/slovakia-deaflympics-2011-controversy/
http://globalvoicesonline.org/2011/02/11/slovakia-deaflympics-2011-controversy/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/H3-Network-Media/130921311037
http://www.h3.tv/deaflympics-slovakia-2011/h3-video-reporting-from-slovakia/

As you can see, there's a lot of commotion going on right now. I'm just surprised it's revealed this late in the game, and that all the red flags were not detected earlier on by the ICSD (International Committee of Sports for the Deaf)??

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Snow snow snow!

It's been snowing everyday, pretty much. If it wasn't snowing, then it's -20 and sunny.

Pretty hard to train in these conditions, but I'm doing my best!

4 more days left in Colorado, and 1 more week left for Slovakia!

Saturday, January 29, 2011

I'm backkk!

I'm recovered except for a small cold and hacking cough! I got all this energy bundled up in me, and I bombed the hills the last couple of days.

Today, I went riding and ran into an old friend. We rode together, and we were pumping each other up. I was rooting him on to nail his cork 7s, and I was able to get some productive criticism on what I've been doing wrong in the pipe and about how to get some air out of the 22-footer pipe. I managed to squeak out of the pipe by a few inches! YAYY progress! I'm seeing some immediate improvements already! I'm excited to take his pointers to heart and keep working on getting better! Stay tuned!

P.S. Only two more weeks left in Colorado?!?

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

out of commission at the moment

I haven't been training lately. Been sick for 4 days and counting. Totally blows. I want to be out there on the hill everyday, and my body's not letting me. 

Fingers crossed for a speedy recovery. I only have less than 3 weeks left here in Colorado! Time is money!

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Pow Day at Copper

It started pounding snow on the day of the boardercross finals and lasted throughout the night. This translates into one thing: pow day at Copper! Halfpipe was a mess, and the features in the park were covered in snow. There's only one thing left to do: ride the entire mountain!

Here's the clip from from yesterday. Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxbzmCmhb8g

Monday, January 17, 2011

Krahooligan Cash Cow Finals!

SOooooo I placed 5th!

I seriously could have placed either 3rd or 4th, but I made a stupid mistake in my first heat. Meh. I beat myself up pretty hard over it, but now I'm over it. At least I can say I learned something from it and that it won't happen again. Not bad for my first legitimate boardercross race!

Now I'm hearing words there will be another boardercross comps in steamboat springs this weekend and then in winter park sometime in the near future. Maybe....? We'll see.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Krahooligan Cash Cow Part 1

Today was practice day followed by two time trials. Thankfully we had a couple of hours to practice, and the people who worked on the course had to fix up some parts of the course when they saw how dangerous it could be. The course is a bit sketchy in some spots and super fast. As for the competitors there are 10 girls and 40-ish guys. Shaun Palmer made an appearance and competed, but he didn't win the fastest time. In the time trials, I think I placed 6th or 7th. Not sure. The step-ups right off the starting gate were super technical! I failed to get over it a few times, but afterwards it didn't become too much of a problem. I still need to figure out how to seriously clear it like several other people could so it doesn't slow me down. Tomorrow, there'll be some more practice and then the finals. Not gunna lie, I'm nervous about it! Wish me luck!

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Training Progress

Today marks exactly 2 weeks since I've been here in Colorado. I only have a month left here, and holy crap time is flying. Where's the emergency brake?!

I've been riding the half pipe at Breckenridge which is a 22 footer, a step up from last year's 18 footer. The half pipe feels real nice and smooth, but I have yet to get out of the pipe. I've been getting some advices from my peers, so I'll be applying some adjustments when I ride again tomorrow.

As for the boarder cross training aspect, I've been doing some night riding at Keystone, which is prime time for some high speed riding. I'm more and more comfortable with the high speed without speed checking and absorbing the rollers with my knees to prevent losing speed. There's a HUGE boarder cross competition coming up next weekend at Copper, and to be quite honest, I'm a bit intimidated. There will be a lot of the people are hardcore boardercrossers. I wonder how I will rank against people like that? Well, there's only one way to find out, right? The registration fee will be $125 dollars. The $228 dollars I was able to raise recently will go toward this fee since the classes at Woodward did not come through. There weren't enough people that signed up for the classes so they had to cancel the classes. Soooo, the remaining $103 dollars will go toward drop-in sessions ($30 dollars per sessions) at Woodward and the gym membership at recreation center near where I'm staying. It's a fair trade-off, wouldn't you say?

Not a day goes by that I don't think about my awesome supporters who helped make this possible. Thank you all SO much!

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

the attack of the animal!

Guess who Zak, who is on the Deaflympics team as well, and I ran into?

Shaun White! Totally made our day!
He knew how to spell his name and sign "yes." I tried to get more out of him, but I don't think he remembers much else. Super chill guy. I hope to see him around again tomorrow. Fingers crossed for another attack of the tomato animal! 

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Hello from..

Colorado! Today marks day 4 of my training! On my first day of riding on the new years day, I went to Copper and only braved a few laps.. because..
it was negative -10 degrees with the wind chill of -30! BRR! We did pretty good considering the conditions, we took 4 runs before calling it quits. Good thing came out of it though, I discovered how stiff and FAST, but stable, my new Burton Feelgood ES board (the blue deck behind me on the ground) is. It's going to be excellent for boarder cross and halfpipe! I am not 100% comfortable on this board because I'm more used to softer board that I can just play around on. This board is SERIOUS and means business! I'm really glad I'm here in Colorado, and I have a little over a month to train.

Today I went to Breckenridge and focused my riding in the halfpipe for most of the day with my other board, the softer kind, to become acclimated to the feel of the halfpipe before using the Feelgood ES. I'm feeling a bit more comfortable in the pipe by the end of the day, but I still have a ways to go!