31 Jul 2024 by Erik Read

Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read, share, and take part in my campaign. Sincere appreciation to those that have made contributions. It’s been heartwarming and encouraging to read the messages and see the response from the ski racing community.

Currently I’m gearing up for my first on-snow camp in New Zealand coming up soon with World Racing Academy. For the past couple months, I’ve been focused on making changes in the gym and organizing my coming season.

My training group is known as the “misfit” crew at the Canadian Sport Institute Alberta. It’s a group of athletes with the same trainer, from various sports who all come together for our fitness sessions. Excitingly one of my training partners just won a bronze in Paris, Canada's first-ever Olympic medal in fencing.  It’s fun to see how people excel thanks to the specific training in their sport.

In the gym this year my goal is to lose a bit of weight, or “non-functional” body mass as my trainer calls it. GS is such a dynamic discipline, and slalom requires fastmovements, so I would like to improve my overall explosiveness, transformation, and ability to move efficiently. An example of a specific change - instead of doing 3 weight sessions a week, I’ve adapted one session to focus on solely on balance, core, and upper. It’s always a long game, but I’m optimistic I’m making positive changes that I’ll be able to evaluate when I get back on snow.

Some of the organizing and planning that I’ve done so far has included some of the early financial commitments for the season. Since I’m asking for financial support, I want to disclose some of these early expenses I’ve paid or budgeted.

WRA Coaching fee first installment: $11,000

Registration & Insurance: $2,500

Strength & Conditions Consultation: $300 per month

New Zealand Trip:

Flights: $3,800

Baggage Budget $500 (Hopefully)

Travel Visas (Australia, New Zealand, & Schengen): $200

Rental Car: $1,500

Lane Fee and Lift Pass Budget: $3,000

I’m super excited to get back to work on snow, and I’ll be sharing more updates as I dive into Winter down under.

12 Aug 2024 by Erik Read

Here we are in New Zealand! After months of working hard in the gym, it’s always an exciting moment to get back on snow. My feet are groaning and complaining in ski boots, but it felt oh so good to arc some turns again.

I started this month-long camp with two days of freeskiing. It made sense to build gradually for my body. The temperatures in New Zealand only recently dropped, so the mountain here has had every snow gun blowing – including on the training slopes.  I spent my time doing a 50/50 mix of flowing arcing turns and deliberate drills. Now I’ve just completed three days of slalom training, and I’m working my way into GS.

These first days the snow has been softer than I would ideally like, but it’s okay to start out with a slower pace after the long break. The mornings are early with the stars above us when we arrive at the hill. As the sun comes out, we get a beautiful view of the valley and Lake Wakatipu in the distance. No matter how hard you train and prepare your body, there’s nothing quite like skiing. Every little muscle has been sore across my body.

Fortunately, I’ve felt balanced in the course, so I got to work right away. My focus is on getting early strong pressure and running deep to connect the turns. In particular, I’m really working on my skiing in rougher conditions when there are ruts. I’ve always been stronger with a clean surface, but I need to work on building my pressure into the groove. Here's a video of one of my slalom runs:

New Zealand Slalom Training Day #3

The main venue for this camp in New Zealand is Coronet Peak. The ANC continental cup races will be here at the end of August, and it's a good chance to lower my fis points and start position in GS. Coronet is more suited to high quality slalom training as the runs are short, steep, and full of small bumps. For this reason, we may move over to Ohau skifield for a GS block. The run is longer with more moderate terrain to get some good feeling on the longer skis.

It's been fun and exciting working together with a new group of guys at WRA. We’re staying in different houses, but we do most of our meals and ski tuning together under one roof. Altogether it’s encouraging to feel energized with newfound enthusiasm towards my skiing.

We’ve got some warmer days ahead, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be productive. For me it’s about making the most of every run, and working hard but smart.

Thank you for following along on my journey so far this year. The response and enthusiasm continues to blow me away, and I'm extremely grateful for all the support!