Posted by
Katie Summerhayes [Pro Skier] on
September 11th, 2009
America, Liberty Slope Grand Opening
I couldn’t believe it when my dad told me that I had been invited to the Grand Opening of the only dry slope in America! Liberty University in Lynchburg Virginia had built a brand new dry slope; it featured three great kickers and a huge quarter pipe!
We were going to set off for America on the 26th August, I was really excited and was counting down the weeks until we would be setting off. Finally the time arrived and I made the trip to Manchester with James Woods. We set off at 2.30 am and it was the start of a long day. The first flight, Manchester to Paris was only short but then the Paris to Washington was eight and a half hours long. We all had to sit separately so it was a really boring flight! Luckily we had TVs in the seats so we had something to do for the long journey. When we finally got to Washington, there was another 3 hour journey to Lynchburg. We had to hire two mini buses to get all of the riders and their gear there. The team consisted of James Woods, Jamie Nicholls, Will Smith, Matt Macwhirter, Andy Nudds, Kat Miller, Wayne Taylor, Dee Yeadon, Sam Nelson and Terry Di Stasi and ME!
When we got to Lynchburg, we went up to the ski slope, the boys went riding but Kat and I decided not too as we were way too tired. The slope looked amazing and I couldn’t wait to ski on it the next morning. After going to the slope, we went to get checked in at hotel and get an early night ready for the next day.
When we woke up the next morning, the plan was to go swimming. We went to the Liberty University Outdoor Pool and stayed there for a couple of hours. After that we went back to the hotel to get all of our ski stuff together to head up to the slope. I couldn’t wait to put on my kit and go riding.
The slope was amazing! It was perfect, the kicker was awesome and you could go huge off it! The quarter pipe was good fun as were the box and the down-flat-down rail. The first night I did some mute grabs just to get used to the feeling of being on new snow flex.
On Friday we went to the skatepark then went up to the ski slope. I had an amazing session riding!
Saturday was the Grand Opening of the Slope, I couldn’t wait. We had to be up at the slope early. We got on all our kit and headed up to the top of the slope for our cue to start riding. There was over 3000 people watching so it was the biggest crowd I’d over performed to. We had to wait for a skydiver to jump out of a plane, to put his ski stuff on and then ski down, it was amazing! When he had got down to the bottom it was our turn and we all started skiing, it started with a shotgun with all the riders. We all had to get back up to the top quickly because we had to have a run for a rider intro where the the MCs, told the crowd a little bit about the rider. We then had 20 mins jam sessions. After finishing the jam, people were asking me for my autograph. This was amazing, as I had never done it before I really enjoyed doing it. After skiing, all the team went for a meal at Logans, then we went for a buffet at a local hotel for the SnowFlex VIPs.
We all went up the hill for the last day in Lynchburg, everybody was throwing down some great tricks. I nailed some great 720 Japans. It was such a sick session as we all knew it would be the last time we would ski this week and also at Liberty University.
On the last day we went to Washington for some sight seeing. Then it was time to head back homeL. It was one the best times of my life ever in America. I can’t wait for my next visit, it will be amazing to see all my friends and ski on the best slope in the world again!
I would like to thank all involved for a fantastic trip and for inviting me along.… Many thanks too, Terry Di Stasi, Wayne Taylor, Sue & Brian Thomas and Dee Yeadon.
Katie Summerhayes.
September 2009
Posted in
Ski |
