Author Archive
TME 06/03/10
Saturday, March 6th, 2010Daisy Cashford
Saturday, March 6th, 2010Daisy is in her 6th season and has spent the last four and a half years living here all year round. That makes her a very familiar and friendly face around town. She’s often seen serving you your drink in the Blue Note. Since leaving school at 18, she spent one summer at home in Jersey working behind a bar, and then came straight here for winter. She’s been on skis since the age of three when she broke her leg (she’s always been fairly hardcore!) and has skied all over the Alps on holidays.
Ben
Daisy met Ben back in 2006 and they got married
two summers ago in Jersey in a full Val wedding.
They are quite the pair and, despite the age gap,
are one of the best couples you’ll meet.
Alcohol
Daisy also has a fondness for the odd drink and
has been known to be spotted rather tipsy on
occasion around town. At the same time she
seems to be on the hill more than most people I
know. It’s either through commitment or the fact
she has youth on her side.
Skis
Liberty Phil Larose 171 – “love them; have others but all the rest are dead or simply not cool, although having a husband working in Snowberry helps me try a lot more; been using Al’s Line Elizabeths (Lizzy& Beth) recently”.
Suit
SOS and Peak gear – “has to be quality kit as all the cheaper, cool brands break after two months. You get what you pay for. Wearing blue and red atpresent, bright but not fluoro – I’m not a clown!”
Helmet
Black Dainese – “definitely my most important bit of kit. I won’t go on the hill without it. Everyone should wear one.”
Poles
Leki hot shots – ”you can hold vodka in them. Simply screw the tops off and voila! So much cooler than a Camelbak”.
Riding Crew
Coach Alex Allan, Naomi, Lou and Sara. A newly formed group with a lot of fresh converts to skis. “I love them all. Riding is all about your mates, although we are awesome skiers. A big thanks to Phil from TDC for making us sick!”
Blue Note
“My second home & family. Work is a very loose term for what I do. I think Lou just pays me to hang out and drink.”
Last season
This is Daisy’s last planned season. “We’re staying for summer to do everything we haven’t done here yet, then back to Jersey to start a new life”. (We’ll see in a year, but good luck!!)
End of season BBQ
Always the day after the lifts stop turning, at her place. If last year is anything to go by, it’s not to be missed. “Everyone’s invited for the final one. It’s going to be a biggie”.
The X Games come to Europe
Saturday, March 6th, 2010While it still feels like just yesterday that they were beginning, the Winter Olympics are over. Fear not, as the X-Games are making their first trip over the pond from Aspen and our coming to a resort very near you aka Tignes! It’s not going to be as big as its American counterpart, but it will be considerably easier to watch it live, so naturally we have provided you with a definitive guide to what’s going on and who’s going to be competing (and who you might want to stalk in the bars in Tignes afterwards).
The competition runs from the 10-12th, so they have a mere 3 days to pack in all the extreme skiing and snowboarding. The competition is invitational and the competitors list looks pretty good, so you should expect an impressive show with some of Europe and America’s best throwing down to be the best at the inaugural European X-Games.
The field is mainly of a Scandinavian/American nationality base, but there are a few Canadians, Swiss and, of course, French athletes in there. Great Britain is being represented by the shining light of Jenny Jones in the boarding slopestyle, so if you’re looking for some home grown talent then we’d definitely recommend you getting down to watch that bit of the competition.
Some names you might recognise on the athletes list are: Simon Dumont, one of the finest superpipe skiers in the world. With no Tanner Hall he’ll be hoping to hold off the European competition to win after a bit of a stop-start season. Xavier Bertoni, who by all accounts is having a great season, will be flying the French flag in the men’s pipe so watch out for him to go big on home turf. The young guns like Duncan Adams and Justin Dorey will be looking to stake their claim on the podium as well. Bobby Brown and Sammy Carlson will be representing the USA in the skiing slopestyle but they’ve got a formidable Scandi army to compete with thanks to Andreas Hatveit and PK Hunder from Norway, as well as Henrik Harlaut from Sweden, who are all very capable of medal winning runs.
For the women skiers, Sarah Burke, Grete Eliassen and Jen Hudak will be trying to down the European challenge, but with Virginie Favre from France and Anais Caradeux from Switzerland the women’s competition looks like it’ll come down to who can handle the pressure on the day.
The boarding superpipe is dominated by US competitors with Olympic medal winner Scotty Lago making an appearance. Without Shaun White, he’ll be looking to seize his chance for gold, but the European challenge shouldn’t be discounted with Mathieu Crepel looking to win for the home crowd and Antti Autti hoping to capitalise on some good form for the Scandi contingent.
The slopestyle is a little more even with crowd favourites like Eero Ettala from Finland and Andreas Wiig from Norway looking to challenge for medals, but again you can’t ignore the effect of home field advantage and Mathieu Crepel has all the ingredients to take both medals home for France in the men’s boarding.
Among the women, Jamie Anderson and Torah Bright will be battling it out for the USA and Australia respectively but there might be surprises from the lesser known girls like Arka Pancochova of the Czech republic or Elena Hight from the USA.
In the slopestyle we hope that many of you will be supporting Jenny Jones as she looks for a European Gold to sit with her two from the USA in the women’s slopestyle. Cheryl Mass will be looking to challenge too, but the real competition will be from Gretchen Bleiler who was pretty upset after losing out to Jenny on her own continent.
What’s missing from these X-Games is the snow mobile competition, which is a lot like motocross but on a giant snowmobile. Don’t worry; there are snow mobiling demos every day from 3-4pm if you simply can’t live without it.
And finally, here is the comprehensive timetable. It might change due to weather and other shenanigans, but for the moment this is the definitive timetable. We will see you there!
