Hello all,

It feels astonishingly good to be home. I had a smile on my face for the entire 15 minutes it took to pump up the flat tires on my car with a bike pump, for every pothole I’ve hit (there are a ton on New Hampshire roads right now), for the feel of the sheets on my own bed, finally having a place to leave my skis without setting up a tuning bench, and feeling the shimmy of my 1995 Honda Accord Wagon when I touch the breaks. It feels amazing to be home. I didn’t quite realize how ready I was to get out of Dodge until I woke up this morning.

This morning, I had a chance to watch my run from Kranjska Gora, Slovenia and after I made a mistake on the roll I had no chance of qualifying. It wouldn’t have hurt to ski the rest of the course, but I guess sometimes you don’t always do what’s best. I might have written that last update a little premature; but frankly, I think it’s important to explain the rollercoaster ride of being a competitive ski racer.

The slalom in Kranjska – holy cow – was that awesome!! Will Brandenburg won the top split before blowing out. Ted and Nolan both qualified for second run. All the American athletes were in the finish – everyone that had raced over the weekend was there along with Cody Marshall that came over for the weekend – showing support for Ted and Nolan. Nolan was in 7^th 3 tenths off the lead. Ted came down and straddled a gate half way down the piste. Bummer. Welcome to slalom racing. Nolan came down and completely murdered the bottom pitch and moved into the lead by 9 tenths!! We were all going nuts, sending countless high five to each other, and screaming at the top of our lungs. Ted immediately says, “He’s going to win. He’s going to win. Definitely on the podium, but he’s going to win!!” We were all so pumped. Mario Matt ended up beating him by 9 hundredths of a second and then Axel Baeck came down and tied Nolan in second. It was great to be there and feel the exhilaration of a fellow teammate killing it!! Not to mention, it was really cool how excited all of us were collectively for Nolan. Good on ya buddy!!!

Then later that afternoon, we found out in Tarvisio, Italy – 20 minutes away from Kranjska– Linsdey won, Julia was second, and Laurenne Ross was 4^th. What a day for America. It’s great to see two young teammates put together such epic performances.

Cody and I then logged 8 hours driving across Austria to Patsch to drop off a bunch of stuff, then to the Swiss boarder to exchange a couple pairs of skis near Bregenz at the Head factory, and then up thru Germany to Munich before we flew out yesterday.

Thanks so much to Ryan Welch for picking me up at the airport late last night!

God it’s nice to be home :-). Nothing like 70 days living out of a suitcase to make you appreciate home.

Cheers, w