A little late for this, but....

Ok so the last race of the season was 2 weeks ago, and I just never really got around to writing it down. So as the story goes, I met up with Eric down there at Castle mountain, and we just got set up for the day. Did a couple of exploratory runs down the hill, then got down to business.

The course was REALLY nice, my fav by far. The berms were really tight, it had lots of features, both big and small. It was smooth, even and most importantly, long. It was a bit narrow in some points, but that made it more interesting.

As for the races, they were also pretty good.

Heat-1
I got the hole-shot out on the first stages of heat one, but I got caught by everyone coming up to the first berm. Wrong wax? Didnt work the rollers quite right? Im not too sure, but I have to fix the issue. After 2 guys pass on the straight, one guy goes down in the berm, and I snag second.
The heat is going really well for me at this point. Im staying second, and Im in control. But in the 3rd last berm, I dump a ton of speed, and get my slow ass run over. I ended up placing 3rd with a DQ, but I was relegated to the LCQ(Last Chance Qualifier)

LCQ-1
Hole-shot again, but got caught again. This time, I managed to shut the door on two other riders in the first berm. Im laying 2nd at this point, and I have that "oh-yeah-im-actually-doing-this" kind of feel going on. Near the last 3 berms past the large jump, I can hear someone scraping behind me, and I manage to keep my 2nd place line to the finish, and I qualify for the semis!

Semi-2
Im feeling great at this point because I know that I have another 2 races in the bag. Making the finals that day was a huge win for me, because that means I've beaten out about 19 other riders to get there. Gate pull was a little lacking off the start, so I end up laying 3rd the whole way down. That is untill I get down to the 3rd last berms again. (This set tends to eat riders whole I've come to find) Eric was in the lead, a commanding one at that, but something happened, and I ended up passing him and another rider. By this point im in 1st place, and on my way to the big final. right until the very next berm. Thats when I hit some chatter and lost an edge, and slid past the gate and ended up with another DQ and a relegation to the small final. No big deal though, a final is a final, and im glad I had made it that far.

SMALL FINAL
Didnt get the hole-shot, but I managed to keep 3rd place till the first berm. I noticed that another rider was coming up fast to my right, and rather than smashing into him at the berm, I decided to pull back and not risk a potential injury. So the final went as smooth as milk. Incident free, but pretty tight. I ended up finishing 8th overall.

And thats pretty much the whole race from my perspective.

And I've started a new tradition among bordercrossers: Get a beer glass at each new resort you race at, and ride down the SBX course with a full mug, ala "Out Cold." I've got my Castle mug with "8th Place Rock the Castle SBX march 14th 2009" engraved on it. And im pretty sure some of the other guys have done it too.

Thats it for the SBX season, but im still going to be training through the summer with my sprint kayaking and mountain biking. Because I've gotta shape up if I wanna do well in the FIS next season.