Hey World!

I have been slacking a little with the posts lately but here is a log and pictures that I took of my last 3 weeks in Chile.

1/22/12
This past week in Santiago has had its ups and downs. It felt great to get back on the water on Friday and Saturday after not skiing for 5 days due to the road trip. Besides skiing, I spent both days playing catch up with emails since I didn’t have internet on the trip and I wasn’t checking emails during the tournament, my inbox was packed! This was partly because I am putting together the guide for the Western Region.

After I changed my flight on Sunday the 15th and decided to stay here in Chile for another month, I woke up to a beautiful sunrise and checked my emails and Facebook; before I left on the road trip. I had a message from my younger brother saying “Yooo. Don’t know if you saw or not, but I got two tickets to the NINERS GAME for Sunday. I’m looking for someone to go with me and you my friend are my number one draft choice. DOWN?!” I couldn’t believe it!! I would have said yes in a heart beat but….I had just changed my flight and I was stuck here in Chile. I guess stuck isn’t the right word since it is 85-95 degrees and I have been loving every moment here. Even though it was unfortunate timing for me, my mom became the lucky person to go with my brother.

Sunday was finally here. The day I had been waiting for, for 7 long days. My San Francisco 49ers were playing for the NFC Championship game. I headed to California Cantina (where I watch all the playoff games here in Chile) to root on my team to victory. It was a great game! The Niner’s defense played great; especially in the 2nd half. Unfortunately we had some problems on special teams that cost us 7 points in regulation and 3 points in overtime; which ended up costing us the game. It was hard to believe that we were playing so well and 2 plays had a huge impact on the game. There is a saying my dad always says, “Never let the game be close enough were a bad call by the referee or one or two mistake will cost you the game.” Hope the Niners continue to play great football next year.

1/23/12
I was excited to get back on the water after a day off. I felt great out there because at 32 and 35 I was running an early line and everything felt effortless because I was staying connected and being patient at the finish of the turn. This was similar to how I was feeling at the end of the season when I was skiing the best I ever have. 38 felt pretty easy as well as I continued to do the things mentioned above. I decided to shorten it to 39 since I was feeling confident. I had only tried 39 4or5 times since the season ended back in October. I had a great 1 and 2, came into 4 a little down course but still in good shape, headed over to 5 but I didn’t stay connect and because of that, I came in narrow. I ended up hitting the buoy and my handle hard went straight into the water and tore backwords. I had never had this before but it isn’t a good feeling. As I lay there in the water, throbbing pain was rushing down my arm a and I decided to call an end to my set and head back to the dock. For all my newbie followers, in skiing we have a 75 foot rope. There are rope pre determined rope lengths, 15 off, 22 off, 28 off, 32 off, 35 off, 38 off, 39 ½ off, 41 off and 43 off. For example, 15 off is 15ft off of the 75 foot rope, 22 ft off of a 75 ft rope ect.. 38 off is the first rope length that the rope does not reach the buoy line.

1/24/12
As I woke up this morning, I didn’t have much mobility in the shoulder. It hurt to lift my arm; it didn’t matter if it was forward, at a 45 or to the side. I wasn’t too excited about it especially since I was feeling so good during my last set. I started to take ibuprofen and ice to reduce any swelling and soreness I had.

1/27/12
Over the past 3-4 days I have been continuing to take ibuprofen and icing a lot. My shoulder is starting to feel better since I have taken this week off and have been taking care of it. I am hoping to be back on the water starting Monday. Since it is so early in the season, I want to make sure it is 100% before I get out there.

1/28/12
Last night I went out with a few guys from the Miranda Water Ski School to the Naser Family residence. They are a family who skis at the ski school. They have 4 children who ski ranging from 12-20 years old. It was Sebastian’s, the oldest and only boy, birthday. The Naser’s have a beautiful house about 45 minutes from the Miranda’s lake. I had an amazing home cooked meal; juices flavorful steak, grilled vegetables, potatoes and a delicious home made cake by one of the Naser daughters, Ferni. I was able to have some great conversation with more people I was fortunate to meet. The Chileans talk very fast, so it is hard for me to understand everything they are saying. At times, if they talk slow, I can pick up bits and pieces and try to figure out what they are saying. Luckily the Naser’s and most of their friends who were present spoke some English. Overall, I had a great experience at the Naser’s residence and I am glad I was able to be part of the celebration.

Once we left the Naser’s and got back to the lake; we found out that there had been a power outage. That made it difficult to see once we got into the house since it was after midnight. As I woke up the next morning, the power was still off. Fortunately, I bought a gallon of water the day before so I was good to go for a few days. We ended up being without power for almost 3 days.

1/29/12
This weekend I went to the Miranda’s Lake house in Alcleo. I was able to get away from the lake and get my mind off of skiing. It was hard being stuck at the water ski lake and not able to ski. The past week I had been thinking a lot about my skiing and how to improve. I was glad to get away and have some fun. Friday night we had a bbq and I was the grill master. I was on the grill all night long. I cooked hot dogs, sausage links, potatoes and steak. This kept us full throughout the night and it was easy to talk to all of the new people I met because everyone kept coming over to the grill for food or I would walk around like a server so I could meet everyone. Saturday we relaxed by the pool and got our tan on. I was in a comfortable lounge chair and fell asleep in the sun. So now I am a lobster. My entire front side is burnt. I am hoping I wont peal and it will turn in to a nice tan. Overall it was a great weekend and I enjoyed meeting another group of new people. Since I have been here, I have been fortunate to meet a lot of people!

1/30/12
It has been a week since I have skied and today I was able to get back on the water to test out the shoulder. I took it easy because I wanted to see how the shoulder was going to hold up and if I was going to have any pain. Luckily there wasn’t much pain. Later in the afternoon, I went with Pipe Miranda to his gym, Clinica MEDS. Here they have doctors, physical therapists and trainers. I was able to see one of his PT’s, Christian. After evaluating my shoulder, he advised that I get an Ultrasound to see if I had torn/strained any muscles, tendons or ligaments. After getting the results, Christian said he wanted me to come in every morning until I left and he would treat me for free. I was shocked and very grateful for the offer.

2/2/12
After a few days of treatments at MEDS, the shoulder is started to feel better and I am starting to get back into my groove on the water. I have been skiing with Tanguy, the coach of the Miranda’s and Lauren Morgan.

I am working on the mental side of my skiing because I feel that if I become mental stronger and smarter; I will become a better skier and will be able to reach my goals. I am not worrying about how many buoys I run, but how to focus on the 2 cues I have; stay connected and one buoy at a time. Also, not letting one or two mistake cause me to miss a pass that I should run all the time. I know this won’t change over night; it will take some time. But I have seen some improvements already. I recommend you trying this for your skiing. Pick 2-3 cues, simple things that you focus on that helps your skiing, For example: keep elbows against vest, front foot pressure into 1, maintain speed through your roll in at the gate, keep balanced.

2/3/12
Today I went to MEDS by myself and had another great session of PT. Christian has been doing ultra sound and 2 types of stem on my shoulder and I get a light massage then I do some stretching exercises. Christian was focusing on stabling my shoulder so I could continue to train on the water. Normally he would to strengthening as well but thought it may affect my training.

There was a miscommunication on who was going to pick me up from MEDS. I ended up being there for almost 5 hours. My therapy took a maximum of1½ hrs. So I got to met a lot of the staff at MEDS, worked on my Spanish and they worked on their English. Finally about 35min before MEDS closed, Pipe came and picked me up. The last few days he had been telling me that he was thinking about proposing to his girlfriend of 4 years, Nicole. He told me that we were going to go look at rings. I have never gone “ring shopping”, so it was a new experience for me. Pipe knew what Nicole liked which made it easier. He had been a good listener over the years and found out what she liked and didn’t like. I will have to keep this in mind when the right time comes for me.

2/5/12
Yesterday was Tiare Miranda’s 24th birthday. She decided to have a big bbq at the lake with friends and family. Chileans knows how to have a bbq!! The meat is always amazing and seems like it is never ending. Every time I look they have more steak or links on the grill. I was able to meet a lot of Tiare’s friends and experience my 2nd Chilean birthday party. A few of Tiare’s close friends threw her in the pool as she was full clothed. Wish I had pictures because it was entertaining watch 5-6 girls try to carry her 300ft and toss her in.

Today was also the Super Bowl. I had mixed feelings about the game. I was still disappointed that my Niners were not playing. Lauren, Silki, Gloria (Lauren’s Spanish teacher) and I all went out to Pub Licity, a restaurant that was showing the game in downtown Santiago. It was a close game and I was surprised to see the Giants win again. I guess its good for my Niners, they lost to the Super Bowl champs.

2/12/12
Today was a relaxed day and day off of skiing. I was pretty sore from skiing yesterday. We had a tournament because we were looking to have some fun and do something different. We started at our normal starting rope length and spun 3 times and then dropped to shorten the line. Then spun 3 times again and stopped to shorten the line. You had to keep going until you missed a buoy. This is a lot different than the normal way we train. Usually we run a pass, drop at the end of the last to catch our breath and to let the water settle, and then continue after a minute. This tested our endurance, strength, muscle memory and mental toughness. It is hard to keep the correct body position when you get fatigued. So you have to focus more on your cues or else you will make a mistake and fall. I ran 3 32s, 3 35s, 1 38 and 4@38 on my 8th pass. I was very fatigued at the end, I could barely hold on to the handle because my arms were so pumped and tired. They didn’t have anymore strength.

Today was also my LAST NIGHT in Chile and I went to Mall Sport in Santiago with Lauren, Silki, Gloria and Rob(a guy from Florida who we met at Pub Licity during the Super Bowl). I heard that I couldn’t leave without checking it out. It was amazing. It is any sport enthusiast’s dream spot. Every single store was sport related; from hiking to tennis, soccer, rugby, running, biking, boating, skiing, snow mobile, snow skiing, rock climbing, working out etc You name it, they had it. They even had an indoor rock climbing and a huge surf wave and skate park outside. We found a store that had all the new HO equipment. They had 41 tail gloves, Syndicate A1, A2 and S2. I was shocked to see high end skis in a store like this.

After words we headed to Parque Roco Mall to have dinner for my last night. It was an Italian restaurant that had some amazing food, especially the Stromboli that I had. Since it was my last night and my birthday is 2 weeks away, they told them that it was my birthday, so we splurged and had some dessert. All I can say is WOW! Some of the best cake I have ever had. Chocolate caramel, chocolate moose and 2 others I don’t remember were all amazing! I would definitely go back just for the cake.

2/13/12
Sad to say that today was my last day here in Chile. This past week went by so fast. I must have been having a lot of fun! I had my last PT appointment with Christian and expressed how grateful I was for everything that he had done for me. I took him out to dinner about 5 or 6 nights ago to show my appreciation and thank him for all of the help.

I also had my last ski ride with Tanguy. He told me it was a tournament set and I had to get 3@39. The set didn’t start off very well but I didn’t let the early mistakes affect me in the later passes. 38 was my best pass and I was skiing very smart. I shortened it to 39 and got 3. I had reached the goal that we had. It was a great set, not only because I reached the goal but because I was mentally strong and smart. I didn’t let mistakes in my earlier passes effect my at my later passes. Which 2 weeks ago wasn’t the case. I have already seen improvements with my mental game and I am excited to see where I will be in 3 months. My goal for Australia is to continue to improve mentally! Below are some pictures from my last day with some of the people I have been training and hanging out with. There is also a picture of me with Cana, the maid at our house. A HUGE THANK YOU goes out to her for all of the meals she cooked and for all of the laundry she did!

2/14/12
Happy Valentines Day! I made it safely to Atlanta. Feels like 30 degrees outside and it is raining but it is great to be back in the USA and hear so English!! I am exhausted after the 9 hour flight from Santiago. I wasn’t able to sleep much because it was loud on the plane and the seats were not comfortable. Because of that…my eye lids are barely open. This is where being 6′ 4” with long legs is not an advantage. Well…the plane in boarding, one last 5 hour flight and I will be back in sunny (being hopeful) California! First time in CA this year!!