Hello,
The season feels like it just started yesterday and alas now it is over until next December. I had a great weekend in Squaw Valley at U.S. Nationals and nearly had an amazing weekend. I had a great first run on singles day and qualified 3rd. This meant that I would go 3rd from last in finals and was in a great position to win. Unfortunately I did not have a perfect finals run and ended up 10th. Duals day again I skied great in qualifying and came in 5th. In my first dual I had a horrible start and was playing catch up the entire run. I had a remarkable middle section to catch up but just over rotated my bottom air and was unable to hold on. Below is video from my qualifying run on singles day.
I am walking away from the weekend happy. Obviously I was there to win. Instead I gained experience in how to deal with the pressures of standing in the gate knowing a win is one great run away. This was easily the best skiing I have done all year and I was perfect with myCalifornia Roll all weekend. The key for me is to figure out how to ski like I did this past weekend at the next U.S. Team Selections event in December. If I can show up there skiing like I am now, I will really be in a position to win!
I got a really nice write up in the local Tahoe newspaper. The story included 2 pictures of me....one jumping and another a candid picture of me showing duct tape the trainer put on my minor back injury. Steve Yingling watched me ski as a child and wrote a great article for me at Nationals last year as well. Here is a link to the story....sorry....no pics in link.
I am certainly ready for a little bit of down time before my first training camp in Colorado the beginning of May. My plan is to head to the beach to play some volleyball. Thank you so much for your love and support. I will let you know how my next camps goes.
Jay Panther
