Mathieu Crepel: Summer Gold Digging

After an foot injury in February, I couldn’t wait for the time I would finally be back on the snow! So my “endless winter” summer would start up in Mt Hood. I went there for almost a month and as usual I had a lot of fun. Pipe and weather were great until Arthur Longo, Aluan Ricciardi and our coach joined me.

The High Cascade park crew had pulled up a 22 ft pipe for the US team to come train and we got lucky to be able to ride that pipe, but the weather got a little tricky. Anyway, that was a fun trip, it felt amazing to be back on the snow, I got some new tricks in my bag and that was good for the upcoming olympic season. The only bad thing was that my foot was still feeling sore, so I decided to take a break and went surfing in Mexico. Life’s hard!

2 weeks there surfing some of the best waves of the planet made me want to explore more of that country, but I’m still young, and it was time to be back on the snow.

This time it was winter, well almost. I joined the whole Quiksilver team for our annual photoshoot in Mt Cook, New Zealand, but after a great start of the season over there, it turned warm on rained all the way to the top. Not a single powder turn and it was already time to get to Wanaka and the first half pipe world cup of the season.

The level in the pipe got pretty crazy while I was recovering, with pretty much everybody training on airbags and throwing double corks and stuff! But few days of training got my confidence back, and I was actually surprised on how I was riding after such a long break.

But once again karma hasn’t been good to me and on the trainings for the contest I sprained my ankle. I’ve been resting for 10 days now, witch allowed me to visit the south coast of New Zealand in a camper van and I’m now back in Wanaka and will go ride tomorrow to see how my ankle feels. I’m staying for one more month so surfing back will have to wait a little bit!

Talk soon for more!
Mathieu