What a week! I’ve finally been able to just take a deep breath in and “huuuuuuuuuuuuh!” LET IT OUT.

Me Duck Diving

Up until this past week, I’ve still been hustling around ski testing, obliging some sponsors, and skiing! It’s only until now that I’ve just been able to let it all go and chill for a bit.

And timing really couldn’t have been any better… Chemmy happened to be in Whistler with her coach and decided, “hey, I’ll just pop on over to Maui for a quickie!” And so they came on over… fresh off the plane, we took the boards and headed over to Hookipa for an inaugural surf session. Weird, cold and gray weather forced us to slip into our wetsuit tops. Certainly not optimal, but hey, the waves were good! In the end, that’s what counts, and you take what you can get!

The following days and nights were spent surfing, biking, lounging and eating good dinners… one night we went out to the west side where some of the Canadian ski boys were staying for a few weeks. We had a late night party out there and just had way too much fun. Always good to see the World Cup Skiers in a tropical environment…

Aaaaand, of course, no Maui trip is complete without going on the Comando Hike (aka lava tubes, aka Rambo hike). It’s a hike that takes you through cow pastures, a reservoir and up a stream bed. After a good 30 minutes of hiking up that stream, there’s a steep and sketchy climb up a little waterfall. Many a friend has lost their wits on this section. In my opinion, it’s the hardest part of the hike and the fact that it comes fairl early on means you get it out of the way quickly! Most friends are just sooooo sketched out at this point that I just have to calm them down and reassure them it was the hardest part.

But then their jaws drop when I show them that the way to our destination (beautiful waterfalls and jumps) is only through a dark lava tube with a river and pools running through it. Chemmy took it OK though… she’s a tough girl. But it’s still always fun for me to see the excitement in their adrenaline glazed eyes.

What’s the big deal already? You have to climb up muddy walls with a waterfall torrent in your face, swim through deep pools of fresh tropical volcano water, and then climb up the tube wall through a little whole all in the pitch black. Finally, after about 10 minutes in the dark, you start seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

Several jumps off waterfalls later (the ones that were made famous by my Outside article with Gordy Megroz… the one where he landed on his ass off of a 55 ft jump and bruised it so bad, he couldn’t walk for a week!), exhausted, but content we drove back home. the boys started the BBQ and we all had a very deserved delicious meal.

After that… lights out. Great Maui Day.

Paddling Out Hookipa

Comando Hike

Hiking in the Crater

• intense and hard workouts that will result in specific conditioning goals;
• long road bike trips around the island (around West Maui, over to Hana and back, and upcountry Kula) for cardio;
• frequent massages and thereapy (that’s one of the perks of being an athlete: you get to write off your thereapy!);
• hike in Haleakala Crater;
• standup paddle the coast;
• surf after my workouts;
• paint (I’ll make sure to post some of the paintings I do);
• cook good organic food (Maui is sensational for organic produce and tropical fruits);
• and soooo much more!

My ski tests in Italy have come and gone and we made some great progress in honing in what works best for me. It was certainly not easy to head out there after a long and gruiling season, but sometimes, you know, you just gotta do what you gotta do.

I would tell you what my special ski sauce is, but then the spies out there would take that info and use it for their girls… wouldn’t want that. Suffice it to say, my gear feels good now and I along with Andrea (my technician) should be able to make some final decisions at the next on-snow training camps.

But until then I’ve written down my Maui wishlist, how I want to spend the next 2-4 months and what I want to achieve. It’s very important to write these things down for ourselves, to create a sort of vision board. More often than not, when time goes by you end up surprising yourself just how much you accomplished from that list without even really trying all that hard!! That’s one of the magic things I’ve learned over the years: write down what you want and your thoughts will begin to manifest.

I’ll check in with you very soon and update you on all the stuff that’s going on here on Maui.

In the meantime, leave me a comment and let me know what your spring and summer wishlists are!

Alooooha,

Julia

I am back in Europe and the main event was the Verbier High Five. Its a fun series of five different events, GS, skiercross, speed trap, Carlsberg triathlon, and parallel slalom. You can check out the details http://www.verbierhighfivebycarlsberg.com/high-five/en/home. I was 2nd!! Won some new long johns. The weather was beautiful, and its always nice to have some fun friendly competition after a long season.

Right now I am in Saas Fee testing skis. They are being incredibly awesome. We get on the lift at 6 am and whip tons of runs off by snowmobile, then done by 10. I had a day of GS, and a day of Super G. Tomorrow I am going to try out my new DH skis. Things are good! Hope everyone is enjoying their spring.

I also want to touch on the passing of my friend and ski Legend Shane McConkey. His memorial was this past Sunday and I wish I was able to make it home. I will just share my personal story of how Shane has inspired me.

Growing up in Squaw Valley you get to know your “ski family” pretty fast. Its a small place, full of lots of big personalities. Though I was much younger than Shane, and didn’t get the chance to really meet him until I caught up in age, he was a huge influence on all the kids I looked up. There is something about Squaw Valley, that really inspires everyone there to just love skiing. I along with Marco Sullivan took the path of ski racing, but yet many other of my friends took the path of being kick ass free skiers. We all started in the same place, doing non-stop Kt runs, skiing the fingers, and looking up to crazy guys like Shane who would go out on water skis, and run events like the pain McShlonkey open, where pretty much anything goes, crazy costumes, chinese downhill and basically just have fun on skis. When JT started ski BASE jumping with Shane, I was convinced that would be my next sport. I had dreams of taking off to ski some crazy shoot and off a cliff between worldcup events. Sounds totally crazy I know, like when would I find the time to do that!?!

Well thats what Shane did. He inspired us all to DREAM BIG! So thanks Shane. I can tell you one thing for sure: I will keep having fun with what I do, and keep the tradition of just being stoked everytime I put my skis on!

My heart goes out to Sherry and Ayla, and you can check out more details on how to help out at http://shanemcconkey.org/. You can also leave your comments on how YOU get stoked out there in life…