Scott Kneller

The bad news is I still have a broken hand, the good news is I don’t need surgery. This outcome makes the recovery time considerably shorter and if all goes to plan I’ll head back overseas mid-february with the intention to compete in the Grindelwald world cup. For the moment I’m doing what I can with a broken hand. Running puts too much stress on my hand so I have been enduring the screaming middle age women in the local rpm classes. I can not for the life of me work out why these classes have become so popular. Exercising under a black light in a dark room that resembles a night club is not my idea of enjoyable exercise.

My hand is getting better everyday and I’ll keep the blog updated with my progress. There could be worse places to come home to, I havn’t had an Australian summer in 10 years so i’m enjoying the warm weather.

My season has been put on hold, at least for the next six weeks. Whilst skiing GS in Abtenau, Austria, I broke three metacarpals in my left hand.

The circumstances under which the hand breaking occurred I’m not particularly proud of. It was nothing spectacular in fact I didn’t even crash. I leant inside exiting a turn and dropped my inside hand to protect my fall. Unfortunately for me, my hand broke.

This is probably how it looked except for the obvious difference, it was my left hand in the snow

I can’t help feel that I made matters worse by wriggling my fingers in an attempt to convince myself that there was nothing wrong with my hand. After looking at the X-rays though that might not have been in my best interest.

I’m pretty devastated as you can imagine. 9 months worth of training and its all over before it even began. The worst part is that after such a terrible first two races I will now have to wait until at least March to get another opportunity to redeem myself. It’s not exactly the way I saw my season panning out.

I’m flying back to Australia tomorrow to get checked out by the institute doctors and assess the need for surgery. Fingers crossed that isn’t the case and I’ll be out of the cast in a month. If all goes well I’ll be heading back to Europe mid February to compete in the last three world cups of the season.

Will keep the blog updated as the saga unfolds.

For the past month i’ve been catching up on my university studies and taking a water engineering course. Last night i was learning about tidal Bore’s and the circumstances under which they occur. The following video features Ripcurl riders surfing a tidal bore in Indonesia.

London, the home of fish and chips, a good cuppa and apparently the next summer Olympics. The last time I was in London a little bit of snow turned the entire city into chaos. The underground rail system, which the name suggests is underground, was somehow unable to function because of the snow above ground. This year though the climate was almost mild, at least for 8 hours of the day before the sun sets at 4pm. As for the trains there seems to be a problem with the signaling they should really fix.

Despite that recent rant about the London underground it’s actually incredible. I even caught a train 100m up the road to avoid the the crowds of people shopping on Oxford street.

I caught up with friends and family and it turned into a very busy few days. I played a round of golf with my mate Josh. Playing golf in the UK is a little different to playing in Australia. I rocked up in runners which was probably a little enthusiastic considering it was raining and had been for the last few months. Fortunately though Josh hooked me up with some all terrain hiking boots that would have been suitable for hiking the Himalayas. The ball tends to roll on the fast dry greens in Aus however in the uk if your fortunate enough to land the ball on the green, the splash of water is a pretty good indication that the ball hasn’t gone too far from where it landed. Then comes putting which is almost easier because anything inside a foot is considered a “gimme” because the cup is full of water and it’s not worth getting your ball or hands wet. It was an unreal day, thanks to Josh and his dad for inviting me along.

My cousins, Bianca, Rebeca and Felicity

On my way back to Munich I went to visit my grandparents in Lichfield. It’s been two years since my last visit so it was great to be back for a cuppa and a fruit mince pie.

In Austria at the moment on a mission to make changes to my skiing before the next world cup in St Johann

Sorry for the lack of blogging but after such an ordinary weekend in San Candido my motivation levels were a little low. I came out on the second day ready to crush but it wasn’t to be. Both training runs went well and i felt my qualification run was fast. I got to the bottom pumped only to find myself more than 2 seconds off the pace. I was not just disappointed but also confused. The first day i made mistakes and i knew i hadn’t skied particularly well finishing in 47th. The second day though i thought i had skied semi ok and found myself even further back in 50th position. Kinda heartbreaking to think about all the time and effort i have put in over the summer to drop back 40 places from last years qualification results.

I took some time off in London over the next few days to clear my head and spend some time with family and friends before Christmas (blog on London coming soon). I couldn’t take my mind off it though and i have watched the race footage so many times trying to work out were i lost the time. I’ve come to the conclusion that i was skiing way too backseat. I’m quiet accustomed to skiing backseat but in San Candido i was way too far in the backseat, so much so that i was smearing my tails on the exits of turns and losing speed on terrain where i really should be making speed. This accompanied by a tuck that could be compared to your average Australian punter i was losing time every opportunity i got.

Back to the drawing board. I’m back in Austria at the moment working on some elements of my skiing that i have neglected lately. I have been trying my best to turn this failure into an opportunity and in doing so it has increased my motivation so much more than a win ever could. The race highlighted areas of my skiing i  need to work on and in the next 10 days i intend to make some big changes in preparation for the next world cup in St Johann on the 7th of Jan.

Today showed all the right signs of being awesome but it just wasn’t to be.  My back was feeling good for the first time in a week and then my warm up and training felt great. I made a few line adjustments from yesterdays training and for the most part my skiing was much improved. I was feeling confident and entered the start gate fired up for the first world cup of the season.  7 seconds later I overshot the double and lost a bunch of speed, no biggie I can make it back. Slayed the next section like Ligity in the Beaver Creek GS and was back on point. Then went too straight, lost speed, knuckled the big double in the middle of the course and then proceeded to ski ordinary for the duration of the course.  When I reached the bottom I found myself in second last place and I counted myself all the way back to 47^th. Actually that’s a lie; I stopped counting at 32. Not exactly the start I was looking for.

I moped around for a couple of hours after the race but then got my shit together and started preparing for Sunday’s race. First though, I jumped on the bike and smashed out a cardio workout, core and upper body session, swim and a stretch to burn off a little steam.

On the bright side, although its a very bleak bright side, I know where I made mistakes today and I know where I can improve. I’m really happy with where my skiing is at the moment i just have to execute on the day. Fortunately there is another race on Sunday for me to redeem myself.

Tomorrow though I will be spectating a final for the first time in over 18months

This photo was taken just off Bondi beach. Evidently the weather in Sydney has been a little crazy lately

Massive swell in Hawaii at the moment, check out the live webcast.

The glacier is constantly moving so the towers cannot be fixed to the ice.

A front page story in the San Francisco Chronicle told the story of a female humpback whale who had become entangled in a spider web of crab traps and lines. She was weighted down by hundreds of pounds of traps that caused her to struggle to stay afloat. The whale also had hundreds of yards of line rope wrapped around her body, her tai…l, her torso, a line tugging in her mouth.

A fisherman spotted the whale just east of the Farallon Islands (beyond the Golden Gate bridge) and radioed an environmental group for help. Within a few hours, the rescue team arrived. They determined that the whale was so bad off that the only way to save her was to dive in and untangle her. The team worked for hours, carefully slashing through the labyrinth of lines with curved knives. Eventually, they freed her.

The divers say that once the female humpback was free to move, she swam in what seemed like joyous circles. The whale then came back to each diver, one at a time, and gave each a nudge, pushing her rescuers gently around as she was thanking them. Some divers said it was the most beautiful experience of their lives.

The diver who cut the rope out of the whale’s mouth said her eyes were following him the whole time. And he will never be the same.