Happy New Year!!!

We wish everybody A Happy New Year, Einen Guten Rutsch, Een Gelukkig Nieuw Jaar, Une Bonne Annee en Feliz Navidad.

World Cup Arosa

The day we arrived in Arosa it started snowing and it didn’t stop…
So we did our first and only training day in these nice conditions. The course was fast, it had a lot of rollers and technical parts. Good line riding was the key in this course. On quali day it snowed again so (for the first time) it was good to start in the back of the pack.
In these changing conditions both of our first quali runs we’re too slow for the top 16. Our second run had to be better… Bell ended up making a mistake near the end and blew her chances for a top 16 spot as she crossed the finish line in 18th place. Britt also stepped up her game and rode a 2 sec faster run that was good enough for a 23rd place. With that good result she placed herself for the World Championships in Korea!!! Juppa the both of us are gonna rock in Korea.

Bell on the cover of Snowboard Magazine

Bell was on the cover of the latest Snowboard Mag in Holland. Britt has a full page powder shot and various other shots in the Mag so CHECK IT OUT!
Pic's www.fotograferen.net

Quik Pro France

After one of the most hectic trips in a long time ( running from plane to plane, in just 15 minutes and just making our intercontinental flight) we were thinking about summer. So a short stop at home, we packed our surfboards and took off. A nice coincidence was that the World’s best surfers had come down to Hossegor for the Quiksilver Pro France So next stop Hossegor, the waves were so big that we, as beginning surfers, couldn’t surf. But the people like Adrian Buchan, Kelly Slater and De Souza ruled on these waves. We enjoyed watching them rip up the waves before we headed out ourselves. We paddled our arms off for 3 days, managed a little surf and decided that we need a lot more practise. Never the less we had an awesome week in Hossegor thanx to Sven and Elles!

World Cup Chapelco

With loads of snow to build an enormous course, nice weather and some rest after the 2 continental cups it was time for the first training of the World Cup.
We inspected the huge course carefully, 45 obstacles, about 1.40 minutes long and a finish kicker with a 21m long flat The course was hard and there were many start-stops (hold ups) at the starting area because lot of riders were having difficulties with the course. We were also struggeling trew this hard course but managed to put in some good runs at the end of the day.
Qualifying Day: Blue skies, hot weather, a great course and the right wax > to ride fastAnd that we did: after the first run Bell was in 6th position and Britt in 14th. The top 16 after 2 runs go to the finals. By the time we could ride the 2nd run the course had become slushie (a lot of wet snow) and a little slower. Bell ended up 8th and Britt ended up 18th after two runs. That meant that Bell had qualified herself for the finals and Britt just missed them.
Finals: Bell shared the first heat with Lindsey Jacobellis and 2 other Americans.
The start was ok and Bell was in 3rd, battling for second by the first bank. By passing the American girl on a kicker they hit each other, she fell, Bell lost a lot of speed but rode on in second. But because of the lack of speed the 4th girl passed her on a step up kicker so she came in 3rd in that heat. Too bad but still an awesome result!!
Bell came in 11th at the world cup so she earned her first nomination for the Olympic Games in Vancouver 2010! Britt earned a nomination for the World Championships in Korea later this year.
We want to Thank SUNWEB without them this trip wasn't possible, thanks Frank for coaching, Pep and Rob for the good times,al the rest that supported us during this trip: JuanPa, Monte Verde, Carola ect and ofcourse our sponsors.

Continental Cups Argentina

ALL the rain from Pucon was snow in Chapelco so there was a record base of snow on the slopes. The first powder turns were a fact….. riding in 120cm fresh snow yeeha.I'm covering Bell with the new pow pow
The first challenges on our program were the 2 continental cups. These are two races in preparation for the world cup. There were so many world cup competitors, so many different countries this was the biggest continental cup in the history of the FIS.
The course was difficult and long, by the time you finished your legs were burning and you felt like you did a 1km sprint. After 1 hour the officials stopped the training and they were asking for the coach from The Netherlands. Bell had just started so I immediately knew something was wrong. I went down I saw and heard from other coaches that she had hit her head hard and had been out for a couple of minutes. She was going to be carried out by sled even though she refused. I tried talking to here but it was useless so I put a phone in her pocket and waved her off. In the hospital she found the phone and the result: a big concussion and a completely broken helmet. So no Bell participating on the continental cups. The first continental cup I fell in my qualifying run and because of the high amount of competitors no 2nd quali run possible. So next day next competition. Despite the weather ( witch was foggy and grey) I was able to ride a good quali run. Result 10th quali time and a spot in the finals. In the finals I got 3rd in the first heat (best 2 of 4 go to the next round) and ended up in 11th in the overall ranking!

UP NEXT THE WORLD CUP

Pucon Chile

After a short vacation in France it was finally time to go to Chile. The Sunweb team was ready for boarding. We flew in to Temuco (Chile) where we transferred to Pucon. Pucon is a nice little town in the south of Chile. The ski area is located on a volcano called Villarica. It’s an amazing view, this big white volcano sticking out of the country.
We stayed in a nice cabana that we heated with wood, which meant that the first nights is was freezing in our little place.
The weather was nice the first couple of days but then the rain came. We didn’t mind at first because there are so many nice things to do there. We could use the gym, squash and pool at the Gran hotel, visited the hot springs and went sightseeing. But when it kept on raining non stop we decided to go to Argentina a little bit earlier than planned.
JuanPa our guide who transferred us to the volcano and back took us for a really nice road trip to Argentina… Check out our (first made > thanx 2 the rain) movie!

Summer in Les2Alps

It’s summer and we’re thinking about snowboarding…
We both ended our internships for our 3rd year commercial economics at the Randstad Topsport Acdemie. Thanx to Martijn @ De Nederlandse Ski Vereninging and Sylvia @ Opvakantie.nl we both had a really nice time during our internships. Never the less, we’re stoked about riding again. Especially with our new (team) sponsor SUNWEB!! Because of them we can travel around the world.
The planning is a 2 week training in Les2Alps and 1 week rest and then off to Chile and Argentina for training and the first World Cup.
We rode to Les2alps in a brand new Mercedes Vito where we could fit 4 or 5 people, 4 board bags and 5 mountain bikes!
We had nice weather for 2 weeks and the four of us (Pepijn, Frank + the both of us)stayed in the Sherpa hotel in het middle of Les2Alps > Thanx Paul!
Our training schedule was snowboarding in the morning and mountain biking / physical training in the afternoon. The park in Les2alps was great so we could train obstacles like jumps and rollers. We had 2 really useful snowboarding weeks. The biking in the afternoon was amazing! We did “little” trips, bigger ones and we rented downhill bikes for an afternoon. The downhill biking in Les2alps is incredible! With 20kg bikes with major suspension, full face helmets and protection we raced down the mountain. With no major crashes we ended a day that felt like 2. It even feels kind off unreal with the snowboarding in the morning.
After 5 full days of snowboarding we decided that we needed a day of “rest”. Friends of Frank (our coach) have a hotel nearby la Grave. We were invited to come there for a bike ride and dinner. The biking ended up to be a hike and bike (to steep and no road to ride it all) of about 5 hours. The trip was so nice, just us and Ptor and some massive mountains After a well-deserved beer, a great day and a delicious dinner (Thanx Karien/Ptor) we headed back to 2alps again where nobody had problems sleeping
After 2 awesome weeks of training we rode back, satisfied, tired but especially stoked that we’re leaving for Chile and Argentina in a week!

End of the Season

After Korea we were off to the States and Canada where we had some nice boardercross competitions. We headed back to Europe where Bell rode the World Cup finals in Valmalenco and Britt headed out to Lenk for the Europa Cup finals. We both did nice as Britt ended up 8th and Bell 21st. We met up back home to see what our next trip would be probably the Belgian Open. Bell was struggling with a knee injury and decided that she couldn’t t keep on riding like that so went to see her knee specialist. The next day she had her 4th knee surgery and had a 4 to 6 month fysio in the planning. So no Belgian Open or other snowboard trips for her. Britt was invited for a boardtest in St Moritz with a snowboardmag. She had an awesome time there with all the powder that fell in April.

World Cup Sungwoo Korea

The trip started at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam. My teammate and I would fly to Frankfurt and than strait to Seoul where a bus should be waiting. After a 2 hours delay in Frankfurt and no shuttle to pick us up in Seoul, we had to wait another 5 hours on the airport before we would for a 3 hour drive to the Hyundai Resort
in Sungwoo. The resort looked really nice but during the check-in we heard that there was training in 8 hours. We decided to wax our boards because of the aggressive snow and cold temperatures. After stairing at the ceiling for 4 hours and 3 hours of sleep it was training time. It was a super nice course! Long, a lot of jumps and some massive corners. Training didn’t go well at al. I was so tired that I was falling in stupid places.
The next day was raceday and I rode a lot better in training but fell twice during my qualifying runs. A bad result and a bad vibe but I took off for a nice trip to Japan (with japanees pow pow in sight) a couple of days later.

Serbia

A new adventure, a new country: SERBIA , town Kopaonik. I flew into Belgrado where my teammates had already rented us a car. It was a 4 hour drive to Kopaonik, on the way we met with the organizing commity and some riders for dinner. A warm welcome to Serbia. The town is like a little Austrian town with nice people and bars. The first two days were training. The weather let us down and it started snowing and blowing. But i was determined to do good here because i needed the points if i wanted to go to the World Cup in Lake Placid. Finally it was racing day, the weather was still shit but it was shit for everybody. I ended up having the 4th quali time so i was stoked. After the first heat i was last because i had a little acident on the kicker. It knocked me out for a moment but i still had the lozers final. And that final i won so i got the 5th position. Very happy but feeling sore i went to bed early. The next day another EC waiting for me. It was blue skys and i was ready to go. An eighth position and i would have my points. So what did i do: i came in eight hihi. Didnt have a realy good day but satisfied i went back to Belgrado, were we slept in a nice hostel in the middle of the city. The next day i flew back to Brussels. Next stop EC in Fiss and afterwards WC in Lake Placid.

Sankt Gallenkirch

After the Dutch champs, it was waking up early, throwing everything in the car and driving to Sankt Gallenkirch where the Europe Cup was waiting for us.
We could inspect the course and do 1 training run after that is was on. Barly knowing the difficult course I crashed. It was a pity but motivating to do better the next day.
The next day I came in at the 16th place what made me happy. Again we packed our stuff and of to the ISPO to check out the new stuff for the next year.

Dutch Champs Laax 08

Without beeing abel to shift gears Pepijn managed to get us over the St Bernadino and up to all the Dutchies in Laax. We found our appartment, put on our gaper outfits (old fluo racing suite;)and went to the gaper party in the Crap bar. The party was cool, a lot of over-enthusiastic, gaper-dressed dutchies going crazy. The next day we chilled, rode some pipe and enjoyed some extra sleep. Because of the bad weather the following day, the Slope Style was cancelled so we went to the gym and pool. That evening we enjoyed an up mountain cheese fondu organised bij Snowboard Holland.
If you put 200 snowboarders in one restaurant and free food… Yeah you get a food fight. When the food was eaten or on the ground we could ride down in some fresh pow.
With a clear blue sky, a burning sun and a freshly groomed pipe the FIS/Dutch champs half pipe took off. Dolf van der Wal proved again, with a massive run I must say, that he is the best dutchie in the pipe. In the ladies Anne Fleur proved that she is still the best and took the first place. Britt came 3rd and showed that she’s back from her knee injury.
The Big Air was next on the program at the Dutch Champs. With the sun high in the air and the temp almost like summer ridin the Big Air started. First ladies and groms, later guys and finals. The quali was nice but later in the training befor the finals the conditions were different. I (Bell) misjudged the speed, after skipping ¾ of the landing on the first hit, I slammed onto the flat. As a result; competition over and off to the docter for some X-rays of my heel. Thankfully I have some awesome friends/twinsister who stoped the comp too and brought me to the doc. THANX Anne, Tine and Britt.
With no womens finals ridden, Britt became first, Anne second and I still became 3rd . I “jumped” onto the podium that evening with my crutches and very painful heel.
Friday / last day / BoarderX day / feeling like crap day… Evendough I wasn’t competing, I still managed to get up the mountain and over to the start of the course to support my sister and my friends. The supporting must have helped… Britt came in first and Anne came in 3rd! Rob Gerlings took the first place in the mens comp Well done!
Time to get off the mountain, easier said than done but with some help from my coach Frank I managed to get down pretty fast.
With Britt travelling to St Gallenkirch for a Europe Cup the next day it was decision time for me. Go home or try to hang on. Keeping in mind, the World Cup in Korea, my moms good cooking and the pain I felt, I chose to go home.
For more nice pictures check out: www.fotograferen.net

Write to ya from Korea!

Puy St Vincent

Befor heading out to the Dutch Championships in Laax we made a little stop in Puy St Vincent for 3 SBX competitions. Puy St vincent is a nice little ski area 40km south of Briancon. A lot of riders came to the little resort to ride the nice pow and ofcours the cool course. We stayed in an appartment with the sunweb snowboard team and another dutchie called Casper. After the Europe Cup we chilled out in our nice warm outdoor pool. THAT’S LIFE!
The second day Bell almost battled her self into the finals but came 1 spot to short. She became 8th and Britt missed out on the top 16 by a tenth of a second and came 18th. Now we have to leave the pool en join all the Dutchies in LAAX.

SEEFELD

After riding in Bad Gastein and paying a little visit to the local bar The Silver Bullit, I headed up to Seefeld to do a little fotoshoot for a Dutch mag called The Panorama and for the people who know it; No not a naked picture in the snow hahaha. I met up with Britt, who almost came directly from Slovakia and we started looking for a cool drop. Seefeld is a nice little place but you see a lot of old people wearing fur, its quite funny. We found our drop, shot some cool pics and went to an anmaizing 5 star hotel called Klosterbrau. There we met a famous and very friendly Dutch chef called Cas Spijkers. We chilled and drank a beer with him befor heading out to a little party. We met a lot of cool people that evening and had a great time! Thanx Pieter and Helene from the Panorama and Protest for this little trip!!
Check out / buy the PANORAMA on 23/01/2008

Greetz BNB

World Cup Bad Gastein

After a nice vacation in Klosters Switserland the time had come to drive off and start riding some competitions. The picture is me beeing silly in Klosters hahaha I dropped Britt off in Ellmau. She would leave for Slovakia the next day with Pepijn to ride a FIS SBX.
I met my coach Frank German and my fellow teammate Rob in Bad Gastein for the World Cup SBX. The next day we checked the course but we couldn’t ride it yet so we went to the Felsen Thermen. With the world cup credentials we could enter for free, NICE!
The next day it was the first and only training day. Rob and Frank went earlier because the guys trained first and after a nice breakfast I joined them on the course. The course looked fun, rollers on the landings and take offs of kickers and that kind of monkey business. After looking at the guys training it was our turn. I gave the kick off of the training and it was on. It was a pretty fast and cool course.
After training we evaluated it and had a bite to eate because we were starving at that point.
Qualifyingday… pooooring rain and all the teams seeked cover under the trees and whatever they could find. I started pretty late in the pack of girls and was driven to end up in the top 16. The top part went really well, pushing everything and staying uber high in the burms. After half of the course I crashed really hard in a burm and the lights went out for a sec. When I convinced the docters on course that I was ok I went back up, iced my face (read now swolen and blue) and started on my second run. It went well, I was fast but made a little mistake at the end and ended up in 19th place. Bummer but now I can’t wait till the next World Cup!
Greetz Bell