freestyle josh

OK, so after being badgered into hosting more pictures of my new son Josh, here is one from the weekend. I tried to get him in his helmet for about 30 minutes and all I got was tears, it seems he didn’t like the Donald Duck sticker on it. Anyway back to more normal pursuits in the coming days with a couple of trips to the local glaciers.

Josh Benjamin Brown - 3rd May 2009, Innsbruck, Austria - skier

As a child in maybe 1977 I remember the life changing experience of clipping into plate bindings and pointing skis down the dry slope at Rossendale dry ski slope – I can say without bravado that things have never quite been the same since – the smell of Toko wax still sends me wild with excitement just at it did 30 years ago. A couple of years after my time on Rossendale and down in Gloucester I bought a pair of ski poles so I could practice the racing tuck position in my bedroom. Near death experiences followed with the sub-zero temperatures and rock strewn pistes across the Scottish highlands. Then came Ellmau – February sunshine, skiing through farm yards and exposure to a ski culture that left me mesmerised and has captivated me ever since.

Some 20 years ago all that mattered to me was the next swell and the hope that our Cornish beach party had finished in time to get straight enough to paddle my surf board into glassy dawn waves. Some more years out of the mountains followed in Australia and New Zealand, which were also dominated by water sports, mainly canoeing and diving. Then followed a year in Whistler-Blackcomb and Vancouver – the over-riding emotion from British Columbia, Canada was never again; never can I go so long again without snow underfoot. 9 Innsbruck winters later and I have stayed true to this commitment. Work has absolutely dominated the last couple of years, sadly at times very much at the expense of other quality of life pursuits. And now the biggest, best, most life changing experience of them all – Josh Benjamin Brown, born 3rd May 2009, Innsbruck, Austria. He is healthy, wonderful and he is a skier. Until the time he can say no to its dad, he is a skier, Josh Benjamin Brown was born to ski; I just live in hope that I never hear the word snowboard coming from my new hero:)