Drop In!

Billy Morgan

Description

Snowboarding maverick Billy Morgan has dedicated his life to redefining what is possible. With two world firsts to his name, he is also the first British male to win an Olympic medal on snow. Emerging from working-class origins in Southampton, a long way off piste, Morgan came late to the traditionally bourgeois world of snowsports. Driven by a latent love for fun, he reaches far beyond the cliches of stoner kids and street slang to explore the courage required at his sport's highest levels. Morgan's specialist event, Big Air, involves flying off a 50-metre ramp at 70 miles per hour, spinning and twisting while airborne, then landing. Even within the death-defying world of adventure sports, it is one of the most dangerous disciplines imaginable. In this groundbreaking autobiography, Morgan outlines the culture, ethos and philosophy of his sport. A sport in which one wrong move can cause life-changing injury. A sport whose party-animal practitioners feel peculiarly attuned with nature. Drop In! is a testament to human potential.

Sujets

• Winter sport

Informations

• Publié par: Pitch Publishing Ltd
• Date de parution: 11 octobre 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781801500357
• Langue: English

Extrait

First published by Pitch Publishing, 2021
Pitch Publishing
A2 Yeoman Gate
Yeoman Way
Durrington
BN13 3QZ
www.pitchpublishing.co.uk
Billy Morgan with Mark Turley, 2021
Every effort has been made to trace the copyright.
Any oversight will be rectified in future editions at theearliest opportunity by the publisher.
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A CIP catalogue record is available for this book from the British Library
Print ISBN 9781785315428
eBook ISBN 9781801500357
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Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Part One: Imposter Syndrome and How to Overcome It
1. Pyeongchang, South Korea, 24 February 2018
2. Art or Sport?
3. Going with the Flow
Part Two: A Kid from the Coast
4. Boys Like Billy
5. Mad Eddie and Risk
6. Square Pegs, Round Holes
7. Kickflips and Battling for Azeroth
8. All Change
9. Death Mesh
10. A Taste of the Alps
11. The Morzine Scene
12. Ouch!
13. Ridin for the Man
14. Billy the Kid
15. A Team Game?
Part Three: Raising the Stakes
16. Snowboardin USA
17. Fame and Hate
18. YOLO?
19. Big Win? Big Celebration
20. The Complexities of Success
21. Living with Injury
22. A Miracle Down Under
Part Four: The Really, Really Big Stuff
23. The High Life
24. Huck It!
25. A Gymnast on a Board
26. Redefining Possible
27. How I Killed Style and Ruined Snowboarding
28. Post-Quad Life
29. Back on the Grind
30. Brains and Knees
31. Heart and Seoul
32. Cometh the Hour
Part Five: And Then?
33. The Plan to Have No Plan
34. Where Will Snowboarding Go?
Billy Morgan Career Highlights
Photos
Acknowledgements
THIS IS one of those occasions where words are not really enough, but this is a book, so they will have to do.
First and foremost, I have to thank my family. My dad, Eddie, my mum, Joanne, my brother Ashley, my grandma, Shirley, and my grandad, Terry (RIP). They supported me from childhood, helping me to achieve things I wasn t even aiming for at the beginning. In truth, I was never a kid with a clear career path or much life focus, so I m sure at times they worried about me and where I was heading. Despite that, they understood the raw materials I was made from and never tried to force me into a direction that didn t suit me.
My snowboarding career wouldn t have reached the levels it did or have been as relentlessly enjoyable without the input of many important people. Lack of space means I can t name them all, but the following key players were all incredibly important to me in different ways:
Hamish McKnight, my coach. Not only is Hamish an incredible snowboard (and life) mentor, but also a great friend. He supported me through some tough times and exceeded his role as a coach from start to finish.
Local legend, Steve Fox, was there from my early days on the dry slope. Without Steve I would have never been exposed to the snowboard scene. He dedicated loads of time to taking me and other youngsters around the country for different activities. He did this for free and only wanted the stoke in return.
Luke Paul showed me a new side of snowboarding. He introduced me to Morzine and a huge friendship circle. This meant I arrived in a new part of the world and was immediately comfortable.
Scott Penman is one of those people who makes others feel good. From when we first met way back at The Brits, we ve been great friends. His charisma, alongside his incredible ability to make fun things even more fun, made my career so enjoyable. With guys like Scott around, things never got too serious.
Last but not least, GB assistant coach Jack Shackleton has to be mentioned. Being on the road most of the time can be tough for many reasons. Jack was always there for me through thick and thin and whatever I needed him for - someone to moan to, a shoulder to cry on, a drinking buddy. Thanks, Jack.
I also have to give a shout out to Mike Hurd, the manager of Southampton Alpine Centre where I started; my acro coaches, Pat and Mike Wakefield; my fantastic girlfriend, Samantha France; my agent and friend, Adam Phillips; and, of course, all the guys at Red Bull, who have done so much to support me.
My love and respect to you all.
Introduction
SUCCESS BRINGS different things to different people. My Olympic medal, which made me the first British male to win an Olympic medal on snow, means snowboarding, as a sport in the UK context, is now permanently attached to my name. In some ways I m thought of as an ambassador or even a pioneer, which is crazy, as well as being a huge honour.
Now that my competitive career is over and I m able to look back and reflect, the whole thing seems incredibly quick. It only feels like a couple of years elapsed between me riding ramps at the local dry slope and standing on the Olympic podium. Yet so much happened in the decade between those two points that the process becomes difficult to rationalise. On the one hand, I was just doing something I loved, having fun. On the other, like the rest of the UK crew, I spent a decade pushing limits and making radical gains.
Obviously, snowsports down the years have been dominated by a relatively select group of nations. It s a field in which natural factors such as climate and topography have a huge impact. Countries with lots of snow and mountains tend to be the ones that excel. That s just the way it is.
The fact that the UK has made such huge strides in recent years, with athletes such as myself, Jenny Jones, Woodsy Woods and others achieving success on the international stage is testament to the fantastic national strategy that has been developed. The UK has no right to be achieving any of this and no prior track record in doing so.
In that way, my successes are not mine alone. They belong to those who helped and cultivated me. And that makes them all the more sweet.
Part One
IMPOSTER SYNDROME AND HOW TO OVERCOME IT
It s not what you are that holds you back, it s what you think you are not.
- Dennis Waitley
1.
Pyeongchang, South Korea, 24 February 2018
THERE S NOTHING like being up in the mountains nothing. You breathe and everything evaporates, just dissolves away like salts in the bath. All around you, a panoramic vista of the purest, pure white. There s no white like it, anywhere, while the air teases your nostrils with precipitation, pine and wild herbs. That smell jolts me out of wherever my head was and plants me bang in the moment. After that, I m on it.
Buzzing.
High on white.
Sounds beautiful, right? That s the true winter sports vibe, what the purists live for. Long days absorbed in immersive, rich environments of natural beauty, time and routine disappearing. But here s the reality crash: in truth, professional competitions are mostly nothing like that romantic ideal, especially big competitions and especially my main event, known as big air . Big air just needs a ramp and some snow, which could be artificial, or even brought in from somewhere. That means wherever you can construct a ramp, you can have a comp. I ve done my thing before crowds in London, Los Angeles, Beijing and many other places where there are no mountains (or natural snow) for miles.
The South Korean Winter Olympic venue was set in the Taebaek mountain range, but inside a fishbowl stadium, with the snowboard big air and the ski jump competitions facing one another from either end. When you were up there, getting yourself together, it wasn t white and alpine and immersive. Not at all. It was concrete and cables and car parks. People rushed here and there with clipboards.
That part of South Korea, known as Gangwon Province, has an average of two feet of snow a year, so all the stuff in the snowsports arena was fake. The big day was actually a warmish one too, mild enough for me to wear only a T-shirt and a hoodie as I waited. Petrol fumes lingered in the air, mixed with the rainy, sludgy scent of snowmelt and the murmur of a few thousand voices. I sat inside the gazebo the organisers set up as a waiting area, took a few deep breaths and tried to get into the right headspace.
Near me sat Seb Toutant in Canadian red, with his highly rated countryman Max Parrot. Seb s cool, all smiles, but Max is harder to read, a serious pro. He keeps himself to himself. Kyle Mack was on the other side, chatting with his coach. Mack s a rarity, an American who manages to be genuine and one of the cool kids. That s not an easy combination to pull off. Near him was Michael Sch rer from Switzerland and the Kiwi, Carlos Knight, a young, technical and stylish rider with infectious enthusiasm, having the absolute time of his life. Then there was the regular slew of Swiss and Scandinavians, pure naturals, the type who look like they were born on a mountain and never left. All the best riders in the world, basically.
Yeah , I remember thinking. This line-up is stacked. The action s gonna be savage . And then it properly hit me, like really, really hit me. Shit, this is the Olympic final.
We were all trying to act casual, despite the calculation and self-talk occurring inside. Snowboarders are like that, a cultural thing. Whatever dude But people misread it, that attitude. What we do can never be half-hearted. Each of us has an acute understanding of what can happen.
Pretty soon I knew I would take my turn, careen downhill then take off from a 49-metre ramp arching up at an angle of 40 degrees. It s common to achieve speed