Danniels, Mosher pick up World Cup medals

Two more wins for X Games champ; Mosher still hopeful for Sochi

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Photo by Jacapo Piccardi

Tyler Mosher races to a third-place finish at the Para-Snowboard Cross World Cup final, and first place in the Canadian Nationals, on April 3 at Nakiska, Alta.

APRIL 12, 2012

ERIC MACKENZIE
ERIC@WHISTLERQUESTION.COM

After winning a surprise gold medal at the Winter X Games earlier this year, Whistler’s Sam Danniels said he wasn’t sure if he’d race again this season. Good thing he did.

Danniels won double gold in the men’s sitting category at the World Snowboard Federation’s (WSF) Para-Snowboard Cross World Cup held April 2 and 3 at Nakiska, while fellow local Tyler Mosher had a podium finish of his own in the men’s standing discipline.

“It seemed to work out in my favour, didn’t it?” laughed Danniels. “It’s been a pretty successful season.”

This year’s Mono Skier X champ at the X Games said one of the big reasons he was drawn to Nakiska was to participate in discussions about the future of the sport under the WSF umbrella. Winning back-to-back races against a strong field that included World Cup season champ Ravi Drugan of the U.S. was a bonus.

“The course was pretty different from anything I’ve ever done,” said Danniels, a Whistler Adaptive Sports Program race coach who is paralyzed from the armpits down. “It was a really fast tempo on a pretty steep slope so it was kind of scary at inspection, but it ran really well so it was a lot of fun.”

Given the success he’s found racing this year, Danniels said he hasn’t decided if he’ll take on more alpine events next year after “taking a proper break from it” this winter.

“I’m confident that will change next year, that I’ll get back into doing some alpine events,” he said. “But I haven’t yet made a decision as to how many or how far I’ll travel to go to them.

“It was nice to spend more time in Whistler this year and that was one of the goals for this winter.”

Mosher was the top Canadian in the men’s standing races both days with his third- and fifth-place results in an event that was run in conjunction with the national championships.

The 40-year-old said he trained specifically to defend his world championship title this year but fell short. With that in mind, Mosher said he was pleased to have a strong finish to the year on a Nakiska course that wasn’t suited well to his disability.

“It’s been pretty devastating to have what I trained for right in my hands and lose, but on the other hand, it was great to go out and have another World Cup and finish the season on a high note,” said Mosher, who has limited mobility below the waist from a fall on Blackcomb 12 years ago.

Mosher was sixth at this year’s WSF Para-Snowboard Cross World Championships at Orcieres 1850, France — the first time they were held since Mosher won in 2009. He held a one-second lead after the first of two days but overshot the second-to-last jump on the course and wiped out in the flats on Day 2.

Although the result wasn’t what he hoped for, Mosher said it was nice to have a world championship to focus on after learning in October that Sochi’s organizing committee decided not to include para-snowboard in the 2014 Paralympics.

Mosher is hopeful Sochi will reconsider its decision to leave the sport out of the Games, as he said the International Paralympic Committee has been backing the sport’s inclusion.

While it’s likely that South Korea will host para-snowboard for the 2018 Games, Mosher said it would be “unrealistic” for him to plan to compete there.

“My job is done. My focus is to be an ambassador of the sport and promote it, and continue on showcasing people’s abilities not only in snowboarding (but) all aspects of life,” said Mosher, who competed in para-Nordic skiing for Canada in the 2010 Paralympics.

“If Russia does rescind its decision and decide to include snowboarding… then I will train for 2014,” he continued. “I just haven’t given up on it yet and I think it’s still plausible.”

Sometimes, actually, most of the time, I am all about playing to win. I do not make any bones about it. I do what I believe in. It leaves little room for regret and “what if.” It sounds good and we can all relate to regret or trying to do what we think is best to avoid any regrets. Often, the result is a consequence of an action or reaction and our emotional response is either happy or sad. The best part of either one is that we get to feel emotion in our body and mind. It is a rush either way. It makes us feel alive.

We all want to be happy, but to enjoy happiness we need to experience sadness. Right now, I feel no regret, but sadness and happiness all in one. I am happy because I tried my best and gave my all after training to be the best at what I do over a two day period in February 2012. I am sad because I failed, even at my best, because I lost focus and lacked the ability to be mediocre. I haven’t any regrets because I put it on the line and didn’t only want to win and be the best, but be my best. It cost me my second World Championship title in “Para-Snowboarding.” On a day that I was the fastest, I made a mistake and I did not win; I lost.

Mistakes can’t always be erased by flipping a pencil. I am devastated right now. I am dealing with the pain of failure. Let me draw you a picture.

It is a cold sunny Sunday in the Southern Alps of France. The day before, after my best two of three races down a snowboardcross course, I am ahead by more then a second, which is a lot. I don’t know that I actually have a second lead before my first race, just that I am ahead. I am racer 34 and my main competition are racers 5 through 9. One of main competitors comes up and complains that the two guys who are in 2nd and 3rd place laid down very fast times. At that moment, I decide to race as fast as I can and eliminate any doubt of winning. The course is fast and I have a near perfect run.

The speed is fast and I hit the second last feature, I pyramid box but neglect to pre-ollie the up-transition and fly way over the downside transition into the flats. I bounce and and wipe out to the left of the up transition of the last step-up roller jump to the finish line. I realize I have to hop like a frog to get up and around the last flag into the finish. I am shaken up and lost my lead. My give away race was just given away.

The next race the order is reversed and I go near the front, I have a mediocre and safe run. It wasn’t pretty but it was competitive. The faster guys get to run twice before I run again. I go and re-wax my board because the conditions have changed substantially. The men race their runs but I am unsure how they have done and I am ready to put it all on the line and do my best.

I am in the start gate and ready to go, relaxed and focused. I come out of the gate and everything is perfect, I race an almost perfect race for me. I come out of the last turn to hit the pyramid feature and this time I pull up my legs and pre-jump the top of the transition. I am going very fast and although I don’t get a lot of air, I fly over the down transition. I am so excited as I look to the last feature, I feel like I am on the ground and and crossing the finish line. I wasn’t looking at the landing, I was looking at the finish line, happy and excited. I am sure I have won the World Championship.

I hit the ground still looking at the finish; not at my landing. Next thing I know I am spinning up the next transition. I am wiping and out and I didn’t even see it coming. I am going so fast I am almost at the top of the next jump. It is over. I was my best until I lost focus and forgot to look where I was going. I was heartbroken. What had just happened? I had it in my grasp. The only thing I can say it is like, is when you are wide open in football and you turn to get the touch down but forget to fully catch the ball or the net is open in hockey and you get too excited and fan on the pass to win the game. I forgot to finish my landing and caught an edge. The game was over. I lick my wounds and congratulate my competitors. I lost what I had fought for and now I deal with the consequences.

It is always difficult to deal with the truth. The truth in this circumstance is i lost focus on what I was doing. The consequence was failure. Nobody is as hard on my ego as I am. Friends and family don’t care if I win or not because I am living out my dream and they support me. Yet, the government, papers and Snowboard Federation and the general public, only really care about the win. I am in their boat. I care about the win and I am still devastated. I need to learn to let go and move on but it is hard. Life is hard and falling short of your goals is disappointing.

Hard work pays off. I worked hard training for this World Championship. I was in first place after the first day; which would usually mean a World Cup victory for that day. The second day of races, I did not win because I a made a judgement error and a technical error by losing focus while racing at top speed. I have learned from this experience and although devastated because I didn’t win, which was the main goal, all of my other goals to give me the best chance to win were met. This is why I haven’t any regret.

Thanks for listening and for your support.

“Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure… than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.”
Theodore Roosevelt

T

Here is her link: http://nicole-forrester.blogspot.com/2011/10/leave-pebbles-behind.html

Please read the original post below.

This blog post was written by lululemon and posted on November 16, 2009 at 6:56 pm

The Whistler resident and para-snowboard world champion recorded the best Canadian finish on both days, including a fourth-place result in Friday’s race that saw him just sixth-tenths of a second off the podium.

“Ideally, I would have liked to have been on the podium but I came up short due to my inability to land certain features at full speed during the race,” Mosher said Monday (April 11). “Sometimes you come up short, and that’s racing.

“If I had trained more, I think I would have competed for gold better. Although fourth and sixth place are good, they’re not good enough for me.”

Though there was room for improvement, one could excuse Mosher for less-than-stellar results considering that he’s spent recent weeks focused on the sport he competed in during the 2010 Paralympic Games.

The 38-year-old finished off the final two legs of his Birkebeiner cross-country ski race tour that began near Edmonton in early February. From there Mosher and a group of friends also completed the American ‘Birkie’ in Wisconsin at the end of February before taking on the legendary, original Birkebeiner in Norway in mid-March.

“The reality of it is that, yeah, I was focused on another sport and if you want to win, you need to focus on succeeding at that sport,” said Mosher, who was paralyzed in a snowboarding fall more than a decade ago but has since regained 60 per cent mobility in his legs.

“Maybe next year, if it’s a Paralympic sport, I’ll be training more specifically for snowboarding.”

Birkebeiners are 54-kilometre Nordic marathons. In the Norwegian event, participants must go up and over a mountain range while carrying a 3.5-kilogram sack from start to finish.

“Completing all three Birkebeiners over a five-week period is personally satisfying, a huge success and one of the greatest achievements in my life so far,” said Mosher, calling the stop in Norway “the pinnacle” of the tour. “Twenty-four kilometres of it is a climb right out of the start up and over the mountains. It was quite exciting and almost equal to competing in the Paralympic Games at home in my mind. I think I did fairly well for the amount I trained and I really enjoyed the whole adventure.”

Though the North American Birkies are huge in their own right with thousands of skiers taking part, they are dwarfed by the Norwegian race, which draws more than 16,000 participants each year.

Not surprisingly, Mosher said there’s a pretty special atmosphere at the event.

“The start is huge. It’s like the Boston or New York marathons where there’s thousands of people and you’re moving in packs of hundreds,” he said. “One person told me it looked like a pilgrimage and, to a certain extent for many people, it kind of is.”

Mosher is now one of approximately 100 people who can lay claim to a Haakon Haakonsson Award, which is given to skiers conquering all three Birkies. Only about 15 of those have completed the hat trick in the same winter.

Mosher said he’ll now change gears for the summer and decide where he’ll put his training focus next. He has an eye on competing in the 2014 Paralympics, though not on skis.

“I think I’m done competing for Canada in cross-country skiing, but I might be training for another world loppet next year,” said Mosher, who is optimistic that the International Paralympic Committee will add adaptive snowboarding to the sports program in Sochi.

He said it’s his understanding a decision will be made by October, though he’s hoping it comes earlier. Another World Cup race is scheduled for August in New Zealand.

Eric McKenzie, Whistler Question April 14 2011

http://www.whistlerquestion.com/article/20110414/WHISTLER02/304149981/-1/whistler/whistler-s-mosher-conquers-legendary-loppet?utm_source=newsletter20110414&utm_medium=email&utm_content=article_title&utm_campaign=newsletter

In addition to competing at the Winter X Games and at the World Cup level in adaptive snowboarding in 2011, Mosher is also taking on three Birkebeiner Nordic races, which are 55-kilometre marathons modeled on a famous Norwegian event.

He completed the first one, the Canadian leg, in Edmonton on Saturday (Feb. 12).

“Only nine people have done all three of these races in one year, so me and a few friends are doing just that,” Mosher, who was paralyzed from the waist down in a snowboarding fall on the Blackcomb Glacier more than 10 years ago but has since regained 60 per cent mobility in his legs, said while on a rare stop home Monday (Feb. 14).

“It was great. It was an event I just wanted to finish and I improved my time from the last time I did it in 2007 by almost 40 minutes. That’s pretty good over 55 (km), and I think I did fairly well, all things considered.

“I hadn’t really trained 100 per cent for that — I’ve been concentrating on my snowboarding, and knowing that I’ve got two more races to go, I didn’t want to overdo it and hurt myself.”

Mosher will race the American ‘Birkie’ on Feb. 26 and later take on the original in Norway in March.

The 38-year-old has been busy on his snowboard lately recording some great results as well.

Mosher said that his first X Games experience was an intense one, as the Aspen course remained true to the spirit of the annual event. It was the first time the X Games held a standing adaptive class for snowboard cross.

“The course was built amazingly. I’ve never seen anything so big and so well-built,” he said, noting that there were lots of jumps to deal with compared to a World Cup race.

“This course checked the confidence level. I went out there and did my best. Unfortunately, I fell after the first jump and I came fourth, but it was great. I know what I can do; there are obviously limitations to my disability, but I think if I wanted to train to be able to do some of that, I can. Whether or not it’s the intelligent thing for me to do is something altogether different, because I’m not getting any younger.

“They’re called the X Games because they’re extreme. It’s all about confidence and everything is built perfectly if you hit it with speed and don’t wipe out. But if you wipe out, you’re going to be in a world of hurt.”

Shortly after the X Games wrapped up, Mosher was off to France for the first Para-Snowboard World Cup event of the season. He came away with a pair of silver medals for his efforts there.

“You play to win, but I’m pleased that it was very competitive,” said Mosher, the 2009 adaptive snowboarding world champion. “The guy who quite handily won the X Games just edged me out on both World Cups by the smallest fraction of a second.”

The winner was decided by a combined time from each athlete’s best two of three runs.

“I wiped out on both of my first runs for both World Cups but put together pretty good runs on the second,” he said.

The World Cup series resumes at Lake Louise in April and Mosher said there may be another in New Zealand in August.

“There’s not a lot of pressure on me this year, coming off a Paralympic year where there was a lot of pressure to make the Paralympics in a sport I’m not necessarily the best at,” he said, hopeful that snowboarding will be added to the roster of sports in Sochi.

“This year is more for fun, for the adventure and for the success of accomplishing some goals like completing three 55 (km) cross-country ski marathons.”

Please see the following Link for actual story Written by Eric MacKenzie:

http://www.whistlerquestion.com/article/20110216/WHISTLER02/302169944/-1/whistler02/mosher-taking-on-cross-country-marathons

Tyler Mosher broke his back in nine places while Snowboarding on December 30th 2000. His L-1 vertebrae exploded on impact after falling 10 metres on to the top of his head leaving him permanently disabled and paralyzed below the waist. The prognosis at the time of injury was a complete spinal cord injury and Tyler would live in a wheel chair for the rest of his life. However, Tyler’s spinal cord injury turned out to be incomplete and through perseverance, hard work, luck and help from loved ones and many others; Tyler not only walks but he is the World Champion in Adaptive Snowboarding and competed for Canada at the 2010 Winter Paralympic Games in Cross Country Skiing.

It isn’t easy for anyone to hear what they don’t want to believe. We all have road blocks and speed bumps thrown in front of us as we travel down our chosen paths, yet we all have choices. Tyler was lucky that spinal cord injury initial response, surgeries and rehabilitation treatments have changed and were able to help him have the choice to push through the road blocks put in front of him while slowly rolling over the speed bumps and carefully navigating hurdles. Weeks after his injury and post reconstructive surgery, it was apparent the spinal cord injury was incomplete as Tyler began to regain some mobility. Although he was still told he would have to learn to live in his wheel chair, with new hope of walking, Tyler chose to leave his chair in the corner of the room and get up and fall down until he didn’t fall down anymore. Today, he is 40% paralyzed and you probably wouldn’t know it if you watched him walking down the street.

After walking out of Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation with two canes, Tyler moved home to Whistler and took up Cross Country Skiing and Yoga to get stronger and continue to “talk” to the muscles that didn’t fire in his legs. Once stronger and more mobile, Tyler looked to take cross country skiing more seriously as a sport and even got back onto a snowboard. The rest is, as they say, history. In 2008, Tyler won the first ever Adaptive Snowboard World Cup, and although he doesn’t win all of his races, he has won all of the Adaptive Snowboarding World Cup Races to date including the 2009 World Championship. He struggled with Cross Country Skiing yet persevered for seven years through goal setting and achieving his objectives along the way to represent Canada in the 2010 Winter Paralympic Games in the sport of Para- Nordic. The Paralympic Games were a proud moment of success for Tyler as they were played in his home town and for his country.

Through setting reasonable and achievable goals using a back casting method, Tyler has not only learned to walk again but has created his own pathway to his personal success. In addition to these sporting endeavors, Tyler is an active Rotarian, an Award Winning Landscape Designer with a professional Degree in Design for Environmental Planning, a business owner which employs 10-12 people per annum, a Founding Director of the Whistler Adaptive Sports Program and former Director of the Whistler Fisheries Stewardship Group. Tyler is always striving for balance in his life and recognizes he couldn’t do it on his own. As he concedes, “Even though I walk my Own Path, I couldn’t do it without those who help me build it.” Tyler is married to Dr. Debra Davis and looks forwards to building a family in the near future.

Tyler’s goals for the 2010/2011 Season is to focus on Snowboard Cross World Cups (2x January inEurope and 2x March in North America). He is also excited to complete in all 3 Birkebeiner Races (55km Ski Marathons); only about 100 people have completed all three and Tyler is attempting to do all three in one year with friends Chris and Monique Wilberg. It should be a crazy adventurous winter with 2 snowboard world cups in Europe in January, then February 12th, 55km Classic Ski in Edmonton, February 26th in Wisconsin, March 19 in Norway then 2 more snowboard world cups. If time and training allows, Tyler may compete in a Cross Country Ski World Cup. It depends on life, balance and recovery.

www.facebook.com/tylermosherca  www.tylermosher.com