He was out there this season for around 3 months or so and although I saw him a few times with his Rookie crew at snow park when they were doing their freestyle training I never actually got to ride with him properly crazy huh!! We did try but through being busy and having work it just never worked out. So on Ben's last weekend his last shred day being the Saturday and heading to Snow Park I had the day off from work too so could finally get a shred with him :D
After waiting longer than normal to hitch a ride up, was beginning to think I wouldn't get up with a long line of people waiting I got a ride and on arrival while walking through the car park Ben and 2 mates of his had just arrived and were getting ready. So away we went on a beautiful bluebird hot and sunny day :) Was awesome fun riding with them, one of the guys John-Jo is seriously one of the most stoked people I have seen on a board and I thought I was stoked when strapped to my board, haha!! Just flying everywhere, him and Ben having runs where they had to copy what the one in front was doing no matter if it were their normal stance or switch they had to try it, that's what riding's all about though having fun people to ride with like that and pushing each other to try new things/ tricks!! There was also a gnarly boarder cross set up which looked cool so we went through it to check it out.
We had been riding maybe a couple of hours and then while on the chair so very very near to the top literally the second chair behind the one closest to the top the chair stopped and was not starting, uh oh.... Ben was a couple chairs in front so he was off at the top but John-Jo and I were stuck on the chair. We got told that there had been a power cut and may take a while for the chair to restart so they were going to start lift evac, so while the ski patrol were putting on their harnesses the guys on the chair in front decided to jump off the chair, they were a decent height off the ground but jumpable with a good landing. We contemplated doing the same thing but we were pretty high and basically a thin layer of snow and then the hard ground so decided it would be a bad idea kinda looking forward to getting lift evaced off the chair, haha.
While waiting Ben was trying to through snowballs at us but failing to hitting everything else but us, haha, we had some snow still left on our boards so threw back. Then eventually just as they were ready to start lift evac the chair started, stoked there was an empty park ahead of us, John-Jo flew off the chair strapping in straight away as he made his way to the jib run and he was gone, with Ben and I following behind, we stopped at the top of the run in to the jump watching him hit it and seeing him fly off it diving head first to the ground, oh it did not look good. We saw him move to the side and he put his hand up so we thought maybe he's ok but rode down Ben throwing in a cheeky wee spin off the drop in ledge to it and on getting to him he was in a lot of pain as he'd broken his collar bone, so I went and got a hold of ski patrol who were soon at the scene. I walked back up to them and then up to the jump as people were still using it so put my board on it and stood there till they had gone.
So that was the end of our shredding that day but once something like that happens to someone you've been riding with your just not feeling it no more anyway. I went with them up to the medic bit where he was sucking in the gas heavy as he was in a lot of pain the doc saying it's the worst she's seen :( I got a ride with them back and we took him to the medical centre in Wanaka where we waited until he was checked out and got x-ray, etc, Ben got his laptop and was showing me some footage that they'd filmed throughout his time there which was sick.
We then took John-Jo to the pharmacy and then home where he could chill out and rest. Ben, his friend (who I have forgotten the name of, oops!!) and I went to Red Star to get a burger and then they dropped me off at my house. So all in all it was an awesome day and a bad day, awesome because I got to hang out with Ben and his friends and we really did have fun riding before all that happened and bad because of the broken collar bone and that was the end to his season but from what I've heard he got an operation and got a plate to hold his collar bone together and is on the mend and will be heading to Canada soon for the season, happy shredding dude and keep on being super stoked :) He is a filmer/ editor and has started this blog where he post up the vids he does check it out, you will also be able to read in his own words what happened that day....
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