Blog Kirsteen Mitchell
This year has been the first year in a while that I’ve spent the whole winter in England and not gone abroad in search of somewhere hot to ride. This wasn’t through choice, I have needed to stay off the water to rest an ankle injury I picked up last year in Australia and I have spent my winter huddled up trying to find some fun activities to keep me fit and occupied whilst I couldn’t ride.
I’m stoked now that spring is here and I have been able to get back on the water and ride. Unfortunately living in England means that spring is still pretty cold and seems to rain every day but I was still really happy to go down to my home cable JBSki and get out on the water. I am loving my new 2012 Jobe gear and am riding an Austin 133 with Click bindings. The board is perfect for me it edges really well and just makes everything feel easy even though I have had 6 months of not riding. I’ve also been trying out the Guerrilla as I had never ridden a flex board before, I really like it and have been having some great rail sessions riding it.
I have been taking it easy and gradually building up my riding and I’m looking forward to being able to start learning new tricks and competing again. My first competition will be the 1st stop of the 10 feet high series in Sheffield which I’m looking forward to as their comps are always chilled out and fun plus you get a great BBQ afterwards!
24/04/2012
I’m stoked now that spring is here and I have been able to get back on the water and ride. Unfortunately living in England means that spring is still pretty cold and seems to rain every day but I was still really happy to go down to my home cable JBSki and get out on the water. I am loving my new 2012 Jobe gear and am riding an Austin 133 with Click bindings. The board is perfect for me it edges really well and just makes everything feel easy even though I have had 6 months of not riding. I’ve also been trying out the Guerrilla as I had never ridden a flex board before, I really like it and have been having some great rail sessions riding it.
I have been taking it easy and gradually building up my riding and I’m looking forward to being able to start learning new tricks and competing again. My first competition will be the 1st stop of the 10 feet high series in Sheffield which I’m looking forward to as their comps are always chilled out and fun plus you get a great BBQ afterwards!
24/04/2012
It’s been a long times since I’ve been on the water, as it’s still pretty cold over here. I haven’t been able to ride because I am taking the winter off the water to rest my ankle injury. So I have been trying to find ways to keep myself occupied through the winter. As well as the usual working out in the gym and practising my tricks on the trampoline I have discovered adult gymnastics! My boyfriend and I have been heading off to the adult class at Woking gym every Monday. Although I’ve been and played about in a gym before I’ve never actually done a structured class.
The warm up is really good, you do all kinds of stretching which is great because as a wakeboarder I’m really inflexible and stiff, although my attempt at splits is pretty embarrassing! We’ve been learning to do a bunch of gymnastics skills and I can now do a 1 handed cartwheel, a flick onto a matt and walk across half of the gym floor on my hands which I’m sure isn’t very impressive if you are actually a gymnast but for me it was quite good. You also get some free time to try whatever you want at the end of the session which I have spent mostly doing double front somersaults off the trampoline into the foam pit. It’s the best bit of the session and I can nearly land them onto a crash matt now!
Before I started wakeboarding I used to be a competitive diver. This week the Diving World Cup was being held in London as a test event for the Olympics and I was lucky enough to get tickets to go and watch. We saw the men’s 3m final and the women’s 10m synchro final. The level was just crazy especially the Chinese divers who are like robots and nailed their dives for the highest scores every time. We saw the British Women’s synchro team make history winning a Bronze medal being the first female divers to ever medal at this level and the home crowd just exploded. It was pretty inspiring to see and made me want to get back on the water and start training again.
28/02/2012
The warm up is really good, you do all kinds of stretching which is great because as a wakeboarder I’m really inflexible and stiff, although my attempt at splits is pretty embarrassing! We’ve been learning to do a bunch of gymnastics skills and I can now do a 1 handed cartwheel, a flick onto a matt and walk across half of the gym floor on my hands which I’m sure isn’t very impressive if you are actually a gymnast but for me it was quite good. You also get some free time to try whatever you want at the end of the session which I have spent mostly doing double front somersaults off the trampoline into the foam pit. It’s the best bit of the session and I can nearly land them onto a crash matt now!
Before I started wakeboarding I used to be a competitive diver. This week the Diving World Cup was being held in London as a test event for the Olympics and I was lucky enough to get tickets to go and watch. We saw the men’s 3m final and the women’s 10m synchro final. The level was just crazy especially the Chinese divers who are like robots and nailed their dives for the highest scores every time. We saw the British Women’s synchro team make history winning a Bronze medal being the first female divers to ever medal at this level and the home crowd just exploded. It was pretty inspiring to see and made me want to get back on the water and start training again.
28/02/2012
Happy New year everyone! Now it’s 2012 I’m looking forward to planning my year and deciding which contests I will be riding in over the coming year.
Unfortunately as I was injured last season I am not able to go away over the winter to ride and I am definitely missing the sunshine! Last year I spent the whole winter riding in Australia and didn’t get back to the UK until May so I haven’t had a winter here without going away for ages and I’m not really used to it being cold every day!
I haven’t ridden since the end of October but have been keeping myself busy training at Lakeside Health and Fitness so I will be nice, strong and fit when I get back on the water at the start of the season. I had my first workout of the year last week after a little time off for Christmas and did a legs session, I was aching so badly the next day. Climbing the stairs was a challenge so hopefully I will be really strong by the time I start to ride again! I’m also spending a lot of time on the trampoline and as we have a handle set up to use when trampolining I have been doing all my tricks on it. It’s really helping me improve my awareness as this was something I thought I need to work on. Having this at home means I’ve been trying lots of new tricks so hopefully it will help me to learn them once I am back on the water.
This has been the longest I haven’t ridden for a couple of years and I’m really missing being out on the water, but luckily I am riding in the Ladies Demo at the London Boat Show this week and am really looking forward to get back on my board.
10/01/2012
Unfortunately as I was injured last season I am not able to go away over the winter to ride and I am definitely missing the sunshine! Last year I spent the whole winter riding in Australia and didn’t get back to the UK until May so I haven’t had a winter here without going away for ages and I’m not really used to it being cold every day!
I haven’t ridden since the end of October but have been keeping myself busy training at Lakeside Health and Fitness so I will be nice, strong and fit when I get back on the water at the start of the season. I had my first workout of the year last week after a little time off for Christmas and did a legs session, I was aching so badly the next day. Climbing the stairs was a challenge so hopefully I will be really strong by the time I start to ride again! I’m also spending a lot of time on the trampoline and as we have a handle set up to use when trampolining I have been doing all my tricks on it. It’s really helping me improve my awareness as this was something I thought I need to work on. Having this at home means I’ve been trying lots of new tricks so hopefully it will help me to learn them once I am back on the water.
This has been the longest I haven’t ridden for a couple of years and I’m really missing being out on the water, but luckily I am riding in the Ladies Demo at the London Boat Show this week and am really looking forward to get back on my board.
10/01/2012
Hi everyone,
As the season is coming to an end in England and its freezing in the water now I have stopped riding for the winter. I am letting my ankle injury recover by having a few months off the water so I will able to ride and compete lots next year. As I’m not riding I am spending lots of time training in the gym at lakeside with Neil Shannon who is helping me stay strong and fit so I will be in good shape to get back on the water next year.
I’m also going to start climbing as it will be a fun way to keep fit over the winter and I need to find some things to do over the winter when I’m not riding as I go a bit crazy when I don’t do any exercise! I’m planning on going away around March or April time to Thailand or Oz to get back into riding before the season starts.
That’s about it for now but I’ll let you know next time what things I’ve found to keep me occupied over the winter!
Kirsteen
21/11/2011
As the season is coming to an end in England and its freezing in the water now I have stopped riding for the winter. I am letting my ankle injury recover by having a few months off the water so I will able to ride and compete lots next year. As I’m not riding I am spending lots of time training in the gym at lakeside with Neil Shannon who is helping me stay strong and fit so I will be in good shape to get back on the water next year.
I’m also going to start climbing as it will be a fun way to keep fit over the winter and I need to find some things to do over the winter when I’m not riding as I go a bit crazy when I don’t do any exercise! I’m planning on going away around March or April time to Thailand or Oz to get back into riding before the season starts.
That’s about it for now but I’ll let you know next time what things I’ve found to keep me occupied over the winter!
Kirsteen
21/11/2011
Hey everyone this is my first blog for Jobe so here’s a little introduction. My name’s Kirsteen Mitchell, I’m 24 and I’m a wakeboarder from Guildford in England. My home cable is JBSki in Chertsey and I ride for Jobe and Fox.
Just a quick catch up on what I’ve done this year.
I did some winter training in Australia as all the lakes in England froze over and it was way too cold to ride so I went to Oz to get some much needed sun and time on the water. Luckily for me my boyfriend’s parents live in Sydney so I stayed with them for 3 months riding at Penrith Cable and also spent a month at Cable Ski Cairns. Unfortunately whilst training I damaged the cartilage in my ankle learning front to blinds. This means I’ve been injured all summer, I had to have some time off the water when I got back from Oz and haven’t been able to ride as much as I’ve wanted to even after I was allowed back on the water.
I’ve only managed to compete at 2 competitions this year, Protest Cable Call and Europeans. I was stoked to make the podium, coming 3rd in both events considering I’ve been injured all summer and have been struggling to land anything to bind as I can’t really land with my weight on the bad ankle!
I’ve been training in the gym quite a lot over the summer as I haven’t been able to ride as much so I’ve been keeping my fitness up with regular sessions with Neil Shannon at Lakeside. I’ve also been trampolining a bit so that when I get back on the water I’ll have the areal awareness to do all my tricks without having to relearn them.
I’m hoping to go away this winter so somewhere warm and sunny but first I need to have an MRI on my ankle and probably an operation to fix the busted cartilage so I will be able to get back to riding and competing loads next year. So will let you know how that goes and what I’m going to be up to over the winter.
Cheers
Kirsteen
28/10/2011
Just a quick catch up on what I’ve done this year.
I did some winter training in Australia as all the lakes in England froze over and it was way too cold to ride so I went to Oz to get some much needed sun and time on the water. Luckily for me my boyfriend’s parents live in Sydney so I stayed with them for 3 months riding at Penrith Cable and also spent a month at Cable Ski Cairns. Unfortunately whilst training I damaged the cartilage in my ankle learning front to blinds. This means I’ve been injured all summer, I had to have some time off the water when I got back from Oz and haven’t been able to ride as much as I’ve wanted to even after I was allowed back on the water.
I’ve only managed to compete at 2 competitions this year, Protest Cable Call and Europeans. I was stoked to make the podium, coming 3rd in both events considering I’ve been injured all summer and have been struggling to land anything to bind as I can’t really land with my weight on the bad ankle!
I’ve been training in the gym quite a lot over the summer as I haven’t been able to ride as much so I’ve been keeping my fitness up with regular sessions with Neil Shannon at Lakeside. I’ve also been trampolining a bit so that when I get back on the water I’ll have the areal awareness to do all my tricks without having to relearn them.
I’m hoping to go away this winter so somewhere warm and sunny but first I need to have an MRI on my ankle and probably an operation to fix the busted cartilage so I will be able to get back to riding and competing loads next year. So will let you know how that goes and what I’m going to be up to over the winter.
Cheers
Kirsteen
28/10/2011
