Becca Babicz on TRAINS

Trains

When Roy invited me to TRAINS this year and told me it was going to be a team competition with a girl on every team, I was really excited and one thing popped into my mind "Orage Masters of Tahoe."

I missed the practice/photoshoot day on Friday which wound up being a good thing because I didn't get to see the set up and didn't lose sleep. A lot of times before competitions I cant sleep because I'm too excited/anxious/nervous thinking about the next day and what tricks I want to throw.

Saturday went by really fast but you know what they say about time flying by. Kress Durfee, Courtney Royce, Shawndrea Wisma, Brit White and myself were the invited girls and got to be captains picking our team middle- school gym class style. I was captain of team blue, which also happens to be my favorite color. It was a good sign.

After skiing with Matt Nelson and seeing him kill it numerous amounts of times at Northstar this year, I was confident he would be my first pick. I really had no idea he could do double rodeos, I just knew he had silky smooth style and cat like reflexes where he always lands on his feet. Matt wound up impressing the judges by throwing a rodeo off the up rail feature, a double rodeo and numerous spin rotations, taking the top individual prize of best overall male. When it came
time to pick my next team member, I couldn't believe no one picked Sean Collin, last years winner and the only kid I know that can do every grab ever invented plus grabs that I've never even seen or heard of before. The judges also like Sean's style and he won best 540. When I got to pick my last two team members I was baffeled. How could no one have picked Tyler Homen and Sean Carey!? I really got lucky, I guess. I skied with T-Hoe in previous years but not much this season and didn't know he learned  double back flips! Sean Carey was my savior  and let me follow his speed into the jump. He also came up with our team high five, that won the best high five award. He sat up on the barrel and slapped our hands as we flew through the air. Sean and Matt even did flipping high fives! I also had an honorary member, Jex Lawrence who skied with me throughout the individual competition. Jex is like that Twista song "overnight celebrity" somehow he woke up one day in March and decided to get really sick at skiing.

The speed in the jump got slower and slower throughout the day, but what else could you expect from a blue bird 60 degree weather day? There wound up being more cases than a liquor store on that jump and I felt like an 80- year old woman the day after the competition, after getting worked quit a bit.  But my blue team killed it and we won best team which meant $100, a bunch of cool swag and my favorite thing ever, moon boots!

The competition for me was one last time to see all my ski friends before the season ended. It's weird how ski friends come and go in waves, and sometimes you'll be skiing with someone for weeks straight and then not see them for a month. And with season pass prices, it seems like my friends were all scattered at different mountains this year. So that was my favorite part, to reunite and see everyone killing it on a nice sunny day. 

high five, BB

Becca Babicz following TRAINS teammate Sean Carey, as Team Blue sends a train over the 62-foot jump at Sugar Bowl