"Well, Anders and I were very excited to be ski flying for the first time. Since we are living in an apartment in Bad Mittendorf, Austria for the winter, we were even more excited to be jumping in our 'home' town in Europe. On Thursday, the day before Official training, we were able to go and watch the fore jumpers jump -- this is so the jury can figure out what speed is needed for the competition. We were even more lucky to have Chris Lamb as one of the fore jumpers. It was great because the jury usually starts the fore jumpers with more speed and then as the day goes on they bring them down more towards the competition gate. Chris, on his first jump, flew 180.5 meters. It was AWESOME to watch his first jump. Chris continued to jump for the rest of the day and then jumped again on Friday and jumped the furthest of everyone from Project X with a jump of 192 meters!!! but unfortunately he got very sick with a fever that night and was unable to forerun for the rest of the weekend.

"Friday we had Official Training and Qualification for the World Cup event. This was Anders' and my first time ski flying. As I took the chair lift to the top of the hill I started to get a few butterflies because ski flying is different than ski jumping, the jump is much bigger (60 meters larger), the speed is faster, you are in the air longer and there is no way to do it half heartedly, so you have to go for it 100% and nothing less or you could cause more harm than good. As I got to the top of the lift and arrived at the top of the jump I was able to relax and tried not to over think things. As the time came for me to go, I got on the start gate and looked down the jump and smiled... this was one of my major milestones, to go ski flying and now I could check it off the list!

"I went down the inrun and told myself this is it, I have to go for it. I came off the end and flew over the knoll, that is 120 meters long, as I cleared the knoll and kept going, it was an awesome feeling, a feeling that you were really flying. I landed and skied out. It was an amazing feeling being able to say that you had just been ski flying! As the day went on, I told myself to keep having fun and that’s what I did, I did not try to change my mind set. After the qualification day, we were all in good spirits because Anders and I qualified, so come competition day, I didn’t expect much, I didn’t want to change anything and I wanted to have fun. The only goal Í set myself that day, was to have fun.

"Conditions for the competition were tough, there was a slight tail wind and we were skiing with very low speeds, speeds equivalent to the speeds some people have on k120s, but this hill is much bigger and the slow speeds made it tough for everyone in the competition. After my first round jump I knew I had a good enough jump to make it to the second round.

"It was exciting to know that I had earned my first top 30 World Cup finish but I felt better for the USA Ski Jumping Development team (Project X) because I knew that this will give us a quota for future World Cup jumping. This means the organizers of the competitions will pay for our hotels at competitions. This will be a big help because before making the quota, we have had to pay for all our expenses while traveling, such as; plane tickets, hotels, meals, equipment, and other travel expenses. Not having to pay for hotels at world cup events is a HUGE money saver. This will allow us in the future to participate in more World Cups, not to mention it will help us in our desperate search for a team sponsor. On the second day of completions, the spirits were high and it felt like a huge load was lifted off our shoulders, all we needed to do was jump and have fun.

"Word got around quickly that we (team USA) were living in Bad Mittendorf and the Austria fans picked up on it. All of the fans would cheer when their countrymen would go. For all the other countries, the cheers were pretty bleak, but when Anders and I would jump at least half the crowd would cheer (there were about 50,000 people in attendance) It was an amazing feeling to have so many people wanting you to do well. It made you feel good and enjoy the situation that you were in. There are at least 2 more ski flying events this year that I plan on competing in. Although I had a good result and will not forget the first time I scored World Cup points, we still have many other events that we must concentrate on, we must try to perform better in those. I am happy with my result and it showed that rest of the Ski jumping world that the U.S. could soon be regulars in World Cup competitions.

"Its pretty hard not to have fun ski flying, it is a totally different experience than any other kind of jumping I have done and who doesn’t like being in the air for more than 6 seconds and flying at 100kmh+??

"Thanks, Nick.

"PS Anders is heading to Vancouver World Cup, but I am not, he was going home for 10 days and it made sense for him to stop and compete on his way back to Europe. Myself, Chris, Nick Alexander and Mike Glasder are going to compete in COC competitions until Junior Worlds. Then maybe Anders and I will head back to World Cup. Although I did score points, I still don’t think I am ready to constantly ski World Cups, although I would very much like to."