Blog | Aksel Lund Svindal
NZ driving
Its bad enough that you have to drive on the left side of the road, but it doesn't make it any easier when there are houses coming at you. Tho locals though seem to be used to a lot tourist and ski racers that are used to driving on the right side. They can spot that you are in a rental car from miles away, and then they keep distance. Specially when you're coming in to an intersection and you hit the windshield wiper instead of the signal lights. Oh yeah, they put those on the other side too. I went biking the other day, and the brakes were the same deal. Front wheel break right hand and back wheel left. Almost took a dive over the handlebar before I realized. Reminds you that you're out travelling. The crazy thing is that in Sweden they used to drive on the left side too. Imagine driving across the boarder and then just having to change. I thing it was in the 50's they switched. "Dear people of Sweden, tomorrow we'll start driving on the other side of the road"...
The Golf dispute
My golfing career consists of a few holes every year I'm in New Zealand. I play on the same course every time. It's as low key as you can possibly get. The grass is green, and that's all I need for my skill level. Since I didn't come here last year, it's been two years since my last game. I said a few holes. The reason for this is that after around 5-6 holes you're so close to the car. And as I'm usually sick and tired of this stupid(!) game around that time, I never make it around to the last three holes:) But I do have my moments, and these moments are good enough to kick Kjetil Jansrud's little golfing ass. He claimed on facebook last night that it had been the other way around, but luckily I've got videos to prove my case. The other golfers are coaches Håvard(yellow jacket) and Ulf(yellow pants). Håvard was more than happy to leave the game after 6 holes as well... I present you exhibit A:
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Early mornings
Doing Super-G we have to finish up the training before the lifts open to public. That means very early mornings and driving back down from the mountain when people are coming up. Sometime around 9.30-10.00. Notice the raindrops on the windshield. Not the best day as we were in the middle of that rain cloud. Super-G + fog = please let me keep my jacket on. No need for extra speed and then discomfort of a spandex:)[...]
High-speed camera + another video from Leif
This is a Giant Slalom run from Cardrona(NZ) filmed with a high-speed camera. I think it's pretty cool as you can see every detail that happens crystal clear. We use it to look at have the skis are running and to see differences between constructions and sidecuts. [...]
Happy birthday Kjetil!
Oh yeah! It's Kjetils birthday and our chef Robin brought out the biggest carrot cake I've ever seen. Happy birthday dude!