Four seasons in a day, and a camera held together with bin bags.
Leogang was the World Cup closest to home, which I loved — no endless travel days for once. We had a great hotel near the venue with a shuttle service that actually worked, and on a race weekend that counts for a lot.
The forecast couldn't make up its mind: sun, cloud, rain, thunderstorms — all of it. So I packed a bit of everything, just in case, and then got every single one of them. You couldn't dress right: always too hot or too cold, never in between.
Then it really started to storm — and I'd left my camera weatherproofing at home. Rookie move. So I improvised: plastic bags, gaffer tape, bin liners, whatever I could find, wrapped around the camera to keep it alive.
Ten minutes of bin bags and gaffer tape — then the sun came back and I ripped it all off again.
It worked, too — right up until three minutes later when the sun blasted back out, it was suddenly baking, and I tore the whole lot off. If there's one takeaway from Leogang, it's this: always, always bring your weatherproofing.
It was also my first Downhill World Cup of the year — a completely new world for me, since I'd never really shot downhill before. Fast, loud, muddy, brilliant. I was hooked.
