Balanced

• Hayden Stone, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2011

“Oooohhhh!” yelled the commentator “that’s gotta hurt!” Andrew performed a backside 360 and flipped out, crashing down into the hard, freezing cold snow that shaped the half-pipe. Andrew slid down the half-pipe unconscious. “He’ll feel that in the morning!” announced the commentator over the microphone.

“What happened, did I win?” asked Andrew to his family and manager, Rick. “Do you remember anything?” Rick replied. Andrew looked puzzled. “You failed a trick and hit your head on the snow, now you’re in hospital” whispered Rick. Andrew still looked puzzled. “Hang on” Rick said before quickly walking out of the ward. Andrew and his family started talking when Rick came back into the room. “Here, watch this”. He inserted a disc into the TV above “it might help you remember what happened” Rick said quietly again. Andrew struggled to sit up-right. Rick helped him up. Rick was a very caring manager and was always there for Andrew. The entire room went quiet as the video started. “You were really lucky, you could have come out with permanent injuries or even worse!” Andrew’s mum sobbed and began crying.

Andrew was released from hospital four days after his accident with only severe bruising to his body. Andrew’s family and Rick flew back to their hometown in New Zealand. “So when can I begin training again?” asked Andrew. “You begin in three days, don’t worry about that though, you need rest more than anything” his father replied. Rick agreed happily. Andrew went to his room to unpack his bags.

Andrew was flying down the mountain on his snowboard 1 week after coming home. He started training to go to the Winter X Games, in which he was competing in three months. Andrew and his family stayed at a hotel where he could practice every day at snowboarding. He was performing all of the basic tricks at first, but as he got more confident he began to get faster, higher and completing harder tricks. On the last week, he practiced on the trick that had caused him his injury, the backside 360. On the fourth day of the week he had mastered the back side 360, so he tried to perform the front side 360. Mastered! Andrew kept practicing for the Winter X Games.

“Next up is Andrew Lowkan, at seventeen he is representing his country New Zealand!” yelled the commentator as Andrew was getting warmed up and getting into position. “Coming back from a very nasty crash, he’s baaaackk!” the commentator yelled again. Andrew was feeling very nervous. Andrew saw the green light and launched off. To get his speed up he started with some easy tricks. “Woah! A back side 360!” the commentator screamed. Andrew had enough time for one more very big trick, the front side 360. “What’s he doing, he’s gone past 360 degrees!” the commentator said slowly. Andrew landed a front side 720! “AMAZING!” yelled the commentator. The leader-board showed that Andrew held a 10 point lead.