What an airbag training day actually looks like

Most people see the five seconds after I leave the jump. A real training day is mostly everything around those five seconds.

A typical day started early. We biked in, and I warmed up on the smaller bags before the bigger tricks started. Then it was a lot of the same thing: try, think about what felt wrong, make one change, and try again.

Sometimes the change is tiny. A little more pop. Waiting a little longer. Not breaking at my hips. Tiny changes are annoying because they do not look important on video. They feel very important when I am upside down.

The other surprise is how much of airbag training is legs. Jumping is the fun part. Getting back up for another try is the workout. By the end of the day, the trick has to work when I am tired, not just when the first try feels perfect.

There was school too. Travel did not make that disappear, apparently. On some days the schedule started with school and the bag work came later. On the long training days, everything else had to fit around the riding.

This is also why I do not want to spend half the day recording voiceovers. I can say a quick intro, and I like doing the day-in-the-life videos, but I came here to train. Most of the Road to 900 should just show the real day. The bike. The warmup. A miss. Another miss. One thing getting a little better.

Then we biked home and did it again the next day.

The highlight is still fun. I want the big makes too. But if a clip only shows the make, it skips the part I will actually remember: being tired, going back up, and deciding the next try still matters.

That is the day-in-the-life I want to show. Not a travel commercial. Just what it takes to get a few seconds closer to snow.

The score only changes when the trick transfers, which is why I keep airbag and snow landings separate. The exact trick plan is in Road to 900.