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New Zealand, back to Dublin, then to Switzerland, on to France and then off to Norway after a couple of months back home. Life is just one great big skiing holiday for Sam Wyer - or so many would think.
But the 15-year-old from Churchdown is not in it for the social scene. He is in it for the glory. Wherever the snow falls, so Wyer heads to the hills of that continent as he continues his mission to be on top of the world and, ultimately, the Olympic nirvana.
Make no mistake, this teenager does not have it easy. His parents have foregone plenty, including the chance of a Paralympic medal, for their boy and he is making it all worthwhile.
This year alone he has been crowned English Under-16s Super-G champion and Slalom Champion, European Dry Slope Junior Champion, Irish Slalom Junior Champion and New Zealand Slalom Champion and has also been selected by the English Alpine Ski Team and English Dry Ski Slope Team.
He has spent five of the last six months away from home and is off again on Tuesday, this time to Oppdal in Norway, for another month of training and trials.
All of which means he has to fit his education in around his piste-work - schoolrooms are a rarity.
"I do my schoolwork by correspondence," Wyer explained. "It's quite hard to motivate myself when I'm away and it's not easy trying to fit it in around all the training and travelling.
"But I am very fortunate to have a lot of support around me.
"This is an amazing experience for me, not many people get the chance to go to the places I've been to and not go to school.
"But it's not as easy as some people think. I have to be extremely fit both physically and mentally to blast myself down the courses.
"It takes a lot of motivation and preparation.
"And we have to pass regular fitness tests to keep our place in the England squad. So we do fitness every day, go for morning runs and swim wherever we are and when I am at home I use the facilities at the University of Gloucestershire."
While Wyer is a little way of the men's speeds of 70mph for the Super-G and races similar, albeit shorter distances, there is no less risk involved as he hurtles down sheer faces on his Volkls.
It does not always go without a hitch. Whether the weather puts paid to events, as it did in Tignes, France last month, or his own misjudgement costs him a race, Wyer takes the rough with the smooth.
"Some of the mountains we skied on in New Zealand were volcanoes and that is a totally different experience," he said.
"Some of them are steeper than European hills and you never know what can happen with the weather.
"Some of the time we were in Switzerland in October for England race training, we couldn't ski because of the weather, and then when we went to Tignes, only one of the eight races went ahead because of the weather.
"That meant we race the giant slalom on the glacier. I had a good first run, but hit a crevasse ridge on the second and lost both skis."
His brief visit home this week gave him a chance to pop into Chosen Hill School to speak to his teachers before packing his bags and boots and heading to Norway.
There he will link up again with the English team and make his bid for selection to Great Britain squad for the 2005 European Youth Championships. Six teenagers will make it through in total from next week's time trials.
"I have already been invited to the trials, but I need to get through there to get into the Europeans," Wyer added.
He may be the best in England, but he will be up against stiff opposition from the Scots in Scandinavia, not forgetting that he is the youngest skiier in his age group - birth year 1988-89. Yet age has not halted his progress so far.
His list of titles at Junior level overlooks the fact that he is usually taking on boys with a year or two on him - and at that age there came be big physiological differences.
So to have won the Under-17s New Zealand National Championships on his first tour to the southern hemisphere is proof of his potential.
Competition does not let up during the year for Wyer. The European winter brings races on artificial slopes, including his home piste at Gloucester Dry Ski Slope, and among the snow-capped peaks.
Coming up in February are the World Schools Championships in Sweden, for which he has already been selected as well as more training and racing with the English team.
He remains a member of Gloucester Ski Club, where his mother Sarah is an instructor.
His dad Andrew was in the British Disabled Ski Team, and was selected for the Paralympics in Salt Lake City two years ago - but gave up his place.
"He would have had to have supported himself, but he couldn't do that and support me," Wyer said.
Such is a measure of the commitment involved for Wyer's family - such is the store placed in him. |
