Editor’s note: Manny Osborne-Paradis, who spends his winters competing in alpine communities around the world but remains rooted in the Columbia Valley, currently ranks 13th in the world in downhill skiing, 30th in the Super G event, and  43rd overall. As the end of the 2012-2013 season approaches, he took some time out in Munich to call The Echo and discuss his progress this year.

Echo: How would you compare this season to the rest of your professional career?

Manny: When coming back from injury, you take a step back and you work on drills and a lot of your technical skiing. This year I haven’t had any podiums yet or fantastic results. But other than getting flagged in Wengen (Switzerland), every race that I’ve entered this year, I’ve placed in the top 30, which has never happened in the past.

What will you be doing differently next season?

I’m going to take a couple more weeks and go to camps in Whistler and mini four-day camps in Europe; really try and make it so the gaps aren’t that big between my skiing. Hopefully I can kind of keep my technique rolling from the end of this season to the beginning of next,

instead of taking these long breaks and then having to kind of start at square one in summer training.

When’s the next time you’ll be in the valley?

I’ll be there for Easter. I’ll be there for the Panorama Spring Series and then I’ll probably hang out a bit. Then we go on holidays and we’ve got training camps at Sunshine – so I’ll be out there a lot in June and such but at Easter we’re going to be out there for sure.