They were from a time when he was at a crossroads in his career, wondering whether or not to make the leap from ski racing to freeriding and try something different.
One of the big notes scribbled across those pages was Richards questioning if he would ever be good enough.
That is not something he has to worry about anymore.
After a dominant season on the freeride world tour, Richards was crowned the overall men’s ski champion in Switzerland recently.
Richards, who also won the inaugural FIS freeride world championships, was still coming to terms with his world champion status when he caught up with the Otago Daily Times after landing back in New Zealand.
‘‘I feel like it hasn’t really even sunk in,’’ Richards said.
‘‘But that was a super fun winter and I feel like I couldn’t have dreamed for it to go as well as it did.
‘‘Just trying to let it all sink in.’’
Tackling the Swiss mountain face — considered the pinnacle of extreme freeriding at 3223m, a 600m vertical drop and 43deg slopes — is no easy feat, but Richards executed a perfect 360 and linked multiple sections of the difficult terrain seamlessly.
But there were some challenging moments in the middle of the run.
‘‘On that particular venue things are just so steep and everything comes at you so quickly that we kind of almost have to plan to be surprised in those kind of situations, you know?
‘‘I had to make a slight adjustment halfway down, but luckily had kind of thought about that going into it ... and if I was going a bit faster than I thought then that was my plan B.
‘‘It was a massive relief basically just to get to the bottom and at least know that I’d done my best and done my part trying to get the overall title.’’
Looking back through his notebooks when he returned home had been somewhat of a full circle moment.
‘‘Reminiscing on that was kind of a funny one and a proud moment, I guess.
‘‘It’s a pretty cool feeling for sure.’’
Richards grew up skiing in Wanaka until he was about 18, when he fell out of love with ski racing and the structure of the sport.
‘‘It just didn’t have a lot of like breathing room, basically.
‘‘There was no room for creativity and I just felt a little bit boxed in.’’
The 26-year-old moved to Canada for a working holiday and found a group of friends who were freeride skiing. They convinced him to give it a go.
He fell in love with the sport and has not looked back since pulling on the skis for his first freeride event in 2019.
‘‘It’s just different every time.
‘‘We’re in new locations quite often, but you can also go to the same location and there’ll be a completely different amount of snow every year and all of a sudden the terrain looks completely different or you have different conditions so you’re not able to ski to the same level.
‘‘There’s just so many factors. I think that it’s forever changing and it’s hard to get bored.’’
More eyes are starting to take notice of the freeriding and there has been a push for its inclusion in the Winter Olympics.
Richards was ‘‘torn’’ about the sport joining the pinnacle event.
‘‘So much that I love about the sport is that it isn’t super serious and there’s not a lot of teams and stuff involved.
‘‘So you can kind of make your own team within the sport, just by your friends and your fellow competitors — and I think that’s kind of rare in a professional sport.
‘‘Lots of the people who I lean on the most for advice about my runs are my biggest competitors.
‘‘But at the same time the sport is kind of making those changes, and becoming a bit more professional.
‘‘I think if it’s naturally going to make those changes anyway then having more support, and more funding, to help grow the sport isn’t the worst thing either.’’
After spending countless months living out of a suitcase, Richards is looking forward to spending time at home in Wanaka and prioritising some rest and recovery before looking at hopping back down the mountain.
‘‘Hopefully we’ll have some snow down in New Zealand and I can get out into the local mountains and get back into it.’’
