Learning to Boardslide: Update

Not too long I decided that the first "learning to" project I was going to attempt was learning to boardslide. Well, it's been a while since I last practiced on a rail, so last night I gave it another go. I think I spent around an hour, and video'd some of my progress towards the end.

It's going quite well, but at the moment the run-in to the rail is kinda getting in my way [need a picture here]. I'm trying to take more speed to the rail to stop me sticking or coming up short, and also so that I can hit the rail sooner and slide for further... the problem is that right where I want to set up there's a bump in the ground. It feels a bit lame and I'm sure that to someone more proficient would simply ignore the bump - but right now it's getting in my way.

Sooner or later I'll get past this, and I'm also gonna try upgrading to a slightly 'harder' rail. More to come...

Xscape Castleford - Why I Like It So Much

It's been a while since I've been boarding at Castleford and I'm looking forward to going back. So why do I like it so much?

Well, when it comes to freestyle I think Xscape Castleford has a lot to offer. I haven't been to 'loads' of snowboard parks but I have been to a few; and to be honest, they're not all that good.

The very first park that I rode at was Switzerland's Les Diablerets - on the glacier. Unfortunately, this was by far the best park I've ridden, nothing since has come close. Diablerets had a really good pipe that was perfectly maintained. The kicker line was 6-deep, with the first four hits being 3-wide (you had a choice of three different sizes) and the last two being small-ish kickers. There was a decent selection of rails, two really table tops, some camel humps, and to top it off the t-bar serviced the park precisely. You could hit six kickers each run! The only problem was that at the time I was a complete beginner - so I couldn't use the park to anywhere near its fullest.

Since then I've been to a park on Zermat's glacier, a park a Chamonix, one in Tignes, one in Val d'Isere and two in Merible. The Zermat park was quite good but I didn't think it was very well maintained. The pipe always had a huge rut on one of the walls and the kicker run-ins were sketchy; not to mention the kick line was only 2-deep. The "park" in Chamonix (Grands Montets) isn't really a park. When I was there you could go through a pretty naff border-cross course, and then hit one of two kickers.

The parks in Meribel and Tignes were OK, but they didn't have enough kickers and the lift service was pants. For example, in Tignes you had to take a really long chair to access the park. Once you got there you could hit two kickers - but the first one was really stupid because they made it difficult to take enough speed by putting a chicane at the park's entrance.

The Val d'Isere park was good. There was a line of three beginner kickers and then some really well maintained "proper" kickers. In addition, there was a healthy selection of rails that covered a good range of ability level. They also had a lift system directly servicing the park.

So how does the indoor slope at Castleford compare? Naturally it is small in comparison, but what it lacks in size it makes up with the frequency at which you can session the park obstacles. Take the kicker for example. Now I know that the slope isn't big enough to host a selection of different kicker sizes, but if the kicker they have out is right for you - you can hit it over and over again. In one freestyle night you must be able to hit the kicker somewhere around 50 times (total guess)? It's not necessarily easy to hit that many man-made kickers on a real mountain (at least not where I've been riding).

Of course a real mountain had a load of natural terrain to offer, but that's a different story - I'm concentrating here on what the indoor slope has to offer.

Rails. Jibbing. In my opinion this is where the indoor slope comes into its own. Each run you take you can often hit 3 or four rails. Compared with hitting rails in a mountain park, you get so much more. More time to practice, more time to get better, more time to have fun on rails.

I don't really know any of the regular riders at Castleford - but I've seen some amazing rail riding while I've been there. If you want to hit rails or you want to learn to hit a kicker - the indoor slope kicks ass!

Oh, did I mention that it's expensive and setting off home to Newcastle at 11:30 on a Friday night sucks? :-)

Afterbang.co.uk Coming Soon...

A quick note to say that afterbang.co.uk is coming soon. I'm currently running this blog purely from blogger - but soon there will be an entire afterbang site. My intention is to make the content more accessible: providing a frequent flow of afterbang-style blogging, and adding a 'site' around it.

My good friend Mal has been helping with the design (doing most of it actually) - so watch this space because it is going to be really sick!

Dropping-In For The First Time

Well, the short video of the rollerblader slamming seemed quite popular - so I thought it would be worthwhile posting something similar: Grant's first ever attempt to drop-in on a skateboard.

For those of you that don't know, Grant is one of my good friends; I work with him and we snowboard together with our other mates. Grant has started to skate a little - mainly for fun, but maybe also to keep fit too. I hope he doesn't get mad at me for posting this :-)

"What a Trooper"...

Review: Skateboard Blogs

I thought it might be interesting to have a look around for other skateboarding blogs (I'm doing the same for snowboarding too) and note what I found...

Before I start it's worth mentioning that this was merely a 'quick look' using our good friend google: a couple of hours or so surfing around, searching for "skateboard blog" and following links. So by no means is this comprehensive, and it is only my opinion...

1. Daily Skateboarding

I like the look of this blog. It's written by a guy (Dan) in the U.S who really likes skating; simple really. The blog is fairly new but it seems that the content will be skating specific: reviews, views, skating from Dan's perspective and maybe some music. So far he's reviewed the DVS "Skate More" video - which it sounds like is worth checking out...

2. SimpleWood

I'm not sure that I've given this blog enough of a go - but then again maybe you shouldn't have to persevere? I guess it didn't grab my attention and make me want to delve into some of the archives...

The blog's got quite a few people adding to it, which might be part of the problem. Some of the entries appear "blog-style", but others come across more as communication between friends, a bit "forum-style". I'm not saying that this is a bad thing, but the site has a separate forum...

The rest of the site looks pretty cool, especially some of the stuff in the galary.

3. Sublimited

This blog is really interesting. First off, I like the style of the overall site, it's really clean and the navigation is well sorted. I went straight in and checked out the About, which is what grabbed my interest. The Sublimited blog marks the beginnings of a project to set up a chain of skating shops - how cool is that?

I'll be honest, I haven't read too many of the posts; but of the ones that I have read, I like the style and the guy seems passionate about skating and his project. The posts are also frequent. I'll be going back to this one.

4. Too Old To Skate

Damn, too late with this one. Too Old To Skate has stopped now. The last post was made on the 24th Feb earlier this year. It's a shame because after reading a few posts I really liked the theme - and the blog was regularly updated. I browsed back through the archives and stumbled across "mini chavs - a new obstacle in the path of skate commute zen" - which was well funny.

However, when you read Rick's reason for stopping the blog you'll probably agree it's a good one. Check out his new skate site - DFR skate zine...

5. About Skateboarding: Blog

I'm not sure about this one. It didn't feel like I was reading a blog, it was more like reading skateboarding news. To me this blog lacks a personal element, which is more likely to keep me coming back...

However, there's plenty of frequent content and it is all skating. This news-style info may well be appealing to others.

Inline Skater Bails

I had the camera at the Exhibition Skate Park (Newcastle) yesterday and by chance, caught a rollerblader slam pretty hard. The guy took a look at the footage, thought it was pretty funny and recommended that I put it on the web... so here it is :-)

By the way, I don't know any of the lingo here: inline skating, rollerblading etc... sorry if I got it totally wrong!

Currently Working On...

The weather over the long bank holiday has been good - which gave me the chance to get quite a bit of skating in. Here are the three basic tricks that I'm currently working on:

• Tailstall
• Rock to fakie
• Rock and roll

I'm having questionable success with the Rock and Roll, but the other two are coming on quite nicely.

This evening I added the axlestall into the mix. A few nasty slams behind me and I was starting to find some rythem - at least with the part where you drop back in.

I'll update on my progress with some pictures/video...

DVD Review: Rider's Ed

Rider's Ed: Snowboarding Instructional Video

I've been intending to do this review for a while, so here goes. Rider's Ed is an instructional DVD for snowboarding. The version that I have seen actually includes two videos: "Learn to Snowboard" and "Style, Park & Pipe". Furthermore, there is a bonus one hour snowboard tuning clinic. Not bad!

However, I have only viewed the "Style, Park & Pipe" video so that is all that I can comment on right now...

"Style, Park & Pipe" begins with showing you how to ollie. The ollie is the foundation for just about all of your tricks to come - so it's pretty important. This was the first thing that impressed me about this video. The tips on what an ollie is, and how to do it are, in my opinion, very good. The ollie is one of those things, like learning to drive, that once you can do it, it's difficult to remember what it was like not being able to do it. It's really simple, yet difficult for those who can't. There isn't much that you can say about how to do it - it's pretty much a matter of practicing it, then something clicks and you're away.

That said - I think "Style, Park & Pipe" covers the ollie well.

"Style, Park & Pipe" then moves on to look at your first airs in the park: straight airs, to airs with grabs; 180s to 360s. Again, this section of the DVD really impressed me. To begin with the instructor (Luke Wynen) is using a kicker that you could probably imagine yourself hitting (without killing yourself) - which to me is motivating. He targets the basic elements of performing a jump, explains them clearly and then demonstrates them clearly. Perhaps the thing that impressed me most was that the tricks come across as achievable, which gives you confidence to go and try them, which I think makes the instruction a success.

The section on rail riding is also good - yet I know less about rails so find it harder to comment on how good I think the instruction is. I did pick up at least one suggestion that I tried an put to good use while in Tignes, so that made me happy.

The final section is on pipe riding. This part of the video really interested me as I'd quite like to progress my ability in the halfpipe. However, in my opinion this was the weakest area of the DVD; not because the instruction and presentation was poor, rather that it seemed like "a bit of a step". This part of the video didn't appear achievable. Luke went straight to showing pretty big airs in a pretty big pipe. There wasn't, for example, any coverage of beginner pipes, or learning to build rythm below and around the coping.

Overall I think "Style, Park & Pipe" is a good instructional video that I would recommend to others. I watched the kicker section 3 or so times while on holiday, which is a good indication.

The only other instructional DVD of this kind (freestyle) that I have seen is "1st Step - Snowboarding Basic Tricks". I didn't rate that highly at all, in fact, I promptly sold it for a cheap price on eBay!

If you found this review useful, which I will judge by readers' comments, I will watch the other items on the DVD and review them too :-) If you've seen the DVD yourself, please feel free to post your own opinions...

Listen While You Ride?

It seems that quite a few skaters, as well as snowboarders, listen to music while they ride. The last time I was riding with headphones in I became really frustrated because they kept popping out... I either need some different phones or one of those helmets with the sound built in!

Rock to Fakie

I've mentioned Rock to Fakies here before... and it's been a while since I've tried them again. Yesterday Mike and I went over to the skate park at Silksworth and they have a really nice small bowl section. I decided I'd try the rock to fakie again - this time concentrating on lifting the front wheels well clear of the coping on the way back down.

I was pleased that it didn't take that long to get a couple to stick - and once I got the feeling for lifting the wheels back over the coping, it felt really good. A little bit later and I'd tried it on the next size up of bowl, and then the next size up again. Sick!

I've been back again today and worked on getting more comfortable with this trick. I haven't yet tried it on any big walls yet - but when I've got some footage of my trying it on varying bowls, I'll put something up.

Sheffield Snow Mountain

I've read a few things recently about the plans for a huge indoor ski village in Sheffield. It seems now that the plans have been given the ok... it should be pretty cool when it's all done... I wonder what the vibe will be like? And the freestyle layout? And when are they going to build one in Newcastle!?

Learning to Boardslide

"Learning To" update:

I decided that the first "learning to" I would try would be "learning to boardslide". I've never tried this on a skateboard before so I figured I could document the entire learning curve.

Hmm, maybe I should rephrase that? It's not going to be the entire learning curve; I mean, I'm not going to be an expert at this trick by the end. However, I should be fairly competent on beginner rails and hopefully that will be enough for what I want.

So - we've got some footage from our first rail session (which lasted less than an hour), but we haven't got it dialed yet. It's shaping up quite nicely so watch this space.

My First Video... My First Gap

I've managed to get around to putting together a short sequence of a "gap" we did in Tignes. Unlike the conventional "road gap" - this is more of a path gap, but you've got to start somewhere :-)

A couple of points about making the clip for YouTube... I had absolutely no idea how best to do the compression. The file (.avi) started off at 330 MB, which is no good at all. I got it down to 83 MB (max is 100 MB on YouTube) - and that took almost an hour to upload. I also removed the sound, but I don't know how much of a difference that makes.

About the sound - I added a bit of a sound-track using a song by the Gorillaz. But I don't know what the copywrite issues are for putting this up on YouTube. The guidelines are "don't put up copywrite protected material without permission".

Anyway, here's the video...

"Learning To" vs. "How To"

As a novice skateboarder and a developing snowboarder I'm in a useful position as there are loads of tricks that I can't do, a lot of them pretty basic. Read on...

In my opinion the "how to" trick tips in magazines don't really help that much when it comes to learning new stuff as they tend to describe how a rider performs the trick. That's useful isn't it? I'm not sure. I do really enjoy reading the articles though.

You see, I think you get a description of how to do the trick from the perspective of a rider that can already land it in his sleep. To rub it in, they're always pulling the moves off huge kickers too :-)? I'm thinking that maybe a description of the steps a rider goes through when he already knows how to do it doesn't help with getting there yourself.

I could be totally wrong though!

Anyway, with this in mind I am going to try to do a couple of "learning tos" rather than "how tos". I'll pick a trick that Mike and I can't yet do (I haven't asked Mike yet) and document us learning the trick. The hope is that watching someone going through the learning process will help (and be fun) - see the things that work and the things that don't. If it turns out to be useful and/or we have fun doing it - I'll probably do some more.

I know that there's no substitute for actual practice - but let's see what we can produce.

Bazoom! Good Snowboard Hire In Tignes

Personally I have never hired a snowboard - but whenever I've been away in a group, at least one person has hired. I don't know about your experiences, but from my point of view the norm tends to be pretty poor boards with not much attention given to a more personal setup... But maybe when you're a complete beginner it doesn't matter that much?

Anyway, I was suprised to see a snowboard shop in Tignes that had a good selection of boards to hire. As well as hiring boards, the shop, Bazoom, also had some nice gear inside. Well worth a look.

I made a quick list of some of the boards they had outside (sorry, I didn't note the prices - which were specific to the board):

• Burton T6
• Burton Custom
• Burton Jeremy
• Burton Dominant
• Burton Feelgood
• Rome Agent
• Rome Anthem
• Rome Flag
• Nitro Darkhorse

I was well impressed. Also to note, my friend Ross hired a board from Bazoom and they set him up with a sick little Sapient stick and Burton P1 HD bindings... loads better than the offerings from Super Sport 2000 (or whatever it's called) just around the corner...

[Bazoom is in Val Claret]