Les Deux Alpes: One Step Closer

Well I've been away for the bank holiday weekend, giving me time to relax and make some preparations: consequently my head is bulging with information I thought I'd share...

The main theme is Deux Alpes. I'm excited to say that I'm one step closer to my fix of summer riding... I've booked the flights! I ended up going with KLM - but working out the best way to travel from Newcastle to Deux Alpes wasn't straight forward (more to come).

I've opted for the sneaky 5-days-holiday = 8-days-riding. Eh, what do you mean by that? Well, normally when you go for a week of snowboarding you travel out Saturday and return the following Saturday. Thus you ride the six days in-between, Sunday to Friday...

Earlier this year Ciara and I pulled off an 8-day-riding trip in Meribel. We travelled out on Saturday as usual, but booked a late return flight the following Sunday. Immediately you get the extra Saturday riding; if you're on the ball you can ride for the majority of the Sunday too! You get two days for free. When it comes to riding on a glacier the snow only lasts until just after lunchtime, so packing the Sunday's riding into your holiday is easier still.

It's a time saving, not a cost saving. It's good for those people (like myself) whom's whose snowboarding is constrained by their annual holiday entitlement. The holiday itself does end up costing more money. But 8 days snowboarding is like 33% more than than 6... if you haven't tried it, it's worth giving it a go.

Anyway, I've been side-tracked there. Keep an eye out for new stuff about the Deux Alpes trip, and I hope you enjoyed Mal's post about getting back on the board, the second part is coming soon!

XScape Snowdome, Castleford: Fast-Track 1 & 2

...or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Board: Part 1. :)

Hey people, it’s Mal here. Gav’s been kind enough to offer me a guest review here on afterbang. The topic? Boarding lessons at Xscape in Castleford.

A bit of background

For starters, I’d better come clean and point out that I’m not a total novice. I went boarding with Gav for a couple of weeks in Feb 05. For a variety of reasons – mostly pain-related – I didn’t get the most from the holiday and spent half the time in the chalet. I left feeling kinda put off and with my confidence completely blown. That, I figured, was that.

Wrong!

By some fluke of laziness, I failed to sell my boarding gear on Ebay and, at the start of this year, promised to take a friend for lessons. Given how much I feel I’m missing out when Gav and the gang swap boarding stories, I decided to give it another go myself too. It was to be a slippery slope. Boom boom!

The first lesson

As it turned out, my friend couldn’t make it, but I still took the lesson. I went for the Fast-Track 1 & 2 option, lasting 3 hours and costing £72. I figured the fast track stuff was right for me and it meant I’d only need 2 visits before I qualified for recreational boarding.

You can, however, do it in smaller chunks, if you want. There are 4 key lessons, designed to get you to the stage where you’re safe to play on the main slope. I just wanted to get through it quickly and the fast-track lets you take 1 & 2 together and 3 & 4 together at a later date.

All lessons at Xscape include equipment hire in the price, including the use of a minging, stinky helmet (no jokes, please). The price doesn’t include hire of any clothing, mind. This wasn’t a problem for me, but it’s worth bearing in mind if you’ve got no cold-weather gear. Hire of jacket and pants will set you back only a few quid more (I suspect it’s a fiver, but I’ll check next time I’m down there).

Quick tip for those with bins: don’t worry about getting goggles. You won’t need them. I have to admit to being pretty clueless, mind, and nearly took mine along, just in case I took a dodgy fall. Glad I didn’t in the end, as I would’ve looked a complete dork and you’ll not be going quickly enough to knock your specs off anyway.

So, on arrival, I picked up my pass (which was never checked), got changed and waited for the instructor — a guy called Ollie (what a mint name!). With his assistance, the two others in my class and I got our boards, boots and helmets. Looking suitably lame, we were taken through the bindings and all the rest of the usual newbie stuff before heading out to the baby slope.

The lesson was all very basic stuff:

• Falling over painlessly
• Strapping in and not moving
• Side-slipping on the toe edge
• Side-slipping on the heel edge
• Toe-edge traverse
• Heel-edge traverse

And that was about it, really. It won’t sound like much to a veteran like Gav, but I was really grateful for the gentle re-introduction. When I first got back on the board after 14 months of abstinence, I was wobbly as all hell. It really did feel like Chamonix simply hadn’t happened at that point. I steadily got back into it, though, thanks in large part to Ollie. He made a great instructor – really patient, laid-back, non-judgemental and all-round helpful.

As for how I fared, well, I was star pupil. Somewhat slyly, I’d not told anyone that I actually had experience (even if no confidence), so I had an unfair advantage. I’d not meant to hide it; it just never came up and the longer I said nowt, the harder it became to let out the little secret. It made it a bit awkward towards the end, as I was desperate to put a turn or two in. However, we’d not been taught to do turns, so I didn’t bother. Last thing I wanted was to lose Ol’s respect by showing off.

So, at the end of the first fast-track lesson, I’d passed with flying colours. Only problem was that work was getting mental and I knew it might be a while before I could get back on the slope. I’d really enjoyed it so far and was keen to keep going. How long would it be before I could do it again? Stay tuned to find out. :)

Les Deux Alpes: Summer Park Riding

I've been trying to set up a long weekend of summer boarding in Les Deux Alpes - but it's proving tricky.

Originally the problem was "what can I do with 2.5 days holiday?" (which is all I have available). Take a half day on Thursday, and all of Friday and Monday? That would allow me to fly out on Thursday and then get a late flight back on Monday evening. The result would be 4 days of riding on the glacier (Friday through to Monday).

Then the problem became the flights. It seems that the best place to fly into is Grenoble, but if you can't make that, fly to Lyon. Check out google maps, Les 2 Alpes is further down than a lot of the other French resorts - which seems to discount Geneva due to the problems of getting a transfer. No Geneva means no easyjet, so I'm finding it hard to get a good deal on the flights.

OK, so now I've found some half decent flights with KLM (via Expedia.co.uk) - for £163.70. It's a connection in Amsterdam, but at least the return flight is late-ish, which would allow me to ride on the Monday morning, making four days of it. And apparently, once you're in Lyon it's an hour and a half train ride to Grenoble and then a bus ride up the mountain. Easy.

Now the problem's money. I'm currently in-between jobs, which could turn out to be either good or bad. If I can't get another job quick it's bad because I need to be keeping hold of my money and not going on another snowboarding holiday. If I do get another job soon then it may turn out great as I could potentially have more than just four days - and won't be rushing about with flight times. But then again, what if they want me to start straight away? There could be no time at all...

Either way I'm going to have wait, at least for the moment, to see what pans out. Damn! I really enjoyed last summer in Zermatt, and I was hoping to hook up with my sister and a friend, whom I'm hoping to do a rider profile on!

I'll update this space, but there's a good chance that it will simply be "ended up not being able to go" :-( If I do go though, there should be some interesting stuff to write about :-)

Highly Obsessed

I'd like to mention another boarding blog that I looked at for the first time today - Highly Obsessed. I'd noticed that one or two people had visited this site via a link from said blog, so off I went to investigate.

I don't think it's a bad thing to be impressed by good, clean style and layout - which is what Highly Obsessed has. I haven't read too much of the content, but of what I have read I do like the style. Oh yeah, this caught my eye - it looks fun and I'm loving the photo guy's aviators!

Gap Jump - Revisited

The first video that I put up on afterbang was a short clip of a gap I jumped in Tignes earlier this year. Not the "road gap" you might have been hoping for; rather a path gap, spanning the entrance to my friends' apartment block :-)

Anyway, the first version had no music, which is something that I've been wanting to add. So, I've added a track by Franz Ferdinand - "Jacqueline". Franz Ferdinand are a group that I didn't get into straight away, but now I find myself going back to the album Franz Ferdinand - usually when I'm riding home from work.

Also, I think the sequence photos that I put up of that frontside 180 were quite popular - so I've added some more here. Enjoy.

Shot from above, getting it right with a grab.

My first attempt at the gap, a little off balance.

Getting it wrong a few times.

Grant's first go :-) He made it the second time though.

R-Kade Skatepark, Redcar - Session 1

Mike, James and I were at the R-Kade Skatepark in Redcar, last Saturday morning. We did the 2-hour slot from 10 'till 12, taking some footage over the last 45 minutes or so. This was pretty much James' first time in a skatepark - and I was well impressed when he dropped in on a mini ramp for the first time, no problems!

Despite it being fairly quiet there was a good vibe in the park. Everyone friendly, no cliques etc. To be honest, at this stage I kinda like it being a little quiet: more room to practice, more room to get things wrong :-)

Anyway, I've put together a short sequence from what we took. I had fun putting this together; tried a few new things. The music is by Jack Johnson from his album In Between Dreams. It is without doubt one of my favourite albums. You should own it.

Hope you enjoy it!

Tignes, Val Claret: 2006 Accommodation Review

Apartment 8, La Ferme du Val Claret

March 2006, I spent two weeks riding in Tignes with a group of friends and family. The group was split between two apartments - this is a review of the accommodation that I and six others stayed in: La Ferme du Val Claret

First Impressions

The accommodation is listed as luxury so it's fair to say that we were expecting something nice. We weren't dissapointed. When we arrived in Tignes it was snowing heavily. Wind, cold, and the hassle of putting snow chains on - were all appeased when we entered the reception area. Warm, luxurious and on the ball staff - a good start!

The positives continued as we made our way from the reception up to the appartment. The whole building was finished nicely and the apartment was well presented. You know that feeling of excitement you get when you first arrive on holiday? Well we had it, and the apartment was showing good promise. It definitely had a luxury-feel.

At this point the only downside was parking the car. I don't think there's anywhere in Val Claret that you can park for free, for any length of time, and La Ferme du Val Claret was no different. It cost us around £100 to park the car for the two week stay. Ouch!

Living Area

For me, one of the key ingredients to good group accommodation is living space. If you're staying in a group of 7 you need space for everyone to relax and socialise. La Ferme du Val Claret scored highly in this respect with an well sized, open living space consisting of: two sofas each seating 3 people comfortably, but could stretch to 4, and a dining table seating 8, of which 5 chairs could be moved to connect more with the sofas.

There were 6 people in the other group and on a few occassions we accommodated a good portion of the total...

Sleeping Quarters

I believe the apartment is set up for between 6 and 8 people. I'm often scepticle of going anywhere near the top of the bracket in these situations - but I'm confident that apartment 8, La Ferme du Val Claret could sleep 8 comfortably and probably more.

Here's what's available:

• Bedroom 1: two single beds
• Bedroom 2: two single beds
• Bedroom 3: two single beds + mezzanine
• Bedroom mezzanine: large flat "landing" with enough room for 1 or 2, perhaps 3 people sleeping on the floor
• Living room: both sofas are set up as decent single beds

Of course if you don't want people sleeping in the living room, or it's not appropriate to have someone sleeping in the mezzanine area of bedroom 3 - then yes, there are only 6 official beds. However, if you're a group of friends who don't mind this type of thing, you can easily fit 8 or 9 people in with good areas to sleep.

Space

One of the best things about this apartment was the available space. Each of the bedrooms had a decent wardrobe with space on top and space under the beds. There were coat hooks down stairs and in every bedroom. One bedroom had a large mezzanine. The landing area also had an accessible loft-mezzanine type-thing which I'm assuming was designed to keep clutter like luggage out of the way (we never needed it). The result was a lot of... space. And it gets better...

3 Bathrooms

Wow! This was probably the most "luxury" aspect to the apartment: 6 to 8 people serviced by 3 bathrooms:

• Large down-stairs shower room
• Separate down-stairs toilet
• Main bathroom with toilet
• En suite bathroom with toilet

Power showers, heated towel rails, big mirrors and good sinks – sweet!

Equipment Storage

Equipment storage was equally good. The building had a big storage area on the ground floor which was heated with a tiled floor. And finally, a storage locker that could actually house all of the people's equipment for which the corresponding apartment is designed to sleep. Who would have thought of that?

Location

I've only been to Tignes twice so I can't claim to be all-knowledgeable on this, but I think that Val Claret is the best place to stay. It's got the best selection of shops, bars and restaurants and maybe the best positioning for the slopes. I've modified a resort map to show where things are in relation to the apartment.

Slope access was great. La Ferme du Val Claret was "down on the front" – literally 2 to 3 minutes from the lifts. The only negative thing, and it is slight, is that to get to the main shops/bars/restaurants area you need to go "up a level". There's this lift-thing that will take you up, or you can walk up the hill. Either way it's no biggie.

Price

I can't remember the exact price for the two weeks (in March) that we stayed – but all of that information is on the web site. Exact amounts aside it was around £2200 – which between 7 people is approximately £315 each; £158 per week. I personally think that this is good value for money.

Let's say for example you go for something really cheap, bed and breakfast at £8 or £10 per night. For a week that is still £70 or so. That's fine; I've got nothing against budget snowboarding holidays – I've been on a couple myself. My point is this: if you want to spend a little more – I think this apartment represents a good upgrade. It's a good apartment. I've certainly seen a lot of other accommodation for similar, or more, money than this apartment, that doesn't make the grade.

I kinda find it hard to comment on price because it's all relative: relative to what you think is important and relative to how much you want to spend. Hopefully this review will let you judge for yourself how good of a deal it is.

The Three Worst Things?

Having stayed in the apartment I new that this review was going to be full of positives – so to balance it out a little I took a quick poll of the most annoying things. Here they are:

• Only 2 keys. Designed for 8 people and only 2 keys. What's that about? It's OK though, I'll leave the key in reception... I wouldn't if I was you. We did that the first day. A couple of people went back to grab something to eat only to find that the reception area was closed. They couldn't get the key. What's more, the storage locker is opened with the same key: "I'm ready to go up" – "you're gonna have to wait until I'm ready so we can lock the locker". Oops.
• The beds. All of the beds were small single beds. I thought that they were comfortable enough but not everyone shared my opinion. It was also hard to push them together... well, pushing them together was easy but stopping them sliding apart was not! A little hook and catch would fix this!
• The lift. We were on the top floor, floor 6. There was only one lift servicing the top floor (two for all the other floors). This wasn't a huge problem but on the morning of change over day – forget it.

Overall

I've got to start by saying that the website isn't doing this place justice. I don't know what they're doing – but they're certainly not selling it well. The website leaves too much to question, when in my opinion it's a pretty sure bet.

Given the overall blend of the things above I would say that in my eleven or so weeks of holiday-boarding – this is the best accommodation I've stayed in. Yeah it doesn't have a hot-tub. Yep it's not super cheap. Sure, it doesn't have the best living space and what? there isn't a double bed?

Like I said – overall it's my favourite.

Rider Profiles - Coming Soon

After skating at a couple of different parks I've decided that I'd like to start a new feature on Afterbang - Rider Profiles. A profile would include information about the rider, questions with answers, maybe a podcast, maybe some pictures and most importantly, some video.

Of course I'd like to do this with both snowboarding and skating, but to begin with I'm guessing it is gonna be easier to profile skaters. So I'll start here and see how it pans out: are skaters interested in being featured? Are people interested in seeing the profiles? How will I find people to profile? etc.

Introducing Sam...

As it happens I got talking to a skater on Saturday morning at the R-Kade skatepark in Redcar - Sam. Sam seemed pretty interested so hopefully he'll be the first rider to feature. Here's some introductory footage that I caught, most of which by chance :-)

Pop Shovit

The other day I landed my first proper Pop Shovit. It's probably one of the most basic on-the-flat tricks you can do, but it's a start. I say "proper" because I got a good clean ollie - the board wasn't sliding round while in partial contact with the floor.

I've been learning the trick by spinning the board front-side, which I'm told is harder than sending it spinning the other way... I guess I'll find that out as I learn to spin it the other way.

Anyway, I hope to follow this post up with some footage of my new trick. You'll see then that I'm far from having this dialed - but it's going in the right direction.

Just For Fun

Mike and I were skating on Monday night at the Five Bridges skatepark in Gateshead (review of park coming soon). The weather was really good, which I think sent all the skaters to the Exhibition Park over in Newcastle... the net result being that we had the place to ourselves! Sweet.

Anyway, I took some footage because (a) Mike was so close to pulling this nice move, and (b) I wanted to try some rolling shots. The video is below... in it you'll see a hint of what's to come in the Learning to Boardslide feature.

Also note that I've added some music from Snow Patrol's new album, "Eyes Open". I thought their first album, "Final Straw", was excellent - and they backed it when I saw them perform live. The new one is no different. It's the type of music that that gets me in the mood for skating/riding - see what you think.

Drake Mikey LeBlancs vs. Burton Cartels: Binding Review

Before I went to Tignes this year I changed my bindings from the Burton Cartels (El Habano) to the Drake Mikey LeBlancs. I've been meaning to review this change ever since I returned, so here it is:

Why did I change my bindings?

That's a good question. Here are the reasons:

• I thought that the Drake MLBs would be more freestyle orientated, specifically a lower high-back
• The Drake MLBs looked like less 'fuss' than the Cartels. There was something about the ratchets on the Cartels that bothered me, the heel gasket got in the way and I didn't like the clip that holds the high back in place (one of them was always a little loose)
• I wanted to try something different

How did the bindings compare?

Performance-wise, I didn't really notice any change. The high-back is a little lower on the MLBs but this didn't seem to register. Neither did any difference in respective weights. I was hoping for a little more lateral-leeway, for tweaking, but I didn't notice anything different here. The Cartels always felt a bit 'plasticy' in hand (funny that, given they are made of plastic) - flimsy somehow. On the other hand the MLBs felt a little more solid in-hand... however, this difference didn't come through when riding. Both bindings seemed to ride like "good quality" bindings should and they did the job.

Less Fuss? Yep, the MLBs are a simpler binding. The ratchets felt good and worked nicely. No alignment-adjustment on the high-back. No heel gasket to stop snow getting in. A high back that can be easily pushed down flat.

What's wrong with these features you may ask? Let's start with the alignment-adjustment on the high-back. In principle, having the high-back line up with the edge of the board is a good idea: more responsive to your movements. But in practice it tended to loosen off when I set it up the way I wanted. An extra adjustment also gave the impression of a weaker binding. I never detected a benefit. The heel gasket to keep the snow out was really good - but it could do with some refinement. It wasn't long before the cup wasn't sitting snug, and was squashed out of the back. This was a little annoying. What's wrong with the high-back clip? Well, I'm sick of low hanging chairlifts catching the top of my binding as I get on... it's handy if you can just knock your high-back down out of the way.

Base plates. One thing that worried me about the MLBs was the inserts in the base plates. They're the type that don't have separate holes for each screw (see picture). I always thought that they would slide around. In contrast I really like the definite holes on the Burton plates. Solid. However, the MLB bindings never moved. It was never a problem.

Comfort - this is what sets the two bindings apart. I don't like to diss the MLBs, but in comparison to the Cartels they were uncomfortable. The Burton Capstrap owns. It's simple really, with the cap strap you don't ever squash your toes; no pain and no pins and needles. It's not just the cap strap though, the Cartels have an ankle strap that is shaped to fit around the ankle - the superstrap. I don't think this is a gimmick... it really makes a difference by distributing the pressure. The MLB ankle strap is kinda-flat, so when I cranked them up they made my foot ache.

Maybe I have my bindings too tight? Maybe I'm being a wimp? Maybe it's just me and other people experience these bindings in a different way. But that's the point, in my opinion the Cartels easily outscore the MLBs when it comes to comfort. If I sat around waiting on the hill I had to loosen off the straps...

Overall

Well the MLBs are quite a bit cheaper (in the region of £40 I think, and more if you get the suede El Habanos). I think they ride just as well, and to me they're a more user-friendly binding with a no-nonsense feel to them. Also, they're not Burton which may appeal to some people (I'm not one of them though).

But the comfort is a big factor - it made more of a difference that I expected.

So what am I riding now? Well, I'm sticking with the MLBs. I like the overall feel of the binding, they look sick and I can put up with the periods of discomfort for a little while longer (I should point out that you only really notice the discomfort when you stop :-).

What would I advise a friend to buy if spending a little extra money wasn't an issue? Get the Burton Missions. I've ridden the Missions (before the Capstrap) and they're really good. You'll get both the capstrap and a nicely shaped ankle strap (it's only the Luxstrap, not the Superstrap though!) and save some money.

So tell me again why you're not going back to the Cartels?

I don't have the choice - I sold them to my dad really cheap! D'oh

Frontside 180 Melon, Revisited

I've been looking back through all of my posts (because they all needed re-formatting) and I stopped at the Frontside 180 entry. At the time I said that I would:

try to to get the whole sequence on here without it looking naff...

...Well I've had a quick go. You can decide whether or not it is naff :-)

Wilka's camera isn't super advanced, but it's well easy to take a sequence like this. The pictures are quite spaced out - there's only one of me in the air - but the results can be fun. It can also help when tyring to catch an action shot.

Afterbang has moved!

Quick note to say that the Afterbang blog has moved to its new home on www.afterbang.co.uk. Please go there instead and update any links that you have to this site. :-)

Update: Comments are working again now. Sorry for the downtime. Just having the odd teething problem. If you spot anything else, please leave a note in this post's comments.

Xscapeology: Friday 5th May

Xscapeology is on at Castleford this Friday night with the slope open from 7pm to midnight. I've never been to one of the Xscapeology's and would quite like to check it out... what a bad time to have sold my car!