Great Day Gone Bad

Well today was pretty much a perfect day. We totally beat the queues and ended up being the first riders through the park. Clear blue sky and blazing sunshine. Not only that, but the thunder storm from last night that brought torrential rain in the town - brought fresh snow up on the glacier!

So we got loads of riding in today and I made some really good progress:

• Nailed my first 360 from a kicker that actually warrents a 360 (enough time to float it round)
• Made 2 good runs in the pipe (before they closed half of it off)
• Hit a big'ish up-flat-down box for the first time, making a 50-50 to boardslide
• Straight-air indy'd the two biggest kickers I've ever hit
• Got a few nice little grabs on the new shifty I've learnt

So I was really happy... Then just before the riding was out, I found that someone had stolen my camera equipment!

That sucks big time.

It totally goes against the vibe of the park. Everyone is there to have fun. People leave gear around in trust, because others are doing the same. It's friendly and relaxed. So which mofo felt they needed to steel my video camera?

Argh!

But, at the end of the day, these things happen. I'm certainly not the first person to have a camera pinched. I suppose that's why we need to get holiday insurance - and with a bit of luck, I'll get some compensation. Whether or not it is near to the actual value of the camera is another thing... The worst thing though is that I lost the tape that was in the camera - I can't get that footage back.

So my best day of riding ended on a bad note. Poo. There is tomorrow though, and hopefully I'll progress some more - there's still so much that this park has to offer. On a plus point, the local police station was really helpful :-)

Bonjour!

Hey,

I'm about half way through the Deux Alpes holiday and it is excellent. The park on the glacier is really good - much bigger than any other European parks that I've been to. Lots of different hits, rails and boxes, suitable for a range of abilities.

The weather has been a little varied, but the majority of the time it has been good, sunny, summer snowboarding!

Getting here last Saturday turned out to be less than straight forward and it looks to be the same when I return home on Sunday. Unfortunately that means I won't be able to get 8 days of riding I was hoping for, but that's not the end of the world :-)

Anyway, I should have some new footage and other interesting things to put up here when I get back, so look forward to that. For now, I'm just gonna enjoy the sunny weather and the park!

Afterbang DVD: Soundtrack

I don't know about you, but once I start to like a snowboarding film, I also start to like the music. Half the time I'm sure the connection works both ways - if you're liking the music you get into the film more easily. Once you've watched the DVD a handful of times the association sets in and no matter where you hear the music it makes you think of boarding... at least that's how it works for me.

That said, it's unsurprising that I really like the songs from the Afterbang soundtrack.

Anyway, onto the purpose of this post... I've noticed that quite a few people have stumbled across this site looking for the Afterbang songs - so here's a list of the tracks:

• "Once in a Lifetime" - Talking Heads from "Remain in Light"
• "Agenda Suicide" - The Faint from "Dance Macabre"
• "Just what I needed" - The Cars from "The Greatest Hits"
• "Key Stroke" - Her Space Holiday from "Manic Expressive"
• "I love you Ono" - Stereo Total from "Total Pop"
• "Jerk it out" - Caesars Palace from "Love for the Streets"
• "Deceptacon" - Le Tigre from "Le Tigre"
• "Video Killed the Radio Star" - The Presidents of the United States of America from "Pure Frosting"
• "Once in a Lifetime" - Talking Heads from "Once in a Lifetime"
• "Scarlet Utopia" - Scott Sullivan from "The Crush Water Symphony vol. 1"

My Halfpipe Progression: A Snowy Pipe

This is the second installment of My Halfpipe Progression: a snowy pipe in Tignes, 2006.

Back in Zermatt there was no real consistency to anything I did in the half pipe. Don't get me wrong, I was making progress; I was taking my first steps. But this snowy pipe in Tignes was when I started to feel, comfortable. Of course this is relative to novice halfpipe riding, but hopefully you'll see what I mean.

As I've mentioned before, although the conditions made it hard to see, I think they helped me to build some confidence and rythm. The halfpipe was both slower and softer making mistakes a little less frequent and more forgiving. Remember that the video shown here was taken at times when the snow was letting up, when it was possible to see something through the video camera.

Also, the halfpipe was super quiet. I was using the period of poor visibility to get some practice in - and what's more, the majority of the time I had the halfpipe to myself. The result was a block of a good few afternoons just practicing the basics. It definitely helped. By the end of it I was starting to feel myself becoming more consistent, and I couldn't wait for it to clear up!

The music is by Kooks. I've only just gotten their album so I'm still getting into it, but so far I like it. Good energy to this song. Hope you enjoy it.

Cracked An Edge

So I got the board out at the weekend. Thinking about waxing it up and sharpening those edges ready for the summer snow. But wait, what's that? I've cracked one of my edges.

Crap. Bad timing. It didn't look horrendous - but it was a definite break, with one side protruding ever so slightly. Anyway, I took it to my local snowboard shop, LD Mountain Centre to see if they can do anything with it. They always do a good service which puts the Kink in good stead.

Hopefully it will last the week, but just in case I've borrowed a spare :-) A nice, flexy Volkl Squad Flex 4. Actually the board used to be mine, so it's a good fit too! Let's wait and see what happens to the Kink...

My Halfpipe Progression: Introduction

I'm probably gonna spend a fair amount of time trying to improve my halfpipe riding while in Deux Alpes. In the meantime I've been using some of my video to review my progress to date: Tignes earlier this year and Zermatt last summer. Although I did my first few halfpipe runs in Diablerets, the summer park in Zermatt was my first real stab at the pipe, followed by a good few days in Tignes after that.

Being right at the bottom of the learning curve I've made some decent progress - and I can't wait to get some more practice in soon. I've decided to show some of that progress here and, if possible, I'll get some new video when in Deux Alpes.

So, starting at the beginning, here's one of my runs from Zermatt last summer. It's the only one I've got but it does give an indication of where I was at... (If you don't have sound, I'm the last guy to drop in and I slam half way down)

Also, while we were in Zermatt Freddie Kalbermatten and Nicolas Muller showed up with a bunch of other pros. I wasn't interested in standing around taking photos and stuff, and besides, they weren't doing much riding anyway (I don't think they were two impressed with the halfpipe) - but I did catch one dude while I was putting my camera away... silky smooth and showing how it's done - I've tagged it on the end :-)

Coming Soon - Deux Alpes Podcast Series

I've been thinking it might be interesting if I share my experience of the coming trip to Deux Alpes. The thought came to me when I stumbled across a couple of sheets of paper mixed in with my 'snowboarding stuff' - a log/diary type thing that I made when I went solo visiting the park in Diablerets back in 2004. I've never kept a diary before, but at the time it seemed like a good idea to jot down what I'd been doing, the people I'd met and what I was looking forward to doing next.

Anyway, I reckon a podcast-style series consisting of logs made each day will do the trick. Ideally I would put them up here on afterbang at the end of each day, while in Deux Alpes. However, the chances of (a) getting to an Internet Cafe each day, (b) having access to the software I need and (c) wanting to do all that while I'm on holiday are pretty much nill. Sorry. So, I'll have to publish the series when I get back.

I know what you're thinking. You don't wanna wait that long, right? :-)

Seriously though, it would be cool if when it's all done you guys let me know whether you've found it interesting. So watch this space around the beginning of July for an account of all that goes on...

Learning To Manual A Box

One night last week I had the 5 Bridges skatepark to myself - so I decided to document my first attempts at manual'ing one of the boxes.

To me the manual is such a cool trick - it lets people who know what they're doing combine different stuff. Some of the results are super technical, and super impressive. It's a smooth looking trick as well, similar to presses and butters in snowboarding. I get the impression that it "feels good".

With that in mind, here's some video of my first attempts. I kinda get close but don't quite pull it off :-) It will come though... The music is by The Frames, from their album Dance the Devil. A good friend of mine gave me this album to listen to a couple of years ago and I've always liked this track - "Pavement Tune". The rest of the album's cool too.

DC Mountain Lab: DVD Review

As you know, I'm heading out to Deux Alpes at the end of the month. I'm meeting up with my sister who's already out in France, relaxing in the sun. Damn lucky - and she's getting to the glacier a week before me!

So I'm at home trying to sort out the final arrangements for where we're all staying and I get a call:

Don't forget to bring the DC Mountain Lab DVD...

It's a cheek I tell you!

But she's got a point. I shouldn't forget the MTN.LAB DVD - it's a great snowboarding film. I've watched it a few times within the last month so now is probably a good time to do a review...

MTN.LAB
Where to start? Well, I'll hold on all the stuff about it being a film uncovering the delights of DC's mountain lab, you've probably heard that before. Instead I'll say this: if you like the feel of the Robot Food films (afterbang, lame and afterlame) - you're probably going to like this. That shouldn't come as a surprise as I believe they got the Robot Food filmmaker to help them out. Good start.

Favourite Section
For me, this is the "Road Trips" section. It really does show how much fun snowbaording is. It's one of those video sections that always makes you want to go and ride. I'm watching it with Ciara and she says: Man, I should just quit my job and go do a season. That's what it's like when you're watching this part. It typifies why we all snowboard. I like the tune, which really helps, and one of Simon Chamberlain's jibbs is the sickest thing I've ever seen :-)

Other Good Parts
Well, I actually think that the whole DVD is good, but I'll mention here some of the parts that stand out to me.

• Simon Chamberlain. He's got some really nice moves on rails and boxes - impressive. Super smooth, super styled.
• Eddie Wall. Man I really like Eddie Wall. I think if there was one pro I could go riding with, it would be Eddie Wall. His section has loads of cool jibbing - which he just makes look easy. I can appreciate other riders' style and would probably say that some are more distinctive - but Eddie Wall is bang on for me. Cool track as well.
• Travis Parker. He never dissapoints, at least not in my opinion. I'm not going to mention style again - check out his nose to tail grab, sweet!

Todd Richards
Todd Richards being in the DVD was a big bonus for me. I've read his biography and really enjoyed it. His attitude towards snowboarding is one that I respect. It also made me think hmm, I wonder what his riding is like these days? With DC MTN.LAB you get to find out: there's plenty of his riding and you get a little insight of his personality.

Extras
There are quite a lot of extras on the DVD, including trick tips. Here are the ones I like the most:

• Snowboarders on Skateboards. Some nice footage of the DC riders on their skateboards. Good skills.
• Eddie Wall - 270s. Eddie talks about his approach to 270'ing onto rails.
• Olympic Training. Well funny. The riders are "practicing" at an Olympic training facility: a bunch of kickers with a swimmiing pool for a landing...
• Pic Nic. Short and sweet, Travis Rice pulls a sick one-footed move.

Any Downsides?
Hmm, maybe one, the length. I think the main feature runs for about 30 minutes, which is quite short. However, once you've built up a handful of snowboarding DVDs you start to look for something different, something with a new angle, more interesting. MTN.LAB definitely has this. In my opinion the quality more than makes up for the short running time. Plus there are some cool extras...

If you haven't seen it, go buy it!

DC Mountain Lab Soundtrack
If you're interested and you can't be bothered to read the credits, here's a list of the songs:

• "Let Go" - by Frou Frou
• "Paranoiattack" - by The Faint
• "Sister Surround" - by The Soundtrack Of Our Lives
• "Cha Love" - by Shawn Lee's Ping Pong Orchestra
• "Hit" - by The Wannadies
• "Million Young" - by American Analog Set
• "If You Must" - by Del Tha Funky Homosapien
• "In a Big Country" - by Big Country
• "Music; Response" - by Chemical Brothers
• "Driving" - by Renee Renee
• "Dead Disco" - by Metric
• "Move This" - by Technotronic

Les Deux Alpes: Accommodation

OK, so I've sorted out the flights for my summer trip - but where am I going to stay? As I mentioned previously, I'm going out for 8 nights, Saturday through to Sunday. Although this is great for getting extra boarding in, it kinda throws a spanner in the workd when it comes to accommodation. The problem being that apartments, chalets and some hotels are typically set up for blocks of 7 nights...

Last time I did this I cheated... we spent the extra night dossing down in my sister's season-accommodation. So what are the options this time? Well, I heard about a really cool place called the Sick and the Mental Inn. It's 'budget' accommodation during the summer to cater for boarders, mountain bikers, climbers... - and the best bit is that the atmosphere seems really chilled out. Bed and breakfast is 25 euros a night, and you can get an evening meal chucked in for an extra 5 euros.

I dropped a quick email to the guy running things, Lars, and with virtually no effort I was hooked up for 8 nights. 200 Euros. Sick.

The post should end here, but it doesn't. Meanwhile, my boarding buddies were thinking along different lines. Renting a cheap apartment for two to three weeks with me staying there sometime in the middle. To be honest I was kinda set on the Sick and Mental Inn, but with an apartment booked, and for around half the price, I had to change things.

The accommodation we've gone for can be found through one of the main Deux Alpes sites - in the "accommodation" section. There's a really good selection and it's cheap. For example, you can get an apartment for 4 people, for two weeks, for 560 euros. It's nothing flash, you know, the standard set up of a pull out bed and some bunks in the hall, but at the end of the day it's 70 euros each per week...

If you're interested and you go to the www.2alpes.com site be sure to check out the resort map. It's a bit awkward - but the map does show the various apartments, hotels, lifts etc. As a result we ended up with an apartment right next to the main lift. Sweet.

All done, right? Not quite. My two summer-slacking riding friends, currently sunning it up somewhere in France can only commit to two weeks in the apartment, so I've still got to sort out my last night. I hope there's room at the Inn :-)

Anyway, I'll let you know how those arrangements go, and I'll probably do a review of the whole setup when I get back.

Doing A Season

For many snowboarders, I'm sure, the idea of "doing a season" seems like a really good one; I know that it's something I'd love to do. However, the closest that I've been to the life of a seasonaire is my sister - who spent the 2005/2006 season in Meribel, France.

I figured it may be interesting if I did a pod cast-style talk with Emma about her experience as a 1st time seasonaire; particularly to those thinking about doing a season, but also, hopefully, to anyone who just likes snowboarding :-)

This production is deliberately not polished. I wanted it to appear exacly for what it is: me asking a bunch of questions I scribbled down on a sheet of paper. It's just over 15 minutes, so if you're interested in listening, download the file and enjoy.

Doing a Season (6.6MB)

If people are interested and want to more - I can collect any questions together and make part 2...

Burton Wheelie Locker Review

Ok, so I've booked flights with KLM and I've never flown with them before. This got me thinking about the airline's rules for baggage allowance; how much is it going to cost me to take my snowboard? Now, I've got one of those swanky Burton Wheelie Lockers and I think a review of which will be of use to some people. Here goes...

First things first
I'm gonna start this review by saying that I love my Wheelie Locker. Remember that when you get to the end of the review. Here's why:

• It's huge. You can get so much stuff in there. I've packed three snowboards, my gear and half of my girlfriend's gear into the thing. Everything kept in one place!
• It's tough. The spiel on Burton's website is true. It's built to last and Burton back it up with their support (I've had a new replacement)
• The design is great. Separate sleave for the boards. Separate compartment for clothers. Tough external pocket for handy access. A removable bag for your boots and another for your bindings... If you're a tidy freak it makes it easy to pack; if you just want to chuck stuff in, there's loads of space. See the website and my photos for more on the features

Spot on!

But is it practical?
Unfortunately I think you have to ask this question. I love the idea and I really like the design of the bag - but is it practical for lugging around airports? I'd have to say the answer is no. Read on.

Maximum weight allowance
I've found that most airlines (well, the ones that I have used) operate with a maximum weight allowance of around 32kg, for a single bag. That is, each item of luggage must weigh less than 32kg. I know this to be true as I was called to the front of the line on an Easyjet flight and asked to take stuff out of my wheelie locker. I ended up removing my boots (with their own dedicated bag, sick) which the stewardess insisted would be sent separately. You can imagine my frustration when waiting in Geneva airport, all of our bags collected except the boots...

So, the fact that the wheelie locker allows you to pack so much stuff becomes a little irrelavant as you're constrained by 32kg.

What are you talking about? 32kg? That's madness, you don't need that much stuff!

You're probably right. So why have a bag that's that big? Also, don't forget that when you start adding your mates board to save on costs, the extra jacket, the waxing iron - things start to add up. To me, that's the point of the wheelie locker - there's loads of space.

Note also that you don't save on the fact that you're only taking one bag. Explanation. Your friend has his regular suitcase with an allowance of 20kg and he's paid a flat fee to take a snowboard in a separate bag. They weigh this bag to make sure it's not super heavy, but they don't seem that bothered about its exact weight. You on the other hand have you single wheelie locker. Let's say that you're travelling light and the total weight is less than 20 kg. Do they offer you a discount? No. You pay the same.

Forget the airline's weight allowance, the damn thing is heavy!
I'm not the strongest person in the world but I'm not the weakest either. When the wheelie locker is rammed full it is heavy. Simple as that.

So you've flown to Geneva and as usual it takes the board bags ages to arrive. It's getting tight for the last train. Your wheelie locker finally arrives and now you've got to run to the train station...

It's not easy! Dragging 30-odd kg while running is hard work! I'm not being sexist here: Ciara can't lift the wheelie locker when it's full. It's heavy.

It's not just the airport though. Not all apartment blocks have lifts. My first trip to Tignes, we were on the top floor. Having all of your gear in one bag no longer seems like a good idea when you've got to carry it up 3 or 4 flights of stairs. The length then also becomes a problem. Stairwells aren't always wide. At 1.8 meters or so it can be hard to get the wheelie locker around narrow corners.

It's worth adding though that the wheelie locker does have good quality hand holds on the top of the bag, and a shoulder strap.

Other points

• If you take the board out of the bag and leave the rest of the gear in (for whatever reason), pulling the bag on its wheels becomes a problem
• I've found that I don't use the bag on road trips - it's too big for the roof rack
• You can't really use the wheelie locker in other situations, e.g. other holidays

Burton Wheelie Locker vs. Burton Wheelie Double Deck

So what's the alternative? Well, take a regular shaped suit case and a separate board bag. Enter the Burton Wheelie Double Deck. Ciara uses one of these in combination with a board bag, or, sometimes she off-loads onto me and I carry her board as well. The Double Deck shares a lot of the clever design features of the Wheelie Locker and is made to the same high quality.

...And you can fit a lot of gear in this thing too! I'm certain that using a decent travel bag along with a board bag is a more comfortable, easy to operate solution. Also, overall you can probably take more gear (if you feel the need) as you're not limited to 33kg. It doesn't have to be the Double Deck, I've seen the Dakine Split Roller and that seems really good too. However my experience is with the Burton travel gear and I know that it 'feels' really good - that quality comes through.

Summary - So what am I using for the Deux Alpes trip?
I hate the thought of leaving my Wheelie Locker behind, but I'm gonna use the Wheelie Double Deck travel bag, and take my board separately. In comparison, the Wheelie Locker just seems to much of a struggle to move around. I guess I'll let you know the final verdict when I get back.

XScape Snowdome, Castleford: Fast-Track 3 & 4

Yo dudes, it’s The Function here, back for the second slice of hot lesson action. (I said lesson!) Let’s dive in...

The second lesson

After my first fast-track session, I didn’t get to go back for my next one for nearly 2 months. I was bricking it that I’d be back at square one and I’d have to start over again. I needn’t have worried. The other 5 people in my group had also left it a while since their previous lesson, so I was unlikely to be left behind.

Once again, it was £72 for 3 hours’ slope time. Instructor this time was a guy called Dave. He was friendly enough, but a little less easy-going than Ollie had been. I suspect it all got off to a bit of a bad start when most of the people in the group couldn’t use the rope tow. This was meant to be a fairly basic part of the first two lessons and even I was a little surprised they coudln’t do it. I think they even said they’d not used it before. How they passed their earlier lessons is anyone’s guess.

Anyway, agenda this time was essentially:

• Proving we’d got through fast-track 1 & 2
• Toe-to-heel edge turns on the baby slope
• Heel-to-toe-edge turns on the baby slope
• Linked turns on the baby slope
• Linked turns on the main slope
• Linked turns from the top of the main slope

Clearly, a couple of people in the group were having difficulty with the first item there, but to my relief, I was fine. After a couple of jerky sideslips. ;)

Turn, turn, turn

So, next was learning to turn. Obviously, we could already do this a little, as we’d just been traversing, but putting in a full turn was to be new. When it was explained to us, however, it just sounded so much more complicated — some thing about twisting the board by pointing one foot forward and the other back while rubbing your stomach and patting your head.

Ok, maybe not the last two, but the whole twisting thing just sounded too much to think about whilst not falling over. Consequently, I just listened to the other bit of advice about keeping your weight on your front foot. Hey presto, you’re round the corner. Job done.

By the time I’d got onto the linked turns, progress in the group was becoming increasingly varied. In fact, by the time we took our mid-lesson break (not sure why we have a break — it’s hardly exhausting), I was ready for the main slope, but others were still struggling to put a single turn in. This was making it a bit awkward for Dave to teach us together, but at least it meant I got to do whatever I needed most practice on.

After the break, out to the main slope it was — by myself. The Castleford main slope has two different gradients on it: the bottom half at 10%; and the top half at 15%. Up both sides of the slope are poma lifts, although there was only one operating on the night of this lesson. Initially, I was just taking the poma half way up and then trying to put in 5 or more turns before the bottom of the slope. Dave pretty much left me to this while he went back to the rest of the group, but this was fine by me. Wilka and Mark were both on the main slope, so I still had someone to share the craic with.

From here on, things just started becoming more and more natural. Sure, I took a couple of gentle falls, turned into another boarder (ooops!) and was wasted by a skier, but I was just concentrating on getting some kind of flow going. Soon enough, I’d moved onto doing the full slope and, despite getting a bit wobbly at first with the extra speed, managed to stay upright for the rest of the evening. With half an hour of the lesson still to go, Dave marked my lesson card as passed and let me get on with it. Result! As a bonus, I now have a free hour’s slope time to spend at a later date. Could well be this coming Sunday.

Conclusion

Overall, I have to say that if you’re thinking about trying out snowboarding, or want a head-start before your first boarding holiday, these lessons are excellent. Granted, a lot will depend upon the group you’re in as to how much time the instructor can devote to you, but I doubt you’ll ever be left wanting. I was only left to myself because the instructor figured I could manage ok alone *grin*.

Plus, when you factor in the equipment hire, £24 per hour really isn’t that bad a deal. Certainly beats the £60 per hour I pay for my karting shenanigans. The XScape in Castleford even has a railway station right outside, so transport there needn’t be a problem. Go on, give it a try. Maybe I’ll see you there. :)