The Camera Isn't Rolling

I returned from the LG Action Sports Tour weekend (more on that to come) to be greeted by a letter from my insurance company regarding the claim on my stolen camera equipment...

Considering the particular circumstances of your loss and the above policy exclusion we will unfortunately, be unable to assist you with you claim on this occasion.

It totally sucks! I loved that camera (and I spent a good while saving for it too). The wide angle lens is also gone... I suppose it is to be expected given the policy wording - I just kind of figured that if you have something stolen on holiday, and you have holiday insurance, you're going to get at least some help with replacing it. Clearly not.

However, I must say that this part of the letter was surprising:

We would also like to advise you that camcorders are not covered on your insurance policy.

I don't remember that little nugget of information jumping out when I signed up.

I'm going to have to be more careful with the next insurance that I take out and make sure my camera equipment is covered. Needless to say I won't be renewing with (holding back on slanderous comments) my current insurance providers

Orange AIM Series Jam Session Tonight!

The Orange AIM Series will be at Xscape Castleford tonight. I believe that anyone can enter, and the event this evening is going to be a jam session format, which should make for real good watching (and taking part).

There's a group of us travelling down to Birmingham tonight for the LG Action Sports Tour event - and Castleford is just about on the way. I really want to stop off and watch some of the AIM Series jam session, but the time is kinda tight. Well, that's what the rest of the group keeps telling me... we're camping this weekend so they want to make sure we get there in time to set up the tents.

I don't understand it!? Their priorities seem all wrong! What's wrong with turning up at that camp sight at 1am in the morning? :-)

Anyway, check out SCUK if you want more information - and there's a picture of the park layout for tonight's rail jam session.

Worst Slam Of The Season...

...and I wasn't even snowboarding - or skating for that matter. I was just riding to work and managed to send myself over the handle bars, skidding to a stop on the pavement, using my right arm as a brake. I also added a chunk out of my left hand, a slight sprain on the wrist and a beauty of a graze on my hip. Nice.

This happened yesterday. To make things worse, we had a skate session at Redcar planned that evening and I didn't want to miss it. So, against my better judgement I taped myself up, wore a long sleeve top and went skating...

I'm so glad I did! Wednesday night was an excellent session. To begin with we had the entire skate park to ourselves (8pm - 10pm) - free to use whatever we wanted, whenever. Awesome. On top of that, we all skated well. I got a couple of photos which seem pretty nice, and might make for a good banner on this website. We also took a few clips on the camera and as I've made some progression, I'm going to put something together. The obligatory slush puppy finshed a great night's skating.

It's the LG Action Sports Tour this weekend, so keep posted for a recap of the events. Is anyone else going to this?

2nd Visit To Xscape Castleford

I made my second visit of the summer to Castleford on Friday night and it was another good freestyle session.

The rail/box setup was very good and included a nice flat-down rail, a down-flat-down box and two c-boxes. Similar to the week before the kicker was small.

I spent most of my time riding the long flat rail, the flat-down and then the two normal boxes. I was pretty pleased as it was the first time that I've hit a flat-down and I ended up pulling some ok 50-50 to boardslides.

I'm kinda struggling with anything frontside at the moment, enjoying a few rather painful knee slides as I get my body position all wrong and the board slides out from under me. I also haven't quite figured out how to keep the rotation going once I'm on the box... I've been trying to 180 on, spin a further 180 on the box and then 180 off. The middle bit isn't happening, yet.

Right at the end of the night Emma took a few shots. I think the clip gives a pretty good indication of the rail/box setup, which, if you haven't been to a freestyle night, or you haven't seen an indoor slope should be interesting. The music is by Jose Gonzalez from the album Veneer; the song is called "heartbeats".

Afterlame: DVD Review

Time and time again I go back to watching Afterlame. Without doubt it is my favourite snowboarding DVD. Some others come close, and it might be worth me listing them so you can get an indication for the type of films that I like, such as: Lame, DC MTN.LAB, White Balance, DropStitch and Afterbang, but Afterlame remains at the top. It feels very "film-like". It's the DVD that most makes we want to ride. The first time I watched it I was like "wow, that was different. I wanna watch it again".

The Intro
Afterlame has a great intro. It's quite long which seems to work as it does a good job of setting the pace and style for what's to come. Oh, and the opening track is excellent - "Yours to Keep" by Teddybears. There's a cool part in the extras that takes a look at how they put it together - it's worth watching. David Benedek kicks things off by answering the question "Is it fun?" For me, that's why the film is so successful - it perfectly communicates how much fun snowboarding is.

Favourite Section(s)
It would be weak to say that I like the whole thing :-) I think my favourite section/chapter is "VIII: Hampus and Jacob cruising around". It simply shows them jibbing around the park having fun. Jacob comments that you don't really get to show that type of riding in a conventional video part... and I think he's right. That's one of the reasons that this part is so refreshing. However, for me it's not just that this is a little different; I love this aspect of snowboarding, so seeing some of the world's best jibbing around is so good.

For a similar reason I really like chapter VII.II - which includes Parker and Giom riding some amazing powder. But it's not the usual big mountain riding or back country kicker shots. It's a glimps at them just riding. Effortless style. I like it because it gives you an idea of what it might be like to go riding with these guys... how they ride when they don't have to worry about filming and stuff.

There's a sequence right at the end of "VI: the other group goes to AK" that I really love. It's David Benedek riding the AK powder and he attempts a 360 cliff drop and doesn't make it. For me the sequence is great for two reasons: (1) it has a very natural feel to it. It's not a kicker with a straight run in, he's kind of negotiating his way towards the cliff. (2) After failing the 360 he goes back to try again and nails a 540.

Extras
If you like a DVD to have extras then you'll really enjoy Afterlame - there are loads of them! It's not just the quantity though, there's a good mix too: more riding, skating, "how we made this part", goofing around... Here's an idea of the ones that stood out to me.

• "Trancers". The beginning is funny - some guy dancing on the 'sidewalk'. With a cool tune playing, "Trapped But Still Got Two Ways Out" by KMAX, the extra then moves on to some pretty sick riding. There are some really good camera angles making for some interesting shots.
• "Stair Masters". Scotty and Charlie getting shots on urban rails. Funky track - "On The Recline" by A.Kruse.
• "Git Yer Poles". Hampus and Jacob playing around in the park on skis...
• "4 Wheel Thunder". It's a long section full of skating - some good skating. Watching snowboarders skate is good!
• "Alaskan Thunder". Check out Benedek and Parker wrestling in the back yard :-)
• "It's So Gnarly Up Here!" Some of the crew sessioning a kicker and playing around in powder...

Any Bad Bits?
Not really. Section "V - Bobby and his crew go to AK, kinda" tells of their failed trip to AK and then leads into the success that the other crew had. There's no riding in this section - hence the failure. This isn't a bad thing, in fact I think it adds to the film. However, when it comes to re-watching I pretty much skip this part and get on with the riding.

Afterlame Soundtrack
The music from Afterlame consistently adds to the film, it's an excellent soundtrack. Don't wanna go through the credits pressing pause? Here are the track listings:

• "Yours to Keep" - by Teddybears
• "Spirit in the Sky" - by Norman Greenbaum
• "Genetic World" - by Telepopmusik
• "Ready to Wear" - by Felix Da Housecat
• "What's So Strange About Me" - by Eight Dayz
• "Arctic Heart" - by Graded Roses
• "Lullaby for Wayne" - by Weezer
• "Keeping the Faith" - by De La Soul
• "Symptom Finger" - by The Faint
• "All I Need" - by Air
• "Budge" - by Dinosaur Jr.
• "Going Nowhere" - by Cut Copy
• "Higher Ground" - by Red Hot Chili Peppers
• "Heartbeats" - by The Knife
• "Float Away" - by David Garza
• "Taste of Honey" - by Herb Alpert

Afterlame Teaser
Here's the Afterlame mid-season teaser from 2004.

Wanna Buy Afterlame?
If you don't own it, you should. At the time of writing, you can buy Afterlame on Play.com.

Snow Then Skate

Last weekend's action of snowboarding and skateboarding was so good that I'm going to do it again: Castleford on Friday night and then the R-Kade skatepark on Saturday morning.

Here's this week's park layout for Xscape Castleford (taken from SCUK):

• Right Top, Zone 1: 10m Rail and 4m Down Rail (side kickers)
• Right Top, Zone 2: Flat-Down Kink Rail and Down-Flat-Down Box (side kickers)
• Right Bottom: C-Box line and Slide Box
• Left Bottom: Rookie Kicker

The Kink Is Erm... Kinked

I didn't notice it at the time, but a day or so after the trip to Castleford I found that my snowboard has taken another beating. As I think back to Friday evening I do seem to recall a rather unnatural cracking sound...

I'm not quite sure how I did that, but it doesn't look good. With this, and two cracks in the opposite edge, there's little doubt I'm gonna have to get a new board for next season. I just wonder how long this one is going to last?

To be honest I'm starting to wonder about the durability of this board. I bought the Kink at the start of the season ('05/'06) and since then I've done around 5 weeks of riding. How would it have lasted if I'd done a full season?

Best Skate Session Yet?

OK, I'm writing this on Sunday morning (ish) and I must say I'm aching. Snowboarding on Friday night was excellent; a quick drink and bite to eat afterwards meant I fell into bed around 2am Saturday morning - with the prospect of leaving the house at 9am to go skating at the R-Kade skatepark in Redcar...

It was worth it. I'm not quite sure what it was about the session but it was brilliant. Maybe it was the McDonald's breakfast the Mike, James and I had on the way there? Was it the slush puppy afterwards? Or was it just the craic that three mates enjoyed on a skating trip...

The weird thing was that we were all tired. And rusty. It seemed like ages since we had last skated. But - after a sketchy warm-up things started to come together. We ended up playing around on the mini ramps and it was so much fun.

The mini ramps at R-Kade are so good. They're excellent for learning new stuff. I started to rock and roll with some consistency and also learned to axlestall. Sick! Check out two little clips of Mike and myself...

The day was hepled by glorious weather. It was really hot inside the skatepark - so at the end of the session we decided we'd earned a slush puppy and a rest on the beach. Throwing around what turned out to be the most poorly constructed frisbee ever, for 15 minutes topped off a great morning. When are we going next?

Castleford Last Friday

Castleford on Friday night was excellent. I ended up going with my brother, Arran, and we had a wicked time.

The park setup was quite good, although I must say that the kicker was quite small. I think there was more space where they had it to put something a little bigger; but then again I'm not the one who has to set it all up and shape things.

What about the rails? Man, I really enjoyed them! I'm going to repeat something that I've mentioned here before: if you want to progress your rail riding this is the place to be. Starting from the top of the park there was a short down rail with side kickers (so you can't just ride on), followed by the long, flat, 10m rail that they have. This one is set up so that you can ride straight on if you want to. I love this rail. Next comes the long slide box and then finally a beginner rail. The beginner rail is short, wide and low to the ground.

Granted these rails and boxes aren't super technical/difficult, but for the likes of myself they're perfect for progressing. I should also mention that I have at times seen some more challanging jibbs - down flats, rainbow rails etc. In fact, on Friday night they had a nice setup with three picnic benches where the middle bench was step-up; for example you could gap the first bench.

So I'm hitting 4 rails each time down... I did more rail riding in one night than I have all season. It's perfect.

• I work on boardsliding the two more difficult rails
• I start to frontside boardslide the beginner rail
• I do one or two half-decent nose presses on the box (mixed in with a bunch of complete rubish)
• I begin to 180 onto the box and then rotate another 180 while on it

And amongst all of that and more was a supreme face plant on the down rail :-)

Excellent! I've got to add that I'm always impressed with the vibe at Castleford. Everyone's friendly - they're just there to have fun. Not only the vibe, I'm also impressed with the standard of riding. There was a young rider there on Friday night, I don't know his name but I'm sure I've seen him in some of the British snowboarding magazines. He was killing it!

Front flipping off the kicker. Super smooth and styled. Hitting everything switch. Switch lipslides: frontside and backside. Nice!

The LG Action Sports Tour - Coming Soon

Wow, the LG Action Sports Tour is going to be stopping in Birmingham at the end of this month, July 29th and 30th. If you're in to this type of thing, Pro Skate, BMX and Inline competitions, then unlike me you were/are probably well aware of the event. Normally, I tend to find out about these types of things too late, but not this time. Lucky for me, Ross was on point and there's plenty of time to make the arrangements.

I haven't seen any pro extreme/action events live so this will be a first. I hope that we can sort out a group to go down and enjoy the weekend, which is packed full of great stuff!

Here're some links for anyone who's interested:

• LG Action Sports Tour - Birmingham Event
• Ticket Information
• National Adventure Sport Show (NASS)

Good Winter Snowboard Parks In Europe?

So I was very impressed with the summer park in Deux Alpes. It's by far the biggest park I've ridden in, and along side the Diablerets park it's the best. It was great!

So what about the winter? As yet I haven't ridden a good park in the winter: Chamonix has no park. Meribel has two parks, but when I went in early January they were both pretty poor. Tignes' park was unimpressive (although the halfpipe was excellent). They'd put a fair amount of effort into the Val D'isere park, but it wasn't very big.

There's a good chance that I'll spend quite a bit of time in Les Deux Alpes this coming winter - and I hear that the park is good. But if I travel to other European resorts, where should I go? Which resorts have good winter parks?

I'm going to start a list of potentials; it would be great if people can add to it with their own experiences:

• Leysin/Les Diablerets
• Les Deux Alpes
• Laax (I'm assuming the park is good?)
• Avoriaz (again, I hear the park is good)...
• ...

Let's see what happens to this list. Does anyone have anything to offer?

Castleford Tomorrow

I'm going to the freestyle night at Castleford Xscape tomorrow. It will be the first time that I've been this summer so I'm quite excited. Here's the layout for the park (taken straight from SCUK):

• Left Top: 4m Down Rail (side kickers) and 10m rail
• Left Bottom: Slide Box and Rookie Magic Rail
• Right Top: Kicker (2m table)
• Right Bottom: Transco Spine Ramp and Step-Up Picnic Benches

Is anyone else going tomorrow (Friday) night? If so I might see you there...

The Italian Job

For me, one of the great things about snowboarding is that I get to travel to new and interesting places, meeting different people along the way.

As it happens, I was lucky in Deux Alpes and made some new friends - one of which was a snowboarder all the way from Chicago. Natalie was staying in the Sick and the Mental inn for a week or so, but before that she'd been living and studying in Italy for a few months.

Anyway, there's an article over on snowsphere.com - The Italian Job - written by Natalie. It's really good: a story about snowboarding in Italy and getting wrapped up in the occasion of the Winter Olympics. Enjoy!

Les Deux Alpes: Sick and the Mental Inn B&B Review

Sick and the Mental Inn - Summer Snowboarding Accommodation, 2006

Whilst in Deux Alpes this summer I spent my final night in the Sick and the Mental Inn. I had planned on spending the whole week there, but as things turned out the group ended up in an apartment for the majority of the time, with just a single night at the inn. B&B vs. self catering? Here's a review on the inn...

Booking
First of all, it was dead easy to arrange staying there for one night. We walked into the inn a couple of days in advance, asked for a room and they set one aside for us. Didn't need to leave a deposit or anything like that. It was a similar situation when I was looking at spending the week there: no need for a deposit, just pay in resort. The inn seemed fairly quiet so availability wasn't an issue.

Atmosphere
Atmosphere is perhaps the inn's strongest point - it's great. It's very laid back and relaxed. The inn is run by a group of friends, English, and they're in resort for the same reason as you - to enjoy the mountain and have fun. Although we were only there for one day/night, it was easy to mix in, very welcoming.

The Communal Area
For me, one of the biggest differences between B&B and apartment/chalet is where you relax. With your own apartment you've got everything to yourself, which normally includes some kind of living area to chill out in. With B&B your personal space, your room, tends to be quite small; so unless you're out and about you'll be relaxing in a communal area...

Again, the inn scores highly here. The bar area is sweet; small with a friendly vibe. You might have to give one of the guys a nudge to put the XBox controller down, get off the sofa and serve you, but that's all part of the charm of this place. There's a free pool table and a load of comfotable seats to kick back on. If someone isn't playing on the XBox you can choose from a bunch of snowboarding DVDs to watch. There was a good selection of music playing from a laptop up on the bar, and requests were welcomed.

A pint of Stella was 4 euros rather than the usual 5, which rounded things off nicely!

The Bedrooms
The bedroom we stayed in was basic, including just what you needed. Storage wise, there was a set of drawers and a small cupboard. The bathroom was well equipped with a decent shower cubicle and a power shower. Not much to report really, clean and to the point. I did get the impression that the rooms in the inn all varied a little, so I'm not sure what each and everyone is like.

When it came to drying our gear after being up on the hill, we just set our stuff out on the communal veranda and sat in the sun with a pint of beer!

Food
We didn't actually take breakfast as the morning we stayed there we were travelling back early (so we stocked up fresh at the bakery and had breakfast on the bus). However, I think the breakfast was pretty simple: cereal and croissants - that type of thing. For an extra 5 euros you can get evening meal - which we did have. It was decent home made food with fresh salad, bread, water and the like. More important was the good craic around the table - everyone from the inn sat down and ate together which was fun.

Location
I've never been to Deux Alpes in the winter, but for summer snowboarding the Sick and Mental is perfectly located. You're right in the centre of town being only a minute from the lift that takes you up to the glacier. Right out onto the street is a selection of bars and restaurants. The Billabong shop is across the road, as is an Internet cafe and the bus stop. A favourite of mine was a really nice bakery just a few doors away. Perfect.

Overall
This is the first time I've stayed in a B&B when snowboarding, and we were only there for one night, so I guess my experience in this area is slight. I think in general I prefer to stay in an apartment/chalet environment - however there are times when a B&B set up is more suitable. For example, you may be staying for an odd number of nights that doesn't fit in with the Saturday-to-Saturday norm. Or, you may be travelling alone or in a small group, ruling out larger accommodation.

Looking purely at the Sick and the Mental, I was totally impressed. It was convenient, flexible, well situated and had an excellent atmosphere. I don't know how 25 euros a night stacks up against other B&Bs, but it seemed ok to me. The Sick and the Mental inn makes for a good choice.

My Halfpipe Progression: A Sunny Pipe

This is the third installment of My Halfpipe Progression: a sunny pipe in Tignes, 2006. See also part 1 and part 2.

As I mentioned in part 2, I couldn't wait for the weather to clear up. I'd been riding the halfpipe for a few afternoons in snowy conditions, and wanted to find out what I could do when I could actually see the walls...

Man it was so much fun. This was me getting my first little airs out of the pipe; going above the coping! It felt nice. Of course, watching the video back I was like: "damn, I didn't get my best runs" and "I went higher than that" - but at the end of the day I'm still pleased. To be honest, the photo that Wilka took (the one on the banner of this page) is probably about as high as I got. I would have like to see that run on video :-)

It's also worth pointing out how quiet the halfpipe is, even when the weather was good. From what I've experienced, this was a pretty damn good halfpipe, I was spoiled having it this quiet. What's more, one of the days was the same day as the Protest Jib Vib.

Some things I've noticed about my halfpipe riding (relative to a beginner):

• I should take more speed into the halfpipe when I drop in. If I get it right I can make my first hit the biggest, and hopefully carry this speed through the run
• I go higher on the frontside wall. I think this is because (a) I hold the edge better going up this wall and so take more speed, and (b) I land better on the backside wall and so retain more speed from the previous hit*
• I still need to build consistency, I guess that will come with practice

*On the frontside wall I tend to come down on a toe edge meaning that I have to transfer edge on the flat bottom and do a little carve thing - so I lose speed.

Unfortunately I don't think I'll get to update this Halfpipe Progression series for a while, at least not with video. I did do a few runs in Deux Alpes last week, but that was about it. Hopefully I'll get some more practice in during the next winter...

The music is by Jack Johnson from his album On And On. I can't really ride to Jack Johnson, it's too chilled out. However, this track seemed to suit the sunny, relaxed atmosphere of the halfpipe in Tignes. The whole album is excellent - but then again I don't think there's a Jack Johnson track that I don't like. I hope you enjoy watching!

Back To Reality

Yesterday morning I woke up in the Alpes. Early on the sun was beaming down, yet I could see snow on the peaks. The familiar buzz of snowboarders, skiers and mountain-bikers making their way around town, most often towards the lifts, was starting to pick up...

This morning I found myself riding to work: through Gateshead, over the Tyne Bridge and into Newcastle. Back to reality...

I couldn't help smiling however as I rode along listening to my boarding playlist - reminding me of the events of the previous week. What a great time I had!

There's much to tell. I will be adding things over the next few weeks so if you're interested in summer snowboarding and/or the Les Deux Alpes resort, keep an eye out. I must say that some of my plans were scuppered by the theft of my camera equipment, but I'll do my best to recover.

In the end I didn't manage to ride for 8 days as planned - only 7. Also, the wealth of halfpipe riding I had hoped for didn't materialise. I talk more about these things and others in the posts to come, hope you all enjoy it!