Snowboarding In Japan

This might seem a little random, especially as I'm set to ride in Canada this season, but I've been checking up on riding in Japan.

I don't think I'm just following a trend when I say that I'd really like to ride in Japan... the reason's pretty simple, there should be loads of powder! Hopefully it'll be something that I do the season after this one.

Anyhow, I came across this site, which seems to have some useful information. If anyone knows any other good sites let me know in the comments, cheers. Oh, and if anyone is actually riding there this season let me know too :)

Here We Go

Well the season's definitely just around the corner now; the tell tale signs are all there. To begin with, I've started donning a snowboard jacket for the journey to work, so winter is on the way. Secondly, I've picked up a copy of the Burton catalog, which has lots of shiny new things to look at. And finally, the first issue of WhiteLines arrived the other day, which happens to include a feature on the Halifax slope - excellent!

This has made me think a little about what I've been doing in between last season and this coming season... Back at the beginning of April I set myself a mini-goal, to ride between 2 and 4 times each month. Since then, just about 6 months have past, and according to my summer shred counter I've only ridden 7 times.

Once per month isn't great, but it's not aweful either. In the least, I've definitely scored on the snowflex front.

But I'm considering off-season to be the time between my last trip from the season gone and my first trip of the season to come - so there's still time yet. Maybe I'll bump that average up a little :)

That won't happen for a couple of weeks at least though, as this weekend I'm flying to Mexico. For that reason, I'm leaving that new copy of WhiteLine un-opened so I can read it on the plane, most likely from cover to cover. I've also added a copy of Document Snowboard and to my own surprise, a copy of Ski & Snowboard.

It's the first time that I've bought a ski/snowboard magazine, and being honest, had something like Onboard been on the shelves I'd have picked that instead. But Mexico's a long flight and I felt like 3 mags was a good number; and I've got to admit I was tempted by the cover stories of Thigh-deep in Japan and Canada's secret stashes, which should be the same for skier and snowboarder alike...

One final mention about the new season - the European snowbroader guys are back with their blog for this winter. If you're one of their regular readers from last year you'll probably already know this, but if not, you should check it out. Constantly updated with fresh snowboarding news - sweet!

UPS Import Woes

A short while ago I bought some snowboarding pants (and a t-shirt) from DogFunk, an online store in America. I like DogFunk: they have a great selection, often have great sales and the staff are real friendly. Even though the delivery charge was fairly high and knowing that some kind of import tax would have to be paid, the gear was still a good deal: total charge £88.33

Shortly after the order I received an email from UPS telling me that I hadn't paid the import charges and that I sould contact them straight away... OK, no problem. But it was when I spoke to them that the deal went kinda crappy. I was set to pay duty tax, V.A.T and some admin fee because I wasn't a UPS account holder!

It's probaby the case that I'm totally naive about all of this - but I wasn't expecting to pay V.A.T. Worst of all though was the dibursement fee. A charge I incurred because UPS were handling the import procedures and I didn't have an account with them. That's nice. Sure there are costs that need to be covered but I wasn't made aware of that before I ordered and chose UPS... maybe I should have trawled their site first and looked for small print?

The total import charge was £36.49 - around 40% of the cost. But actualy when you take the delivery charge away, the goods only cost about £54, so the cost of importing them is looking pretty high!

I actually thought I was gonna escape the payment; it was back in July when I spoke to them and they said that I would receive an invoice in the post. Getting on to two months later and it hadn't arrived so I was kinda smiling... but what's that saying they have about the certainty of taxes? Last week the letter below arrived - damn it :)

So the total cost of buying in the snowboarding pants and a t-shirt was £124.82. That's not bad, but it's not the bargain that I was originally aiming for. The funny part about all of this though is that I don't even like that pants - so I'm gonna sell them on eBay. At least they've still got the tags on...

Halifax Session 5

Saturday was an excellent day: the session at Halifax was great. But it didn't start out that way. To be honest, in the beginning it was somewhat of a test!

You see, the main lift was off; not working. This meant using the smaller lift which is way more inconvenient. You gotta unstrap a lot more and it's simply not as good. Also, with the sun and the wind, the slope was really dry, so really slow. Add to that the look of the place, which is a little shabby, and we were thinking why have we driven two hours for this?

But that changed. The run-in to the main kicker always seems to be better than that of the smaller kicker, so once we started hitting that, things improved. Martin produced his new camera too; it was met by oohs and ahhs and juiced things up a little.

It wasn't a particularly long session but it was good. I haven't ridden for a while and I wanted to spend some more time working on backside 1s. I still don't think I'm hitting the jump with enough speed, but it's coming. Towards the end I was definitely more comfortable with more speed, which was a nice improvement.

Of course it's one of those things where hitting it with more speed actually makes things easier: you've got more time in the air to do stuff and you land farther down the landing where it's steeper. Try just telling yourself that though! It might work for other people but not with me... I think I need to build up to it.

I also wanna start getting more comfortable with backside 3s (and maybe even 5s) - but on Saturday I was happy enough progressing with the 180s. Just keep hitting it over and over, trying to make it feel natural. I experimented with a couple of different grabs and also attempted to bone the front leg out. Some of it was successful, some of it wasn't. But I was learning for sure.

We capped things off sitting at the bottom of slope, just chilling out. Two good friends and the mossy snowflex hill to ourselves - it turned out pretty well!

I was well impressed with Martin's new camera - the pictures are awesome. He's uploaded them to Picasa but I don't think I can embed his album, so I've duplicated it in my area. Maybe I'm missing something? Anyway, I've embedded it below, but here's a link to the original set too. I've also included a few choice shots...

A Picture Of A Picture

Well I'm getting a session in tomorrow at Halifax - it's long overdue. Ever since the last time I was there, I've been meaning to get hold of a photo from Martin that he took. It was on real film, so I've had a physical copy of the photo, but nothing electronic.

It turns out that Martin's hooked himself up with a new camera, digital, which I'm guessing he's gonna be trying out tomorrow. I probably won't get around to taking the negatives to get the picture on a CD, so I figured I'd just take a picture of the picture. It's nothing amazing, but it was a good photo and I kinda like it...

Dakine Heli Pack: Review

The Dakine Heli Pack is one of the first bits of snowboarding equipment that I bought, way back in 2003. At the time I was just looking for a bag to carry things in on the hill. The bag's still going strong now, but my requirements have changed a little. Here's the review.

Features
The Heli Pack is slim design back pack, with 11L capacity (as per the website) and some handy features:

The vertical snowboard carry works pretty well - I've used it quite a few times. It's dead easy: you put the two straps either side of your bottom binding, one above and one below. Once tight, the board is pretty secure. There's definitely no problem walking around with the board in this position - it works. It's worth noting I haven't had the fortune of trying this feature out in really deep snow - and you can't use the back pack to carry your board horizontally.

The pack also caters for ski carry - but I don't know anything about that!

The expandable helmet carry. Helmets do fit within the external flap, which keeps the helmet in place. However I've got to say that I've never used this feature for real on the hill. Most of the time I've got my helmet on. At the few times that I've been riding and carrying the helmet - I've just clipped it to the bag, rather than using the helmet carry. You see, if the bag's quite full, using the helmet carry can be a bit tight, and clipping it on is real fast. That said, from the pictures on Dakine's sight it looks like the newer models have slightly longer straps for this feature, which should help. If you think you might make use of it, you can always check it out in the shop!

Hydration. There's an internal sleeve to hold your hydration pack and a hole at the top for the tube to extend through. Then, one of the straps has clips on it to carry the tube over your shoulder whilst keeping it in place. The newer design has an insulated external sleeve, which is one better and will help to stop things freezing up when it's cold!

Apart from the main compartment, there's a small pocket at the top and another on the helmet flap. The pocket at the top is pretty handy for stuff like a small camera: it's easy to access and it's a relatively safe-none-squash place.

What can you fit in it?
The pack will take a two piece shovel no problem. On a back-country day I've had my shovel, my video camera bag, a small still camera, a small bottle of water plus small snack, an extra layer and some warmer gloves. That's quite a bit of gear and it fits... but it is tight. If this is the extent of what you want to put in it, or you envisage taking less, then you're set.

My only problem with the bag is that it's not quite big enough for what I need now. The gear in the above example did fit, but getting things out was a hassle because the pack was right at it's limit. But this is not a criticism of the pack itself: it's designed to be small and Dakine have larger packs in their range. I just need a bigger option.

Overall
The Heli Pack is a great low profile pack. It's certainly durable. Mine is still going strong after extended use on the hill, use as carry on luggage through airports and day-to-day use for work. It's even survived a pavement crash or two from my skateboard. The straps are good, there are two that come around to the front and the shape of the pack fits the back well. If you're looking for a small pack on the hill, this fits the bill. Great.

Do-Able City Rail

I took some pictures of this rail this morning on the way to work. If you know Newcastle/Gateshead, it's just near the Millenium Bridge, on the Gateshead side.

For sure this is a do-able rail, one that I could perhaps ride myself, or at least try. It would be a boardslide. Having said that, it is pretty steep and straight on to flat which could be tricky/painful... perhaps there'll be enough snow this winter to try it out?

Snowboarding The World Travel Guide: Review

I like the Snowboarding the World travel guide. It feels good. It's got that high quality glossy finish that makes you happy when you pick it up. It's a nice book.

But luckily that's not all it is. StW is also a very good travel guide. Here's an excerpt from the introduction, which lays out nicely what the book is trying to achieve:

Snowboarders are, by definition, travellers. Unless you're lucky enough to live at the foot of a mountain, the typical snowboarding trip means planning an overseas journey - and making some important decisions.

So how do you narrow down the options? Unlike surfing, with its rich culture, sophisticated market and detailed guidebooks, snowboarding travel literature lags behind. Such guides as do exist are often poorly researched, badly written and - unforgivably - guilty of propogating the same hackneyed opinions that have been current since the first pioneers decided to decend a hill while standing sideways.

Apart from the aesthetics of the book, there are 3 main things that appeal to me with this guide:

• It's different to the other guides I've read. It has a slightly different format, which works nicely, and it's not repeating previous information
• It's interesting. As well as the resort guides themselves, there are Riders' Tales and Lift Chat sections scattered throughout the pages - and they really add to the book
• It's up to date. The destinations covered and the content reflect what's going on now with snowboarding

Layout of the guide
The guide starts with some essentials. A brief introduction looking at different aspects of planning a snowboarding trip: packages, do it yourself, airlines, are you looking for powder, park or partying... that type of thing. There's also a cool section covering 6 of the best and 6 of the worst, in categories such as underground classics and must do runs.

The rest of the book is concerned with the resort-by-resort guide, covering Austria, Canada, Eastern Europe & Middle East, France, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Scandinavia, South America, Spain & Andorra, Switzerland and the USA. All in all, one hundred top resorts.

And here's one of the bits I really like. Each destination opens up with 8 pages or so of general information. What are the overall pros and cons of that country? How to get there. Traditions, eating, price guide and when's good to go. What's the off-piste policy and what's the scene like? Top tips and star resorts... these sections within the guide do an excellent job of giving you a feel for what it will be like to go there.

Then there are the individual resorts, 2 pages dedicated to each. At first glance it might feel like there isn't that much information here - not a lot is written about any individual aspect. If you're after in-depth descriptions this probably won't appeal to you.

But I think the format used works really well. There's a wide range of small snippets presented that give a good impression of the resort. Little things like Internet access, what to do on flat light days and if you like this resort... try.... My favourite bit, which I read first, is the side-bar summary. It covers: Locals Do, Locals Don't, Pros, Cons, Not To Miss, Remember To Avoid, Snow Depth and Relive A Famous Moment.

Added interest
If you're buying a travel guide, chances are you're interested in the subject. But I think that StW scores particularly high here. There's a long list of Riders' Tales and Lift Chat spread throughout the book; topics such as Cliff drops in Canada, Making movies and The genesis of Tignes. It's all good. I hope that this is the type of content that they can change and update with future revisions of the book.

It's new
One of the key aims of the authors was to produce fresh and up to date information. I think they succeeded here. Looking at the acknowledgements, they used sources from far and wide, and it shows. The information in the guide feels current, and the range of resorts reflects some of the newer thinking in snowboarding.

Overall
I think it's an excellent guide book. Wonderfully produced, loads of great photos, interesting and most importantly it's successful in helping you decide where you'd like to go. Perhaps it's not the cheapest guid book around, but I think it's worth it. Brilliant.

Jib-Tastic

Today was one of the days this month that I had a slot to go riding... but right now, on Saturday, I'm in work. Boo Hoo. At least it's lunch time!

Anyhow, I thought I'd take this opportunity to post one of my favourtie videos from YouTube. If like me, you enjoy jibbing around the mountain, then you'll probably like this video. There's some cool stuff in there to try and the guys have some pretty sweet style.

You've gotta love some of the chumps that leave comments on YouTube!

Also of potential interest, I recently tried the demo for the video game Skate. I guess a lot of readers won't give two hoots about a video game, but it you ever enjoyed/enjoy the Tony Hawk skate games, you've probably heard at least a little about Skate...

I was really impressed. They've made the controls pretty damn natural - as far as can be achieved with a control pad! If you can, check it out, it's very good!

It's kinda bad that the closest I'm getting to snowboarding/skating at the moment is YouTube and a computer game. I need to stop being lame and get out on one board or the other... or both.

Surf's Up

The bank holiday weekend before last I was in Ireland, visiting Ciara's family. I really like it out there because it's so peaceful and the countryside is amazing. But this visit had an added extra - we tried surfing!

It's not a huge passion of mine or anything like that, but surfing is something that I've at least wanted to try. So I was pretty excited when I found out that Rossnowlagh was not too far away and that they have decent surf there.

Actually, I have no idea what decent surf is. As far as I can remember, this was the first time that I've seen waves that people surf on... or at least the first time that I've remembered them. But with a fresh 50 Euros in my pocket, a hire car and a map, and we were surfing!

The whole day was great. There was a competition on that day and we ended up hiring some gear from a shop that wasn't supposed to be hiring; a shop that was evidently being operated by a 13-or-so-year old boy (that's him lifting the board out in the picture below). I'm sure the equipment didn't make a difference at all; the only knowledge that I picked up was that larger boards are easier for beginners.

It was a little strange however not having a clue what I was doing. I strapped the leash on, listened to an instructor giving two girls some pointers on the sand for all of 20 seconds and then ran out... but to be fair, I'd watched Point Break about a month previous so figured I had all the instruction required.

The waves were definitely ok for surfing. They look much bigger when you're paddling out into them than they do from the beach! I wasn't understanding that thing where surfers dive under the wave as it comes towards them; I was just floating up on top of them at complete mercy to the size of the wave. Big ones just threw me straight off if I wasn't pointing right at them.

Getting out there turned out to be one of the most difficult things - or at least the most tiring. That and deciding which wave was going to be good and then getting in sync with it. I caught about 5 waves in total, standing up and then riding them until I stopped. Two of them were definitely better than the others: slightly bigger, and I seemed to be in a better part of the wave. It felt like they were faster and longer... but I'm not sure if that makes sense.

All in all I don't know if I did well or not so well, but it felt pretty good and it was a lot of fun. There's no way that I'll be trading in my baggy pants and twin tip for a wetsuit and an over-grown simming float, which is what my board reminded me of, but I'll try it again, given the chance!