Colorado Here I Come!

[How did that happen? This was posted by me...]

OK, don't get too excited for me. I'm not going to be shredding. I am excited though.

Tomorrow morning I'm off to the USA for a work trip; starting in Rochester, Minnesota, with the Mayo Clinic, then visiting a lab in Nebraska, and finally Denver. At the end, I'll have one or two days for myself to check out Colorado. Awesome.

Shame it wasn't two or three months later - then I could have taken my snowboard.

I will however get a chance to see the mountains, see the scenery, maybe even check out a resort. I've also scoped a skate park in Rochester, so I've packed my deck. Not sure if I'll get time, but it's in there anyway...

Finished!

Well, I've finally finished the review(s) I've been writing for the World Snowboard Guide. All in all, it's been a pretty big undertaking. The Portes du Soleil. Twelve resorts. It's taken me some time.

Actually it's probably taken longer than it should have, although I think I've finished within what was an acceptable time frame. It's been the case that there have been periods when I've been simply unable to give it any time; other things that need doing. One of the consequences has been less time to write stuff for this site; each time I've sat down I've been plugging away at the reviews...

I'm going to post up my thoughts on the whole process, because I've had quite a few over this year. For now though, it's done, I'm glad to have had the opportunity to do it, and I'm looking forward to having some more time to post to my blog. I can put all the piste maps and my notebook away now. And I should say thanks to Mal, for proof reading a good chunk of the work. Cheers mate.

On an unrelated point - I think this is my 400th post. Ooooh.

Funner Films: New Teaser

Teasers are starting to appear for a bunch of snowboard films now; I was just checking out this one from Funner Films, "How the Northwest Was One". Pretty sick. I wonder what DVDs I'll get this season?

"How the Northwest Was One is the story of a bunch of snow bandits, filmer bounty hunters, epic gun battles, and riding off into the sunset in a blaze of glory. Not to mention double backflips and corks, the sickest tree jibs, trips to Chile, and deepest powder around. Does snowboarding get any more entertaining than this? Starring: Kurt Jenson, Nick Ennen, Patrick McCarthy, Joe Bosler, Andy Stern, Andy Bergin-Sperry, Tim Carlson, Scott Witsil, Lucas Debari, Shaun McKay, Manuel Diaz, and more..."

Liberty Mountain Snowflex Slope

I was reading through Whitelines' Friday Fix and found that Liberty University has opened a new Snowflex slope - the first one in the US - The Liberty Mountain Snowflex Centre. As far as artificial slopes go, it looks impressive. Whitelines also has a video, showing some UK shredders on their trip over there.

Snowflex is a popular technology, and having ridden on it a number of times myself, I can see why. It's a shame that the best kickers are popping up outside of the UK, where it was invented, and perhaps, needed the most. Let's hope we get some new slopes here, maybe in the north east :)

Ignore The Last Post...

...I was clearly wrong!

Sometimes when you lose the routine of doing something, it's hard to get it back. Snowboarding's been off the menu for so long now (relatively), and with it, blogging has fallen by the wayside too.

But as a new season approaches, "snowboarding" automatically arrives in my inbox: a new catalogue delivered to the door, the Whitelines Friday Fix, the teaser for Absinthe's new film, the list goes on. Then there's the collection of snowboarded-related emails that I haven't gotten around to dealing with; sorry if you're on that list.

I'm not complaining. I'm just not ready for it yet. I think I said that around the same time last year? What I mean is: as soon as I start seeing snowboarding again I feel like I'm missing out. Like I should be doing something. It makes me question things.

Anyhow, in the off chance that people still read this, I've got two, random and unrelated questions:

1. Does anyone have the Silversun Pickups album, Carnavas?
2. Has anyone ever stayed in the french resort of Montriond?