It's Been A While

I was just thinking about this today: it's been a good while since I was on a snowboard. In fact, it's probably the longest absence since I first strapped in. Even the first year-period between my first and second snowboarding holidays was broken by one or two trips to the snowdome, and maybe even the dry slope.

Looking back over the last 12 months, I haven't been on my snowboard since Morzine. Wow. Hopefully I won't have regressed too much :)

I did skate more over the last 12 months, which was something I set out intentionally to do, and had a lot of fun doing. I wanted to see if more than a few sessions would enable to me to learn some new tricks; and it did. Nothing major, but progression was made.

And in the past, I've seen the same small-steps with my snowboarding. Since I started keeping a record, I had 9 and 4 UK-snowboarding sessions in 2007 and 2008 respectively. Although I didn't make double figures in either of those years, a few trips to the Halifax kicker is, and has been, enough to learn a few new tricks and get more comfortable with the things you can already do.

So what does this mean for 2010? Well I'm getting married this October, which will take up a fair amount of time and resource. Plus, I've decided to try a cycling event with some friends in August: the coast-to-coast. Being competitive, I'm planning on training for this. And again, I'd like to skate more...

With those things in mind, I can't see myself traveling down to Halifax that often - but I suppose nothing is set in stone. To be honest, I prefer doing stuff when I can dedicate a decent amount of time. I'm not particularly fussed about making a solitary visit to Castleford or Halifax during the off-season; if it was a choice between one or none, I'd be happy to take none, and do more of whatever other project I was giving time to.

And that's probably the reason I didn't go at all last year. One trip might be fun, but I much prefer a series of visits where I can set some goals and get the feeling of progression.

And that's what I'd like to do again. I'd like to set up a handful of sessions at Halifax. Work the kicker; progress. It's flexible with regards to how you spend your time on the slope, which makes it a great spot to get some photos and video, and generally a great day out. The only problem is the time and money.

So if it doesn't pan out this year, I'd like to aim for double figures in 2011...

How about you guys? What do you do when you can't snowboard in resort?

How Much Do The Design Features Of Our Snowboarding Gear Matter?

A lot of people, and I'm definitely one of them, spend a good amount of time contemplating the different design options available when buying new snowboarding gear. It could be a new board, some boots, an avalanche beacon or maybe just some wax. There are a lot of products out there!

But how much difference do all those features really make?

Certainly, there are big differences between some designs, and these differences have a definite effect on your snowboarding. I view these as enabling designs, or prohibitive designs, depending on which way you look at it. Here are some personal examples:

• My first snowboard: a 157 Burton Clash. A bit of a beginners board, after my first week I felt I'd out-grown it. Tanking it down fresh groomers the board felt unstable at speed. The season after, I traded it for the Rome Anthem. It was a world of difference for stability, base speed and edge hold.
• Stiff boots: the Salomon Malamute. I used to own these Salomons, which were designed as an aggressive, freeride boot. My first few jib sessions on an indoor slope left me with sore ankles. Swapping them for the 32 Lashed boots gave me a snug, controlled fit that also allowed for freestyle-flex. Much lighter too.
• A short, twin tipped snowboard in deep pow. I'm sure there are many out there who shred powder with their short, freestyle boards and have no problems. When the snow was waist deep, I struggled, whilst watching friends float on the top...

Yes, sometimes the difference between kit is as clear as night and day, and therefore it's important to choose the right stuff.

But what about the smaller differences, or the latest design ideas? These tend to be the choices that we, or myself at least, spend the most time debating. How much do these matter? Should we pay attention, or just pick the one we like the look of and get on with the snowboarding?

Again, some personal examples.

• Bindings. I spent a while trying to choose between 4 bindings, arguably all pretty similar. Burton Missions, Ride Deltas, Union Contacts and Union Forces. Some would say that the Deltas and Contacts are a good deal softer; but how much? There were differences between my old Burton Missions and my Drake MLBs, but not the kind of enabling differences like those above. I could do the same stuff in both.
• Reverse Camber. To be honest, I might be naive in saying that this doesn't make much of a difference, given that the banana'ness of my T.Rice is slight. That said, I didn't feel much difference riding that reverse camber board.
• Weight. Some products make a big deal of how light they are. Sure, if you pick the heaviest option for every bit of kit, you're gonna feel it. But for a single set of boots or bindings? Will 100 or 200g make a difference?

It's fun and interesting checking out new equipment, new models, new ranges; but for gear that's in a similar category, like choosing between two, twin-tipped freestyle boards, maybe we shouldn't worry too much about making the wrong decision? Once you get the board, for example, you'll adapt to its design features and if something felt a little weird to begin with, you'll probably grow to like it.

Pick the one that fits well, that's comfortable, that you like the look of, or the one that comes in under budget. Get it and ride with it. Don't sweat over the minutia of the technology or the latest and greatest design features.

Is that fair, or asking for trouble? I'll still get interested by the new stuff, but once I've picked, I'm not too worried.

So what's your take? Is a board a board, or is it important to get the highest grade sintered base? Are there too many examples of yourself or friends buying gear that turned out to be bad, making you careful what you select? Or do you just get on with it until your gear's worn out?...

The Big 3 - 0

That's right, it's my birthday today and I'm now 30 years old. It sounds weird, but doesn't feel any different.

I suppose it doesn't carry much snowboarding-relevance; I can't see my attitude, desire or approach to snowboarding change any time soon. I suppose I've had less available time/resource over the last few seasons to go snowboarding, but there's a good chance that will change in the future. I hope so anyway.

I do however recall saying something like "I'd like to land a 7 before I'm 30". I regret to inform you all, that has not happened. I won't view that as a failure though - I could just set the goal of putting down a 9 before I'm 40 :) Haha!

Snow In The North East

Well, over the last few days the snow has started to wash away. The temperature has been up a little, so it didn't all re-freeze to create one, big ice-rink.

I did take some pictures whilst out and about. Durham, in particular, was spectacular at the weekend. We drove down there on Saturday morning to hook Ciara up with a new passport; while she was in the passport office I took a walk along the river, which looked awesome...

They say the snow may be coming back again. In fact I think there were a few airports further down the country closed today. We're not really used to these conditions here and I think the majority would be happy they didn't see any more snow this year. Whilst it can be annoying for getting around and it serves no practical purpose to me locally, I still welcome it!

One Of The Reasons The Robot Food Films Were So Good...

...They had people like Pierre Wikberg working on them. Check out this clip showing some of the photos he shot while filming Lame:

Photos from 2003. from pierretube on Vimeo.

Union Contact Bindings: Preview

So I've bought some new bindings. After considering the Burton Mission, the Ride Delta, the Union Contact and the Union Force - I opted for the Union Contact.

I first narrowed it down to one of the offerings from Union. They caught my eye, I liked what I saw, I liked the fact that Gigi operates with their bindings and I wanted to try something new.

My first thoughts were to get a freestyle oriented binding. Yeah I ride all over the mountain, but I jib around quite a bit, I've got a short board, fairly soft boots, so I wanted something freestyle-esque from my bindings.

But they were out of stock. Given my initial criteria, I was a little worried that the Force bindings might be a little too stiff for what I was after. Queue a healthy dose of procrastination, and I came to the conclusion that I would buy the Force bindings. If they were a little stiff, that's no big problem. I'd soon get used to them, and if/when I get around to buying a powder stick, I could set them up on that and get some softer bindings too...

And then... the Contact bindings were available again. So I was back to making a decision. I spoke to a guy in some shop and he was thinking the Contact bindings might be too soft, not responsive enough. Maybe they are too soft? I thought. Blah blah, I'm sure this part of the story is getting a little tired.

Conclusion: I bought the Union Contact bindings. I'll find out soon enough what they're like to ride.

So why did I call this a preview? Well, apart from some pics of the new bindings, which you can see on the Internet anyway, I wanted to mention something about the weight.

The Contact binding is supposed to be a "little brother" to one of their higher end bindings: the Force MC, which is dubbed as the lightest weight binding on the planet. Being considerably cheaper than the Force MC, the Contacts aren't quite as light weight, but light non the less...

How light?

Well, I put a small sample of bindings to the test: the new Union Contact, my old Drake MLBs and Ciara's current bindings, the Burton Lexa. All three bindings are Medium in size, although the Lexas are of course, a female specific binding.

Here are the results:

• Union Contact: 800g
• Burton Lexa: 860g
• Drake MLB: 920g

So they're lighter than my old bindings, and lighter than the smaller, female bindings :) Nice. Will I notice much of a difference? Maybe. They do feel a little lighter in the hand, but not by much.

As for the reverse-camber-specific design of the Contacts, it's hard to tell just by looking at them. I haven't strapped them onto my board yet. Also, there's the toe strap that can be worn either as a conventional strap or a cap-strap. I'll comment on these things later...

Here's the proof :)

Looking At: The Dakine Overhead

I've mentioned before that I'm quite interested in upgrading my "carry on luggage". The reason being that when I get on a plane for a snowboarding trip, my hand luggage includes a laptop, a camera and a video camera. Getting all of that into a regular backpack, along with a magazine, mp3 player, perhaps a book, and then my travel documents etc, is pretty tight.

If it does fit, you can bet that getting anything out that isn't right at the top, is gonna be a chore.

Something like the Dakine Overhead, which has a split design and a fairly large capacity would sort me right out. The specs say that it's 21 x 13 x 8.5 " [ 53 x 33 x 22cm ], and that puts it nicely inside the regulations for EasyJet.

Previously, I wasn't sure that airlines would always accept this size of hand luggage. I'm not worried about that now. And if EasyJet will take it, I can't see it being a problem elsewhere.

The only thing I'm not so sure about is pushing around two wheeled cases: this one and the larger Split Roller. Added to my current luggage setup, I'd be carrying a boardbag over the shoulder as well as pushing two cases, albeit one of them is pretty small.

Is that gonna be tricky? Do I need all that capacity? What luggage do you take?

It Just Keeps Snowing

Normally around this time of year I'm watching the snow reports for whatever resort I'm planning on visiting. Right now, I'm watching the snow locally - it doesn't seem to want to stop.

I think I mentioned it back on the 20th December, last year. Since then, there's continually been snow on the ground. This rarely happens in the UK. I can't remember the last time there's been snow like this, ever.

It hasn't been piling up mind. Probably not more than 3" - 4" at anyone time. But the difference has been the temperature. It's been cold enough to keep the snow and ice hanging around. This morning I'm sure there was a good 4" of fresh snow.

Over Christmas and New Year we had quite a bit going on - not much spare time. But I'm starting to think now that I owe it to myself to get on my snowboard somewhere on UK soil.

I have shredded in Scotland once before. That's not really an option at the moment due to time and cash, and I'm still not certain I really want to go to one of their resorts again. That said, inspired by an article in Whitelines, I would like to try getting a guide and heading in to the backcountry, but that will be a future adventure I think.

There are some fairly local options. Hills that have rope lifts. Never been to one of those, but I'm sure they're fun, to a point. And fresh snow is almost always good :)

Just this evening, Mike sent me this link to Allenheads. They're reporting 60-70cm of new snow, and advising visitors to bring their own shovels to dig out a parking space! If I get a few things sorted, I'd like to try something this weekend, providing the weather's still good enough for snow, but not so good that we couldn't get there.

And that aside, I'm sure there are plenty of UK jibbbers looking for urban sessions. It's never been something I've really tried before, but I reckon I'd still have loads of fun finding a rail to slide...

I should have had my camera with me today; if the weather continues like this I'll take it with me and post some pictures. Driving to work this morning was like driving in a french resort. If only there'd been somewhere to stop for a decent pastry and a hot chocolate; Greggs just didn't seem like the real thing :)

Absinthe's Neverland: DVD Review

Absinthe's Neverland is the first snowboard movie that I've bought this season. I'm definitely an Absinthe fan, so each year, if I'm looking for something to buy, I'll normally start with their current production. Here's the review.

The Introduction, leading into the first sequence is excellent, as is often the case with Absinthe movies. I think they get this right every time; an emotive build-up running into some first class shredding. In this case, it's Japan, and the opening section has Nico Muller, Kevin Pearce and a little bit of Eero Ettala.

Powder by the bucket load, trees, drops, everything is natural. Super smooth style; they ride it like the trees aren't there. For me, this concoction of filming style, terrain and riding will always make we want to go snowboard, no matter how many times I watch it. I'd say this is the best section of the film.

Romain follows with some nice, high tempo back country shredding. But the next thing that really grabbed my attention was Annie Boulanger. It seems she is becoming a regular with the Absinthe crew, which I think is an excellent move. It's not a particularly long section, but her riding gets better in leaps each season, the progression and attitude is inspiring to watch. Some of her hits and lines are really impressive. Women's snowboarding is pretty huge now, but I believe Annie B is one of the first to regularly film backcountry parts; that's got to be good for others who would like to do the same.

Marie-France Roy follows Annie, again with backcountry shots. I remember reading some competition or poll results a while ago and if my memory is correct, she cleaned up. It shows here. She's definitely got ability.

From this point onwards I was less impressed. Just another snowboard movie. Actually, I did enjoy Dan Brisse's riding. A good mix of shots, with some huge jumps and nice heli shots. I'd like to see some of those heli follow-cams in full speed.

And not to mention Wolfgang's no-boarding. Ultra-impressive one-footed cliff drops, powder riding with such freedom that looks like surfing. But I wanted to see more.

Urban stuff. The Absinthe crew continues to bring out fresh stuff each year in this area, and yes, some of it is mega impressive, and always ballsy. I still love to see someone stomp an ultra smooth front board down a long rail, but the rest of this stuff isn't doing it for me. If I had to take it or leave it, I'd rather leave it.

Travis Rice. Excellent shredding. As usual, he goes big with technical moves. But what's the deal with the horse? At first I thought it was a response to Leanna Pelosi's intro in the all girls film "As If". Then I decided that probably wasn't the case, so maybe it's just his ego? If that is the case then the song is fitting: "Head Honcho". Whatever, I didn't think it was funny; just kinda stupid. Oops.

The intro to Gigi's section is fun, but for his main part, I don't think it's a patch on his riding in something like More. Don't get me wrong, I can only imagine how hard it must be, given schedules, travel, conditions, filming etc. to continually come up with belter video-parts; but when you've become accustomed to someone producing awesome material, unfortunately you start to expect it. I didn't get that this time.

The soundtrack. I think that Absinthe music scores tend to be quite varied and for me, that's the case with Neverland. As such, there are some little gems in there, but also some beats I care little for. I still think Futureproof is my favourite soundtrack of theirs.

Absinthe have again, included Flip Side in the extras. It's a documentary showing the making of their movie from the previous season, in this case, Ready. I love this stuff. I'd pay for it by itself. You get to see more of the riders, who they are, what their schedule is like. There's this amazing clip of a few of them just shredding in a resort before they start filming. MFM hits a natural feature, the type that you or I would, only they go ten times bigger. I love that. I really wanted to see the whole thing :)

Overall, it's an OK movie. I thought the opening sequence was top class, but after that, with a few exceptions, nothing else lived up to the beginning, which leaves a feeling of disappointment. I think previous Absinthe films have been better, and would recommend those instead. I haven't seen any other movies this year, so I don't know how it stacks up in the fresh bunch... A few little gems in the sound track.

Absinthe's Neverland Soundtrack

Here's a link to the Neverland Soundtrack.

Are You Wearing Protection?

I was looking through the stuff that they pack inside the Neverland DVD case, and a Slytech brochure caught by eye: both Romain and Wolfgang ride with the Slytech back-protectors. Slytech are one of the sponsors of Absinthe's Neverland; I guess their advertising has kinda worked in this situation :)

That doesn't mean that I'm gonna rush out an buy some snowboarding protection - I'm not. But it did get me thinking about it.

The very first week I spent snowboarding, I went and bought some wrist guards in resort, after the second day or so. As a beginner, I fell a lot, often putting my hands out and hurting my wrists. The wrist guards seemed like a good idea.

However, it wasn't long before I stopped wearing them. First off, I stopped falling in the way that beginners fall, so I didn't feel that I needed them. Second, there was the risk that a nasty slam would just shift the damage from the wrist/hand to further up the arm. And finally, they were a pain to wear under my gloves...

Fairly early on, I also started wearing impact shorts. Trying out new freestyle moves, even really small ones, often ended with my landing on my ass. I found that once I've had a hard slam on my behind, the next time I fall, even lightly, it really hurts. You can still ride, but the thought of falling isn't good!

But I've stopped wearing them also. I decided their benefit no longer paid for the feeling of wearing them: restrictive, encumbered. And they never look good. I do pack my impact shorts in my bag, just in case I need them, but I can't remember the last time I wore them.

The only protection I do wear is a helmet. I don't rock it all of time, but I'll often put it on if I'm going to be riding park or off-piste. Park for the increased slams and off-piste for the potential rocks. If I've cruising around I probably won't wear it.

That said, I do find that a helmet offers some goggle advantages in addition to head-protection. If you slam, your goggles probably won't come off if you're wearing a lid. That greatly reduces the chances of your goggles getting filled with snow; and there's nothing worse than un-clear goggles! I also think the goggle vents are more likely to remain un-covered/un-blocked if you're wearing a helmet, which keeps the ventilation working and therefore reduces the dreaded steaming up.

So what about you? Do you wear any protection? Or is the discomfort not worth it? Is it a style-decision? Yet more expensive kit to buy? Perhaps you feel you just don't need it...