Morzine Day 2: Better

A couple of beers and a few glasses of wine... don't expect too much :)

Today was much better. Easyjet worked, for a start. We arrived at Geneva, on time, hopeful for some afternoon shredding. Slight delay as people were gathered for the transfer. Then we were off.

Transfer was smooth, drop our stuff off at the chalet, not taking too much notice of the introductions, rushing to get up on the hill. By the time we'd unpacked the essentials, got dressed, we were at the ticket office for around 2:45pm. At the top by 3:00pm.

So, a twelve day pass and a half-day just for this afternoon? It turned out that a 13 day pass was cheaper, so that's what we ended up with. (I'm skipping over the queue-rage that Ciara experienced with some guy who pushed in. LOL).

We hooked up with Ronan (Ciara's brother), and he was pretty much done for the day. Being eager, Ciara and I left them sipping on hot chocolate to get that 1st run in.

Wow, 13 months without strapping in leaves you a little rusty. 5 minutes later, things were starting to settle in.

New bindings. Nice. Toe strap was too long to the point that they weren't worth doing up. I'll adjust them before tomorrow. Time was precious today. New gloves. Nice. Not much to say there, hands were dry and comfortable.

We got 4 runs in. Not bad for the late start and it almost made it feel like a regular 1st-day. Warm up run and then twice through The Stash. Rusty. Can't ride rails straight. Near misses.

Last lift at 4:30, back to the top. Home run down all the way to Prodains. We've been here before. La Kinkerne. Ciara and I supping beer. Sweet. Pre-arranged collection from the chalet people at 6:00pm. That's novel. I like that.

Hot-tub looking over Morzine and the Plenney. 3 course meal. Not bad, I think we can get used to this...

Weather? It's a good base. It rained this morning, although we weren't here, you could tell. The snow was a soft and wet in places. Board digging in when you're looking for an edge. You know the score. It snowed late afternoon. Is it raining in the town? New snow on top is always good. Off-piste? I hear the snow-pack is a bit unstable with the changing temperatures. We can worry about that later.

First day, some nice hits bobbing up in the stash. Great stuff. Put down a pretty nice fs3. Make that a five? So it wasn't a normal 1st day on the hill, but we were stoked all the same, and it's ended well.

Snowboarding's great...

Morzine Day 1: False Start

4:15pm, Ciara and I arrived at the airport, full of beans, stoked.

Flight Cancelled.

Lame.

Seriously gutted. Technical fault or something, no other flights leaving for Geneva today. Get on the web, any connections to get there? None. The best chance was a BA flight to Heathrow and then on to Geneva. 25 minutes between the scheduled landing time and following take-off. The lady at the desk advised against it, and she was right, there's no way that would have worked. Plus, chancing your bags with a connection at Heathrow is ill-advised.

Starbucks, latte, cake. Cancel the transfer to resort. Slight depression. Back in a taxi home. Damn it.

We're on a flight tomorrow morning at 7:45. We should get into resort at around 13:00. Enough time for shred in the afternoon? Probably. We'll try, even if it's just a couple of hours. Even if it's just for those first-day apres beers :)

We're at home now, kinda don't want to do anything, just get to bed, wake up and get back to the airport. Chin up. Day 2 will be better. Snowboarding soon!

There May Be A Brief Intermission...

Just putting a post out there to let you know that the site's about to undergo some minor back-end changes. If it disappears at all(!), we'll back it out and be right back with you. And if it goes smoothly, just pretend you never saw this, yeah?

Back soon...

Oh, and if anyone has experience of moving to a Blogger custom domain from a straight FTP setup without breaking either PageRank or incoming links to other subfolders on the site, your input would be much appreciated! :)

Riding Footage From The 2008/2009 Season

I keep leaving it later and later, but, I have at least stuck to my principle of editing the footage from one season before snowboarding the season after. I'm talking about the video I took last year in Morzine. Over the last week and a half I've been streaming it all, and then did a quick edit yesterday. It had to be done given that I'm going away next Saturday...

To be honest, maybe the reason that I've left it so long is that I'm not that keen on what I shot. I don't think it's bad or anything like that, and I do enjoy watching it, it's more that I had hoped to progress on some of the things that I did in Fernie, the year before; the snowboarding in Morzine/Avoriaz took a slightly different direction.

That said, there are elements to this video/riding that really interest me. I had a lot of fun riding The Stash in Avoriaz, which is where most of this is filmed. I'd like to return to some of those features and some of the things I was trying. For example, there's a bonk (sic) around 01:14 in, that was close to being good. I just needed to 180 out. It's definitely given me a lot to look forward to.

As for the things that were missing, apart from amazing powder shots :), I guess I just didn't go big.

I'm still using Movie Maker, which although isn't fantastic, I'd have to say it's doing the job for me. The rather awesome song is "Our Life Is Not a Movie or Maybe" by Okkervil River from their album The Stage Names. Here it is..

Bike Ride, Hamsterley Forest

I went for a ride yesterday with some friends at Hamsterley Forest. As well as wanting to be fit for snowboarding, I've started to train for a 3-day ride later this year: the coast to coast.

I think we ended up doing around 12/13 miles, all off-road. There were some pretty nice hills in there and the terrain was quite difficult in places. Actually, there was quite a lot of snow up there. It was kinda weird being out in the hills, with trees, rocks and snow around us, a week before going snowboarding. Hamsterley is close to where I grew up, and still not far from where I currently live; after visiting yesterday I started to wonder why I haven't been before now.

I read an article a while ago, Whitelines I think, that explored the similarities between mountain biking and snowboarding. This was the first time that I've used in bike in that kind of environment, and I really enjoyed it. Some of the downhills were really exciting (or scary?) Hopefully I'll do more of this in the future.

During the ride the thing that was toughest was sitting on the saddle; as time went on my bum was really aching. I guess that's to be expected given that this is the first time I've ridden an actual bike (excluding a bmx) in around 5 years. Up until now I've just been using an exercise bike in the gym. This morning, I woke up with the top of my back being pretty stiff. What I'm pleased with is that my legs don't feel tired, I handled the ride pretty well.

I'm not super fit or anything like that, but I am fairly happy with my current level of fitness. Bring on the shred...

Absinthe Flipside Episodes: Neverland

I've mentioned in previous posts that I enjoy documentary-style programs, and the Absinthe Flipside shows are an excellent example. Well, Whitelines has a bunch of episodes for their recent production: Neverland.

I'm not sure if that's the full collection yet, but what's there is definitely worth watching, if you like this type of thing. I think the one I've embedded below is the first episode? Check out Wolfgang being told to take his backpack off when he gets on a chair :)

New Base Layer: Under Armour ColdGear

I've got a new base layer to try out in Morzine - it's the Under Armour ColdGear. For anyone new to snowboarding and/or not familiar with the benefits of wearing decent layers - it's important.

For the last few seasons I've been wearing Icebreaker base layers, made from merino wool. I've always been impressed with them, especially the upper body layers. Unfortunately I tore a big hole in the bottoms, so replaced them with the equivalent from Burton.

In fact, I've been meaning to write something about the Icebreaker products for a good while now. When I get back, I think I'll post my thoughts on both options, giving a comparison between the Under Armour and Icebreaker layers.

I'm expecting the ColdGear stuff to be pretty good, but the competition is tough. I checked out the website and they've got a bunch of different athletes representing them, one of them being Lindsey Jacobellis. I'm not really into snowboard cross, but I took a quick look at the recent X-Games finals and the race was insane. I didn't know the courses they race on have such big jumps...

I don't know how long it will stay around, but there's a video here, definitely worth a look!

What Do You Look For In A Snowboard Movie?

I don't know about you, but sometimes when I watch a snowboard movie I end up thinking same old, same old. Each season, a whole load of new films come out, and I think it's fair comment that a lot of them are similar to those of the year before...

To a certain degree, I'd say that this is only natural. If you watch a lot of one type of genre, you may find films of that type to be all the same; that's not specific to snowboarding. There's an increasing number of films coming out each year, and, given the resources available to some crews, and preconceptions of the general format, it's understandable that a lot of them fit the same mold.

If you're new to snowboarding then your exposure to existing films is low. When I first started, for the first few seasons I lapped up as many of the DVDs as I could. I was hungry for them.

The thing is, I've seen quite a lot now. That's not intended to be a boast, nor does the picture below claim to show a hard-core collection. I have no doubt that there are people out there who own many more films than I, and can do stuff like name the tracks that go along with individual rider sections; I don't even own any snowboarding films on VHS, that's not core at all :)

No, the point is simple. I've seen enough now that I'm looking for something different. Although I said above that I think it's fair to say many a snowboarding DVD look the same, there are projects that provide something a little different.

So what is it that I'm looking for?

I certainly like the documentary aspect of some productions. I like to see the work that goes into professional snowboarding and the decisions that the riders, filmers, photographers and producers make. Not only that, I like to see the personalities behind the riders. David Benedek's work, Absinthe's FlipSide shows and ChunkyKnit's Drop Stitch spring to mind.

I like clips that show riders having fun, shredding stuff other than giant kickers. Watching the pro's rip through a resort, riding together, hitting terrain that you or I would. For me, sequences like that bring home how good they are just as much as a huge 1080, and I can relate to it more. It's fresh, fun and stylish, rather than just massive.

I like British productions. The variation in quality and standard, compared with the truly international scene, makes it interesting. Sometimes more real. And when someone does something really good it's like, nice, they're from England.

Women's snowboarding is appealing for a similar reason. The women's stage seems wide open in terms of progression. Each season you really can see something new because they're pushing the bar. It makes it all very impressive. Like wow. I'm not saying that the guys don't progress; it's just that I think women's snowboarding is on a steeper learning curve right now.

The Robot Food films, along with DC MTN.LAB, continue to be my favourite films. Afterlame especially. The combination of creative filming, some documentary-style elements, great riders, catchy sound tracks and an emphasis on fun, make them winners. For me, it all started with Afterbang...

So what do you look for in a snowboard movie?

The Next Best Thing

So some family and friends went to Whistler recently. I didn't go. Tres jealous.

What did happen though, is they brought us back some mugs. Surely that's the next best thing? Seriously though, I love stuff like that. Ciara and I bought a couple of large mugs in Fernie and they're without doubt the best choice of souvenir for me.

Two mugs and a piste map; a perfect combination, giving you something to ponder over while drinking some tea.

Actually, we all got together last weekend for dinner and a post-Canada chat. Very interesting. Fernie was my first (and only, so far) visit to Canada and to my mind, there were significant differences between it and the European resorts I'd been used to. Whistler again, is a different cup of tea to Fernie (ok, I'm overusing that); so I was keen to hear what they had to say. Some photos and video always help too.

Mountain layout/piste design. Trees. Bowls. Out of bounds. Size. Service. Friendliness. Travel. Cost. We talked about all of these things.

And snow. They had lots of it. In fact, similar to my own experience in Fernie, a large amount of snow can leave you with a somewhat unsettling experience. Canada is a long way to go when European resorts are almost on your doorstep (relatively). When your first visit is packed with a whole load of powder, the thought of returning to a potentially dry two-weeks is worrying.

The big question I wanted them to answer: was it so good that you're going back next year? To me, Whistler has always been touted as one of the places to go; were they totally bowled over by it?

I didn't get a straight forward answer to that. It wasn't a resounding "yes". And for good reasons too. Sure, they gave the place very high praise, but there are many factors to consider when planning a snowboarding trip! Although Whistler remains high on the list, Smaller-Canadian-Resorts, Mammoth, Breckenridge and Colorado as a whole were mentioned as potential North American alternatives...

So what about you? Anyone shredded in Canada, the USA and Europe, and have strong opinions as to which they prefer? Is it the case that if the snow is good, that's all that matters? Or do you think that if you're riding with good company, it's what you make of it that counts?

A Couple Of Brits

I don't like to simply pimp other people's videos, but in some cases I like to make exceptions :) First up is young Jamie Nicholls, a UK shredder who grew up riding at Halifax, now making his way around the international stage. I like to see Jamie progressing. I remember the first time I saw him snowboarding, at Castleford, before I knew who he was. I said something like "man, that kid is killing it. He's class. He's gotta be something like 12 years old?"

I nice guy too. Anyhow, I'm sure most readers from the UK are well aware of Jamie... here's a couple of runs from the recent Burton European Open.

Next up is Jenny Jones, who has recently won X-Games Gold. I think it's great that Jenny does so well with snowboarding; I also like the fact that although women's snowboarding is often viewed as being over-shadowed by mens, Britain's most successful shredder is a girl :) That's got nothing to do with a lack of respect for the male snowboarders we've got, but more that I think it provides us with a well-balanced view of professional snowboarders.

Here's her winning run from the X-Games (you can read about it here):

If you're in the video mood, check out a couple of links: Shaun White in X-Games pipe and Eero Ettala winning slopestyle.

A Collection Of Photos...

...I've been meaning to do this for ages. Each time I go away there are normally a few photos that I really like. I just wanted to drop them into a web album that I can update as I go; a collection of my favourite snowboarding pictures.

WSG Reviews Live!

I've gotta say I'm pretty excited :) I received an email from Steve Dowle last night, letting me know that the Portes Du Soleil reviews I wrote for the worldsnowboardguide last season are live. It took a good deal of effort, but I think the end result is pretty good. I think it was a large task for Steve to get it all sorted out online, too.

Here's a link to the Portes Du Soleil overview.

Within the Portes Du Soleil area, there are 12 individual reviews, including resorts like Avoriaz, Chatel, Les Crosets, Les Gets, Morzine and Torgon.

I'm happy with how the pictures turned out. I didn't get any great action shots or anything like that, but I tried to get images that show what things are like: towns, terrain, parks etc. And I think, perhaps, the pictures round off the words quite nicely. I haven't read too many of the individual reviews yet; probably because I've already spotted a couple of grammatical errors :)

Here's the post I wrote about the experience of writing all those reviews...

If anyone does read some of it, let me know what you think. I'd certainly take feedback, especially as it might be something I do again in the future.

Finally Got Something Sorted

Well, we've finally booked something for this season: two weeks in Morzine, starting on Saturday 27th February. That's just under 4 weeks away, exciting!

This trip has a few 1st's:

• It's the first time we've left it this late to book...
• It's the first time we've opted for a catered chalet...
• It's the first time we've organised something with Ciara's brother...
• It's the first time we've booked something overlapping with the French school holidays (I think)...

All in all, it should be really interesting. I'm keen to find out what it's like staying in catered accommodation. I'm also keen to see if it's much busier at the end of February; we normally aim for January or March.

The last couple of weeks have been a little bit of a black hole, with much to organise, and not all of it snowboard-related. I still haven't streamed my footage from last season; I normally make it a rule to do so before any snowboarding the following season. In which case, that gives me less than 4 weeks to stream and edit. Hopefully I'll get it done...

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?