Are two planks better than one?

This winter was always going to be tough to repeat last years snowboarding efforts but I still managed a good couple of trips. 1st up was my yearly pilgrimage to catch up with Mr C and his entourage in Lech, Austria.

After a dry period we got lucky with some fresh snow during our stay. I'm sure it was only enough to prevent me from driving up the hill yet not substantial to host some epic deep turns. Never the less we had good fun and it was nice to also see Eva who I met in Whistler last year.

So with the lads warm up trip out the way it was time to get away with Emma and fellow Amsterdammers for a week on the edge of the Les Arcs resort in a place called Peisey Vallandry. We stayed in a very spacious chalet a little down the slopes and arrived to find no snow!

One morning I was up early enough to catch the sun coming up over the mountains where I took the following photos.

In particular, the photo below is one of the best I think I have ever taken most of which is right time right place.

But as the week progress we had 15cm one night that was enough to entertain me on the snowboard until the majority was tracked out. Can't complain at the rest of the weather though as it was glorious sunshine. Which leads me to the questions as the title of this post - are two planks better than one?

Emma ski's, so I took it on myself to also give it a go. When the suns out and the pistes are fast hard packed, I'll have to say the ski's are much more fun. I've have no style or technique but it's not too difficult to get some serious speed whilst remaining on the edge of control.

I was soon leading Emma on some off piste adventures and hitting some natural gullys and the odd jump here and there.

We made it to the top of the resort at over 3000m one day and the views were stunning.

It wasn't till the end of the holiday that we went further afield and found the larger park. Shame really cos the red jumps looked perfect and really well maintained. Even the greens were sizable and I would've been comfortable trying rotations on them. I was on the ski's that day so thought I'd see how hard it could be? No daffys or helicopters from me but I nailed the green line of 4 kickers a total of 3 times with no stacks. We'll have to work on Emma's videography for future trips though ;-)

Now before my friends all rip me, I'll be the first to admit that I will never get the same feeling on ski's that I have experienced many a time on a snowboard. That freedom of expression through line choice would be I doubt I'll ever achieve on ski's. In the best snow conditions I am just not willing to put the time in on ski's - give me a board any day :-)

But it's just good fun to learn something new. Probably the same reasons why I bought that BMX a while ago that is still in someone's shed in Nottingham? So when I'm an old man and body parts don't work as well as they used to, I can see that I'll be skiing just like I can imagine I'll be golfing. Here's hoping I don't kill myself on a snowboard first!

All my photos can be viewed here or in slideshow format here

Catskiing? More like the dogs boll....

By far the best time I have ever had on a snowboard was during my trip to Whistler. I joined Alex and a few of his mates from work on a catskiing trip. For just shy of 200 of the queens notes, you're taken up a mountain away from the crowds to snowboard in fresh snow all day long. And we totally lucked out on the conditions, perfect blue skies and fresh waist deep snow. Check the panorama video from the top of our first run:



It was amazing and something I'd recommend for every rider to do at least once. However, for my second go I would probably want something steeper and a cat full of just my friends to make it seem like better value. Swings and roundabouts though because any steeper with all that snow and there would've been more avalanches than the two small ones we set off! Don't worry Mum, the guides aborted that face so we were not in any more danger - safe as houses ;-)

Check out the great pics from my new camera below and be warned there's plenty of them!

Flash Slideshow

Whistler life is like a box of chocolates...

So enough about work, it's time to get back to the play. My 3 week trip to Whistler in Canada was fantastic and I could easily write a huge long article here about it. I've already let three weeks pass since my return and too much waffle would send readers to sleep (some of it I'm sure would be along the lines of "you had to be there..."). Therefore, I've decided to summarise the trip with a few photos and let readers imaginations fill in the gaps:

First up was the luxurious sleeping arrangements the boys laid on for me, AKA Jamie's wardrobe ->

But then that was a better option than Alex's room otherwise I may have been woken up by some strange noises during the night. Not like this either ->


It was great to see Jamie and Alex again although they have changed quite a bit. For instance Alex seemed to enjoy dressing up as a penis ->


And Jamie was experimenting with the "Munters Gap" ->


Still we had some good nights out where Jamie fell in love with the Karaoke guy ->


Also where everyone bowed down to my pool and darts skills ->


At times followed by some fancy dancing techniques due to still wearing snowboard boots until the wee hours ->


It wasn't all drinking though, there was some hardcore snowboarding to be had ->


I even tried attaching one plank to each foot a couple of times ->


There was no avoiding some really stupid people though ->


The best day had to be the mountain pub crawl though. An alcoholic drink in every place on the two mountains that sells booze. There's 10 to be had which is not so bad when spread out across the whole day. As usual we were running a little behind schedule and so 3 drinks had to be downed in 1 to make the penultimate bar before it closed. I doubt I will ever snowboard so fast and so drunk ever again in my life. It was fantastic and here I am enjoying that penultimate beer before the ride down to the last bar ->


The whole 3 weeks was superb, I had a great laugh with some genuine people. So much fun that I never found time to shave ->


But at least my growth was not as bad as Jamie's ->


All thats left to say is a big thanks to the residents of 3110 Tyrol Crescent for putting up with me and I hope my photos are enjoyed in the slideshow below:

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Bye bye Emma - come back soon!

I dropped Emma off at the airport this morning :-( She's been here all week and although my new work project has been busy, we had a great time together. Culminating last night in nice nosh at Bar 11, which is a restaurant/bar/nightclub situated on the top 11th floor of the old post office headquarters building over looking the whole Amsterdam cityscape.

Last weekend Emma and I went Skiing to Garmisch. I used some left over Marriott points to stay in the swanky Riessersee hotel which was needed as there was not much snow about. Only the glacier was open but as I thought I'd give skiing a go for the first time that was all I needed! Emma also hadn't skied for 13 years so there was a few bum sliding moments but in all in we were blasting down the red runs confidently by the end of the second day. Emma was a little slower but stayed on her feet more, I was a bit speedier but normally ended up on my arse at some point. Think I can count the number of runs I made without stacking it on one hand!

Can't say I'll be going back to Garmsich tho. We were blessed with blue sky on Saturday but because of the recent storms the gondola was closed. Top that with the fact the Garmisch was the only place within miles that had snow because of the high (2600m+) glacier and the train ride to the top was a nightmare. Hundreds of people crammed in a train which quite cooly wound it's way up and then through the mountain. But queuing for nearly an hour, then about the same time again on the train was not fun. It was even worse coming down, even after taking the rental shop owners advice of stopping at the top for food and beer in the restaurant. Up top the conditions were not bad for skiing, good grippy hard packed snow and we spent all of the time on the first day on the 3 blue runs by the park as shown in the picture below:


The second day was thankfully quieter with a little fresh overnight snow and an open cable car. This cut the journey up time to under an hour but still not as much fun as ski in ski out accommodation. Visibility was poorer so no pictures to take except for the top cable car station to show how cold (-8) it was and the power of the recent icy storms:


This day we ventured off the blue runs and onto the reds to make use of the only chair lift running. Everything else was T bars :-( The fresher snow and the longer runs helped our performance and there were a couple of runs without falling over with some fast speeds that personally I wasn't feeling in control of!

The last day I chose to snowboard to keep up the practice for joining the boys in Whistler in February. With no new snow, crusty wind beaten off piste, damn T bars and limited terrain area available, I actually wished I was back on the ski's. But hey we still had a good giggle and although it is technically possible to get a skier and a snowboarder on the same T bar, it is best to go separately unless you want to spend the whole journey up trying not to collide with each other!

Ah well safe journey babe and next time in March won't be so adventurous with my parents visiting at the same time...

Here's the full set of pics ->

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Isn't this weather awesome?

I was walking to the cash machine tonight to load up for the weekend and had to cross the street cos the floor was littered in roof tiles. Didn't fancy one of them spanking me on the head. Then I noticed across the canal that one of the lampost lights was hanging by it's thread. I trust it's just as crazy in the UK at the mo?

Funny thing the weather though. What with the lack of snow in the European Alps, the freezing of Californian motorways, the best kayaking season I've seen in the UK and the obscene amount of Whistler snow - what's in store for the summer?! Kinda cool how we can't control it though and I can't remember who but might've been some famous mountaineer once said that "There's no such thing as bad weather, just bad choices in clothing"

Well this weekend I'm glad the storm is here hopefully bringing some snow as I'll be in Garmsich in Germany with Emma skiing for the first time so should be a laugh. The board will be with me in case it really dumps though. But with the storm comes the wind which I hope doesn't close the resort lifts or even worse cancels Emma's flight :-(

And yes there really is a mountain called mount wank!

Austria is not so far...

1913 km
€90 diesel
About 10 beers
2 x ski resorts
1 x minibus ride to middle of nowhere banging nightclub
Sun, rain, fog and snow
1 x cracking host family
1 x awesome house with own guest bed/smoking/drinking/music/dvd room
No understanding of lots of people
1 x banging hungover headache
1 x well appreciated and shared camelback
1 x dodgy underground carpark entrance to drum and bass nightclub
1 x mate not seen in a while
1 x 4am bedtime
1 x 1am
2 x 8am rises
1 x middle of nowhere German airport
Several F'king Germans
182kmph
Multiple faceplants
0 x roadmaps
1 x GPS system
1 x return route somehow different to outbound route?!
1 x way out of control off piste descent
2 x shots of snaps
Several backside and switch frontside 180's
1 x "I'm sure we've got time for one more run" quote
1 x 2hr early flight checkin and a "Could've had loads more runs" quote
1 x backside 360
1 x bottled not fast enough attempt at jumping over a railing then off a roof
1 x scary too fast successful attempt at clearing said railing by too far and landing on the flat :-(
2 x sore knees
1 x repacking and weight distribution of wet baggage session
1 x rigged weigh in of wet gear bag
Several packs of jaffa cakes, bananas, and litres of water to stay awake on journey
0 x piste maps
2 x lift tickets
1 x fantastically cool chick for future "Has it been snowing this week?" contact

= an unbelievably amazing weekend!!!

Pictures and video of the over the railing roof drop to follow but thought I'd better let the mother know I am still alive after my mad idea to see if I could get to Austria to snowboard for just a weekend. But busy the next few nights so probably no write up till the weekend. ttfn

The Combo weekend

Just a quick post tonight before bedtime. I'm out school night drinking round some student bars tomorrow and I have a works do on Thursday. Then Olaf is here and by the sounds of the emails floating around I'm not going to get much of a chance to add anything here about last weekend until I've recovered well into next week!

So last weekend I tried to make sure I saw a bit of sunlight and sporting activity unlike the previous weekend. I think I did a good job and it went a little something like this:

I never thought I'd ever say this but Friday night I was in the gym - OK so not quite true, I went to the gym in the evening and still found myself heading into town for a quiet couple of beers with Mickael and the Disco Twins. I even made it yet again to Winstons but was a good boy and only stayed for one before heading home at 2am.

Saturday, up at 9am to meet Jonathan for another session at SnowPlanet on the snowboards and what a cracking session it was. It still amazes me that I am always progressing and learning something new everything I go to one of the indoor slopes here. As those who have snowboarded with me before I have this bad habit of landing all my backside 180 jumps and immediately switching back to regular. I am not very good at riding them out switch but not any more. I concentrated on taking off into a backside 180 on the first lip at the slope, landing switch and holding that edge all the way to the bottom, making a few switch turns on the way. By the end of the session I was backside 180'ing off the top lip, riding switch for a few turns, frontside 180'ing off the second lip back to regular and then riding the rail at the bottom 50/50 - I was stoked the first time I nailed that - especially the rail as that scared me being a little longer and narrower than I am normally comfortable with.

But enough snowboard waffle, I came home and was on such a high that I went out and pulled a few wheelies on my bike to celebrate. I am such a kid! I went to find what I was told was a skate bowl but in the end it was only a halfpipe and a fairly leafy one at that so I just enjoyed a bit of people watching the mad shoppers of Amsterdam.

Saturday night Pia gathered a few friends and together with Shauny and Rafa, celebrated their birthdays in a cool bar in the city. A number of us not content with ending the night at 1am hit the town and painted it pink not red! Mum you best not tell Dad and don't worry I'm not going to be batting for the other side, but we ended up in a gay nightclub called Exit. Quite the entertaining eye opener, but show me anywhere happy to sell me another pint and I'll happily prop the bar up. To be honest Kerry joined us with her mate and those two got way more hassle from guys than any of us straight guys did - was a laugh! I left about 4 ish with Sophie after Mickael who left 20 mins before us. I was home before him as he was walking and I was on the bike. Some photos from the night are below:

Flash Slideshow

Still determined to make the most of the daylight I was up and out by midday on what was a glorious sunny day. I went back to Scheveningen and met with Jorn and a couple of his friends to go kayak surfing. The surf was poor, a lot worse than what was predicted on magic seaweed but in great Dutch spirit we still had a good laugh paddling off our hangovers. There were a couple of sets that came in the were big enough to launch into a couple of blunts and back stabs. So since I had not been boating since the DWD opening weekend, I really enjoyed it. They also invited me to a pool session that they go to in Haarlem every Sunday evening but I declined in favour of some well earned sofa time :-) Fish and chips on the beach front afterwards was cracking tho.

So I think I made a good combo weekend of partying and having fun in the daylight this weekend. I very much doubt with Olaf I'll see much daylight this weekend but looking forward to it all the same.

Skitech540.co.uk

Remember Gary? The chap that took George's place in Fleeman Grove? Well he's offering his ski and snowboarding waxing skills in Nottingham this season - a first in Nottingham. I can fully recommend his service as he done my rig a few times so I thought I'd give his new website a shout out on this blog. This season Gary has invested in all the pro tools and setup a website to see if he can make a go of it. It's http://www.skitech540.co.uk so instead of getting ripped off in the resort, why not get your ride waxed before heading away this season. Save some cash and time on the first day away!