Nike Media Apprentice

It's been a while since I've updated this blog due to the growing use of Facebook. But seeing as I have just entered the Nike Media Apprentice competition I thought I would also add my chosen pictures here.

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!

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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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I'm back!

So I'm back alive from 3 fantastic weeks in Whistler. There's plenty of juice to add here later but I'll leave my favourite photo of me to wet whistles for now ->



My parents are coming to Amsterdam with Emma this weekend so I have a few things to do before I make time to update this blog with all the goodies. So pop back sometime next week...

Lech, it's where the Dutch royal family go you know

So last weekend was another trip away snowboarding. I have all the photos and a few videos below to show y'all what a cracking weekend it was. Thanks Matt, George, Rich, Ben and Zach for letting me tag along.

So first was the Monster drive on my own this time but I'll let the gimp in this video tell you all about it ->

((I was kidding myself if I thought I would have time before going away to edit some video, watch this space for an update when I return...))

Then we made the most of the new snow and found some nice freshish lines to play with. Top highlights include Dicky's ability to spot some sweet lines in gulleys, a steep section where I enjoyed hucking a big ollie off and trying to stand firm at mach 5 and ride out, Zach's new found love of snowboarding - from zero to kinda hero in 3 days, Georges camera taking effort taking shed loads of pictures, Dicky's wall riding skills resulting in a near death experience, a fairly large red park jump, the bush tucker challenge riding through the undergrowth, iPod riding and ducking the ropes for the lift line for 3 fresh runs where no-one followed. But I'll let the pictures describe a thousand words more ->

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Then there was the downside to Lech and that is that it is full of toffs. We were sat in one bar when some snotty teenager came up to George and said "My father has paid €250 for 2 bottles of Vodka which means these seats are reserved for us". Needless to say the response given was less polite and there was no departure from our seats!

But highlight of the weekend had to be the sledging. There was a purpose built tobogganing run which was floodlit until 10pm. On the first night we completed the Jagermeister challenge by downing a double at the top making comedy runs afterwards. Each run was chased with a beer until we passed 10pm and had to make the final run down without floodlights - so so dark but so so funny. We enjoyed it so much so that after getting narked with the toffs on the slope the following day we got the sledges again for some daylight off piste action. That was when I got "stung by a bee" - I think I am 2 inches shorter due to spinal compression from all the bumps and crashes. I've put the following video together of all of it for your amusement ->

((Again, watch this space for an update when I return...))

1913km to Austria just for a weekend in the snow

Last weekend I went snowboarding in Austria. Not often that you get to say that but hey! I summarised the trip in a previous blog post but here's a little more waffle, the photos and a short video clip.

I drove all the way from Amsterdam and picked up Peach along the way at Frankfurt Hahn airport. It had been snowing the most of the week but we didn't firm plans until Thursday. I searched on Couchsurfing for a host for Friday, whilst Peach got a last minute flight out of Stansted and boy did we land on our feet. Denise and her family put us up for the whole weekend and we could not have found a nicer host.

After ragging it through Germany on Friday night with the foot to the floor we arrived in Austria at about midnight to be greeted by Denise and two options. 1) A house party at a mates place or 2) hit the town. Our idea of a decent nights kip went out the window as the thought of a cold one after the long drive became the preference!

So off we trotted into town to find that all Austrian bars close their doors at 1am for noise polution or sommat. So Denise suggested a place she called a "Drum and Bass" club, intrigued we followed her into an underground car park where there was a burly guy standing by a door in the corner. A smile got us through the door and we found our way to the bar greeted by the Chemical Brothers and Block Rocking Beats. It was like a scene from a music video and from that point onwards I knew we were in for a cracking weekend.

Not content on the one nightclub we left and caught a minibus that wound it's way up a mountain valley to another nightclub. I guess up there they can be as loud as they like. More drinking, a little head bobbing and we thought we'd better call it a night at 4am.

Alarms were on for 8am but it was actually Denise that got us up cos we ignored the alarm clock! Feeling dog rough we made it to Silvretta Nova to be greeted by bluebird conditions and some fresh to be had after the weeks snowing. Friday would've been the best day cos come the end of the day everywhere was pretty tracked out. The adrenaline rush of the first snowboarding of the season that kept us alive but come lunch time we were bogged. A huge feed was ordered but hardly touched it and Denise got a round of schnapps in to see if that would help. It didn't help Peach who made a swift exit to the toilet ;-)

A full afternoon of some speedy descents and the fastest I have ever been off piste was had but come 4pm we were ready to hit the car park. We agreed that we'd go a little easier that night so not to feel like we did now for the journey home.

Mmmm Steak-frites followed with great beer in Denises home town Dornbirn and thankfully Denise was also worn out so the evening was spent chilling at home. Although not without plenty of visitors, more beer, nuts, chocolates and conversations about pubs (parbs!) and the Queen.

Sunday we went to another resort called Damuls - one of the resorts Denise has a season pass for. She wasn't too happy about the conditions as it was wet, well the bottom half of the mountain was in rain whilst the top was snowing. Except for the low visibility, I loved the conditions as the snow was soft and forgiving, albeit a little slower. So Peach and I were more confident about leaping about the place and trying some new tricks - especially Peach on his new freestyle board. I had a superb day landing way more 180's, both regular and switch, than I have ever done in my whole life. I also bagged a 360 (well more like a hard carved 270) of a mogul and attempted a crazy roof drop.

So checkout the photos below and the video at the end of the roof drop ->

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Yet more snowboarding

Friday night I went snowboarding with Nick, one of my new mates from the beery brits. We actually grew up in the same town in England but never met before - different schools/area etc. We went to the closer Snowplanet again - improved on my switch 180's and had the bottle to hit the big jump. I was attempting 180's off the big jump but not quite got the bottle to hit it fast enough to get a clean landing on the down slope so was bouncing onto my arse instead :-( One day I'll go balls out at it... Nick has not quite had the same amount of experience as I had but full credit to him for also tackling the big jump - sweet :-)

We took a few snaps with my new camera but using the default "sports" mode. Although, I think this mode is for sports like tiddlywinks as it's still quite slow! On Friday, I had not had the practice with the manual settings to know what to change. But I took zillions of BMX'ing photos this weekend that came out a bit better - will post those here later on this week. But for now here's Nick and I snowboarding:

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The Adam weekend of stiff necks

Adam visited last weekend for what seemed like an eternity! Hope you didn't get too bored whilst I was at work Adam? He stayed from Weds night through to Tues morning and I'm knackered for it. We managed to cram quite a bit in to his time here as you can see from yet another mighty blog entry...

There was no holding back right from the word go. As soon as I picked Adam up from the airport, we headed straight to the local indoor ski slope. It was a good start to his trip as after the half time beer we were hitting the bigger jump that I have yet to have the courage to play with. And also getting some 360's off the roller hip shaped lump next to the jump. OK so they were a little more like 270's for me, cheating a bit by carving hard into the hip ;-) But hey I was stoked, don't usually have the bottle to try those. Cheers Adam :-)

Friday night we went to the Melkweg again where I was the previous week with Emma. This time to see a hip hop act called Peeping Tom with Rahzel the legendary human beatboxer. Rahzel was really the main reason we went and it was a little disappointing that he only did one set on his own. But during that set he managed to reproduce Justin Timberlakes Sexyback sounding just like the real thing! It was quality - checkout this video that I found for an example.

We hung around in Melkweg to see if the resident DJ was going to get any better. He didn't - not even after the JD and cokes we started to knock back. So we hooked up with Sophie and yet another night in Winstons. I was steaming and made everyone aware by jumping in all the puddles on the way home in the pouring rain. I think I did a good job of soaking Sophie - Sorry!

In the morning there was a bit of deja vu from the previous weekend with Emma. I found myself waking up waaaaaaaaayyyy too late for the flow riding I had planned for the both of us. I await the speeding tickets, but we did still get there in time for the majority of our two hour session. Unlike with the girls on bodyboards, I opted for a standing up session for us guys. I'm glad we booked two hours cos it took a good 45 mins to get the hang of it. It's much harder than bodyboarding and our previous snowboarding skills did not help much. Yes we might have reasonable balance but on a snowboard all your weight is on the front leg, on a flow board you need to put all your weight on the back leg. A bit like riding powder? - NO - even more weight back than that so it took a while to get that. But once we mastered it we were ripping it up (kinda). Checkout the following video footage of us masters in action - note Adams 360 is entirely by fluke the jammy bastard! And I can confirm it's not as painful as it looks. Well not during anyway. Oh and by the way, you can click on the google logo to watch a larger version.



Once the wet fun was over the hangovers hit home and we generally lounged around the DWD white water course eating ham and cheese toasties before agreeing that was a waste of a day. I showed Adam another nearby indoor ski slope that had an "airbag" setup but more on that later. Then we went to checkout the local kayak store for a few shots at the ski ramp but the cold and dark got the better of us so we wimped out. With nothing else to do it was back home, pizzas and back on the sauce meeting the disco twins for another night on the town. Equally as messy, equally as late (6am) but at least we had a lie in the next day.

Now the flow waves don't hurt when you fall off, but both Adam and I had screwed ourselves somehow cos on Sunday morning our necks were well stiff. It even hurt to yawn - which we were doing a fair bit! What better way to treat a stiff neck than to go launching off a 2m high snowboard ramp. I say launching but a better word for it was hucking - spins & flips. No me and Adam have not become overnight snowboard pros but remember I mentioned the airbag? Well this was the setup ->


Coming second close to a fresh tracks day on Whistler back in Jan 2001, this is one of the best things I have ever done on my snowboard. After a few warm up runs we joined the back of the line for hitting this monster. Adam was up first followed by myself and for the first few runs we found it really difficult to even get just a grab in. The speed you have to hit the jump at felt quite unusual. Normally we are jumping off smaller jumps so a lot slower and know how much the ramp is going to kick you up in the air. This thing was a beast and with quite a rutted run in that I found myself nearly binning on a few times! But once used to the feeling (not that we ever really got a good grab in) it was time to step it up and I am proud to say for once I was the first to start the rotations flinging myself in all directions off the lip. Needless to say, Adam followed and skooled me but I'm chuffed I went for it first :-) I was the first to try a 180 (that actually ended up being a 360!) and the first to try a front flip (god knows what happened there but I didn't do it right I know that for sure!) Checkout the video footage below, the guys at the end of the video show us how it should be done. Quality!



That night we crashed early after attempting to watch "Ferris Buellers day off" - a movie I got from Gary. Gary mate if your reading then that was shite!

It got to Monday and both of us realised we had not done the standard issue red light district cruise so that kept us entertained for the night. Adam didn't quite have as bad an experience as Charlie tho! We had a few strolls around interspersed with games of pool until yet again it was waaaaaay beyond midnight.

I've finally caught up with my sleep so hope you enjoy the video clips and the collections of photos below. Cheers Adam for a class weekend :-) I've got a couple of weeks break until the Irish invade with Olaf...

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