Going Going!

Only 2 places left on March Perfomance camp, so don't delay get in touch today.

Also coz Tammy's out shredding with Meena from Quiksilver and I'm not so give her a call and gmake her do some work.

LIBeration Footy

Check out LIBeration Footy, new exlusive LibTech hidef film from Standard. EJack and Lando will make you jealous, at http://vimeo.com/9480870

Olympic round up.

Whether you think the olypmics are good for snowboarding or not, you cannot deny the halfpipe contest this week was a great show and good example to the world of how far snowboarding has progressed. Managing to take 2nd spot in the viewing ratings of all the events (2nd to the ladies figure skating, ladies tight suits frills, i can see that) amid rumors of a double cork ban and riders complaints about condition of the pipe, there was no huge suprise who took the top spot. Shaun cleaned the mens on his first run with the now famous back to back double corks. Aussie Roxy rider Torah Bright took the ladies. Big up has to go to Brit Ben Kilner, who qualified 7th in first heat and came in 18th after unfortunately falling in the finals, Quik/Gnu rider Mathieu Crepel who came in 10th and 19yr old Lib rider Gregory Bretz made it to 12th, rocking the power banana.
check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfPUkiteICs to see where piperiding has come to.
I'm gonna hit up the Avoriaz pipe tomorrow and dream of what it would be like to be able to.

Jamie Nicholls, takes it to the BEO

Jamie Nicholls is going from strength to strength during his first full season competing on the TTR circuit. After making the finals at the O'Neill Evolutions six star event in Davos on a very challenging course Jamie backed that up with a 13th place at the premier European event of the season; The Burton European Open. To put this achievement in perspective Jamie had to come through two rounds of qualifications just to get into the semi finals, competing against 119 other riders. Here the 32 invited riders joined the competition. Jamie qualified 10th for the final beating fellow Quiksilver rider and Olympic bronze medalist Markku Koski. The standard in the finals was rediculous with 10s and 12s and double corks going down, the top 10 riders all scored in the 80's out off 100 which I can tell you is unusual. It's only a matter of time before we see him on the podium!

Stenti's still got it.

Congratulations to Quiksilver Team Manager, Pro rider, Just guest coach and insipration to the over 30's snowboarder, James Stentiford, who came 3rd at the World Freeride Tour this year at Chamonix. James decided to enter the contest on a whim. He needed something to do that day...

"After two years of not competing I thought I should have another crack as the World Freeride Tour was coming to my home resort of Chamonix. As luck would have it they offered me a wild card into the event. Conditions were pretty perfect on the day, a load of new snow, beautiful sunshine and very cold. I felt pretty relaxed about it all until we heard on the radio that a skier had crashed and hurt himself. After an hour delay in the freezing cold it was finally time for my run. I was pretty happy with my run even though it didn't work out exactly as I planned due to the changing snow conditions. I managed to stay pretty fluid and do a backside three, a stalefish over a natural hip and then hit a medium sized cliff at the bottom. I didn't hang around to watch the other riders as the snow conditions were so good so didn't really have an idea of how I'd done. So I was pretty stoked when they announced the result.

I've now been invited to the next event which is being held this Thursday. I guess I'll have to put off retirement for another year!"

Friday

Suns out today, so lets all go to Chatel. Just down through these bushes.

Across the powder field.

Past the lovely view.

And down the steep bit. "you sure Olly?", "yes you'll be fine"

"not that bad actually once you get going", "wow amazing"

Thursday

How about we put those new found powder skills to the test and go exploring. All good.

Just traverse this way a bit.

Keep round to the left

And scored it.

Wednesday

Ah snow glorious snow; "Freshies this way"

Playing in the Pow

Keep up the momentum, it's hard work to get going again if you stop

All good

The snows soft lets jump off some stuff.

Me too!

How about some more coulior action. This time steep, and deep.

How about jumping off stuff in a couloir.

And then to freshies at the bottom. Me first, no me or me.

*****NEWS FLASH******

Sorry to interupt this pictoral telling of our last camp, but it has been dumping. I'm talking 50cm at a time, carnage on the road, my back leg is killing me dumping.

And the better news more on the way.

Enjoy

Monday

Well now day 2. You've had a days worth of improving. Lets put what you learnt yesterday to the test, something steeper.










Doing fine, remember those short radius turns and use your knees. It'll all be worth it freshies at the bottom of the couloir.




















Told you so.

I know you enjoyed that, even if you were a bit quiet at the top.

Can we try jumping off something now please. why of course.

This will do, small and soft. Trust me it may not look like that from the top.

That's the way to do it.

Sunday

Lets go for a cruize and see what you can do

All good, but have you thought about how it all works. For example what would happen if you rode with your hands on your knees.

You would look something like this. But it's not done for style, makes you use your feet to turn eh!

So that when you come to steeper less pleasant stuff you can stay in better control and not have to swing your arms about.

Good lesson, now lets go play in some pow.

Aah what a performance

Now I know it was a couple of weeks ago now, but we've been busy and it has been dumping, loads, which all makes it hard to spend time at the computer. However we are itching to tell you about what a fantastic time we had with the guys and gals at our last performance camp. But firstly a huge thank you to all those that attended, coz we had a great week too, as well as the boys from team Quik. Also congrats to Stenti for an admirable perfomance in chamonix last week.

However, you know what they say about pictures so we will use a few and save ourselves a few thousand words or so.

Where the magic happens.