Art of Flight on the big screen in Morzine

While we have been waiting patiently for the snow to arrive (it is falling on high as I type) we had a thought about something we could do to help get everyone in the mood and hyped for the season. Watching snowboard movies always does that, but to watch the most anticipated movie of the year, featuring the best riders and mind blowing riding will really get you going. Then put that on the big screen want to go shred even just thinking about it.
So if you are in Morzine on 14th December head down to the Colibri cinema for 7pm and for a snip of 5€ (tickets on the door) you can get as close to the action as us mere mortals are able to.
But not just only that the first 20 through the door will get a Quiksilver goodie bag and afterwards the Cavern is not only putting on happy hour prices for us, but take your ticket to the bar and exchange it for a shot, how nice of them is that.
See you there

Are we heading for another ice age, I hope so.

Now I don’t want to get involved in the global warming debate, but having an obvious interest in trying to predict snowfall some understanding of how the earths’ temperature fluctuates would be useful. Which means you come across both sides of the argument quite frequently. The current sticking point seems to be is how much influence the sun plays in the warming of the earth. One side says very little compared to manmade influence the other says it has total influence and man is but negligible in the equation. 

Now as said I don’t want to get involved but one thing that both sides agree on is that the energy being received from the sun has been waining as it passes through the low point of its 11 year cycle. However there is a lot of argument that this downward trend in solar activity is going to be more distinctive and last far longer.

The question is, what does that mean to us who look forward to cold times?

UV view of the sun

Dr Scaife from the UK met office says that the UV output from the sun (which varied greatly with overall solar activity) does have an effect on over all winter temperatures, but not in a direct way. The UV is absorbed by and thus affects the temperature of the Stratosphere. When there is less UV the Stratosphere is cooler, the effects of which percolate down through the atmosphere, changing wind speeds, including the jet stream that circles the northern hemisphere. This change or kink in the Jet stream blocks warm westerly winds reaching Europe whilst allowing in cold winds from Arctic Siberia. The key point in his argument is that although this causes Europe and North America to be colder, other areas are warmer as it is only a change in the circulation of the air not a dramatic change in over all climate.

Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment satelitte

One of the problems is that data on the UV output from the sun is hard to measure from the earths’ surface and accurate readings have only been taken since the launch of the source satellite in 2003. Observations and analysis of the first few years of output from source seemed to raise more questions than answers concerning a trade off between UV radiation absorbed and energy at visible wavelengths that reach the earth. Mike Lockwood from Reading University thinks these readings could be particular to this phase of solar activity, marking the end of a phase of high output and a transition into a less active phase.    

“It’s now emerging that the ‘space age’ has been a ‘grand maxima’ (the sun oscillated between grand maxima and minima), so my view is that the sun is due to fall out of this and into a ‘grand minima’. So I would not be surprised if in 50 years’ time we find ourselves in conditions like the ‘Maunder Minimum’ associated with the ‘little ice age’.”

Professor Lockwood also says that although short term changes in solar output may not affect the global big picture, they can have a powerful impact on local weather patterns, particularly over Europe and Eurasia, as was suggested by Dr Scaife.

Sunspot compared to the earth

Since 1990 research by the National Solar Observatory in Arizona has been monitoring the decline in sunspot activity. Sunspots are the Harbingers of the magnetic activity on the sun that lead to the ejection of particles towards the earth, via flare events and coronal mass ejections. Their research finds that the magnetic field strength of sunspots has been declining, and if it drops too low, a level that could be reached by 2016 if the current trend continues, then there will not be enough for sunspots to form at all. A situation that has been seen before, between 1645 and 1715, a time otherwise known as the Maunder Minimum.

Well no matter what you believe mans effect on the earths’ temperature is. It is looking likely that we have some cold winters ahead. 

Big heavy snow winter predicted for Morzine (according to the oldies, and they would know)

Predicting the weather always seems a fickle art, even for a country such as ours, that often seems obsessed by what we are about to receive. The further forward you are trying to predict it seems sometimes more a guessing game than a science and even then they can only go into trends rather than the details of particular weather topics, like amount of snowfall.

Those of us, whose livelihoods are greatly influenced by the amount of snow that will fall, can be found listening to any theory we can find to give us a clue as what the coming season will bring. But for generations past, before the advent of modern prediction techniques and satellite imagery, many rules existed which we now know to be based on sound principles although only born out of observation and the passing of knowledge down the generations.

Take for instance the clichéd weather prediction “Red sky at night Sheppard’s delight. Red sky in the morning Sheppard’s warning.” We now know a red sky is seen when looking at a high pressure system with dry air stirring dust particles, which cause the sky to look red. If you are seeing this at sunset, as prevailing jet streams and weather systems tend to move from west to east and the sun sets in the west, the dry air is moving towards you. Conversely in the morning if you see the red sky and dry air to the east, it has past you by and the next weather pattern to come your way will be a moisture carrying low pressure. This same theory can be easily applied to seeing rainbows, as they a formed by looking though moist air, to predict the onset or passing of rain.

Now currently the talk about town is very optimistic (although not all residents view it as a good thing) for a very heavy and early snow year.  I have heard this based upon many theories from the bushiness of squirrels tails, thickness of onion skins, number of leaves on the Gentianes flower to over breeding of mice and bees. But the main thing that sells these theories to me this year is the consistency with which all the old people in town enthuse that it is going to be a heavy snow winter despite which method they use.

For myself I have witnessed, the redness of the trees and onset of autumn 3-4 weeks earlier than normal, the farmers taking their animals to lower pastures earlier than normal and a whole heap of positive thinking as I’ve ordered myself a split board this year and it won’t be much use without loads of fresh powder.

Fingers crossed.

  

Go Mervin

The summer isn't officially over here (well lifts close tomorrow), but already the hype about next season is truly building. With the Art of Flight putting insane powder in the faces of the mainstream and giving every snowboarder I know an insane itch, new product is dropping into store and I just read my first product guide. This isn't the most up to date information as it's from the july edition of Onboard, but they did their test of next seasons boards last January.
As I'm sure you can imagine there is a lot of boards to choose from (or test) these days, but Onboard took their pick of the bunch for a more in depth review and from those they chose their top 10.
The top 10 was interesting in some of the brands that the testers chose, as well as the lack of some of the bigger names normally associated with these things, however LibTechs TRS and Travis Rice as well as Gnu's Parkpickle and Roxy's Envi all made the top 10. Go Mervin and power to the banana, or is that power banana, or C2 power banana. Either way they obviously work.
Incidentely  with the exception of the Roxy we have them all to test at the chalet.
Now we all need is snow, have you heard the one about sun spots, more on that later.

Winners announced for our Facebook Competition!

We ran a competiton on Facebook to win some goodies kindly donated to us from the good folk at Quiksilver. The winners have been contacted within Facebook, but thought they might like to see their names in lights (so to speak) so that everyone knows that who are the lucky ones. Here goes:

Sergio Stone
Michelle Chelle T
Carol Tratt
James Webber
Ste Daley
Dave Shires
Scott Castlow
Roger Bannister
Di Goodwin
Derek Fowler
Proudy Carlisle
Sarah Wyhte
Melanie mse Jones
Emma Bebb
Stewart Atkinson
Dora Urnieziute
KH Davies
Daniel Daw
Steven Lamb
Luka Demange

If your name is listed above and you haven't contacted us yet, please email us at info@just-snowboard.com. 

Well done, prizes will be on their way to you guys shortly!

New team members for Quiksilver UK

Quiksilver UK has added a few new rippers to their team.

Billy Morgan is a name you should recognise if you have been paying attention over the last couple of years. Having made a solid name for him self on the UK scene with solid style, triple backflips and many a podium place. Also as a resident of Morzine many a time over the last couple of seasons we hope to see him shredding here again.

Jamie Trinder and Fin Bremner, two scottish young guns who may yet to turn heads in the wider world but have who have rightfully got themselves noticed for thier riding. Jamie is already on the GB freestyle team joining other quiksilver team mates Ollie Jackson and Henry Shackelton, whilst Fin placed second in the europe wide Radar competion, which is no easy thing. Think we will be seeing much more of these boys in the future.

Quiksilver Giveaway!

To celebrate our lovely new Facebook fan page, and because our friends at Quiksilver let us loose on their showroom, we’re giving away a selection of goodies to our fans, including hoodies, limited edition t-shirts, towels & much more.

To enter… it’s easy! Just visit our Just Snowboard Camps Facebook Page and hit ‘like’. And then persuade your friends to do the same, using the ‘share’ link on the bottom left of the page. When we reach 500 fans, 20 lucky fans will be selected to receive goodie bags! 

 www.facebook.com/justsnowboardcamps

Sneeky peek at what Quiksilver has in stall for next winter.

We have been lucky enough to get an early look at the Quiksilvers outerwear range for next year. The range is extensive, but there are some real high lights.

Travis Rice has collaborated with artist Mike Parillo on a number of his board graphics in the past but now extends that friendship to his signature clothing line too.

Mike is more than just a talented visual artist, he is also a snowboarder. His affinity for the mountains is an integral part of his colorful luminous creations and his contributions to snowboarding culture go back over a decade.

Mike and Travis put their heads together and the result is four unique signature motifs and these vivid cosmic color forms are mixed and matched to travis' tastes through out the line.
A collection of garments that not only reflect Travis' boundless energy, but is constructed with the highest standards of weather proofing, design and most of all functionality.

A little bit of everything

A little bit of everything is what we've had this week on our second freestyle camp of the year. The week started with a little new snow, which is a big thing this winter, but there is no denying spring has sprung, but that means sunshine. Normally.

We did start the first day with clear skies and warm weather and the usual assessment of riding technique, break it down and build it up, but seeing as this was a freestyle camp we pretty soon headed to the park to see what was there to play on and get the landing gear back on track.

Day two was also bluebird and hot, after the day before though we were better prepared and the spring gear was out as we headed straight for the pipe. With the pipe walls, ,all 16ft of them, re-cut the week before it made perfect venue to progress on the lessons of the day before and how to maintain speed up the pipe wall. Considering there had not been much pipe experience before this day, the guys were getting to the lip and the space beyond, with some spins and more technical trickery going on below the lip. The afternoon brought in some grey weather that turned to snow at the end of the day, which although didn't last for long gave us a little bonus.

The skies obviously cleared during the night allowing the ridden snow to freeze and gave us a proper spring start on Tuesday morning. For which we headed straight to the park and working on kickers. Although everyone had their own ideas of what they wanted to achieve Dave from Mint kept a strict hold on the class making sure all the basics had been reworked and ironed out the old habits before, everyone was let loose. Although 1's, 3's and front flips were being worked on the little kickers, we moved onto some of the larger ones by the end of the morning and it was obvious that a bit more work could be done getting used to airtime, as the extra speed and challenge to confidence brought back some of the old habits. So in the afternoon we headed to the airbag and the hip. The airbag is a great tool for learning and what was tentative goes at Ollie frontflips on the smaller kickers before lunch became charging at front and back rodeos, barrel rolls and a lot of hilarity in the afternoon. Funny what taking the risk out an exercise does for freeing the mind and letting people concentrate on what they are doing, and can thus learn a lot. We finished that session by taking on the big hip and pushing the comfort zone with big straight airs.

Wednesday saw the weather close in again with the lesson moving back to the pipe in the morn and trying to search out freshies in the afternoon. Of which we found plenty, which at the top were good to ride, but still in the cloud and as we got into the trees and on some runs looking down at these un touched lines thought the trees, discovered that below a certain point it got a bit sticky and added another element of learning to the riding skill set, especially as we were all on short freestyle boards, with centered stances, legs had to work hard. But either way we scored freshies and that was plenty of an excuse to hit the Kinkearn for a couple of après. Between it all we had some fun with Dans gopro camera and a 'rescued' ski pole.

Unfortunately the grim weather carried on the next day, but as we were aware of this had a few jars with dinner out the night before and took a lazy morning before heading up for a play about and a few more runs on the airbag.

But unfortunately everything has to come to a last day, for which we hooked up with Damien our tame photographer and made the most of the returning sunshine. An all in one day tour of all the places from during the week, and a now or never motivation saw great achievements and a whole load of high 5's.

Lovin' the sunshine

You can't knock a lovely sunny day. We may not have broken many records with the snowfall this year, but we still have plenty to play on and it's holding up well despite the glorious weather were having. The parks are in perfect nik, they are reshaping the pipe and when the holiday season finishes this weekend it's all on for fun in the sun. Been getting park legs back in today as looking forward to freestyle camp coming up, it's gonna be great.

Chapelle Park

The pipe being reshaped

Main Park top half

Musical bonus

The tourist office here in Morzine has just release some of the details of a new concept in apres entertainment.
Through out the week of the girls progression camp in april, there will be a number of concerts (all free) taking place all over the mountain in secret locations. The details of which will be texted in the hours before.
any excuse to get a boogie on.

Winter’s here, again

We got snow, it's been a while but it's all wintery again.

Having been blessed with calm sunny weather for 6 weeks, we got a dump at the weekend, dropping a foot at the top of Avoriaz.

Could still do with some more to make the off piste all good, but with a little bit mid week and more next weekend we are looking forward to some good shredding.

As we are in the middle of half term I did not get up to enjoy this latest offering (yes you can hear violins) but our man Dan did, so you can check his photos at http://www.danjesse.co.uk/

I will get up there one day soon, I hope.

To Helmet or not to Helmet

On the way down to the airport there was a news article on the radio about helmet use in Switzerland for snowsports. This reignited a conversation that has been quite frequent over the last couple of weeks, about helmets the fact that they are nowadays far more common place, and why do I not wear one. Now what I'm about to say might make me come across as hypocritical, which I am being slightly, but I do believe that even under the weight of over whelming evidence one is entitled to exercise their right to personal choice, apart from my son who will always be wearing his helmet.

I tried to do some research, inorder to make my ramblings seem more factual and informative, but its funny how ski resorts seem to be unenthusiastic to publish injury statistics. Though I did find;

In Switzerland there are 2million skiers/snowboarders each year. 45000 injured skiers and 20000 injured snowboarders. Although there is a slightly higher percentage with Children and snowboarders, about 15% of those injuries are head injuries and the Swiss council for accident prevention believes that 50% of those head injuries would have been prevented if everyone was wearing a helmet.

Between the 2002 -2010 seasons across Swiss resorts 14.8% of injuries by skiers were head injuries and 16.5% with snowboarders. The difference mainly being due to the number of injuries acquired, from a height or through jumping. In fact if you take out those numbers due to jumping there are a higher percentage of injuries amongst skiers than snowboarders. Also (and considering the great amount of jesting I have taken over the years for being a reckless snowboarder, I like this one), in the same period 6.67% of injuries were due to collisions caused by skiers, where as only 4.17% were due to snowboarders.

All the fancy numbers aside though, the important one is that, 50% of head injuries can be prevented if we all wear helmets. If you then realise that a helmet will keep your head warmer than a hat. They have clips that will hold your goggles on should you take a tumble and when stopped if you put your goggles on your head; they will not fog if you have a helmet on. These days they have come a long way as far as design goes, no longer having to look like an orange on a cocktail stick, they are much lighter, the argument that the weight of a helmet increases chance of neck injury is no longer valid, and being as they are now more commonplace there is no longer any stigma attached to helmet wearers.

Now if all that has influenced you to wear a helmet when you next take to the slope there are a few things you should consider. Firstly make sure any you are looking at possess the right certification. ASTM 2040 and CEN 1077 are the main ones (American and European respectively), which should be noted on the helmet interior. It is also worth asking for or noting whether it has been put together 'in-mold'. This involves a process by which the outer shell and the body of the helmet are fused together in the mold. This is as opposed to having a separate shell and liner that are glued together. An in-mold helmet will have a much thinner outer shell that at the edges will have a smooth meeting with the polystyrene body. Also with this construction technique the clip or mounting for removable earflaps will be moulded within the body of the helmet. This construction gives a much lighter, lower volume helmet for the same safety specifications.



Venting, preferably adjustable is another important feature, they are very good insulators and will keep your head warm; however on a cold day the option to close your vents when moving is a good one to have.
They are multi impact, i.e. you can keep using them after your hit your head on something. In other words they will last so it is worth making some investment; a good helmet will start at about £50. Although, Last year a good friend of mine turned up at the chalet having bought all his kids clothes from Aldi. At first I jested him on this, but then I took a closer look and soon after contacted Aldi to see if they had any stock left. Each year they produce a limited line of kids ski wear, just enough that they know they can sell. The helmets last year sold for £8, they were the same certification and spec that some big helmet producers have on their high end helmets selling for £120 upwards. The jacket and pants were Gore Tex lined and only £16 a piece, which does make the cost of some products seem a little over inflated.
Well whether you choose to wear a helmet or not, let's hope everyone can choose to enjoy the mountains responsibly and with respect for those around. That alone should reduce some of the injuries.

 

On the way down to the airport there was a news article on the radio about helmet use in Switzerland for snowsports. This reignited a conversation that has been quite frequent over the last couple of weeks, about helmets the fact that they are nowadays far more common place, and why do I not wear one. Now what I'm about to say might make me come across as hypocritical, which I am being slightly, but I do believe that even under the weight of over whelming evidence one is entitled to exercise their right to personal choice, apart from my son who will always be wearing his helmet.

I tried to do some research, inorder to make my ramblings seem more factual and informative, but its funny how ski resorts seem to be unenthusiastic to publish injury statistics. Though I did find;

In Switzerland there are 2million skiers/snowboarders each year. 45000 injured skiers and 20000 injured snowboarders. Although there is a slightly higher percentage with Children and snowboarders, about 15% of those injuries are head injuries and the Swiss council for accident prevention believes that 50% of those head injuries would have been prevented if everyone was wearing a helmet.

Between the 2002 -2010 seasons across Swiss resorts 14.8% of injuries by skiers were head injuries and 16.5% with snowboarders. The difference mainly being due to the number of injuries acquired, from a height or through jumping. In fact if you take out those numbers due to jumping there are a higher percentage of injuries amongst skiers than snowboarders. Also (and considering the great amount of jesting I have taken over the years for being a reckless snowboarder, I like this one), in the same period 6.67% of injuries were due to collisions caused by skiers, where as only 4.17% were due to snowboarders.

All the fancy numbers aside though, the important one is that, 50% of head injuries can be prevented if we all wear helmets. If you then realise that a helmet will keep your head warmer than a hat. They have clips that will hold your goggles on should you take a tumble and when stopped if you put your goggles on your head; they will not fog if you have a helmet on. These days they have come a long way as far as design goes, no longer having to look like an orange on a cocktail stick, they are much lighter, the argument that the weight of a helmet increases chance of neck injury is no longer valid, and being as they are now more commonplace there is no longer any stigma attached to helmet wearers.

Now if all that has influenced you to wear a helmet when you next take to the slope there are a few things you should consider. Firstly make sure any you are looking at possess the right certification. ASTM 2040 and CEN 1077 are the main ones (American and European respectively), which should be noted on the helmet interior. It is also worth asking for or noting whether it has been put together 'in-mould'. This involves a process by which the outer shell and the body of the helmet are fused together in the mould. This is as opposed to having a separate shell and liner that are glued together. An in-mould helmet will have a much thinner outer shell that at the edges will have a smooth meeting with the polystyrene body. Also with this construction technique the clip or mounting for removable earflaps will be moulded within the body of the helmet. This construction gives a much lighter helmet for the same safety specifications.

Venting, preferably adjustable is another important feature, they are very good insulators and will keep your head warm; however on a cold day the option to close your vents when moving is a good one to have.

They are multi impact, i.e. you can keep using them after your hit your head on something. In other words they will last so it is worth making some investment; a good helmet will start at about £50. Although, Last year a good friend of mine turned up at the chalet having bought all his kids clothes from Aldi. At first I jested him on this, but then I took a closer look and soon after contacted Aldi to see if they had any stock left. Each year they produce a limited line of kids ski wear, just enough that they know they can sell. The helmets last year sold for £8, they were the same certification and spec that some big helmet producers have on their high end helmets selling for £120 upwards. The jacket and pants were Gore Tex lined and only £16 a piece, which does make the cost of some products seem a little over inflated.

Well whether you choose to wear a helmet or not, let's hope everyone can choose to enjoy the mountains responsibly and with respect for those around. That alone should reduce some of the injuries.

The Art of Flight

Any of you who have had any interest in watching snowboard movies at all over the last year would probably have seen 'That's it That's all' and be somewhat aware of the stir it caused.

For those that haven't seen it, I suggest you make an effort to (we have copies in the chalets), it raised the bench mark for cinematography within snowboarding and although the snowboarding is of a new level it's self, the visual experience is enough to make the movie enjoyable to non snowboarders.

Well Travis' second project, the eagerly awaited sequel is out next autumn, titled the 'The Art of Flight'.

Here is the link to the trailer, I'm sure loads of riders will be watching this in the run up to next winter and getting very excited.

http://www.artofflightmovie.com

Focused on Freestyle

It was all about freestyle fun and technical trickery last week, with our freestyle camp. A full chalet brought together a great bunch of people who were all focused on pushing their park and pipe riding.

Avoriaz has a great selection of facilities for us to use and on day one, after the usual assessment and tweaking of everyone's riding in the morning we headed off to the Nano park (officially called 'The Parkway') and the baby stash to get the first air time of the week. With Quiksilver rider Ollie Jackson in tow, we were given some example of what can be done on the little beginner boxes if you've got a few tricks in your bag. The day ended with a quick celebration in Robbos, dinner and a chilled night.

The week progressed with much a similar format to the days, though stepping up to include sessions on the air bag which helped hugely to build confidence in the air and got everyone progressing well onto the bigger kickers though confidence wasn't enough to take backflips further than the airbag.

The pipe in Avoriaz was in great shape all week, despite being a bit daunting at first, but Dave n Dave from Mint got everybody at least riding the walls and getting that floating feeling, with a few getting to the lip and tickling the space beyond, which is no mean feat for a first time in a 16ft icy pipe.

By the end of the week though there were tricks in abundance being thrown down all over and although the levels ranged through shifties on the green jumps, spins on the blues, straight airs on the reds, spins on to and off the boxes, everyone had achieved their goals and was riding with a big smile on.

Unfortunately not everyone came through unscathed; Kathryn being proof that although an airbag can let you land on your head without the usual repercussions it is not a full proof safety net. On the final day we had Damien our photographer with us and Kodak courage definitely got everyone to step it up and find the boundaries of what they are capable of, some maybe going a bit beyond. Even found some powder, had a walk a little bit but considering there had been no new snow for 4 weeks.

Gotta know where you've been to know where your going

Those of you that have been on one of our camps will certainly know, as well as others of you be aware, that we have a quiz each week. Now over the years this has evolved into many different forms, having in the past been accused of being too long, boring, too hard, but always entertaining and I hope informative.

On our latest freestyle camp it had to take on a rewrite due to a number of campers returning from previous weeks and thus having a distinct advantage over the others. In doing so I included a picture round based on defining moments in snowboarding history. I was slightly perturbed that a room full of passionate and dedicated snowboarders could hardly name any of the riders or stories behind the pictures.

So as a small step to rectifying this here is the picture, story and video behind one spring afternoon in Riksgransen Sweden, 1996 and a snowboarder named Ingemar Backman.

Remember this was back in the day before big sponsored events, the quarter was hand built, the run in sketchy and there was no prize money up for grabs.

The 25ft height remained unbroken untill 2001, but then in a perfectly designed and manicured modern quarter pipe.

Any snowboarder at the time will remember the image, it graced 10 magazine covers, despite the poor quality of the filming it made it into a movie, and some say it is the most famous snowboarding image of all time.

Either way I believe that despite snowboarding still being a young sport, it has grown so quickly, that we are already forgetting some of the names and events that have been so defining along the way. And as so many of take influence from this lifestyle it's a sin to let such important moments be forgotten.

Watch it more than once, enjoy.




Next time I get the chance to scribble, just for Ollie Jackson, 'who was Craig Kelly'

Now that's Performing

Week before last we had our second performance camp of the season, though not blessed with an abundance of fresh snow (or any for that matter) we still had a great week charging the pistes and parks.



The conditions were perfect for working on the details of technique and the week’s lessons started thus, deconstructing everyone’s riding, working out the kinks and building it back up.
As the days moved on we started to get a bit more playful, throwing our weight around a bit. Working through the park getting the skills required for getting in the air with some pop and stability.



This developed onto looking at terrain and how the natural version differs from the man made and the ways in which you need to adjust your riding to cope with the changes and what can be found to enjoy without going further afield than the sides of the piste.



Around the riding there was a lot of waxing (boards of course), a near wedding (what dream day can’t be organised over dinner the night before), home work (nice to know someone was taking what we said seriously), board testing and comparing, a quiz with plasticine round, some competitive lego, drinking acrobatics, an awards ceremony and maybe a just few hangovers.
Cheers again for a great week everyone


Dave leading the way.


Serious business this snowboarding.


Can you guess what it is yet?


Plastic fantastic.


I didn't come on holiday to use my brain

Got a minute (or 3 and a half)

While I'm waiting to get the photos of last couple of weeks sorted so you can hear about a couple of great camps just gone, here is the first episode of Quiksilvers Cinematic series, filmed in Mammoth this December and featuring LibTech ripper Chris Rasman.

Enjoy

Support snowboarding buy from your local shop.

Now it can't be said that I don't grumble, as I do like a good moan, but do like to think I am very good at letting my fellow man be himself without ridicule, a trait that is almost a necessity in this job.

I am also (if you hadn't noticed) very passionate about my snowboarding as to me it is not just a sport, but also a lifestyle and way of life and has over the years been a great medium by which I have met many great like minded folk.

As a result I can be a little protective of our sport and how it is portrayed, which has over the last few years led me to dislike a number of companies for their blatant use of the snowboard bandwagon as a marketing tool. However, whether this is something I have either gotten used to or that now snowboarding is mainstream and not the cool new thing anymore, I have not recently noticed mamy examples of such behaviour. That is until today.

I spend a lot of my weekend time at the airport, some of you may have noticed the weekend regularity of my posts, and today I noticed a lady walk past with a Jack Wills board bag. Now I am familiar with the brand but not greatly ( I don't own any) and have nothing against them or even their decision to make and sell a very snowboard specific product. Or even that it doesn't fit in any way their normal product line of their brand statement, that they ''create fabulously British goods for the university crowd, drawing inspiration from Britain's rich history and culture. Clothing authentic and relevant for today''

What really got me is that it was a super simple sleeve bag with a shoulder strap, no padding or anything that would make it more than a bag that can fit a snowboard in, certainly of much less quality than the free bag pretty much any snowboard shop in the UK would give you with the purchase of a new board.

Now that they would use this poor girls brand loyalty to advertise themselves to the snowboard and ski market annoys me, but to get her to pay for the pleasure of owning this bag at a hugely over inflated price is just plain rude.

A standard padded sleeve bag that you can buy from and branded by your local shop will sell for about £30, Jack Wills had their basic board sac on sale on their website for £129, admittedly it is now reduced to £79. Now I do feel for the poor girl who by being loyal to what could be her favourite brand has bought something that benefits them far more than her or the sport associated to it. If she had gone to her local snowboard shop she would have ended up with something that not only does the job better but been hell of a lot cheaper.

The moral being, support your local snowboard shop, because they support you.

I don't think it even looks that nice.

The week that was (a few weeks ago)

On 11th Dec 25 snowboarders rocked up on the doorsteps of our two chalets in Morzine for the Just Performance Lab and the Just 4 Girls snowboard camp.

Having been blessed by great snow and then cursed by rain the week before the camps we were slightly unsure of what to expect when the lifts opened again in Avoriaz on the Saturday. We were pleasantly surprised at how good conditions were, although the off piste was a no, the pistes were perfect for the first couple of lessons with instructors Dave & Tammy. The week started with getting straight down to technical progression for both the Just4Girls and Just Performance camps… breaking down the riding techniques and then building it up again, properly.

With both camps full we had a good mix of riding levels (with 4 coaching groups) and some great personalities. The Slopestyle party on Monday night in Morzine gave some of the boys the chance to brush up on their chat up lines as well others to win raffle prizes!

Mid week, right on cue, it snowed, allowing us to get more adventurous and test the new skills learnt over the previous days. There were a good number of campers who had never really ridden powder before… they thought they had, but when you're getting first tracks off Cubore in Avoriaz it soon opened their eyes to what the good stuff is compare to those few turns at the side of the piste! New skills and techniques were adjusted accordingly to the off piste conditions and it was definitely the girls that got the best of the powder riding (hehehe)!

We took advantage of the fine snow and sunshine to bring Damien, our resident photographer, along and take some shots. This led to hunting out good terrain on which to bag a banger, and take it home to show mom! The photos can be seen on Facebook.

For the end of the week Mother Nature blessed us with an almighty dose of snow. So in preparation everyone waxed their boards (with Bluebird wax from their goodie bags!), or at least got shown how to, discussed the options and advantages of shifting your bindings back, borrowed longer boards from the Lib-Tech demo fleet and went to bed excited to see what the morning would bring.

And it brought snow, loads of it, easily 50cm… booyeah! There were strong winds and poor visibility, so to the trees was the cry and off we went. Even if you have ridden a fair bit of pow, over half a meter of light and fresh is still hard work to keep yourself going in. However there was no question, the grey conditions were irrelevant, it was an epic day all-round and tree riding a great experience for everyone.

The Perfomance Lab gang had Quiksilver pro rider James Stentiford along to show them what could be done if you're as talented as he is (which is incredibly). That didn't perturb them from teaming up against James and the Mint Team for a pro vs am competition through the Stash. Although there is some debate as to who won, the performance level was definitely raised a notch or two and the fun factor was off the hook!

The girls and Olly stepped it up laying lines all across Lindaret to make a finale of a route down under the Abricotine chair. A super fun off piste section that normally gets tracked pretty quick, however end of the day, they were the first down it. This may have something to do with the flat track to get to it, which when waist deep and untracked took some effort. But with a thirst for adventure the girls followed, a track was put in and waist deep first lines were scored. They made it to the lift 5 minutes before it closed it after a full day (9am start) in super deep snow. Laughing muscles were aching as much as the legs… true sign of a great day!

After such an epic powder day, there was zero desire to go dancing for an end of week party! Instead everyone enjoyed viewing of Damiens awesome photos, the various videos taken during the week, an award ceremony, a few ding repairs, drinks at the chalet and a well earnt good night sleep.

Now normally the story ends there, but due to snow in the UK and cancelled flights many had a night in Geneva, whilst others came back to Morzine and even got to shred another day!

Thank you to Quiksilver, Bluebird and LibTech for their continued support of the Just Snowboard Camps. Thank you to the Keep a Breast Foundation and Herd Headwear for supporting the Just 4 Girls camps.