afterbang

Ticking Over

2009-05-19T19:51:00.002+01:00

The last month or so been pretty busy for me, although most likely a bunch of stuff that isn't of much interest to readers of this blog.

The biggest time-eater has been replacing our bathroom. First of all we had to take everything out, then sort the walls, ceiling and electrics, just getting things ready for the plasterer, plumber and tiler. Lots of new stuff to buy, lots of mess to get out the house and lots of organisation. Dealing with mistakes that workmen make. Not doing the work ourselves has still been a lot of work. Still, we're one step closer, and the end result is pretty nice.

We're getting close to a release at work (software), which has had an impact, but to be honest, I haven't felt it as much as others have. I've also been nursing a sore heel. I would have said foot, but it's been a strange kind of pain, right in the base of the heel. Add in a family event, a friend's wedding, some work in the garden... you get the picture.

Not sure if the heel is a viable excuse, but the other stuff has all contributed to the lack of posting around here. That, and a lack of material.

But despite all of this stuff, I have managed at least one skate session a week. Of this, I'm really pleased. Slow but steady progress. I said lack of material, but at least there's some material, there's a routine now. Sure I haven't posted some of the video that I wanted to, I haven't actually been taking the camera with me that often, and I haven't even been thinking about the footage from Morzine...

But I'm ticking over. It feels good. And I'm looking forward to skating tomorrow night.

Double Figures

2009-04-26T17:33:00.002+01:00

After a short, sunny session on Saturday morning, I've hit double figures for ramp/bowl skate sessions. I'm officially hooked.

10 so far is pretty good compared with the poor performance of 2007 and 2008. I think the summer of 2006 is the only time I'd say that I skated consistently, until now. I'm skating once or twice per week at the moment. I'm expecting some of my commitments to fall away later this year, so I should be able to step it some more.

Beautiful Session

2009-04-23T17:18:00.002+01:00

Last night's skate sesh at Redcar was pretty awesome. The three of us - Dave, Dan and myself - all skated well. For myself, I think it was the best I've ever skated.

On the mini-ramp I had the spine transfer working easy, stalls around the coping were feeling good, some nice long 50-50s, I had the frontside 50-50 fast and smooth, and the biggest frontside ollies I've done yet. I even had one or two nice backside ollies. Some sick runs.

Having the park to ourselves was nice too. It was all finished off with a Subway, a McDonalds milkshake and a hot bath (hard slam right at the end). Roll on next Wednesday...

Skateboarding Tricks

2009-04-19T09:54:00.003+01:00

I think the only way to get better is to push yourself by trying new things. Sometimes when I skate, I don't really know what tricks to try next. I'll think of something, or see someone doing a trick, but when I try it it turns out to be way harder than I was expecting. Or I'm just doing it wrong... The result is that I don't always have the next bunch of tricks to work on to keep me progressing.

With that in mind, I'm going to list the tricks that I can do now, on a mini ramp. Some of these tricks are consistent for me, others are less so, and some, I'll probably get the names wrong:

Drop in
Drop in, switch
Rock to fakie
Rock to fakie, switch (is that a fakie rock, or something?)
Tail stall
Rock and roll (Backside? I can do it the easy way)
Axel stall
Backside 50-50
Frontside 50-50 (but not very consistently, yet)
5-0 (but not very good)
Frontside ollie (do they call that frontside 180?)
Spine transfer from tail stall (not sure if that is a trick...)
Fakie axel stall (probably not called that: going fakie, turn off front foot into a stall, facing into the ramp)
Fakie axel stall, the other way (but I don't often get it)
180 kick turn to rock and roll, from fakie (probably not called that)
Frontside early grab, indy
Early grab out of tail stall (is that lame?)

And this is what I'm working on next:

Nose stall. It follows from dropping in switch.
Backside ollie. Because it looks better than frontside.
Feeble stall and/or crooked stall. They seem like close variations on the axel stall.
Frontside 5-0. Nice movement around a ramp/bowl, and doesn't seem like it will be much harder than frontside 50-50.
Blunt rocks. Not sure why...

Blog: From Behind The World Snowboard Guide

2009-04-16T21:27:00.004+01:00

I've been a reader of the wsg for a good few years now, and more recently, I've written a few reviews of my own, covering some UK slopes. In doing so, I've been dealing with Steve Dowle, the wsg's head guy. Apart from coordinating effort for each review, it's been good keeping in touch with someone who's created something like the World Snowboard Guide. Organising, writing and maintaining such a comprehensive guide must be a lot of work. It's impressive.

I'm interested in how things work in the snowboard industry. What's it like to set up a snowboard shop? What's it like to run a chalet? How about producing a guide book? Hopefully, I'll get a chance to chat about some of these things with Steve in the future. But in the meantime, he's just started a blog: From Behind The WorldSnowboardGuide.

To quote Steve, this is what the blog's about:

I really want to talk about what it is like to develop and run a website like the worldsnowboardguide, to independently produce and publish books, and still have to do normal work for a living.

I'll enjoy reading it...

New Skateboard Setup: Pictures

2009-04-16T21:03:00.002+01:00

This is the new setup:

Chocolate deck, 8"
Venture trucks, wide
Spitfire wheels, 57mm
Bones Reds bearings

Last night was the weekly Redcar session, which was my first opportunity to try it out. It was all good. Definitely a little faster on the ramp, but apart from that, I didn't notice much difference, except that it's all new. It felt good to skate, and it had that solid 'pop' feel.

I seem to be doing pretty well with the number of times I'm getting out, and the improvement is following. No major advances, but I'm feeling much better around the coping. I had quite a few slams last night so the body's been a little tender today. Just gotta keep it up now and hopefully bag some new tricks...

New Skateboard

2009-04-12T19:04:00.004+01:00

I went for a skate early on Friday morning, a couple of hours at Silksworth. It was dry here, but it must have been raining fairly recently over there because when I arrived all of the bowls and surfaces had water on them. It was sunny though, so I decided to wait it out. I wanted to take a few photos, and, suspecting that I'd be buying a new deck sometime soon I thought a photo of my current skateboard was in order...

Me in an empty park.

The dendex dryslope at Silksworth.

To start off with I was picking my way around the wet bits, but once it dried out, my main aim was to work the spine transfer to check that I could do it at a different park. There are three spines at Silksworth: a small one that leads out from the small bowl, one that joins the small bowl and large bowl together - so it's kinda got two sizes, and finally, a medium/large spine that joins the large bowl area with another area.

The small spine from the small bowl.

The large bowl, and spine leading to the small bowl.

The medium/large spine (in the background).

It didn't take long to conquer the small spine. It's concrete rather than wood, but no problems. Next up, I was dropping in from the large bowl to get speed to transfer back into the small bowl. So I was going up a large transition to the spine and then dropping down a smaller transition. That was more difficult, and a little scarier. I did get it though. Getting enough speed wasn't a problem; it was getting the right amount of speed. It was quite easy to overshoot, which meant jumping off at the last minute...

I haven't tried going the other way and I haven't tried the medium/large spine.

On Saturday I bought a new setup. My wheels are pretty tired, the bearings are kinda shot and the deck's worn and starting to delaminate. Plus I just fancied something fresh.

I decided to go for something a little wider. The current Almost is a 7.75", so I stepped up to an 8". I'm told that wider decks are more suited to bowls and ramps, which makes sense, and there are times when I feel a slightly bigger surface would be useful. I also went for bigger wheels. I'm not sure what my old ones are; probably 54mm to start with, but they're smaller than that now. The new ones are 57mm.

I've gone for this slightly bigger setup because I most like to skate bowls and ramps. A bit more stability and more speed. The whole thing looks quite a bit bigger. It's a little heavier too, but nothing that I think will cause me a problem. I'm keen to try it out. No doubt it will feel strange at first, but hopefully it'll turn out good. I'll post some pictures soon.

Out with the old...

Spine Transfer - Stoked!

2009-04-09T18:57:00.003+01:00

Last night was another Redcar session, the second of this year. I've been feeling a bit ill all week but I decided to go anyway, I didn't want to miss out.

I'm wanting to try new things each time I skate at the moment, but a couple of the things I had in mind for last night turned out to be harder than they were in my head. So, I decided to return to a goal that I've had for a long time: getting over the spine.

The method I want to use is to go forwards into a tail stall on the coping, ready to drop in on the other side. To be honest, I've never really tried it before, save for 10 minutes or so at Silksworth a couple of weeks back. After 10 or so tries I realised that getting into the stall was pretty easy. All that was left was to get my balance more forward...

More attempts... then I got it. Sick. It feels so good.

I pretty much had it on lock down by the end of the session. If there are any skaters reading you may be thinking "that's a pretty easy move" - and you're probably right. It is an easy move. But for me, it's definitely one of those things that seems hard until you get it, and then it's very easy, like it totally clicks. There are other tricks that I can kind of do, but a lot of the time they still catch me out. This transfer feels more like learning to drop in; once you learn to do it, you don't forget it.

Then again, I should probably hold off that assessment until I try it on a bigger spine!

The Season's Over For Me...

2009-04-06T23:02:00.003+01:00

Well to be honest, it's been over for a while. I won't be shredding anymore this season. Next real snow is likely to be next year, that's a long time off! Poo.

For the season just gone and the one before that, I've been limited to two weeks on snow. I don't want to say that sucks, because I've had a great time snowboarding, but in the past I've been used to more. Before that, I had three years of riding somewhere between 3 and 5 weeks over the course of 12 months, so the last couple of seasons have seemed something like a wind-down.

I'd like to put an end to that, yet, my plan for next season will be the same: two weeks away. I obviously want to make them a good two weeks! Good powder and good parks. Good powder mostly.

This reduction in snowboarding has changed my outlook a little. I'm sure it's slowed my progression, but more generally, I kinda fell less involved. In the past I've been looking for any opportunity to get away - I've been active throughout the season, and in the summer too. These days, it's much more like a holiday.

This blog is mostly about me and snowboarding; but when you're not snowboarding that often, it's hard to write about the stuff you like writing about. For the time being, I guess I'm just more removed than I have been. I look forward to next season - I hope to shred in Canada again - but it's going to be another holiday year...

So what now? What for the rest of 2009?

I'd like to skate more. I'm into double figures for outings already, albeit some of them are short, around the one hour mark, but still, I feel active on a board, standing sideways. I'd like to aim for at least once per week. That shouldn't be hard should it? Maybe more. I'll be keeping track of the sessions in the sidebar, so we'll see how I get on.

I'm going to set out with the aim to post a video each month. It might be short, and I/we won't film every time I skate, but it would be cool to show how I'm improving each month (if I improve). I've already done a few things new that I'm pleased with - the trick is to keep it going for a decent period of time. I'll put something together for March.

I'd also like to prevent the relapse of freestyle skills on a snowboard by hitting up the UK slopes. That'll be Cas' and the 'Fax. I've had it in my mind for a while that it would be good to do 8 sessions in one month: every Friday at Castleford and every Saturday at Halifax. I'm fairly certain that with some motivation one could improve as much over the course of 4 weekends in the UK as they could doing a week away. That said, such a program traveling from where I live would probably cost as much as a week in Europe! But hey, it's something I'd like to try.

So for now, I'll be tied up working on a couple of unrelated projects. I'm trying to get out on the skateboard, film some, and of course, I've still got the footage from Morzine this year.

Gav.

Notch Up A Couple More Skate Sessions...

2009-03-22T20:48:00.005Z

Saturday morning was just a quickie :) I wanted some fresh air and decided it would be an opportunity to try filming some frontside boardslides. I don't have a tripod yet, but it's still possible to get by solo if you're willing to put up with limited angles and flexibility!

I wasn't really feeling it, but the session did the trick. 50 minutes or so, and something to show you guys.

Today I've been reminded of my frustration when dealing with the combination of my camera, Movie Maker and YouYube/Vimeo. Only it's worse this time.

I'm running on a beta of Windows 7 (after the hard drive failure) so I had to download Movie Maker. I exported the sequence twice, both widescreen and 4:3. I uploaded them both to Vimeo. I'm taller than I should be in both. I don't get it. I remember dealing with this rigmarole last time, but at least one of them ended up being right. Maybe I've got a different version of MM? When am I gonna stop messing around with a crap solution?

Anyhow, here it is. I look tall and skinny, which maybe isn't a bad thing as I'm a little out of shape :) Hopefully I'll fix the aspect soon...

Learning Frontside Boardslides from Gavin Hope on Vimeo.

7 Bails and 7 Makes... Just started to do front-boards on a skateboard. Wanted to get early makes on film. Five Bridges skatepark, Gateshead, UK.

Sunday, this morning, was an awesome session. Went to silksworth with Dave and Dan, they were keen to hit that bowl again... I knew they'd like it :)

A bit windy but no biggy. The bowl there is awesome. I didn't really learn anything new, rather I'm getting back to where I was last year, which isn't all that far. This seems to happen each year; I skate just enough to maintain where I was. Perhaps this year will be different. I'm pretty set on taking a step forward.

The park got real quiet at one point so we messed around in the large bowl trying some early grabs. That was fun.

Here are some pics. The first is just to show the bowl, the second two fall in the category of me trying things out. Nothing good mind, I just feel like I should post at least something when I've snapped with the camera...

Late Season Powder

2009-03-18T22:26:00.002Z

It's hard going when you're at work and friends are sending you photos of awesome powder! Check out these bluebird shots from the Jason and crew at Snowmotions - photos taken by Steve Dowle from the World Snowboard Guide!

There's a small chance that I still may be able to make a late season trip out to Switzerland and ride with these guys. It's slim, but there non the less. Jason reckons there's gonna be snow 'till June :) So if anyone out there fancies some late season pow, you should check out the snowmotions site... they've got last minute deals on a 5* chalet in Arosa, and some last minute availability at their Lodge in Churwalden, Lenzerheide, between 28 March - April 18.

If you're interested, you can read about my trip a couple of seasons ago, 2007.

Cuts And Bruises

2009-03-16T20:18:00.002Z

Yesterday morning was another skate session, four of us, it was good.

We started at five bridges. No kick-flip yet, but, I did nail four or five smooth frontside boardslides; stoked! They were nice, I'm definitely getting them now... I just need to get one or two on film.

We spent some time trying to skate the mini-ramp there. After we all agreed that it sucked, we decided to head to the skate park at Silksworth, sk8 city, or something; I just call it Silksworth. Anyhow, as none of the others had been before, I was waxing lyrical about the small bowl - it's loads better than this sucky mini-ramp.

It was a fairly short session, but good non the less, with all agreeing that the bowl is good. I've been out on my skateboard a few times lately, but this was the first time I've been near a transition that I can ride. Cue a few cuts and bruises.

For the first time, I was trying to get over the spine by tail-stalling on the coping. There were some errors. Add that to a hang-up on the coping and a few slams on the rail back at bridges, one of which had me landing on the rail, and I'm a little banged up. Nothing major, just paying the cost. I guess I should get used to it.

Friday Night Skate

2009-03-14T18:40:00.003Z

After a spot of the all too familiar d.i.y, last night, I went for an hour's skate. It was perfect.

The park was empty, all mine, clear night, and there must have been someone with a brush prior, as the surface was nicely swept. No one around, plug in the iPod, and skate.

I'm looking forward to getting better. With just a few features, it's still possible to put together a sequence that flows. It feels good. And the reason that I say I'm looking forward to getting better is that some variety would be better still. Right now I'm ollie'ing onto the box, dropping/ollie'ing off, with some momentum, one push and line up to the first rail, boardslide, and if I make it, try a (tiny) front board on the next rail.

With more moves at my disposal I could use more of the park and get a better run by landing more tricks. The ollie is still a little inconsistent, but when it comes back, I'm gonna try adding the manual to my line. I used to be close to getting this. [oh my, I can't believe that was June 2006!]

So the front boardslide is coming along. When I go for the rail with a bit of speed, which is now becoming more comfortable, I'm starting to lock into a good position, where I'm looking over my left shoulder, like I would on a snowboard. Up until last night I'd just been keeping my back facing forwards, looking over my right shoulder, and hoping that I'd drop off switch. Now, I'm hitting the rail how I want to, and I've been close to landing a few half-decent attempts. It's coming. Tripod = some film, so I can show how it's going.

And the kick-flip is so close.

Skating Is All...

2009-03-06T18:21:00.004Z

Wow, it's been quiet around here. To be honest, the only thing I've done standing sideways over the last couple of weeks is some skating. I did a couple of short, evening sessions last week, and I think I'll head out a little later tonight.

The last time I was at the skate park there was a small crew there; 4 good skaters and one of the guys had a nice bag of camera gear, video and still. I took some photos too. It was fairly late so I was literally in the dark, but seems as though they had a couple of remote flash guns, I had some chance of getting an image.

Here are some photos. The first two are mostly too dark, but the timing was ok. I included the second two to show how the lighting might have worked, and me fumbling with a slower shutter speed :)

(click to enlarge)

Oh, I bought some wax from the local skateboard shop too, because the rails get kinda sticky. I was using regular snowboard wax before, that worked just fine, but I've spent that waxing snowboards. The front-board is progressing.

I'd definitely like to buy some basic camera gear. A tripod for sure. I'm skating by myself at the moment, and with a tripod I could at least video some stuff. A better flash too. I'm gonna check if the d60 has a remote control... I wonder what it would be like trying to take a photo of myself? That probably wouldn't work out too well - although Mike Basich does a good enough job :)

Part of reason for these pages being dead lately is that I've had some laptop trouble. I'm sure my electronics are cursed. Last week the hard-disk became corrupt and I had to spend some time recovering the data and then wiping the whole lot. I nearly lost some important data - all my wsg photos from Morzine.

Up until now I've been backing my stuff up once a month - to a usb drive. The hard disk went a couple of days before the end of the month, which sucked. Still, I shouldn't have left all those photos and words to chance.

So, I've signed up with backblaze, for online backups. I'd like to say how good it is, but right now the initial backup is still running... it's taking ages, probably gonna end up being 2 - 3 weeks, and that's only about 75gb. Wireless, but still slow.

Absinthe's Ready Soundtrack

2009-02-23T11:16:00.000Z

There're some great songs on this soundtrack:

"Waggoner's Lad" by Bert Jansch
USA:
UK:
"Nothing to Fear (But Fear Itself)" by Oingo Boingo
USA:
"Space Oddity" by David Bowie
USA:
UK:
"Bad Kids" by The Black Lips
USA:
UK:
"L.E.S. Artistes" by Santogold
USA:
UK:
"Back in the Summer of 72'" by The Sun
USA:
UK:
"Sleeping Lessons" by The Shins
USA:
UK:
"Strange Times" by the Black Keys
USA:
UK:
"Look Back and Laugh" by Minor Threat
USA:
UK:
"Fa Fa Fa" by Datarock
USA:
UK:
"Cattle Call" by Eddy Arnold
USA:
UK:
"Love's an Enigma" by Simple Kid
USA:
UK:
"Wimps" by Goons of Doom
USA:
UK:
"Staring at the Sun" by Simple Kid
USA:
UK:
"Six Barrel Shotgun" by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
USA:
UK:
"Ambush" by Figurines
USA:
UK:
"Hey Ya!" by Shawn Lee's Ping Pong Orchestra
USA:
UK:

I'm starting to really like the Amazon mp3 store. Their coverage isn't as good as iTunes yet, but you can sample most of the ready soundtrack here:

Skating And Other Stuff...

2009-02-22T18:37:00.003Z

I went for a skate this morning with Dave, the first of the year. I'm hoping to make Sunday mornings a regular thing. It's nice to get out, plus, if I skated more than a handful of times each year I might progress past the just-beyond-noob sticking point that I'm currently at.

I'm most interested in riding some rails, frontside and backside, because the balance and body position is so similar to a snowboard. I can feel it helping. I'd also normally say something like wanting to get some air on a skateboard, like a spine transfer or something out of the coping, but I always say that, and it's too far off. For now, I'll just leave it as it's fun skating...

It's also an opportunity to practice with my new camera. I'm not intending or trying to be a good photographer or anything like that; I just want to be able to take some half decent shots when snowboarding. You know, like picking good settings on the camera and maybe being a little creative. I'd be happy with that.

To date, since buying the D60, I've been full auto, a point and clicker. Today I played around with the burst mode, shutter-priority and manual focus. Elementary, I'm sure, but you gotta start somewhere, right?

(click to enlarge)

Feel free to critique :)

Snowboarding? Well, there's a Quiksilver sponsored event on next Friday, 27th, at Cas'. No doubt they'll put out a decent park. A good kicker? Good jibs and rails for sure. I'm tempted to go, but also thinking about planning a week away at the end of March/beginning of April, which would require all available funds...

On that note, the destination could potentially be Mayrhofen; either that or Lenzerheide with snowmotions. We'll see.

686 Tool Belt Review

2009-02-20T19:46:00.001Z

It's a belt, there's not much to say, right?

That's fair enough, but here are a few points:

Tools.
Most of the 686 tool belts come with two tools: a #2 phillips and a flathead. I have seen one with just a single phillips, for skateboarding, but all the snowboarding belts have both.

Is it useful? Definitely. I've been caught out twice on the hill, one time I had my tool belt on, the other I was wishing I did, as my right binding had come loose. Most of time someone in the group has a tool, or there are the tools near lift stations - but the tool belt prevents you from ever being stuck, you get the screw drivers for free.

The buckles are also designed with an integral bottle opener, sick!

Comfort.
The buckle and loop on the tool belt are both finished well: smooth with rounded edges. You're less likely to notice this with all your snowboarding gear on, but if you wear the belt off the hill, you'll find the belt comfortable. No pointy bits of metal sticking into the skin.

Style.
There are loads of different styles available, for both men and women; just check out the 686 website, and hope you can find the one you like best in a shop. The belts come in different sizes, so make sure you get the right one. The straps are all 100%, full grain, waterproof leather. They feel good, take on a natural, worn look, and don't get ruined by all the snow.

Summary.
They're comfortable, stylish, useful and they hold you pants up. They make sense!

Burton Custom Smalls Snowboard Review (and Some More)

2009-02-19T23:44:00.004Z

The Custom has been marketed as "the snowboard that does everything and some more". The Custom gets so many good reviews, it sounds like a legend and Burton keep bringing out new versions with improvements every year. After reading about the Custom I was expecting good things!

Gavin and I did quite a bit of research into boards before we picked the Custom Smalls. In fact there were three of us on the case: myself, Gav and Arran (Gavin's brother). I am 5ft 1 and 47kg so I am on the petite side and need a board suitable for my size and build. After a bit of investigation we realised that there is not a great deal of choice for petite women; well, it's not easy to get hold of all the boards available. See the post on snowboards for petite women.

Arran then suggested that I consider a kids board, great idea. A kids board means that you can get a nice short length and as long as the weight range is ok I don't think it matters that it is labelled kids.

Background
I have purchased two boards since learning to snowboard and hired one. My favourite board by far has been the Youngblood, which strangely, was the hire board. I got the YB when my luggage went missing and I had to get a hire board for a few days. They say everything happens for a reason. Well, I was pretty disappointed to hear that all my snowboard gear was in the UK and I was in Laax, but ridding the youngblood made me realise what I was missing. I found the Forum board really fun to ride, it was a new lease of life. When my luggage finally arrived I reluctantly took it back...

When I took my Destiny out (my first board) it felt like I had bricks attached to my feet. I hadn't realised until then that I don't like heavy boards, they sap your energy. It's not always easy to know when you start out what you want and what you need. I think it was at this point that I started to get a feel for what I liked.

My destiny is very stiff, great for blasting around, but way too stiff and tiring for me to jib on. My Second purchase the Santa Cruz, is the complete opposite. The SC is good for jibbing around and in the park but horribly unstable at high speed; it really chatters. It's also the slowest board that I have ever been on, it makes shallow trails a nightmare. So after riding the youngblood I decided to look for a new board, one that was stable at high speed and fun to jib on. And so I bought my Custom Smalls, well actually Gavin bought me a Custom ;-).

What was it like?
The custom feels really light and poppy. It's got a nice flex and is easy to ride. I found it really fast and stable at speed, it didn't chatter like some boards that I have ridden. My destiny was a fast board but I think I've probably progressed more with the Custom. I could tear around and not get tired. I found the destiny hard to ride all day as you have to be quite aggressive; the custom is easier to ride and feels more responsive. I was always nervous going fast on my SC and felt like I was going to bale spontaniously. With the custom I just went for it! I don't know, maybe I was just in a good mood ;-) or maybe its natural progression. It felt good and gave me the confidence to relax aand have lots of fun.

The custom smalls is twin tip and has the option for a wide stance. Actually it has a super wide stance. I normally use the widest stance possible but when I measured that setting compared to my two other boards it was about two inches wider! I decided on the second widest setting. I haven't ridden the adult's custom so I can't really compare them, but from what I have read they sound pretty similar. There are a few top pros who ride it, Mads Jonsson, Heikki Sorsa, Mason Aguirre, so it can't be bad!

Powder
Despite that fact that it's short and light I managed fine in powder, in fact I got some of the best lines I think I have ever had. I felt like I was floating! I used my SC last year in Fernie and combined with my inexperience with the pow I spent most of the time sinking or rag dolling... I was a fully trained gymnast after two weeks. I think the fact that the nose on the smalls has a decent scoop helps slightly. The snow in Avoriaz was slightly different to Canada and probably no deeper than 30cm.

Base
If I had to find fault I would say that the base is not great, it's not the same as the adult's board, which perhaps contributes to the low cost, who knows? The glide of the board has always been an issue for me. I have never had a board that's had a good base, indusive to speeding across the flats. I did hope that my next board would have better tech... But now that I have thought about it, it's not that important. The time I spend on flats/shallows is few and far between. Even If I had a better base I still don't have the weight to glide well. So really it's not that high on my list of priorities.

Graphics
I must admit I am not especially bothered by board graphics, I see them more as a bonus rather than a necessity. I do like the graphics on the custom, they are bright and... I love bright colours... But, had the graphics been horrible I would have still bought the board!

Summary
All in all I am totally pleased with this board, I have ridden it in Powder, on the piste (groomed and choppy), in the park, and it ticks all of those boxes. I didn't think it was possible to get a board that was good to ride around and in the park, but I am pleased to say Burton have proved me wrong. Who said you can't have everything!

It's ideal for me, and at a fraction of the cost of an adult's board it meant that I had some change left over to buy a new jacket, perfect ;-)

Lib Tech Travis Rice Snowboard Review

2009-02-18T22:15:00.000Z

The T.Rice is an awesome snowboard. I wanted a soft-flexing, freestyle board, that I would ride in the park and around the whole mountain. I was willing to compramise on out-right powder performance. The Lib Tech passed with ease.

My previous board was a Nitro T2 (review), which performed well in the role that I've stated above. However, after the board got banged up riding snowflex, and I suffered in the deep freshies provided by Fernie (trip diary), I decided that I'd opt for a slightly shorter, softer flexing freestyle board, with a view to add a powder stick to my collection.

I bought the 153cm, blunt T.Rice, with Banana Tech and Magne-Traction. After riding this Lib Tech for two weeks on a variety of conditions: park, rails, piste, some ice, soft snow and roughly 30cm pow, this is my review.

Jibbing & The Park.
The T.Rice is great for jibbing around the piste. It's certainly not as stiff as I'd feared; a lot of the magazine gear reviews seem to rate this board as a fairly stiff freestyle board. I don't think that's the case. The bend-the-board-by-hand-in-the-shop test was the first clue. But after riding it, I'd say it has a lovely freestyle flex. It's not as soft as something like a Kink, but it's closer to a DH than it is the T2. It butters well, almost easily but not quite, it's lively, producing nice ollies, and it's easy to move around.

It's got smooth pop. It's not the type of board that you need to put a lot into before you go anywhere, but it doesn't give it up freely either. It's springy. I say smooth because the board seems to respond well no matter how much you put into your ollie.

I ride rails and boxes, but I don't do big gaps/transfers on, so the rail lock that I'm sure is important to some people isn't that much of a factor to me. It doesn't feel much different to the other boards that I've hit rails on, but like I said, I don't really push it that much. No problems here.

Directional Twin & Stance
Before buying the T.Rice I kind of had it my head that I wouldn't compramise on a true twin setup. Obvisouly I did, as the T.Rice is a directional twin. Similar to the Rome Agent, I can't say I ever noticed a difference in riding switch, and I'd say I spend almost as much time riding switch as I do regular. The stance is centered so there are no problems there, and on that note, there are a lot of holes to choose from. Max stance on the 153 is 25", then 23.5", 22" and I guess 20.5" (I didn't bother measuring the narrowest, centered stance). It rides well in both directions and good stance options is a definite plus.

Banana Technology (BTX)
Compared with some of the other boards in the Lib Tech range, the amount of bend to the T.Rice banana is slight. Whilst it looks noticably different from a conventional camber, I can't say I ever noticed the difference when riding it. That statement does come with a few caveats:

I thought the pressing the board/buttering felt nice. This could have been in part due to the banana tech
Despite being relatively short I didn't have any problems with the nose diving into fresh stuff. This could have been helped by the reverse camber
It was the only board I rode for the two week stretch, so there were no immediate/direct comparisons with a regular board

Magne-Traction (MTX)
I had one or two doubts about the serrated edge design; I guess I wasn't sure that I was going to like it. However, similar to the Banana Tech, I can't say that I noticed that much difference. For example, lining up for jumps, gliding in a straight line, and, I'm fairly sure, riding down regular pistes, felt quite normal.

It seems kinda strange to me that such a different design wouldn't feel any different? Well, I didn't notice one difference. Towards the end of the two weeks the slopes started to get a little icy. As I mentioned above, I didn't perform any kind of board comparison, but from memory, I'm confident in saying that the Magne-Traction helped with edge hold in the icy conditions. For example, it felt better than the T2. That was impressive.

On regular pistes, I didn't really feel it. I'd say the T.Rice has good edge hold, but not fantastic. Similar to the T2, but not better.

Powder
Like any 153cm board (for me), the Lib Tech isn't going to excel in freeride conditions. However, in the two weeks that this review is based on, I did have 3 or 4 powder days, so how did it perform?

First up, let's talk about the pow itself. It wasn't especially dry or especially deep. I'd say ranging between 20cm and 40cm. In these conditions the board did well. I was loving every turn and not digging in. Nothing like the problems I had in the deep Fernie snow with the T2. All's good.

Was it because the snow wasn't too deep. Am I a little better riding fresh than I was then? Does the nose profile have a better scoop? Does the slightly wider nose from a directional shape help? The Banana Tech? All of these little things contributed I'm sure. The board did well. I was still riding twin stance, 22.5". I didn't witness a huge dump of snow, but I sirfed the resort pow nicely.

If you're packing a beeper, shovel and probe, and hiking for fresh lines, you're probably not in the market for a short, twin tipped board...

Summary
I love this board. I'm sure I'd have been happy with a DH, which was probably what I would have bought, but I have no regrets. I would say that it's the overall board that impresses me, the flex, the pop, the ride and the feel, and not something specific like the Banana Tech or the Magne-Traction, although those features obviously contribute. I was attracted to the board in the shop because of how it felt in the hand - it seemed to ooze quality. It's exactly the same on the hill.

Since I've Been Back...

2009-02-10T23:37:00.002Z

Well I've been back for a little over a week now, so what have I been doing?

First up, I wanted to post all of the daily entries from the trip, and, after sorting through a bunch of photos, I've retrospectively added some pictures to go along with what happened each day. It felt a little strange adding these posts after I'd returned home, but still, I enjoy having the diary-style entries for my snowboarding trips, and now they're there.

I definitely missed having an Internet connection in the accommodation.

I've started to stream some of the video. There isn't loads, but a few tapes can take some time. I don't know about you guys, but when I stream video of myself/friends, I make small, individual clips direct from the raw tape. I find the editting much easier this way, and it serves as a first filter for anything that's not worth looking at. The downside is that it takes longer...

I took a dictaphone with me to help with the wsg review, so I've been busy taking the notes from that, making sure I haven't missed anything. As far as the review goes, my plan is simply to take one resort at a time and work my way through. I wonder how long it will take? Once all the work's done, I'll reflect on how well the process mixed with a 'holiday'.

We've also watched quite a bit of tv, well, tv series' actually; I don't have a licence for regular tv. Just before we left for Morzine, Ciara and I finished watching season 1 of Jericho... season 2 was promptly purchased the day we returned. If you haven't seen Jericho, I strongly recommend it, it's awesome. Since then, Battlestar season 4 and the first season of The Wire. I'm not sure where this surge came from, but it's been good.

Work. It took all of the first morning back to feel like I hadn't been away. I guess reality hits back pretty quick.

And what about more snowboarding this season? Well, I'm hoping to set something up, maybe a week in Switzerland, but nothing is definite. Shame...

Day 13 - Last Day

2009-01-30T21:37:00.003Z

Another sunny day, blue skies. All of this good visibility makes a nice change from some of the heavy snow and white-outs we had in the first week, but after being spoiled with fresh snow, it feels like this place could do with a top up. Ice is starting to creep in.

Actually, it's the occasional areas of ice that have highlighted a possible difference attributed to one of the two, standout design features of my new board - the Lib Tech T.Rice. My board has Lib Tech's Magne-Traction edges and Banana Technology base. To be honest, I haven't really noticed a difference.

Until now.

Of course it's difficult to provide an accurate comparison given that I've been riding this board on all conditions for around two weeks, and I don't have a regular board to strap onto and ride the same conditions. That said, the lib tech does seem to have better edge control on icy conditions as compared with conventional side-cut boards. That's interesting...

So, the day started with Ciara and I heading up to Avoriaz to leave a copy of the world snowboard guide with Jean Noel and the Tourist Office. We then went to check out the Arare Park; Avoriaz's largest park. On the way there, we stopped to take a look at the half pipe too.

Man, where does the time go? Two weeks here and I haven't taken a single run through the half-pipe!

So the Arare park isn't quite finished, but there's still a lot there, and what is there is pretty good, and pretty big. We got plenty of photos for potential use with the online guide...

After that we spent most of the day in the stash. It's pretty addictive. Lots of hits, lots of fun, and something that Ciara and I have been happy to lap again and again, just the two of us. And being serviced by a fast, 6 man chair helps too. There's a pretty long, natural log right at the entrance to Main Street, and on our last run through I just about hit the end. It's round and knobbly, so not particularly easy. I was stoked. Also, Ciara got a couple of indy grabs, the first I've seen her do. Sweet.

Those final runs through the stash, and the rather excellent home run from Avoriaz down to Prodains, Crot, made for an excellent end to our trip. I just wish we didn't have to go home. More snowboarding would be good, and I need to sort myself out hitting kickers.

The whole group was assembled at the bottom, ten of us, drinking beers in what has become our regular, La Kinkerne. The hospitality there is exceptional. We sat around talking about what we'd done that day, and over the two weeks in general. Those ice cold beers go down so well. What a great trip...

Day 12 - Main Street

2009-01-29T21:31:00.002Z

After our meeting yesterday with Jean Noel, the directive today was to session the stash - Main Street.

So much fun. It's a bit of a shame that it's taken until day 12 for us to try these lines, but better late than never. We took 4 or 5 runs through, and Ciara worked some of the hits on Prolays. I had the video camera with me.

It was a good morning, I did some things that I was pleased with. I haven't gone bigger on this trip, in fact the truth might actually be the opposite, but I have progressed in other areas. I was pleased.

After a late lunch we found the Stash was a little busy in the afternoon, but it was already quite late, so we went to the Avoriaz Chapelle park instead. Ever since I hit the blue kickers there last week, they've been playing on my mind. Not good. I didn't hit them today either. I'd like to say that I'll come back tomorrow and hit that line, but to be honest, I don't think so. It's in my head now, and I'd rather not let it bother me, especially when I'm having fun shredding other parts of the mountain.

It was a great day, over too quickly, I'll address the kicker issue when I get home...

(click to enlarge)

Day 11, Jean Noel From The Stash

2009-01-28T22:23:00.003Z

This morning we headed over to Crosets to ride some fast runs with the group. Sunny, early morning groomers means quiet, fast runs. Awesome. I love it when you you're going at a speed that makes you think, if I stack it now it's gonna really hurt.

I'm not totally sure where the boundary between Champery and Les Crosets is on the slopes, but we made our way towards Champery to get a good look at the infamous Swiss Wall. I guess 99% of the times it's a really steep, mogul field, and big moguls at that. The rest of the time, following a lot of snow, it might be an awesome powder run; well that's what I hear, I've never seen it like that...

I had no desire to join the 100 skiers or so and ride the moguls - not just to say I've done it. Instead we headed down a really long run, the Grand Paradis, towards a small base station (car park), sitting a little higher than the town of Champery. A note for snowboarders who find themselves in this area: don't get suckered in by the length of this red, or the top section for that matter, which you can see from the lift, and to be fair, is really nice.

The rest of it sucks. You're walking. Guaranteed. And probably more than once. Apart from the top section, which, surprise, surprise is quiet, the rest of the run is a long, flat, boring trail. And there's nothing to see at the bottom either.

Cue lunch. Yummy.

Ciara and I split from the group for the afternoon. We had two agendas: Ciara wanted to show me some of the stuff she learned on her freestyle lesson, and at 3.00pm, we had a meeting with the top guy from the Avoriaz Park Team, Jean Noel.

I watched Ciara in the park for an hour or so, but I don't think she was totally feeling it. Still, I know she's improving a lot at the moment, her freestyle basics are more solid than they've ever been.

This was the first day that I haven't put any sun cream on. First thing this morning it looked like it was going to be overcast, so I skipped the cream. Mistake. It turned out to be the hottest day so far and I could feel my face tickling. A slight goggle tan ensued...

We met Jean at 3.00pm, at the top of the stash. He took us for a couple of runs through the stash, different routes each time, explaining things along the way. That, plus to the two chair rides back to the top and we'd learned a load of interesting information. It was definitely a good idea to have this meeting.

Having spent some time prior to this meeting shredding through the stash, I was surprised to find that we'd never been through Main Street. You see, there are numerous paths through the stash, which as well as providing good variation, also allows them to grade the different runs. I'd gravitated to the area that I could see from the lift; I like the hits that I could see, and the line under the lift had some nice sections of pow.

(click to enlarge)

Main Street is awesome. Loads of natural rails and boxes, jibs, hits and hips. There are no actual kickers; there isn't really enough space or control, given that the stash is laid out as a run. And it's laid out well. It's all about providing a good lines, and it works.

The only downside is that it's placement next to regular runs can attract skiers. That's not a dig at skiers as a group. What I mean is that you get skiers passing by, thinking it looks interesting, so they ski through as they would on any other run. It's just unwanted traffic. I don't mind waiting for someone else to hit a box or a jib, but who wants to wait in a freestyle-specific area for a convoy of 6 skiers to snake their way past?

Mini rant over.

Jean Noel was excellent and I thank him for his time.

Drinks at La Kinkerne is becoming a regular deal. After taking the bus from Prodains to Morzine, we popped into Mel's Cafe, a must visit. Ciara and I spent the last of our Euros, almost to the cent. The purchase was: one cheese burger, one double cheese burger, curly fries and two large beers. It was totally worth it, the burgers here are awesome!

I guess my budget wasn't too far out given that there're only two days left. Getting a close to one euro for your pound sucks, but not enough to pass up a beer and a burger after a day on the hill.

Day 10, Les Gets Park

2009-01-27T22:38:00.002Z

I set off early this morning with Emma, heading for the Les Gets park. Ciara was missing in action, 6 pints last night proved too much for cathing the first bus... and the whole morning as it turned out :)

Not knowing the bus route, we decided to use the slopes to take us from Morzine to Les Gets. Once you get up into Morzine, it's one more lift, and then a single run all the way down into Les Gets base/town. A short walk across town and then up the other side of Les Gets, towards the park.

In all, it took us around an hour to get to the top of the park, from the base of Morzine, but it could be done quicker.

I enjoyed the Les Gets park. The beginner kicker line was good: three, well shaped kickers. The landings are a little short, but I'd say the shaping of the transitions kinda makes up for it. What I liked was that the park was laid out in a line; so you could hit the three kickers and then a rail, box and jib. Six hits is pretty good for a small'ish park. There was another rail or two, a hip, and a bigger kicker, although that was closed for the majority of the day.

The park is serviced by two chairlifts, one slightly longer than the other. We used the slightly longer one, Les Planeys, is it meant we could hit the final jib in the park, which I quite liked. I think it was something like 12-13 minutes to make a lap. That's not particularly quick, but a chiar does make a nice change.

I was working the nose grab - a grab that continues to allude me - and the frontside 3. Then melon this is starting to come more easily, even if the hit is smaller.

There's a handy restaurant at the top of the park, English owned I guess, and we ate there. It wasn't a full afternoon, but we did take a few more laps before heading back to Morzine, using the slopes again, rather than the bus. All in all, a good day.

Day 9, Wsg Exploration

2009-01-26T18:28:00.002Z

Ciara and Emma had booked themselves a full day lesson with Our Camp, so I decided to take the opportunity to borrow the car and go for a drive: my mission to visit the smaller towns in the Portes Du Soleil and snowboard from Chatel to La Chapelle d'Abondance. I wanted to check out the Smooth Park too.

My route was laid out for me - thanks to the us getting stranded incident on Day 6. The plan was to make the best of the conditions on hand, take a lot of photos, get a feel for the layout, try some of the quieter slopes and make it back before dark.

All in all it went pretty well. I covered a lot of ground. After taking some pictures of the smooth park (the light wasn't great), I dropped my bag with the liftie and took a few laps. I snowboarded from Chatel to Torgon and then down to La Chapelle d'Abondance, getting a good view of Lake Geneva on the way.

It's hard to know for sure based on one day only, but the slopes over that way seemed very quiet. I saw some really nice runs, and non-crowded off-piste potential too. I'm not gonna say more now because I need to write the review up in full when I get home...

On the way back I drove through Morzine and on towards Prodains, to meet up with Ciara, Emma and my dad - he'd done the camp day too. I met Gilly Seagrave from Our Camp, their coach for day. She seemed really nice, and by all accounts, the coaching was excellent. Awesome!

Right now I'm taking my first, real opportunity to connect to the Internet. Wow, 9 days in, I really miss having a connection in our accommodation. We're staying out for something to eat. Gilly reckons that the park in Les Gets is pretty good and I think the others have been there today too - so that's the plan for tomorrow...