Winter Varsity

So the 19th of Feb rolled around and it was Winter Varsity time again. I have never been before as I have always had work or something else on but this year I made it my mission to go, even sacrificing a lie in on a Saturday morning.

Me, Adam and Lex kicked it off in Champs while waiting on Rob to finish work. Watched the final minutes of Crawley Town's dream fixture play-out then headed in a taxi to Ski Village. When we got in I saw Joel and Aaron with one of their mates. They managed to get in free by sneaking through the top of the hill, classy guys right there. Once we got ourselves a few drinks we heading up the middle of the slopes to watch qualifying. Some big tricks were pulled, some nice rodeos and front flips, from Sheff Uni though, none from our boys at Hallam unfortunately. The riding was fun to watch but entertainment also came in other forms.

Lex was just minding his own business dropping someone a text when he slowly started sliding down the hill before full of face planting it in the mud with beer AND phone still safely in his hands. Only problem was that he had tipped the beer upside down and lost it all, his biggest mistake of his life. It was a moment you had to be there for to full appreciate the hilarity of the situation, it literally hurt to laugh for the rest of the night after that.

Unfortunately for Jon, he didn't see what happened to Lex and made the unfortunate mistake of standing in the exact same place where, not only did he fall down, he actually took some poor innocent Uni girl straight down with him too, it was like see Flamini take out Ćorluka in the mid-week European games. The fall didn't hurt Jon, but I think his pride took a bit of a beating. He recaptured the moment later on in the night, but this time failed to take out any snow bunnies with him.

After all the slipping and sliding on the slopes, we headed back down to the lodge where, unfortunately for us, Sheffield Uni were announced the resounding winners. Nevermind though, I think we showed them how to party like champions. The beer was flowing, random people were pouring beer in my mouth, the favour was repaid in kindness to others passing our group. Straight arm drinking ensued, leading to very messy beards and t-shirts. The DJs were getting naughty with some of the big tunes they were dropping. One point me and Lex were getting jazzy on the dancefloor and we were throwing ourselves about a bit and I ended up smashing my face into his fist, sub-conscious payback for the fit of laughter I was in earlier I think. The night got crazier as it went on and ended up with several people dancing from the rafters, it was literally a mental asylum for snowboarders.

The night ended with a coach ride back to the HUBS and a brisk tired walk home. I collapsed in bed thinking of how I had to be up in 5 hours for work to only be awoken by Jimmy who I had accidently locked out.

All in all it had been one of the best nights out of my Uni life and wouldn't mind reliving it over and over again

A Must Have

Please someone buy me the DVD shown here

An amazingly low budget, raw and gnarly DVD from the guys at Peepshow. Jess Kimura & June Bhongjam & Esthera Preda are the guys that founded the collective. There are some really good riders stapled throughout along with what happens off the snow too. Summed up beautifully by Huck Magazine ' Urban riding, style, fresh talent, beer, boobs and blunts.

A real snowboard film.

Let's Make Better Mistakes Tomorrow from peepshow on Vimeo.

Blotto Photto

I'm sure I have mentioned this blog before but you need to re-discover it, Blotto Photto

The guy is definitely one of the best action sports photographers out there, he captures not only the most amazing motion shots he also captures the not so graceful landings and brings a bit of a human/non-superhero side to the 'athletes'

There is plenty to read in the archives as well so check it out, this guy has been in the game for a long time and been at the top for most of it so take note!

EDIT: He will also post you stickers out for free so you can decorate any of your prized possessions or the lamp post outside your house.

Piece of candy!

A nice little edit here from Bataleon from most of their riders during this season. Nice to see some of the guys staying true to their brand and the ideology of the brand too.

Great riding, great music and great brand

1011 BATALEON FAMILY EDIT from MR. B bataleon snowboards on Vimeo.

Overdue

Sorry it has been so long, here is a blog I wrote on Pages. Mainly so I didn't get distracted by the tabs I have open in Safari. Anywho, check it:

I opened this up without any idea what to write about. It’s not a creative block, it is that I just don’t feel like trying to get what is in my head on to Pages. I think the reason for this is my head is still catching up on stuff that has happened recently. My head still isn’t even around me coming to the ROC so I don’t know what’s happening.

I’m having a long weekend vacation to Chicago. I’m hoping this will give me time to think. The problem with this is that my mind always wanders off into day dreams or into what’s going to happen in the future. I do not want the power of foresight. Lots of people want to know what’s going to happen in the future. I personally don’t it makes the bad times worse not knowing, but it makes the good times so much better. I think it is worth the trade-off.

Just a huge sigh there and nothing more to say, I think the next one I write is going to be documented with the time it’s written just so I can see how long it takes for me to write utter shit. Listening to nothing bar the odd car whizzing past and the sound of my ancient heater trying its best to heat this arctic room

My tiredness is trying to engage my body into sleep, but I’m fighting it in an attempt that I will spill pearls of wisdom all over this place and people will scatter to try and collect them. Very similar to dropping cash out of a 19 (notice the 19 reference) story window.

I haven’t updated my blog for a long time. Someone mentioned it today to me, I blamed a creative cycle. The only way I can try and put it into a simple diagnosis. I have been lacking in the photography action too. Hopefully Chicago will reignite this, if not Bristol has just opened 5 trails so we shall see what it has to offer shortly. Big snow storm is expected tomorrow, hopefully will hold off till I get back after the weekend.Apparently the first one always scares ‘first-timers’. I guess I’ll find out soon enough.

I’m off out in 20 minutes to head to a happier place. Not to say I’m not happy now, I’m always pretty content on the whole of things, it is just that I like the other ‘happier place’ more.

Still not watched the Jolly Roger movie, the book has fantastic photos in it though. May take it to watch on the epic train journey, may also take some jack and coke which will negate the idea of watching anything. A polite nightcap.

‘nuff said

Sunday Funday

Its such a beautiful day outside, sun shining blue skies and all I can think of is how much it sucks that it is not threatening a huge dump of snow. Every Sunday I get off work I will be sure to get myself off to any mountain or steep hill, even a small grassy bump on the local park.

Today my life is packed full of football (of both kinds), food and maybe some light (read: heavy) drinking. Currently not happy at the Bengals thrashing the Ravens and Dolphins pulling it back to equal score.

A few things to share; my tache is coming along amazingly/terrible depending whether you argue for or against trashy taches. Not really worth a photo update just yet!

I spent $20 on digital downloads yesterday on iTunes. I purchased Get Real, courtesy of Burton, Forum Forever and N,E,S,W from Forum again. Can't wait to get a chance to watch these and see what is being thrown down. I have heard and seen good things about Get Real. Check out the teaser here.

'nuff said.

Mo Mo Movember!

Movember is upon us and since I have been swamped and acting lazy and using all my free time drinking, sleeping and watching football (American and the proper football) I haven't actually got my arse into gear to sort out sponsorship, it is on my list of things to do!

I'm going to try and update every few days with how the tache is getting along and what other quirky things I have been up to.

Tomorrow I should be going to Letchworth Park and hopefully take some sweet looking photos. I have more photos to share but they need to be developed and somehow digitized!

My hand is healing pretty well, each week getting more degrees of movement in them, my strength is virtually zero but I'm told that will come with time. I need , NEED NEED NEED it to be healed before the season starts for sure, or at least be rideable and not to conscious about messing it up even further. Speaking of the upcoming season check out the SkullCandy app on the iTunes Store. Great free app for any extreme sport you like, snow, skate, surf and more.

On a side/professional note I got the assistant bar manager role at the pub so I'm super pumped to get some projects flowing to get some amazing beers in for everyone to enjoy.

'nuff said

Fresh This Season

A little Web-clip straight out of Boreal, CA. Enjoy!

Hot Mess Express from SPEC on Vimeo.

The 'B' Movie Mini-Review

I have decided to just bang the movie on again as I write this but let me just say that the first time I watched it blew me away and I wasn't paying attentive critical attention, my guess is that it is only going to get better.

First off just take the box it comes in and re-live the old days of VHS, mine were limited but I still lived it. It even has a be kind and rewind 'sticker' on the graphic sheet box insert.

Another thing worth mentioning besides the riding is the soundtrack. It is absolutely phenomenal, such a blended range and all fitting so well to the riding that is going down on-screen. While on the topic of soundtracks, I downloaded a majority of That's It, That's All's soundtrack thanks to this website which lists all the tunes in virtually every snowboard movie.

The intro kicks off with a helo focusing on what looks like a graphically enhanced B sculpted into the ice, more on this later! After this its just an assortment of riders throwing down and doing what they do best, apart from one guy who slams his face, hard think it was Keegan Valaika

Opening part goes to Keegan who tears it up on the streets and some nice shredding on the mountain, taking a huge portion of the spine with him. Highlight for me is the huge rail combo he did and the kicking about in a snow bowl.

Next up we got Shaun White, what can be said about this guy huh ? I wanted to see more variety in terrain from him as al he did was rinse the halfpipe. His riding is so clean and effortless and makes it look like you could strap a 89 year old into a board and they could nail it no problem. I'm sure its a 1260 attempt he destroys himself on or even a 1440 from the looks of how he was trying to twist it so late.

Next up we got Nicolas Muller, Jussi Oksanen, Jeremy Jones. JJ & Muller both brought it in That's It, That's all so I was expecting something just as big and they brought there A game yet again Very similar to some of the riding in That's It but its what people pay to see, them doing what they do best. As for Jussi he threw down as hard as any of the others did.

Nicolas Muller snatched himself a whole part all for himself too and proved why he is considered world class. Not to sure about laying down on a cagey looking precipice right up on top of the mountain, crazy fo'. Needless to say he threw down some tech nightmares but also carried some really sweet looking 5 variations with such style. He seemed to nail several tricks on the first attempt as fresh track ride-aways were on the cards.

Squaw Valley Session is up next, nailing big gaps with super 7s and 9s. You see the craziest hippy rainbow pants in this session too. Best song for me on the whole soundtrack, only just though! Love the handheld camera through the tricks and the lodge riding, epic!

Frederik Kalbermatten & Nicolas Muller (yet again) shredding it to funk. Frederik has a different style to Mueller, his riding is a bit more edgy but makes it look a bit sharper and more tech as opposed to free flowing james from Muller. The amount of buttering in this section is enough to fill enough slices of bread for the whole of Africa, fact!

Frederik Kalbermatten & Jussi Oksanen (also again) very much the same as before, great riding and slashing. Some nice natural hip transfers, wall riding and again capping off a huge portion of a spine. Some fun spinning on the ice too, gotta love it.

Next up is the most mind-blowing action from Jeremy Jones dropping the bomb with 360 foot spins thanks to his front binding being able to rotate. This enables him to shred up urban terrain like no one else before. Some sick mountain riding too. If I was to pick any individual's part to watch then this would be it for sure. I don't want to give too much away. Check out him stand-up riding on his bike, smooooth.

So back to that sculpted B, yeah it's real, an actual B. It's the best group sessioning of one individual object I have ever seen, frickin' mental. Everyone is throwing it down something insane. Again don't want to give much away about some of the tricks going down.

Thats it, great riding, great music and great terrain.

Go check it out now!

'nuff said.

Bristol Mountain Trip

Today I was lucky enough to be able to go check out the local mountain, needless to say it got me amped for the forthcoming season, cannot wait!

All the info and map of the mountain terrain can be found here.

I took my camera and got a few decent photos, my new photo of the moment is from a selection of photos I snapped. Check out the rest of the photo gallery.

I also purchased a copy of the new Burton Snowboard Video, the 'B Movie'. It features all their sponsored riders. Check out the video teaser/trailer below:

Inspired by all

The previous post was actually linked from Transworld Snowboarding and not the actually Plenty website which is pretty dam awesome.

Check it out here.

'nuff said.

Stolen Content - Stimulus

Check out this video courtesy of Plenty. More and more recently I have found that there are so many more web clips out there worthy of a part in a major video release. It goes to show you that these guys are just having fun but ripping it so well too.

Enjoy!

Digging in the Archives

Here is an oldish video of Tyler Chorlton shredding it, check out the jib action to front flip on the side of the lodge, immense!

'nuff said

Reppin' Large!

This season I'll be bringing it on a DC XFB, so as soon as the slopes open I'm gonna be terrorizing the locals for sure on this popsicle stick!

My hand is ripping me so bad, no sleep and ridiculous pain. Eating Vicodin like there skittles, not so good I guess. Hating my loss of complete independence, but at least my left hand is getting some skills. Still want both hands back though.

Introducing you to Joe Sexton!

THIS VIDEO SUCKS JOE twsnow from Stepchild Snowboards on Vimeo.

The life of a Snowboarder, how it should be!

partysnake again teaser from leepipes on Vimeo.

This video has some of the best jibbing action in it I have seen for a long while along with some of the craziest riders you could ever wish to see!

Actions > Words #2

Pat Moore first came to my attention in That's It, That's all and blew my mind not just with his skills but his ability to appear more insane that the maddest madman you could wish to meet.

Anywho, check out this edit from Forum Forever.

Dean Gray = Hero

Ever since the end of February this year I have followed Dean Gray's work at Blotto Photto. It's one of the best blogs I have ever come across in terms of content. I love his photography work and this guy is all about sharing his knowledge and experience.

Well worth a check if you are interested in photography, snowboarding or just good old fashion blogs!

Epic Video

Tiff e-mailed me the link to this epic snowboarding video, a bit unorthodox to say the least but it keeps it fresh!

Labour Day Fun

I feel weird even celebrating American only holidays (Canadian too in this instance), but I'm down with any excuse for us all to have a day off together and have some fun. We spent the day drinking a little, wolfing down some burgers then shooting the shit for a while.

We all get aching to do something energetic and fun and 6 of us played a little game of touch (American) football. Needless to say a mix of my QB skills, Matty's RB skills and Clay's kicking skills we owned it! The most fun though was when we all had a little game of softball. Was great to get everyone involved and just have some giggles and banter. I tried not to let my super serious competitive nature out and tried to keep a handle on it, I hope I did anyway!

This morning I moved into my new room and had a bit of downtown after getting it all settled and rinsed Bataleon for all it's little teaser and trailer videos. Well worth a look if you like snowboarding.

Hopefully some photos of today will be up and about somewhere soon for all to see. I'll link in the album when I get chance.