Mart In Meribel
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
I was in work this weekend - Martin was riding the park in Meribel. That's not right. Anyway, I hear the whole weekend was pretty good and some of the park was nice too. I'm not bitter. Honest.
Here's a short clip, full of steez, erm, I mean steed :)
Labels: video
Fernie Day 11: The Griz Returns
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
Tuesday: We headed straight up to the kicker this morning. It was still in good shape and there was a good dusting on the landing, which was encouraging. I hiked it a few times to smoothe out the run-in and then Mart and I started to session it...
We had the unfortunate job of having to turf a couple of guys off. You see, after being there for around 15 minutes, two guys rocked up and decided to hit up our kicker. At this point I was still getting the run in sorted, which was full of fresh snow. This guy takes a line, spins a wild three and then starts hiking back up. He walked straight up the run in - trashing it with every step. I asked him to use the boot pack that I'd faithfully put in the afternoon before! He was still drunk - so he said. Anyhow, after he hit it one more time Mart and I asked him if he would mind leaving it to us...
To be honest, they were ok about the situation. They understood. After spending a couple of hours building a kicker, sorting the run-in out and laying in a boot pack, it's bad craic for someone else to rock up and session it; especially without asking. That's just the way it is.
After that it was a good morning. Hiking a kicker isn't easy work, and with just two people, if you want some shots and photos, there's some waiting around. But it was so much fun. Pleased with our creation we tried some decent airs. I think we got a few nice clips - not all makes by a long shot - but good clips non-the-less.
It was hard leaving it. We knew that once we did others would circle in like vultures and shred up the landing. It's so true.
But here's the crazy thing. As the morning went on, the landing got better. It was snowing pretty hard, so each jump was counter-acted with fresh snow. So sweet. We left the kicker at around 13:30, and as we set off down the hill we were riding fresh! Can you believe that? Session a kicker and all the while the snow is building up. That's Fernie at its best!
We had a quick bite and then headed back up to shred some of the soft stuff. I can't believe it. Taking some laps we spotted quite a few people taking runs at our jump - but it's fair game once we leave it. Shame. I'm hoping the landing will be super soft tomorrow; maybe try to spin some fives.
Fresh snow in the afternoon. 15 cm deep on top of the piste. So much fun.
To top it off, the apres beers were all that. We've met up with some of Mart's friends in resort and today was their last day. They're staying in the up-market Lizard Creek Lodge, so after beers we headed over to their out-door hot-tub... words can't describe! Lying in a hot bath, beer in hand and looking straight up into the black sky while the fresh snow continues to fall. Awesome.
Here are some photos and clips from the kicker:
Building the kicker.
Arriving at the kicker this morning - you can see a good dusting of fresh snow had fallen overnight.
Rockstar energy drink on chill.
This is the state of the kicker when we left it. You can see that a good amount of fresh snow was falling during the session.
Labels: canada 2008, video
Fernie Day 9: Fresh Groomers
Sunday, February 03, 2008
Sunday: I saw the mountain today, clearly, for the first time since we've been here. It was blue skies throughout and a fair bit warmer than it has been. I could see all the different runs and we were riding groomers. It was a big change...
It really hit home today how lucky we were with the conditions over the first week. To ride fresh powder 6 days in a row is just about off the scale - so the groomed pistes today really did feel strange.
With the snow being packed down, more and more hits started to emerge. We simply took laps on the Bear Chair this morning hitting things up on the piste. The additional jumps were great, but it took some time to get reacquainted with landing on hard snow.
Lots of fun. There was one hit in particular that was good for working on that frontside 3. I stomped one super clean that prompted me to get the camera out in the afternoon. It didn't quite go as smoothly as I'd have liked after that, but the progress is promising. Head and shoulders are in much better position and it's making the rotation pretty easy. The one I rode out clean was super smoothe - a real slow rotation. Sweet. Under the lift line too, which is always a bonus.
We took a run through Cedar Bowl and ended up sketching our way through KC's Shute, a run that Simon and I hit last week when it was full of fresh and I had no goggles (the eye-lid-freeze episode). It was refreshing to see what it looks like in full sunlight and packed out hard. It reminded me of how sick it was to ride the first lines down there in close to a meter of powder. Steep and deep. Awesome.
I took a few knocks today - no doubt some of which due to the harder landings - so I'm eagerly anticipating the hot tub that will come later this evening. The Internet connection is still down in our room so I'm sat in the reception area of the Griz Inn Hotel, writing this post. My last visit here was much nicer - I brought a couple of beers and some crisps... apparently that's a big no - no. There's someone different working the desk this time and she told me I needed to get rid of the beers! Damn it. I wouldn't need to sit here if they got their service working properly!!
Conditions are great, we're ripping the piste and there's more snow forecast. Awesome. Here's some video of a couple of three's that didn't quite make it. Hopefully there'll be more footage taken over the next week. The second one in this clip is bigger; just imagine one slightly bigger yet and totally clean - that's the one I made earlier in the day...
Labels: canada 2008, video
BCA Tracker Practice Session 2
Monday, January 14, 2008
Yesterday we went to the beach for a second practice session with the beepers. After seeing the multiple burial instructions in this video I was keen to have a go searching for more than one transceiver. The initial stage of the multiple burial search is the same as if you're looking for a single signal, so the practcie was useful for that situation too.
With the BCA Tracker there are two (there might be more?) methods of dealing with multiple signals. The first, which is what I was practicing and is general to all trasceivers, is called the three circle method; with the Track the searcher only uses the regular search (SE) mode. The second and more advanced method described, specific to the Tracker, makes use the transceiver's special (SP) mode.
This is my understanding of the 3 circle method. Once you've found the first signal, assuming you can't turn it off (perhaps because others are still probing/digging), you travel in a circle around the signal looking for a lower distance reading and/or listening for another audio beep. That first circle is three steps out from the lowest distance reading of the original find.
If you don't pick anything up on the first pass you take another three steps back and walk a second circle. Again, if nothing is found you perform a third circle, three steps back from the second. If you still don't find anything you go back to the point at which you left your orginal primary search (when you first detected a signal).
I think the theory is pretty simple. If there's another signal close by, at some point on one of the three circles you'll be closer to it, than the original beacon. This methodical approach seems to be a reliable way of seperating the two signals.
Check out my first attempt; apologies for the cheesy intro...
In this example I located the second signal on the first of the three circles. Note that first time the beeper detected the second signal I was unsuccessful in locking onto it. After returning to the circle it only took a couple more steps before the signal was detected again, this time the dropping distance was conclusive.
And here's my second attempt.
Here are some comments:
Picking up the second signal. In the first case where the signals were closer together, the search was quicker. This may seem obvious, but my orignal expectation was that in cases where signals are close together, they'd be harder to separate. The Tracker easily picks them out when rotated side-to-side.
In the second example it took longer to pick up the other signal. Quite a few times, each in the same area, I stopped to check or tried following a different signal only to turn back to walking the circle. In these cases I was fairly certain that the other beacon was over there, but the data I was getting didn't seem conclusive
Was I walking too fast? Should I have followed my instincts or kept using the circles? I guess more practice would answer some of these questions. Either way, I did end up clearly detecting a much lower signal, and it led right to the beacon.
Audio vs. video. At the time I was definitely paying more attention to the distance read out than the audio beeps. However, after watching the video back it's clear that the beeps are also very informative.
My original approach. Again, something that I didn't think about at the time was the direction of my approach to the first beacon. This should give a clue as to where the other signal is less likely to be.
Nothing found after three circles? If you don't find anything you need to return to the original primary search and continue searching the rest of the deposition area. In this case I'm not sure how you would ignore the first signal if it still wasn't turned off. It seems like it would be in the way...
Overall times. These were my first two attempts at finding two signals. The first search took around 4 minutes and second around 6 minutes. Considering that I was learning the search procedure, I think this is another indication that the BCA Tracker is an easy unit to operate.
Labels: BCA Tracker DTS, off-piste and backcountry, video
Jib-Tastic
Saturday, September 08, 2007
Today was one of the days this month that I had a slot to go riding... but right now, on Saturday, I'm in work. Boo Hoo. At least it's lunch time!
Anyhow, I thought I'd take this opportunity to post one of my favourtie videos from YouTube. If like me, you enjoy jibbing around the mountain, then you'll probably like this video. There's some cool stuff in there to try and the guys have some pretty sweet style.
You've gotta love some of the chumps that leave comments on YouTube!
Also of potential interest, I recently tried the demo for the video game Skate. I guess a lot of readers won't give two hoots about a video game, but it you ever enjoyed/enjoy the Tony Hawk skate games, you've probably heard at least a little about Skate...
I was really impressed. They've made the controls pretty damn natural - as far as can be achieved with a control pad! If you can, check it out, it's very good!
It's kinda bad that the closest I'm getting to snowboarding/skating at the moment is YouTube and a computer game. I need to stop being lame and get out on one board or the other... or both.
Labels: video
Teaser Watch
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
There are three films that I'm already really excited about seeing this season. The first, which I've previously mentioned, is Absinthe's Optimistic.
The second is an all girls production by Runway Films - La La Land. I found out about La La Land on the megadasher site and was totally impressed by the riding in the teaser. It looks pretty sick! I've really enjoyed previous all-girl snowboard movies, especially DropStitch and As If. I reckon La La Land's gonna be good - here's the trailer.
The final film is the new movie shot at the DC Mountain Lab. I don't know whether there's an official trailer yet - as I read recently on (the awesome) Pierre Wikberg's blog (more on that later) that the music hasn't cleared yet - but there is something on YouTube showing a few variations. The first DC MTN.LAB was so good I've got to see this new one! Here's that YouTube video...
Shaun White And X Games 13
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
So Shaun White won the gold at the X Games 13 on the vert ramp. I know it's a week or so late, but I saw his run for the first time today, it was pretty impressive. More impressive is the fact that he's so good at both skateboarding and snowboarding...
Of course it was on YouTube that I caught the action; it seems more and more that you don't really need regular television as you can find most things on the web. If you haven't seen it here it is:
Speaking of the X Games, I recently read on the web about a horrible slam that Jake Brown had. I don't really follow skateboarding but I have heard of Jake Brown... he was at the LG Tour event that I watched last year. I liked his style.
If you were watching the games or at least keeping tabs on them, this is probably old news... but I read about it a short while after it happened and then (again) viewed the action on YouTube. It's an insane slam; it's great that he's ok. While I was looking around I checked out some other clips if Jake Brown and I think I like watching this one better than a 40' crash!
Labels: skateboarding, video
Martin Cornally, Laax March 2007
Monday, July 09, 2007
Martin has put together some video of his riding from earlier this year, in Laax/Flims.
I met Martin towards the end of 2006 at Castleford. It wasn't long before he was signed up for our trip to Laax. There were eight of us out there for a couple of weeks; we shared the camera around on the hill, it was a lot of fun...
Enjoy the smooth style and the sweet tune, which is El Caminos in the West by Grandaddy, from their album Sumday.
UK /
USA
Absinthe Films: Optimistic
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
Simon sent me a link to the trailer for Absinthe's next snowboarding film: Optimistic. But it's not the first time that I've been pointed towards it, and seems as though it looks pretty damn good, I figured it's about time I mention it here...
You can check out the trailer and the blurb on Absinthe's site, which is currently undergoing some work; but, as you might expect you can also watch it on YouTube, so I'll happily embed it below.
The trailer does look great - I'll certainly be getting hold of a copy as soon as it's available. I've been really impressed with Absinthe's films over the last two seasons: Futureproof and More. I know that many people feel that Vivid and Pop were great/better - but not me. I became attracted to Absinthe's style more recently.
Here's the trailer...
Labels: absinthe films, dvds, video
Riding Footage From The 2006/2007 Season
Sunday, July 01, 2007
I've put together the video I've taken over the 3 weeks of winter riding in the '06/'07 season: Avoriax, Flims/Laax and a little from the backcountry in Lenzerheide.
I'm pleased with what was taken, but I want to do more next season. I want to hit more features off-piste, and if I'm in the park I want to go a little bigger and land some smooth rotations.
You'll see at the end the first barrel rolls I attemped in Laax. That was a fun day; I think those attempted backflips set the ball in motion...
There are two tracks playing. The first is Haiti (iTunes UK / iTunes USA) by Arcade Fire and the second is I Feel It All (iTunes UK / iTunes USA) by Feist. Hope you enjoy it...
Stranded... Skate Relief
Thursday, June 28, 2007
I've been stranded for a week - in New Milton.
Slight exaggeration. I've actually been away with work for a week. Tight deadline, long hours and working through the weekend. Hotel to work; then back to hotel again. And it rained the whole time I was there - almost.
As it happens, the whole experience was OK. The work was important which made it kind of fun; motivating in the least. We also stayed in two pretty decent hotels, eating good food and resting easy, which made the stay comfortable and at times relaxing.
What's more, I had some time to tinker on with the video footage from last season, which is now finished. So I'll post that shortly.
The weather was bad luck though. To begin with, I was hoping to have a go at surfing. There was the possibility that we'd have a little spare time and there is decent surf not too far from New Milton. It seemed like a good opportunity to try it out.
But it just rained the whole time. To make it worse, I spotted the sweetest little skate park, just sitting in the middle of some field. Too wet though.
It did eventually dry out for one evening, so I made the most of it and went for a skate. By time we got there it was already starting to get dark, but as luck would have it, the park was flood-lit. Genius.
This is probably only the second or third time that I've been on my skateboard this year, which made it all the better. There are a few little clips - pretty much me trying (and failing) to get a proper stall on the coping. I just can't seem to get my weight over my heels...
Unfortunately the flood-lighting didn't last all night. It didn't last much past 10pm. But it was enough. 45 minutes of skating. I was well happy.
Note: I know that parts of the country suffered pretty badly with the rain during this time. Naturally the 'bad luck' that I mentioned above is nothing in comparison. -Gavin
Labels: video
Halifax Session 4
Monday, June 18, 2007
We got a crew of seven together at the weekend to go and ride at Halifax. With the trip down to Halifax being quite far the session usually ends up being an all-day-thing, so it's a lot better when there's a group.
The night before that, I re-laced my 32s with the spare set of laces that you get with the boots. Although the boots are looking a little tired, it's only really the laces that have worn (one was ready to snap), the other wear is mainly superficial. With the new laces on, they felt new again...
Onto the riding. Well, I'd been keeping an eye on the weather forecasts because it rained all of last week so I was hoping there'd still be some rain left for Saturday. The forecast backed this up, but by time we got there the slope was already starting to dry out.
Bring out the washing-up liquid.
It did turn a little overcast in the middle, and we actually got a small amount of rain which made it better to ride on for a short period. Overall it was still a fairly dry session, but I reckon the slope was marginally faster than the previous times I've ridden there. I wish the sprinkler setup worked properly...
There were two things that I wanted to try this time around: backside 3s and a mini barrel roll backflip. Both were kind of successful.
More pleasing than both the bs 3 and the barrel roll though, I learned something important about the way that I have been, or not been as the point goes, spinning.
I was watching Mike doing some backside rotations and I realised that as he left the kicker his head was turned way more than mine. It made me think that I haven't been using my head half as much as I should have been doing.
I tried a few things out and all of a sudden I could spin a backside 3: but it was fairly smooth, not like before. Excellent. Turning my head more confidently also helped with frontside rotations, which in the past, have always been a little under-cooked. I need to practice some more to (a) get the timing of the head turn with takeoff from the kicker dialed, and (b) stop putting too much weight on my heals when spinning a fs 3 on the snowflex, which is still bugging me; but in general, this felt like a big step forward.
Grant took some video on his camera which includes a couple of shots of the first few backside 3s that I attempted on the kicker. Actually, the first attemp with me slamming big style wasn't on film; shame. I'll post this when I get a hold of it.
In the mean time, here's the short sequence of my first snowflex-mini-barrel-rolls...
Halifax Session 2
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
So last Saturday a group of us went to ride at Halifax. For most it was their first experience of snowflex, which made things quite interesting. Overall everyone had a good day, with each person wanting to ride there again...
The weather was fairly warm and windy, which made the slope pretty damn dry. I don't think the sprinkler system was/is working as well as it could do, but there was at least some water coming out, which helped a little. The budget washing up liquid did it's job.
I'm yet to ride the slope when it's wet, so I have nothing to compare the first two trips against. When the slope is dry, it makes the kicker really inconsistent: one hit you're sticking all the way down the run-in and you get no air, then the next hit is much faster.
But it's not the dryness that I'm struggling with the most - it's the transition to riding on snowflex. I'm still putting too much pressure on the heel edge which is making frontside rotations off the heel really hard. On the plus side though, I seem to be fairing much better taking off the toes, which has resulted in my backside rotations getting some much needed practice. In fact, Saturday was the first time I've paid any significant attention to the backside 180...
So, I've put some video clips together from the day. Whilst the camera was on I was trying to get to grips with a frontside shifty stalefish (I think) and a backside 180; both met some success, but they need more work yet. I just can't wait to ride the kicker again! I've used a track by The Postal Service called We Will Become Silhouettes (iTunes UK). If you like it, you can buy it here:
Airbags and Snowflex: Video
Thursday, April 12, 2007
So here's the video that we took last Saturday at Halifax and Castleford. Whilst we were riding that day we met a fellow rider - Sam. It turned out that it was his first taste of snowflex too and he was heading over to Cas' to session the airbag afterwards! What are the chances of that? Nice guy, good shredder...
Just in case you like the track, it's Soul Meets Body, by Death Cab For Cutie. Here's an iTunes link:
Labels: airbag, halifax, snowflex, video, xscape castleford
Make Your Own Snowboard Video
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
I read an article in Document Snowboard a while ago that recommended making your own snowboard movie as one way to keep the fun of snowboarding going.
It totally does. Well, that's what I think anyway. Not only is making the movie fun, watching it back with your friends later is even better.
We recorded a fair amount of footage this season in Laax: most of it on the hill, but quite a lot of just fun-stuff too. Each person is editting their own section ready for inclusion in a group DVD. It's kinda nice to tinker on with a mini project as the season is fading out. It should be fun!
I'll post some of the sequences on here, as and when they're finished. I've only just started to look at the footage, so it could be a while before I produce something. But to start things off, here's a compilation of some slams, courtesy of my sister...
Video Of The Halifax Slope
Friday, April 06, 2007
I've had a quick look on YouTube to see if I could find anything showing what the snowflex slope is like at Halifax. Check this out...
Avoriaz Park, January 2007
Thursday, March 01, 2007
I've joined together the clips taken in Avoriaz earlier this year. This is the first time I've done anything with video from the new camera and I've encountered a problem - the aspect ratio, which should be widescreen.
No doubt I'm missing something obvious, but my usual route of importing my .avi into Windows Movie Maker and doing the compression there led to the image being squashed...
Anyhow, it's getting late, this thing is bugging me out and I've still got a handful of things to get sorted for the Laax trip this Saturday. So, here's the (squashed) video, I'll sort it out properly when I return. Enjoy.
Update: I was missing something really simple with the aspect ratio. I've now replaced the video with the correct one... Also, the song that I've used in the sequence is New Slang by The Shins. Here's an iTunes link (UK store):
Still hungry for more? Check out the archives.
