It’s also been great to give my 156 Plastictastic a really good test and I’ve been really impressed with how it performs. It’s been great on the kickers,which at 12-14m tables have been much bigger than I’ve been hitting indoors on my 150 but it’s also felt great in the pipe (much better than I’ve been feeling in it, that’s for sure!) and it’s been cutting through the slush and choppy snow as well.  So it’s certainly turned out to be my perfect all-mountain park board.

Tomorrow is the first day of competition, and so I’m hoping the super speedy base helps me get to the front of the pack in the boarder-cross, or at the very least lets me olly over anyone that falls in front of me.

I can’t wait to get back out to what is probably my favourite resort (followed closely by Mammoth) for a week of coaching followed by the British Snowboard Championships.  I’ll be competing in all 4 disciplines, boardercross, big air, half pipe and slopestyle and I’m looking forward to giving my Plastictastic 156 a proper testing as so far it’s only been used on a 135m slope and that’s really not enough distance to allow it to really get up to full speed!  I’m hoping it will help me quickly get used to the difference in speed required for the larger kickers I’ll be faced with (the Brits course is based on the course used for the Burton European Open).

I’ve had 3 excellent practice sessions recently, I’ve been lucky enough to have some more coaching from the crew at Maverix and it’s been good to get back on a board after a 12 week break.  I’m looking forward to trying to convert what I’ve learnt indoors to the bigger park in Laax.  If you want to read a bit more about the Maverix courses then take a look at this article from Cooler magazine.

I’ll do my best to keep you all updated on how I get on while I’m out there.