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.

DSC_7147, originally uploaded by plasticsnow aka Kat.

Jools & I were invited to the recent night shoot by Maverix Snow Camps to get some shots of the instructors while they did some videoing for their promo movie.

Acting as flash-monkey for Jools I didn’t get a chance to ride but I did use it as an opportunity to test out the face wraps I’d just been sent by my latest sponsor, Laurus.  Not only were Jools and I both kept toasty warm while in a giant freezing fridge but even when the snow blowers were running the fleece lined wraps managed to avoid getting soggy and freezing to our faces.

Here’s one of Jools’ test shots of me in my Uni-Sexy Swagger Long wrap.

The shots he took for James of Maverix can be found on Maverix Snow’s Facebook profile

Saturday was another fun day with coaching on kickers and rails, the kicker was quite small which made it hard to really get my knees up on my spins without me feeling rushed and panicked so I took things steady and just focused on getting the take off right (which in turn meant my arms were mostly below shoulder level).  The afternoon was spent on the low box rail and I worked on making sure I managed to get some new tricks under my belt.  I’d tried frontside noseslides at Castleford a few weeks ago but wasn’t really committing to get them fully tweaked out.  Yesterday I was really pleased because not only did I manage to get a regular frontside nose with my board at 90 degrees but I managed to get the same trick nailed switch!

I was even more pleased that I was really going for the tweak and getting the board at right angles rather than the 45ish degrees I was getting at Cas.

This week’s going to be a busy one, I’m in Nottingham on Tuesday for work and then back over to Hemel on Friday for a shred with Anna who owns Sputnik Snowboard Shop (and sponsors me).  We’ll also be heading over to the shop so I can check out the shiny new toys that have been delivered so far!  I’m just waiting for some new boots to come in as I noticed at the weekend that mine are starting to come unstuck around the edges, and I’m hoping the Burton Molotovs will have arrived by then too…..I love this time of year!  Add to that the fact that my snowboards from Humanity are being pressed this week and I think it’s going to be a good month on the new kit front!

I’m typing this post while exhausted and full of Chinese food, my reward for all the snowboarding I’ve done this weekend.  We spent last night at the new Snow Centre in Hemel Hempstead, it opened a couple of months ago and yesterday was the first time we’d had the time (and money) to check it out. When it first opened the Friday night freestyle session was £50 for non members, thankfully they’ve dropped their prices so last night cost £31.50 with my SCUK membership.  I’d heard good things about Hemel, every-one’s been raving about the snow quality so as I was going to be at MK SNO!zone all day today we thought we’d do the Hemel session, stay in a hotel to save mileage on the car and then drive up to MK first thing this morning.

The first thing that hit me when we arrived in reception was the view of the slope, you can see it through a glass window behind them, it was shorter than MK but on the plus side shorter means more laps per session.  They had a rail and kicker line set up on half the main slope (with half being clear for non-freestylers) and then a bunch of toys on half the nursery slope as well.

The snow was definitely different to MK, finer and less granular and it was running well speed-wise, so well in fact that despite dropping in low on the kicker I almost over shot the landing!  I spent most of the night on the kicker, none of my friends were really hitting the rails on the main slope, so I figured I’d give the gap kicker a try.  It looked pretty whippy from the lift but it was a pretty smooth take off and once I’d got the feel from where to drop in from I had a really good session.  As ever, Jools was on hand to take some photos, so I set about doing some tail fishes (it’s the first opportunity I’ve really had to do them since I set up this new site) and then some shifty mutes.  I really did want to spin over it but the gap and the rutted run in meant i didn’t quite believe in my ability and the fact that I wasn’t going to catch my edge.  the park crew were doing their best to maintain the kicker but when you have 20 or so people hitting it solidly it’s always going to be tough to keep it perfect.  I did have a play on the rails and boxes on the nursery slope as well but 3 hours on the kicker had taken it’s toll and I wasn’t really feeling it by the time I made the switch.

It was a fun night and it was good to see friends (Doc & Street) I hadn’t ridden with for ages and I can see us heading over to Hemel once a month to see people who don’t make it up to MK as regularly as I do.

So after a rough night’s sleep in the hotel (smokey smelling bedroom leading to the invocation of Premier Inn’s good night guarantee) we hopped in the car and headed up to MK SNO!zone for another Maverix One Day camp.  This was my third full day with them and I was looking forward to it, on the drive up I planned out my “want list” for the day and during the pre-session briefing listed it as “all four 180s on the kicker and spins on and off rails and side ons”.  Once again we started on the kicker and after a couple of warm up runs I started spinning.  First up was the frontside 180 and although the spin itself was really smooth I had my arms in a perfect ballerina pose over my head….never a good look!  Thankfully as I settled in to it I became a bit more relaxed and managed to get my arms down and get a FS180 indy.  Next up backside, again I was a bit flayly initially but managed to get a BS180 mute.  I finished the morning session by stepping it up and riding switch, nailing Cab1s and switch BS1s, no grabs this time and I need to work on hitting the kicker a bit faster switch but that will come with practice.

The afternoon was a rail session, we started on the box and I managed to get FS180 on and Cab180 on, this was the first time I’d tried spinning switch on to a box.  It’s was Coach Phil’s suggestion and I was stoked to land it first try.  We then moved on to the long rail (switch frontside boardslide!) before heading up to the side on gas pipe.  After a few hits to 50:50 I managed to nail a couple of backslide lipslides.  Considering I’d been riding for about 5 hours by now I was pleased my legs held up and I didn’t clip the front of the pipe and I popped my back leg over the pipe before boardsliding away….after my second of these I called it a day, no point in riding too hard when your legs are getting shaky, that’s when accidents happen, and with the first leg of the Westbeach Snowflex Freestyle Series next Saturday I wanted to stay firmly in one piece.  I was especially keen not to repeat the run where I’d slide half the length of the corrugated gas pipe on my bum!

All in all it’s been a brilliant weekend, I managed to get about 8 hours riding into 24 hours and nail a load of new tricks into the bargain!

Here’s a slide show of my kicker shots from Hemel:

The full set, including Sam Cullum, Lon Canu, Jake Terry, Mikee Chen & Duncan Carr

June One Day Course & June One Trick Pony session.

Tail Press

It’s been an insane week, or should I say last week was insane, since it’s now Monday again? Anyway, things are busy with work and play and I’m starting to feel a bit drained and exhausted. Nothing a lay in and some early nights wouldn’t cure I’m sure but with 5:30am starts, 4 client visits, a Programme Board to prep for and attend and numerous project updates I have a feeling I’ll be feeling pretty frazzled all week.

Last Wednesday I headed up to MK SNO!zone for a Maverix One Trick Pony session, these are more focused than the full day sessions, aiming to give you 3 hours if coaching on one trick, or variation of one trick. This session was presses (nose & tail) and side ons. I was looking forward to my second session on my new Forum Manual and headed up to the slope in plenty of time to get warmed up. It soon became apparent that I’m more of a “tweaker” than a “presser” when I comes to rails, and I need to commit a bit more to shifting my centre of balance to get a really good flex to the tricks I was trying. I did manage a couple of passable attempts though and luckily Jools did get some photographic proof. We also worked on some side on tricks on the gas pipes, firstly static stuff at the bottom of the slope to get used to jumping on to a small pipe and getting the landing position centred and nicely balanced before heading up to the main gas pipe. The kickers on to it felt spot on to ride (well done to Jack from the Maverix park crew) giving me enough air without feeling too off balance. After my first attempt where I was pretty nervous, I settled into it a bit more and managed to get some nice 5-0s and even something that could have been called a tail press. What really pleased me was when I saw the video and photos afterwards and found that my arms were below shoulder height, so I’m definitely improving!

Side on 5-0

We had a chilled, shred free weekend as there was a ski only comp on and after Wednesday’s late night we wanted to take Friday off as well. Instead we went to Bluewater for a bit of shopping (which failed as all I bought was a pair of socks), and breakfast at Carluccio’s which was lovely. After that it was back home for weekend nappage and laziness. It was nice and relaxed, and it’s a shame we’re back to Monday already as it would have been even better to be lazy at home today as well rather than visiting two different NHS Trusts to talk about electronic CRB checking. Still, work pays the bills and means I can go shredding so I can’t complain too much. So here’s to a busy productive week ending in a few hours of snow!

It’s been a lovely weekend, and although I’d like to say it’s been a nice and relaxing one after a pretty stressful week at work I’d be lying if I did….what I can say is that it’s been brilliant and great fun!

Friday kicked off with a drive across the back roads to Milton Keynes ready for a night and day of shredding, SNO!storm was on on Friday night and then I had my second Maverix One Day Camp session on Saturday.  We’d decided to stay in a hotel to try and save mileage on the car and also to save us having to get up at 6am on Saturday to get to the slope in time and miss the traffic.  It was quite a smooth trip for a change and after dumping our stuff at the hotel we headed to the slope for the session.  This was the first night that an MK event has gone up against an event rather than a board night at the new slope over at Hemel Hempstead and I wasn’t sure how it was going to pan out, the majority of chat on the forums was about the FBBB event at Hemel and it did sound as though MK could be a wash out.

Thankfully it wasn’t! Steve Revill and his park builders had done a blinding job and with both of the main slopes and the lesson slope completely given over to freestyle toys of all levels it was definitely better on a direct comparison basis from the slope plan advertised by Hemel (half the main slope and the lesson slope).  Hemel did apparently have more people, but given the fact that they’d dedicated less of the slope to the toys I was glad I’d stuck with MK.  It was by no means quiet, by my reckoning there were about 150 people there but the mix of toys from basic ride ons, to mini sides ons with some pretty gnarly jump on rails it was for me the perfect set up. The only downside for me was the kicker which was just a touch out of my skill range, a whippy gap kicker built for spectacular inverts!  I’m too chicken to go inverted so gave that a wide berth but spent plenty of time playing on the newly refurbed jump on straight rail, spinning on the bench and working some presses over the kink.  I also had some fun on the mini wall ride, I always struggle to get my head round wall rides so it was good to have something a bit smaller to mess around on to try and get a feel for it next time I come across one at a comp.  The run ins and exits stayed in good nick all night and there wasn’t an icy patch to be seen.

Arriving back the next morning ready for the Maverix One Day Camp it was good to see Steve was out on the slope regrooming all the toys ready for the evening Park Strife session, the Maverix crew had also been hard at work over night and had built a double take off kicker for our course.  I had another great camp with them and this time was coached by Phil rather than Lyndon, it was great to get a different perspective on things but I’m pleased to say that both he and Lyndon are great coaches and both are really good at spotting your faults and helping you to correct them.

I was also lucky enough to get some time with Maverix’s founder James Streater who did some drills with me to help me with my attempts at side on rails, ollying a ski pole balanced on a couple of mini cones and doing jump ons on to a row of low cones or upside down snowboards.  It became apparent that not only am I pants at ollying (I have a tendency to lift both feet at the same time rather than lifting my nose followed by the tail, I also have a tendency to land nose heavy) but that my much loved Forum Craft may be just a touch too aggressive for learning rail tricks without me coming a cropper.

Although I didn’t learn as many new tricks on this session as I did on my first I had the chance to work on the tricks from the last session, trying to iron out my errors and avoid getting in to bad habits.  The coaches are good at pushing you but also bringing you back down to earth when required.  After landing some really nice FS180s Phil had encouraged me to go for the 360, unfortunately the panic set in a bit and rather than keeping the smooth style I’d had earlier in the session I started spinning like a ballerina, with my arms in a perfect circle above my head.  Rather than letting me struggle on spinning like this J and Phil took me back to doing the 180s while trying different grabs to try and get me more confident and settled with my arms in the right place.

To counter the over aggressive board issue I’ve got a Forum Manual on its way to me from Sputnik, a bit shorted and more flexible I’m hoping that it will allow me to get the technique of ollying on to rails and spinning on and off on a slightly more forgiving board before switching back to my Craft for the mountain and for bigger set ups.

So a great weekend, brilliant park setups to ride, a shiny new snowboard on order and a nice roast dinner and a glass of wine to finish it off with.  Thanks has to go to Steve Revill, Maverix & Sputnik for making it as good as it’s been!  Jools has got some photos from SNO!storm up on Flickr

James is a highly qualified freestyle coach (as are the other instructors in his team) and this (and his skill as a rider) is the main thing that made me sign up. In my experience it’s one thing being able to do something well, but quite another having the skills, knowledge and verbal ability to actually explain how to do something to someone else, especially something like snowboarding.

I’ve had an absolutely brilliant day, we started off with a quick chat about what we wanted to achieve from the day & a presentation from James before heading out on to the slope for a pre-ride warm up to get the blood flowing and avoid any silly injuries. We then split into two groups based on our riding level, one more advanced for those with freestyle experience and one for those just getting into freestyle or looking to build their confidence on their first few tricks.

My group started off on the kickers and after a few runs just to get the feel for the kicker we started on spins. First up frontside 180 ( this is the one where at 90 degrees you are facing down the slope), I worked on this for a few runs, trying to get a smooth rotation and keep my arms down. After I got more settled, Lyndon, my coach for the day, told me to try a 360. I’ve never tried 360 spins before so he gave me some pointers and away I went. I wasn’t quite getting it right but I’m well on the way and once my brain can convince my body to do what it wants it to then I’ll be sorted. We then moved on to backside 180s, these scare the majority of people because you’re effectively spinning blind and at 90 degrees you’re facing up the slope, so if it all goes wrong you’re catching a heel edge and flying backwards through the air, always a bit worrying because you don’t always know it’s coming. Weirdly though I don’t mind them too much and after a couple of runs of landing them I moved on to backside 360s. I did a couple where I got to 270 and scuffed out but with a couple of pointers about arm position and my position on the run in I was spinning the full rotation. Stoked! Admittedly my technique needs some more work but part of the battle is getting used ot the rotation and I’m sure that with a bit of practice I’ll be able to pretty it up a bit.

Then it was a quick break for lunch and a chance to watch some video clips of ourselves to really get it into our heads where our problem areas were so we can work on them in our own time.

Then it was back onto the slope for a session on the rails. We had 2 rails set up, one a wider box style rail and one narrow rocket rail. After some warm up runs on the box I moved through backside boardslides, frontside boardslides and frontside nose slides, building my confidence on tricks I can do and improving them. I was then given the opportunity to learn something new, unsure at first, I suggested 180 on to the rail, this is something I’ve wanted to learn but I have to admit that spinning on to rails has always scared me. I was however on a high from the morning’s kicker session and thought I’d suggest it on the off chance Lyndon thought I could do it.  He did and so I dropped in and went for it. I turned slightly early and didn’t make the full 180 but I was still in one piece (always a good sign I find) and so I hiked back up to try again. I worked on this trick for quite a while and again it was my arm positioning holding me back slightly. Coaching from Lyndon and James and seeing the video footage has reinforced in my mind what I need to do (and not do) and so next session I’m determined to get it properly dialled as a trick. As it is I can claim a FS170 on to the box! Not bad going and only 10 degrees short. I also managed a couple of nice FS180 outs on the rocket rail, so I left the slope feeling exhausted but happy.

When I got up this morning I’d have been happy with reinforcing my technique on front & backside 180s, it wasn’t in my mind to try 360s and I’d certainly never considered spinning 180 on to a rail, so I’m really pleased with how the day of coaching turned out. Not only did I practice and build on my existing skills but I learnt 3 new tricks and am brim full of confidence in my ability to keep learning and improving on today’s session. A huge thank you has to go to both Lyndon & James for their help today, it’s been an absolute pleasure working with them and I’m looking forward to building on today with them over the coming months as I fully intend to sign up for the rest of the 1 day courses at MK between now and August and possible get some private tuition as well.

If you’re considering getting in to freestyle or just feel that you need someone to give you a nudge in the right direction to knock you out of a stale patch then Maverix come highly recommended! If you fancy learning from them on a real mountain and you’re stuck for a summer holiday then they’re running week long Summer Camps in Les Deux Alpes so check those out too!

You can add Maverix Snow as a friend on Facebook or join the Maverix Snow Camp group.

Jools is frantically going through the photos from today so I’ll link to them once they’re online.  Here they are!

Update:

Switch Nose Slide

Frontside170 On