Tailfish » Snowboarding

It’s good to be back

Kat Miller — Sat, 07 May 2011 16:53:01 +0000

Two snowboarding sessions in 8 days and I’m loving being back on my board. Things have been tough on the snowboarding front this season, work has been hectic and not only did I not get away to the mountains but I haven’t even managed to ride indoors on a regular basis. Freestyle sessions are normally on a Thursday or Friday night, which makes it hard for me to get to a slope, I’m either battling work or traffic and it’s meant that I’ve only managed to sneak in a couple of Saturday sessions.

We decided to take the opportunity gifted by the bank holiday for #thatwedding last Friday to head up to MK SNO!zone for the Friday night freestyle session. It was fairly quiet (most people seemed to have decided that street parties or the pub were a better idea) but this meant the park stayed in good condition and we got plenty of runs in. It was good to be able to spend the evening sessioning the kicker and I managed to get a few grabbed spins down without picking up too many bruises.

Last night I managed to escape the office a bit early to miss the traffic and headed up again. I really had a brilliant evening, although the kicker felt a bit whippy the rails were spot on. For the first time in ages I actually enjoyed myself and felt like I really progressed. I have a genuine dislike of gas pipes and they seem to be the favourite toy of the UK scene right now, so it was great to ride a park that had a good mix of rails, boxes and pipes. Not only that but it wasn’t all side-on hits for a change. I’ll admit it, I struggle with side-on hits, it’s taken a while to get my head round the technique for them and also to calm my flailing arms so I don’t fall off the moment I get on. Not riding them on a regular basis as well means that each session I go to I’m battling my nerves and it takes a while to get settled back into it. Last night though I managed to pull myself together and not only hit the side-on gas pipe but step it up to hit the side-on bench as well. Best of all though was the gap kink bench! It’s been ages since I had to gap a box, everything always seems to be either side-on evilness or ride on beginner stuff sunk deep into the snow, so it was great to see the park team at MK put out a decent gap on to something that was more than 6 inches out of the snow. I’m not saying I wasn’t scared (I was) but it was good to step it up and push myself on something I knew I could do.

It seems that even though I haven’t been getting much snow-time the work I’ve been doing on the mental side of things has worked. My arms are much more relaxed, and if they do lift as I pop onto things they return to relaxed position much quicker than before and I just feel more positive. I managed not to get myself into a negative thought process loop yesterday and it really made a difference, instead I managed to beat the fear and try stuff that a year ago I would have bottled out on.

I was also really impressed that not only was the slope freshly groomed for the session (meaning no icy patches or skier moguls on the run-ins), the snow was super fast AND the toys held up well. The park team are obviously putting in a lot of effort to get the features built and iced in well and I for one appreciated the fact that everything wasn’t destroyed within half an hour.

All being well I’ll be heading up again this week, not only is there the standard Friday session but Saturday sees the monthly Park Strife session (a bit later in the month than normal because of the bank holidays and some ski racing), and here’s the park plan.

You can also meet the Park Team behind the set-ups at MK SNO!zone in this short video:

Park Team Interview #1 from SNO!zone Milton Keynes on Vimeo.

January Shredding

Kat Miller — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 11:14:08 +0000

I actually did some snowboarding on Saturday! Circumstances have been conspiring against me recently and between work and bad weather I hadn’t ridden since the end of October. On the positive side it meant that my mega bruise had gone, on the downside it meant that it had been over 2 months since I’d been on my board. We headed over to the SNO!zone at Milton Keynes for the monthly Park Strife event and it gave me an opportunity to have a look at the new rails they’ve recently taken delivery of. They’re pretty impressive, although I wasn’t up to the challenge of hitting most of them…..while I am starting to get my head round side-on hits I’m still struggling to really get the balls up to hit the street-rails. I’ll get there but at present I have a little voice in the back of my head that reminds me I have work on Monday and that while I may be doing a lot of work with NHS Trusts they aren’t going to be impressed if my face meets metal.

I really need to blog about the sports psychology books I’ve been reading, I went on a bit of a mission after the Big Air comp where I got into a negative spiral of self doubt and rode way worse than I should have done. Long story short though I’ve been feeling a lot more positive and I’m starting to settle into my riding a lot quicker and I’m feeling more confident about hitting gas pipes (probably my most hated park feature) from the side.

Jools got some nice shots of me, and it’s good to see that I’m keeping my arms lower and generally looking more relaxed (although I do still have my “rail-face” which makes me look like I’m not enjoying myself – I am, I just don’t tend to smile when I ride). I think my favourite of the set is this one, I love the way he’s caught the snow spray and I’m pleased to have some proof that I don’t always have my arms flayling above my head.

and here are the rest

You can also see some of the other shots Jools took that night here.

Snow Tour in Kickers Built to Meet Planned Sizes Shocker!

Kat Miller — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 06:07:39 +0000

I’m feeling slightly odd at the moment. Why? You might ask. Well this Saturday as Jools and I drove home from the British Snow Tour Indoor Big Air competition (sponsored by Giro) we realised we actually weren’t moaning!
It’s been a good few years since I’ve been to any Snow Tour competition that I haven’t left feeling totally gutted either for myself or for friends, either due to apparent mis-judging or in the case of last year’s big air, injury from the overly large and mis-shaped kicker. It was this kicker that was on my list of things to raise even before I became the Tour’s rider rep, so many people had spent almost a year in fear of what would be put out this year that there was talk of boycotting the event in the name of safety (and not starting the new season with an injury).
Thankfully Spencer of Soulsports took this on board (“We never thought we’d hear ourselves say it, but in retrospect, we are forced to recognise that last year’s kicker at the British Big Air Championships was simply too big, and subsequently elitist. And so, for the record, we would like to assure every aspiring UK skier and snowboarder out there that king-shaper Damian Doyle, is currently working alongside the MK park crew in the process of building what he claims will be the most beautifully sculpted and rider-friendly 10m kicker ever build indoors, WITH an equally considered 6m and 3m kicker option to cater for first-timers and the country’s leading pros – something the British Snow Tour is all about! So, get yourself down to MK this weekend and ride the greatest kicker ever build indoors” Spencer Claridge – BST Director) and Damian Doyle was brought on to help work with each slope’s local team to help ensure that the set up was perfect at each venue. It certainly paid off for Saturday’s competition, with 3 well shaped kickers that actually matched the sizes pre-announced on the course plans. The only negative comment I heard all day was that it was a bit hard to judge the speed due to the changing conditions on the run in, something I think riders will admit to facing no matter what surface they are riding. On a positive note the body count for the snowboarders was zero (as opposed to a third of competitors last year), so well done to Damian and the local crew Thom, Jack & Neil! Now all we need to do is convince MK to do a kicker night once a month and we’ll see some real progression from the local riders on the kicker front.
The judging seemed pretty spot on too, there didn’t seem to be any stunned silences as the results were announced and I didn’t see any tears. Certainly I didn’t receive any upset Facebook messages as I’ve done in the past.
It was a shame that the Big Bang show was on at the same time in Tamworth, but having less riders did mean the competition ran to time (slightly early in fact) and we didn’t all freeze from hanging around for ages waiting for our runs. I also really liked the new format, a jam warm-up with throw down prizes and then 3 runs for the actual championships. I know some riders prefer the old 2 run format for qualifications followed by 2 more runs, and I have no doubt that not everyone will always be pleased but if you’re a rider who wouldn’t qualify for the final then you get more shredding done for your money.
All in all it was a good competition, I enjoyed it and I got the feeling that the other riders did too. I’m looking forward to doing the slope-style at Castleford in a couple of weeks now. The team at Cas always put on a good set-up and I’m looking forward to seeing the kids throw down up there. It’s a shame that the slope-style clashes with the Westbeach final in France but in the end I’ve decided to stick to the UK. This decision has already raised questions and raised eye-brows from people who think I should choose core over mainstream, think I’ve quit riding dry-slope or am siding with the evil money-making Brass. For those of you who are questioning my choices it’s as simple as this….it’s all down to personal choice and circumstances. Firstly, I do like doing the TTR ranked competitions, at 35 it’s nice to be able to brag that you are 150ish in the world ranking. Secondly, I’m a company director, a start-up, and this means I have to put work and finances first, being mid-way through 3 system implementations it means I may end up having to cancel my weekend plans at the last minute and it is much easier to do that without losing money if I only have travel bookings in England as opposed to Eurotunnel bookings to France. Snowboarding isn’t my reason for living, it’s not my job and so I choose to put my life and job first and if that means upsetting friends and acquaintances then I guess I have to live with that. The UK scene is too small, over crowded and has too many overlapping events for me to be able to please all of the comp organisers all of the time, so if I’m not at your event, it’s nothing personal against you, just me putting my personal needs first.
The same can be said about me becoming rider rep for the snow tour, it was a personal decision based on a sudden desire to stop being so “British” and actually complain for once. I haven’t done this to support Stu Brass and Soulsports, I’ve done it because I got sick of constantly moaning but never doing anything about it and to help other riders complain too, even if they wanted to do it anonymously. Those of you who have known me for a while or have read this blog will know that I’m the gobby one, the one who’ll review an event the way I saw it not the way people want the outcome to be perceived and it’s because of this that I am able to give the feedback to the Snow Tour without fearing for future comp positions, I’ve been mouthing off for ages and so we might as well all benefit as riders by providing feedback so something can be done to fix the things we perceive as broken. Others are making their feelings known by boycotting the Snow Tour, but whether that will make a difference or not I don’t know. All I know is that I am not going to stop being a rider rep purely under pressure from those who think I shouldn’t help Stu Brass improve his events (and therefore make money), nor will I bow to the warning that I might as well not bother going to any independent events this years I’ll be marked down for being a Snow Tour supporter. If that’s the case then I wouldn’t want to support an event that is not fairly judged anyway.
I love snowboarding and I love competition, all I want to do is enjoy it, at whatever comp I ride at, whoever is putting the event on. This weekend, the British Snow Tour ticked the right boxes for me and I had fun! Thanks to everyone I saw this Saturday, you all made it a great day for me.

oh and as a bonus I have finally managed to win myself a voucher for a new helmet, which considering mine is about 4 years old is probably a good thing. So now I just have to hope my midget head can find a lovely new Giro helmet that fits it (without me having to get a kiddy one).

British Snow Tour – Loads of Changes

Kat Miller — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 18:51:31 +0000

Just wanted to share this email that came out from Stu Brass today. I think that this season is starting off in a positive way with some good changes in the British Snow Tour format for competitors.

The jam session warm-up and 3 comp runs should mean more shred time than in the past and I also like the idea of seeded riders running at the end of the session (this will be especially handy for young Katie Ormerod who is ranked first since she normally rides early on in the order due to her young age). The team also seem to have taken on board the feedback about the kickers in the Big Air comp as they’ve got Damian Doyle heading up all the indoor park builds this year. The other bonus is that snowboarders don’t have to fork out an additional licence fee to compete this year (saving me £20 that can go on petrol instead!)

Begin forwarded message:

From: “Stuart Brass” <stu@soulsports.co.uk>
Date: 8 September 2010 11:42:25 GMT+01:00
To: “Stuart Brass” <stu@soulsports.co.uk>
Cc: “Spencer Claridge” <spencer@soulsports.co.uk>, “Joanne Brown” <joanne@soulsports.co.uk>
Subject: British Snow Tour – Loads of Changes

Hello Snowboarders & Skiers

Just a quick one to let you know about the first event of the British Snow Tour this weekend and also about all the changes we’ve made to the Tour…

1/ New National Champs Comp format (3 runs best 1 counts)

2/ New additional Jam competition (free with the National Champs)

3/ New younger age groups

4/ £Entry Offers (3 disciplines for the price of 2 at Norwich & 3 indoor entries for price of 2)

5/ New Seeded riders

6/ New Ranking lists (UK & Global)

7/ No snowboard license fee

8/ Registration on the day results in a £5 donation to GB Teams (so pre-register, pay on the day though)

9/ More events added to the tour, initially in the form of the Scottish series but more to follow

10/ New sponsors & media partners

11/ New BST Rider rep (Kat Miller)

12/ Dedicated BST Park Designer & Shaper (Damian Doyle)

13/ A regularly updated www.facebook.com/snowtour website

And lastly our new website… www.britishsnowtour.com

Hopefully we’ll see you there, and don’t forget to pre-register if you are competing, if doesn’t cost you anything but it’ll save you a fiver

Regards

Stu

Posted via email from IAmKat’s posterous

Snow Tour | New BST Park Shaper

Kat Miller — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 18:27:07 +0000

New BST Park Shaper

Damo’s onboard! – In additional to the mass of improvements that the British Snow Tour is unleashing this year, things have been taken one step further as the freestyle-shaping prowess of UK’s best-loved snow-sculpted expert, Damian Doyle is brought onboard. Damo and crew will be creating and shaping every British Indoor Championship course from the Trespass Snowboardcross/Skiercross course and Rail Jam set-up at Glasgow, to the Giro Big Air booter at MK, and finally at Protest Slopestyle course at Castleford. Save the dates folks… it’s gonna go off!

View as plain text

via britishsnowtour.com

This is great news, as Rider Rep for the BST I’ve had a lot of feedback about the standard of the big air kickers (and had my own slamtastic issues with them) over the last few years so it’s good to see some changes to the park building crew. I’m looking forward to seeing what Damo puts together for us

Posted via email from IAmKat’s posterous