I spent last night pondering it with Jools and we’ve come to the conclusion that I’ll get more out of doing the Snowflex Series than I will the Snow Tour.  I may still be able to do the MK Big Air leg of the Snow Tour but based on the last 2 years, the kickers won’t be to my liking and I’ll either kill myself on the large kicker again or feel like a complete wuss for stepping down to the mini-size, so we’re leaving that pencilled in as a maybe and we’ll go if we have the spare cash at the time.

It’s such a shame that with such a great scene in the UK that the comp organisers can’t work together to get comps on seperate weekends, I can understand smaller local comps clashing with those at slopes at the other end of the country but when there are two main, established tours in existence and two out of 3 legs clash with each other it does make the conspiracy theorist in you conasider whether it’s been done on purpose.

So what’s made me choose the Westbeach Snowflex Series over the indoor legs  of the British Snow Tour?  Well I realised that despite the TTR ranking points I would get from the Snow Tour there’s very little else about the competition that will benefit me.  With minimal practice time and 2 competition runs I just won’t get the riding time to progress as much as I will do in the Snowflex Series which is a jam format with a 2 run final.  Add into that the consistent nature of Snowflex kickers and I’ll at least be able to use them as day-long practice sessions even if I don’t manage to beat the kids to the finals. Of course there’s also the issue of prizes!   Thankfully the Snow Tour is doing a dry slope weekender with all 3 disciplines at the Norfolk Snowsports centre in Norwich so I’ll be able to shred some plastic and pick up some ranking points at that instead.

It will be interesting to see what happens with the Brits this season as well.  With people already talking about not returning if it goes back to Laax (it’s quite costly) and others wondering whether they’ll go no matter where it’s held (for a range of personal & political reasons) it will be interesting to see whether the dates are announced quickly in a bid to get people signed up and committed or whether they’ll wait to see what other camps, competitions and gatherings are advertised before they make their move.

If you want to register for the Westbeach Snowflex Series you can do so here.  I’d post a link for the Snow Tour as well but their site’s not sorted yet.

I admit to totally wussing out of riding on the day we got there, both Katie Summerhayes and I decided to leave the guys to it, 44 hours with hardly any sleep screamed “accident waiting to happen to me” so I just walked around the slope watching and just chatting to the people who had come up to either watch their friends or just see what was going on at this new slope. The slope is amazing and currently consists of 3 kickers (a knuckle, a 3 foot and a 6 foot kicker) all of which can give you massive air. It was great to see that the locals were already getting the hang of it, with a young lad (the size that Jamie Nicholls used to be) of 9 year old giving 360s a try off the knuckle. There are also 2 boxes, a straight box & a down flat down kink which are placed on the intermediate slope. The slope is also going to be expanded as part of Phase 2 and so the riding area is going to pretty much double and they’re bound to add more jibs to the collection over time. There’s also a nursery slope for beginners to make their first turns on or to tube on.

After a late start on the Thursday we spent the afternoon playing ball and sunning ourselves in the uni pool (after a drive around town to find the outdoor pool with waterslides was closed as school had started) before heading to the slope to ride. I picked up my 150 Humanity Plastictastic, got my bindings screwed in and hit the slopes. After a couple of runs down the main slope to get the feel of the Snowflex and the new snowboard I was ready to start pushing it.

My first reaction to the new snowboard was that it perfect, it’s got plenty of spring and pop for ollies and is a lot flexier than I’m used to but without feeling soggy. I headed up to the kicker drop in and had a chat with Wayne Taylor about drop in speeds for the big kicker. I’d decided to go all out and hit the big one first off because I knew if I hit the 3 footer I’d be too scared to step it up, especially if I stacked it.   So after a couple of ride -throughs over the knuckle to get the hang f the drop in and feel the gradient of the run out I went for it. Dropped in, quick speed check and straightened up for the main 6 footer….up the kicker, in the air and I landed! I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised that the 150 handled the landing without any problem at all, and even more importantly there wasn’t any chatter on the run in either. I spent the rest of the evening working on various grabs and just trying to go bigger each time.

Friday saw us riding again and I was even brave enough to give a FS180 a try on the 6 foot kicker. I landed cleanly, but girly legs took over half way down the landing and I sat down. That was my only spin off the big kicker of the trip (it just felt a little on the large side for me to keep spinning on it) but I did get some good spins off the 3 footer while I was there.

Saturday was the big opening ceremony and it was seriously hot out there! So hot in fact that I put my riding shirt in the bucket of ice with the water in it to cool it down before we hit the slopes in the early afternoon sun. After the sky-diver had landed on the slopes and skiied down the hill I was the first over the kicker….it seemed like a good idea to volunteer to go first initially as it meant that when we started doing named tricks I’d be at the front to do a straight air (rather than being at the back and getting stuck with a 1080!), but as I was waiting to drop in it dawned on me that I was going to be the first person that the waiting crowds (of around 3,200 people) would see. All went well though and although I had a hand down on landing I managed to stay upright and not stack in front of everyone watching or get squashed by the riders who were following me in in quick succession.

After some “Trickology” to show the various tricks possible on skis and snowboards we had a quick team comp. I was part of UK 2, consisting of myself, Will Smith, Matt Macwhirter and Wayne Taylor. Unfortunately UK1 (Jamie Nicholls, Andy Nudds, Woodsy & Katie Summerhayes beat us in the crowd vote and went through to the final against on of the US teams. UK 1 were amazing and won the crowd vote overall. Their run can be seen in this video shown on the local news (in which I also feature!).  It was also great to have Dragon Goggles Team Manager, Sam Nelson, acting as half of the MC crew, it meant that there was someone there who knew our names and what we were doing and made sure we got plenty of shout outs and support from the crowd.  Russ Shea from Dopeshots was also on hand with his trusty camera so hopefully there’ll be some shots from him of us doing our thing.

We rode again on Sunday and as it was after the opening I think everyone was pushing it a little bit more, the pressure was off and people were less worried about hurting themselves. I used the time to keep working on big hits and grab variations and I had a great time. Katie stepped it up to throw down some massive 720s on skis and all the guys were putting in some huge spins. Everyone who hit it agreed that it’s the best kicker we’ve all hit and certainly the best kicker on Snowflex.

Unfortunately all good things have to come to an end, and  so we left Lynchburg on Monday morning and headed to the airport following a quick tourist stop off in Washington, where we saw the White House and the Washington Memorial. Arriving back in the UK yesterday it was great to log in to Facebook and Twitter and catch up on the buzz of the opening and the excitement of all our new friends. It was great to meet everyone from Liberty, the US Team and my boys from Humanity! We were all made to feel so welcome and I can’t wait to see how everyone progresses over the coming months.

Thanks again to Brian, Terry & Wayne for making this trip possible and for taking an old girl like me along with the kids. It meant a lot to be included and I hope I did you proud!

Here’s another movie from the team at Liberty University, great work from Hannah & Ena, I can’t wait to see what else you come up with.

And here’s my Flickr set of the trip

If you’re not an avid fan of me on Twitter then you might have missed seeing the design of my 150, but you can now not only view it, but purchase it, via the Humanity Snowboards shop.  Obviously I’ll be doing a full review after my first shred but if you’re yearning for something new and can’t wait for that then it’s worth snapping up one of the pre-sale boards for $299 (Discount code 1STHMNTY50).  If you find that the pre-sale offer has closed then hit me up for my discount code.

I’ve been pretty much fit to burst for the last few weeks with all the cool stuff going on in my life that I couldn’t share.  Not only have things been going really well on the work front but I had the news of the Humanity sponsorship that was in the pipeline (Leah, when I was constantly checking my phone that night at MK I was waiting for the announcement blog post to go live!) and now the equally cool news that I’m off to Lynchburg, Virgina!

Why?  Well I’m taking the short trip (Chelmsford to Manchester, Manchester to Paris, Paris to Washington, Washington to Lynchburg) in order to ride plasticsnow.  In fact I’m going out as part of the demo team that Snowflex are taking with them to the opening of the slope that’s been built at Liberty University (check out the promo vid) on 29th August.  To say I’m pleased to be invited would be a HUGE understatement, I’m totally blown away by the opportunity not only to be part of a demo team with some of the UK’s best dry slope snowboarders & skiers but also because it’ll give me the chance to show how cool Snowflex is to a group of people who are open minded enough to be excited about the slope, the surface and the fun they can have on it!  Throw into the mix the fact that the hotel we’re staying in has free internet and I’m a happy bunny!

Expect lots of excited Tweets before I go and lots of updates while I’m there, the count down starts now.  The only sad side to things is that Jools will be stuck in the office while I’m playing on what I’ve heard is the most perfect kicker, so for him I’m Blipping “I’m leaving on a jet plane“.  Huge thanks must go to Wayne & Terry for thinking of me for this trip, I won’t let you down guys.