Well, after 2 weeks of scouring the internet for suitable shops to try on boots (and largely failing miserably due to the time of year and most shops being completely sold out) I took my new board along to the snowdome today with the aim of trying it out using hire boots & also checking in their shop (The Snowboard Asylum) for any potential boots.
The guys in TSA were incredibly helpful & knowledgable, I had a chat with one guy and he sat down and checked out the size and shape of my foot etc. - it was a good 5-10 minutes before I actually saw any boots. When he came back he had 1 pair of boots (Vans "Andreas Wiig") and explained that it was the only pair out of all their stock that was a suitable size/shape for my feet! Well, all I can say is, that guy deserves a pay rise - the boots fitted perfectly!
I walked around the shop in them, flexed, tried different typical snowboard positions, and they felt spot on - it went against everything I'd read about trying on as many different boots as possible but I bought them straight away. The guys then heat moulded them to my feet and also kindly set up my new board for me and applied some liquid wax stuff (good for one session really).
Then, £110 lighter, I set off for our 2 hour session on the slopes.
The phrase 1 step forwards and 2 steps back comes to mind. The new board setup was clearly an intermediate setup wheras I was used to the more forgiving beginners boards that you get from the snowdome. As a result, as happy as I was with my new gear, my boarding wasn't up to the same level as last time I was there - I fell off several times, was very wobbly / shakey, and had the kicker been out I wouldn't have attempted it as my confidence was knocked a little.
I realised however that this was normal, the board was less forgiving, so I had to up my game a bit, and by the end of the 2 hours I was getting better again - in fact technically even better than before as I'd had to be more precise with my movements. So I wasn't put off, but this made me even more determined to come back again soon and get more practise!
At the end of the day, I was happy with my new setup.
As mentioned in my previous post, my re-kindled love of snowboarding sent me scouring the internet for "things I need to buy" (this is what I do when it comes to hobbies) and I stumbled across a guy selling his snowboard, bindings & bag for an incredibly reasonable £110!
The board was a Salomon "Driver", 160cm length. The bindings Burton "Contour"
Obviously it meant very little to me, all I knew was that the board was roughly the right length (I'd actually ridden a 155 on holiday but my height dictates that 160 is about right) and the bindings were big enough for my size feet / boots.
Most importantly, it was an absolutey blinding bargain!
So I popped along and met the guy selling them, who had boarding briefly then swapped his sport of choice to skydiving (fair play) and soon became owner of my own gear! All I needed now were boots but this was a job for a snowboarding shop as I'd read a million times over that the most important piece of equipment was the boots and they had to fit & fit well!
With a plan to go to the snowdome again in a fortnight, the search for boots was on!
Despite the fantastic holiday in January, my eagerness to go away again & my snowdome membership - it's actually taken me this long to get back to the snowdome and on a board!
It was a present from my girlfriend who is a skier (& knew I wanted to get back on the slope), we went for a 2 hours recreational session which I was interested to see how I managed after 4 months of no boarding!
Well, it turned out I managed just fine, got straight back into it and found my feet fairly quickly.
Towards the end of the session I even had a breakthrough, I attempted a small kicker (jump) half way down the slope - having ridden past it on every run and thinking about the one in France I wished I'd tried out.
I just slowed up as I approached, then made sure I hit it dead on. First attempt and I fell on landing - just a controlled fall so wasn't too bad really and I was determined to try again.
My 2nd attempt was much better, I took the same approach, but just somehow had the confidence as I figured I could do this - and I did! I landed it twice in a row before our session on the slope came to an end.
Needless to say, this session - and particularly the success with the kicker - totally rekindled my thirst for snowboarding, & I vowed I would try and visit the snowdome at least once a month from now on - preferably more!
I also soon found myself back on the goneboarding snowboarding forum and scouring ebay for the next purchase...
