Saturday 31 December 2011

New board - Never Summer SL

Having had a busy year and not managing to get on my board in nearly a year since my last holiday in Jan, I finally encouraged myself with the purchase of a new board. Having ridden my mates boards in Jan - a Burton Custom and Burton Deuce, I sought a little advice from the Gone Boarding forum so that I could find something which handled in a similar way (compared to my old board which now felt like riding a flat plank of wood in comparison). 
One of the recommendations was a Never Summer SL, not being able to afford a brand new board I kept my eye on ebay for one of these along with several other boards and in the end it was the SL that won. 


Once the board was delivered I took it along to Tamworth for a quick try out and wasn't disappointed, it handled exactly how I wanted it to and felt great (despite nearly a year off) - going back again next week for another practise session and looking forward to getting another boarding holiday booked now!

Saturday 5 February 2011

2011 Snowboarding holiday - Chamonix

The holiday this year never went quite as planned but turned out well all the same. We ended up heading to Chamonix and a 4-bloke trip in a car ended up an 8-person trip (by plane thankfully) staying in a self catering chalet in Les Houches. The chalet itself was pretty nice and spacious, could easily have accomodated another couple of people also. The group consisted of 5 guys who were all snowboarders ranging from several years to 20+ years experience, and 3 girls who had never tried it before (though 1 had skiied a lot).
After the inevitable drink-friendly first night we had an easy start on Sunday morning, heading for a few runs at Les Grande Montets before moving onto La Tour where the girls had their first lessons on the learner slopes. After which we played on the learner slopes for a while (great opportunity for messing about) & did a few runs up the mountain to the bigger red slopes up there.
On day 2 we went to Les Houches where we got a cable car up and the girls had another learner slope to practise on (with a travellator this time) whilst the guys went down the main slopes which included the Kandahar run (olympic thing) and also the DC board park which had some big ramps. We missed the return bus so decided to pub-crawl our way back around the valley which worked out quite well.
Day 3 we discovered the train and went back to Le Tour so the girls could play and we could go on the big runs. Turns out the train stop was at the bottom of a big hill so if you're visiting, get the bus up the hill! (though on our return we boarded and board-sledged back down the side of the road so that was ok. The train incidentally stops at most of the major towns, is far quicker than the bus, only has limited people on it (unlike the jam packed bus) and is free if you have the correct pass from your chalet (otherwise £4.50 each direction).
On day 4 some of the girls & guys took a day off to go sight seeing up the mountains, so the remaining 3 of us went to the Le Praz & Chamonix slopes which were great, some good open blue & red runs going along the valley rather than straight up / down, culminating in a nice little blue run giving plenty of opportunities for playing - which we did numerous times.
On day 5 the girls took the day off again, the rest of the guys joined us and we went back to the Le Praz & Chamonix slopes for a bit before heading back over to Les Grande Montets to the top of a quite steep red run - at which point one of the guys mysteriously lost his bottle and struggled to point his board down the slope! Got there in the end though. There was also a small board park here we discovered but by this point were too shattered to have a go.
The final day we went back to Les Houches, left the girls on the learner slopes and explored a bit more, there were some nice runs to be had around here away out the back of the main slopes & we finished the day by doing a small part of the Kandahar which turned out to be not too bad at all!


Favourite spot of the week I think has to be either the Le Praz / Chamonix slopes or the Les Houches slopes. Les Grande Montets seemed limited to a very punishing red or ungroomed blacks and Le Tour had a couple of nice runs but the only way from them across to the other side of the valley was a long windey ski-friendly blue which we avoided.
There was also of course Verbier (in Switzerland) & Courmayer (in Italy), each of these were a full days trip and the chalet people wanted to charge us £25 / head (so £200) to take us across to Italy so we decided against it.


In summary, it's not a bad place to ski at all, it's not overly expensive more than anywhere else (Courcheval was worse), and the slopes are fairly decent with a good variety, but the major major stumbling block for us I think was that the different ski areas were not linked, you had to do a fair bit of travelling either on a cramped hot & sweaty bus (no good for hangovers) for a good hour or so, or you had to time it right and get the every-two-hours trains. The total ski area is huge but compared to somewhere like the 3 valleys where you can just jump on a lift and have access to the whole place, Chamonix area was a pain in the backside - we felt like we only spent half the time skiing each day that we could have done, and a good hour each day walking in full gear with boards!


I also discovered whilst playing on the other guys boards that I want a new board and bindings! Toe cap bindings seem to be the way forward to avoid some foot pain, whilst the guys boards had a much better profile than mine which meant they turned more easily and were easier to ride - there's an expense I don't really need!!


On top of that, my boots have had a couple of bits come loose on them (though they'll be good for at least another trip yet - I may even be able to repair them) and one of the studs on my helmet came off (having rusted) - again its still usable at the moment but I was a bit disappointed with these 2 items suffering as they have done!


Another thing I will be investing in I think is a new board bag and suitcase, both with wheels! Carrying my gear for the short time from plane to transfer and transfer to chalet was a nightmare!


My boarding went well enough, only had 1 real fall and that wasn't too bad (thanks largely to my helmet). Managed to do plenty of popping on flatter ground so will be moving onto 180's soon enough, didn't get much opportunity for off-pisteing (or just-at-the-side-pisteing) due to the lack of snow, I also seemed to have some sort of mental block when it came to lift exiting and fell over numerous times, though I put it down largely to the lack of decent stomp pad grip so I'll be remedying that with some spikes soon enough!


All in all, it was of course a good holiday, don't think I'll be returning to Chamonix anytime soon - though if it was an only choice or very cheap option I would happily go back and just try to find better located accommodation (or time the buses better).