Since I needed to take my bindings off when I was waxing my board I’ve decided to change my snowboard stance from duck to a more traditional forward stance, I’ve decided to settle for +21°/+6° for the time being and see how it works out. Hopefully it will feal more natural and I’ll be able to travel faster. If you want to know about snowboard stance why not check this out.

Today I’ve finally got round to waxing my snowboard in preperation for my next trip to Castleford, I think I’ve done a good job but can’t be sure until I get chance to test it out. I took some photos which can be found here.

Snowboards need to be regularly waxed to keep the base running nice and fast. Applying a fresh coat of hot wax every few times you ride is ideal. Or if you notice that your board’s base looks especially dry or seems to be running slow, now is a good time for a hot wax.

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Not much has been happen here in the past two days since I last checked in, other than Shutty getting the hump. It seems as though I cut him up while on the slope, although this I refute. (At this point I was going to explain what happened, but can’t since it turns out that this occasion was so memerable that I don’t remember it.) Anyway he got the hump and rather than waiting at the bottom of the slope like he usually does he got his knickers in a twist and went off back to the hotel, leaving me waiting for him at the bottom of the slope for 45 minutes. I was thinking that maybe he’d hurt himself, so this was perhaps was a reckless thing to do, if he ever does hurt himself I won’t be waiting at the bottom. Anyway he’s been a bit arsey ever since so I can see this being a fun night. Its fair to say that I’m quite looking forward to coming home now.

Well I’ve had two more full days of snowboarding action, and what more can I say, other that absoloutly amazing, If I were a Canadian I believe I would describe it as awsome. Yesterday was a bit of a strange day really because as much as I wanted to be on the slopes, we had to stop early as both mine and Stephens legs hurt in places I didn’t even know existed.

But today I don’t know what to say, I got off to my usual slow start, being a bit nurvious of turning at high speeds, but after lunch I made some adjustements to my board and things seemed much better. We’ve been hitting mainly red runs which at the moment is more that enough although I think by the end of the week we’ll be hitting a few black runs.

The weather has been pretty inclement as its been snowing all day and at one point there was a huge cloud half way up the slope which reduced visibility a lot, but its all good as I recon there will be a load of new poweder for us to play on.

Anyway thats the build up here comes the mail event, because today believe it or not I managed to beat Mr Stephen “I’m a bit psycho with a death wish” Shutt to the bottom of the slope and you’ll never guess how I did it. It was made possible by a 1 litre glass of beer, it was amazing. We went straight back on the slopes after I’d drank it and boy did it work. I got off to my usual start but Stephen had a unusually bad one, I wasn’t paying much attention and was just minding my own business until at the half way point when I realised that I was still in front of him, so obviously I decided to try my best to stay that way. I took a deep breath and went for it. No longer was I afraid, because I had to beat Stephen. And I did, not by much, but enough. I was fast where I was usually slow, I was turning where I would usually have stayed on my edges. So from now on I shall be snowboarding while under the influance.

Tomorrow we hit the black runs!

Bye for now I’m off for a beer.

So the past two days have been a bit of a blur really. They started at 1AM on Sunday 15th when I picked Stephen up for our snowboarding adventure. It involved a quite dull journey to Manchester airport, I was quite tired due to not having much sleep, but the journey was uneventful. When we got there we dropped the car off and checked in. I hadn’t eaten much so we grabbed a bite to eat then proceeded to the checkin lounge, which was rubbish. I so badley wanted to sleep, but couldn’t. To cut a long storey short, we waited ages, boarded our plane and then landed.

Upon landing we had to wait ages for our luggage and my board bag, we then had another 4 hour journey on a bus to the resort. I did miss out on the journey as I did keep nodding off for the odd five minute period now and again. Here are the highlights for the rest of the day, checked in, took a look round town, went to wecome meeting, had meal and then went to bed.

Today has been much more exciting, today we hit the slopes, and it has been good, its much much better than the slopes back in the UK. I ache a bit now, but hopefully should be back in working order tomorrow.

We’ve been mainly sticking to the blue runs today which is fine by me while I build up my confidence. We did do a red run on our third time down the mountain, which was a mistake, I did take my revenge on Shutty by wiping him out as my ‘heel egde to toe edge turn’ went ever so slightly wrong.

Anyway I’m gonna go now because this silly french keyboard is confusing me, you can read more about our holiday on Shuttys site, but frankly I wouldn’t bother cos he makes me sound like a girl.

Holidays are great aren’t they. Well in a weeks time I’ll be in Andorra on my first snowboarding holiday. Hopefully it will be good cos I’ve just booked two weeks in Canada for next year.