360 is back! Schlick 2000…

Innsbruck

Ok so it has been a very long time since I have posted any type of blog activity so apologies, although I doubt many of you are heart broken! The observant among you will have noticed that the season is upon us. Santa is waxing his board, the reindeers are tightening their bindings and the elfs are looking frantically for their xxxs snow pants! Yes I am officially a happy bunny once again, the powder is back…and I hope you have all had a fantastic Christmas and New Years!

I find myself composing this entry on the train from innsbruck (austria) to the capital vienna. As I sit in my cabin watching Salzburg fly off into the distance whilst listening to the ever brilliant new Slash album, I can’t help but think of the amazing session that I had two days prior. Innsbruck, the two times Winter Olympics host, was home for the last 4 days and what a home it was! With it’s winter markets, a love of christmas and it’s unrivalled passion for all things winter sports, I along with my beautiful girlfriend fell in love.

The slopes

Unfortunately due to timing issues we were only able to visit one of the many resorts although there is a lot of choice. Which you choose is very dependant on your riding ability and confidence. As we were only able to give ourselves one day riding we chose the highly recommended Schlick 2000. With looping blues through the forests and the occasional challenging reds that make the heart beat that little bit faster Schlick is perfect for most levels. This particular selection of pistes are surrounded by some of the most beautiful woodland scenery I have had the privilege of seeing let alone riding through. On a good day the powder is virtually like riding through clouds, no matter how deep it becomes you will come out the other side.

One particular personal highlight was finding small secluded forest runs running parallel to the main piste. Having to keep the board forward, creating speed in such a narrow space and hitting challenging kickers made this day spectacular!

In other winter related news innbruck is also home of the Olympic bobsleigh run! Of course we had a go!
With a lucky egg in hand, green black and yellow Lycra suits on and a shit load of fear we headed down the 1km run at a terrifying top speed of 120kph (74.56mph) !!! Now as a general rule I don’t allow a large austrian fellow to sit between my legs but I can tell you now half way down I was bloody glad he was there and to be honest I was tempted to wrap my arms around him as opposed to the bars in the bobsleigh! The pressure coming from above, below, the sides and the corners was like nothing I had ever felt before, due to this I decided to give up my feeble attempts to look at what was going on! The journey was over in an astonishing 58 seconds although I swear to god it was only around 10 seconds!

What an experience, my girlfriend is now actively looking to join team GB…

I will touch on this in a later blog but innsbruck is also the home of the largest Burton store in Europe and is the main headquarters of the Europe branch. Needless to say I felt like I had come home…maybe one day.

A quick but well deserved mention for Hotel Mondschein Innsbruck this best western hotel apart from being beautiful in a fantastic location, the staff here were the best, most informative and helpful people I have ever met. 5 star.

The Tamworth Review

The Tamworth Review

Hi there boarders!

It’s been a little while so here goes…

Through the use of this blog I will review certain aspects of the Snowboarding world, be it new equipment, snow resorts and local indoor facilities will all be subject to my own personal (100% amateur) opinion; all of which should be taken as such. As stated before in my opening blog, I am no expert by any means. I am an average Joe who happens to enjoy this sport, I have some knowledge to pass on and I hope it is useful.

Right then! The first review that I have decided to write is that of the Tamworth Snowdome.

I must state prior to writing this entry that this is virtually my home in relation to boarding, I have learnt here, fallen here, smashed up various parts of my body here and honed my skills here. That said I will not write this with a bias mindset, I am aware of it’s good qualities and indeed it’s flaws.

Built in 1994 the 170m slope is by far in a way not the longest slope in the world; I do regularly find myself getting into some sort of groove and before I know it I have had to hit the backside break before taking out a small (massive) group of children. These children do happen to be in pairs of skis so let’s face it, it wouldn’t be that bad…but they are children and I do have some morals…sort of. Despite this length issue *insert crude joke here* I find myself repeatedly going  back.Yeh,ok, nobody is going to be able to get any endurance practice here but with its sharp left turn from the top of the slope it’s long enough to gain enough speed to hit the kickers and practice your basic riding skills. The freshly/daily built kickers along with other toys changing constantly there is enough to keep you (well definately me) busy, I think it’s best to try and master the smaller tricks before hitting the big stuff. There are also additional hidden away (small) academy slopes for learners to practice on which is a hidden bonus!

One of the massive plus points for the Snowdome is its staff. They are a major credit to this organisation! From the reception to the bar from the shop to the instructors, there is always a welcoming smile that is willing to help at any point, this cannot be said for all organisations (not just within snow sports.) I’m never ceased to be amazed at the patience of the instructors. If it were me teaching novices every day I am pretty sure I would go off my freakin rocker! But day in day out these men and women go about there jobs despite the morons who can’t wait and can’t be bothered to learn the basics and end up in the Superman position in mid air…I must apologise for that.They make the experience completely enjoyable for the newcomer. In addition a complimentary lunch or dinner is usually put on for learners which I think is a classy touch.

Facilities and equipment is up to a good standard. The bar and changing area do kind of feel as though they are situated somewhere in the alps with the balcony overlooking the slope, it’s little things like this that endear me to places. It’s the added effort that goes a long way.

I must say I am extremely glad that I have my own equipment when visiting; I fully understand that nobody in their right mind is going to give newbies the best of the best only to break and destroy, but wearing rental boots and stiff bindings could be the death of me after a 3 hour lesson. In saying that the boards are predominantly all Burton and are at a good entry level and no first timer needs anything else.

Finally, save the best until last! It’s real snow! This snow is piste bashed after each session and makes the experience even more enjoyable and realistic in comparison to mountain ranges. This snow can also be hired from the dome if you are planning on having a snow party in the middle of August (just a thought.)The Tamworth Snowdome is a great resource, located in the midlands it is accessible for many across the board. If you are a pro then no this is not the place to go probably, you should probably be out doing a season or maybe sponsored by Red Bull. But if you’re like me and enjoy trying new things on the slopes or just want to learn then I say whole heartedly give it a go here!

As a final, final note, the famous BRUM showed his headlights at the dome a few years ago and even caught some dastardly thieves on the slopes so it can’t be bad ey? Is it me or in Brum all they do is steal or break the law? Just me that watches then…I digress.

To check the Tamworth Snowdome out in full and to experience it yourself visit their website 
http://www.snowdome.co.uk/
 and sign up to their mailing list as a tip. There are constantly offers and deals to be had, it’s well worth it!

Keep Boarding people x

Theboardroom360

Summer Boardom…

Ok so first things first. Apologies to anybody following this blog, I did make  the statement that this would be posted yesterday afternoon but hey, life sometimes gets in the way! It’s here now so let’s get on with it shall we?

I must make the point that I do fully understand the irony of creating a snowboard blog at the end of June but I do require something to get me through the, quite frankly, dull summer months. Since my introduction to the world of snow sports I have wanted to do very little else apart from hit the piste whilst attempting to catch air off kickers that could possibly
maim me! Living in the middle of England poses one major problem, it’s an obvious yet rather large issue folks; very little snow. Where I live (a small town called Malvern) we were forecast a relatively white winter, yet to my memory all I can remember is approx 3 days of the glorious white stuff. None of which settled for any amount of time. Now in some respects boarders in my town are relatively lucky as we are blessed with the beautiful Malvern Hills which when covered in snow are stunning! Although these moments are few and far between, even then the powder doesn’t tend to be deep enough.  The only time these conditions happened to be perfect I happened to be in the middle of Sydney Australia on my travels! Freakin wonderful!

I have quite often thought of moving to a colder climate during the summer months, New Zealand during our summer period is particularly cold offering excellent snow sport opportunities. I again was unfortunate whilst in the southern hemisphere to have missed the NZ snow season by 1 solitary week! ONE!!!!! My buddy living out there now informs (constantly mocks) me on how brilliant life is out on the mountains. A big part of me dislikes him now…although I’m not bitter…I think.

Canada is also a place I have always wanted to board yet their seasons are pretty much identical to Europe, so it would be kind of retarded to give that serious thought right now.

What I really need is a summer sport that can live up to the excitement of my winter one. I thought I had found it on the east coast of OZ at the most relaxed place on earth, Spot X. This place, no joke was a version of heaven. Having bbqs leading out onto the beach and sitting around a fire in the evening on surf board benches is my idea of perfection. As Two Season says, “Life is always better in board shorts” I couldn’t put it better myself! If i could I would snowboard in them. Anyway as you may have guessed by the benches, this summer sport was Surfing. Straight away I fell in love and it became pretty natural, standing up and riding in on my first attempt was a great feeling. I did keep this up and even surfed in Byron bay on small boards and I was confident that this was it, until I arrived home. I live in the Midlands people, NO FREAKIN SEA!!! Back to the drawing board!

Boarders, let’s look forward to the cold and dark mornings that will inevitably (hopefully) bring the glorious frozen rain from the sky and provide us with true happiness. Until then lets at least pray summer does improve so that we can at least get to show off our legs for a while.

Also ESPY Nominations are out! Vote for best male action sports athlete, Big names this year. Click on the link below to cast your vote for this and other awards.

http://espn.go.com/espys/voting?vote=8082987&lang=en

 

Until Next time boarders x

We are social networking people!

https://twitter.com/#!/Theboardroom360

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Here are the two links for my twitter feed and facebook page, follow and like to get a 360 view!!

Here’s the first official tweet!

Theboardroom360‏@Theboardroom360
http://theboardroom360.wordpress.com/
Hey twitter world! Here is the official blog for theboardroom360. Hope you enjoy, have a great day!!

 

Let’s get this thing running!

Motherflippers!!!

Welcome to the Boardroom360 motherflippers!!!

After a completely sober conversation ( I wish I had been drunk)  with my missus I had the utterly marvellous idea to start my very own blog…the only real issue being that I was pretty unsure what to write about. which on the whole is relatively important to a successful blog!

Ergo, thus, therefore I decided to muse upon my passion; this being the wonderful, amazing, fantastic, groin grabbingly brilliant, bollock achingly stupendous world of Snowboarding!!!!

Now let’s not get carried away. I am by no means an expert on this subject BUT I want this page to be enjoyable for anyone who dares to read it and enjoyable for me, the muppet, to write. I will attempt to integrate trending topics from the boarding community, display new technologies and share my own experiences with you lot! I will also (occassionally) tangent off to something completely unrelated…apologies.

If you like what you see then follow me and leave lovely comments, if not then go grab a pair of skis and motherflip off.

Stay tuned boarders

x