Hitting the snow

Yesterday courtesy of my awesome boyfriend me and my snowboarding jacket (the humbug) hit the real (but purposefully generated) snow at Milton Keynes. I'd wanted to go snowboarding for ages, although I get cold really easily I've always loved snow and after attending the freeze festival (blog post here) and seeing some of the best snowboarders in the world fly (there really is no other way to describe it) I definitely wanted a go. I had a holiday booked but due to my house nearly falling down (hot water cylinder & fuse box I'm looking at you here) I hadn't been able to go. Jam's birthday present was a total surprise and when he told me what we were doing on Friday night I had a mixture of feelings going on. I was really excited to try it but I do tend to be one of those people who has to work at stuff to get good, so I was a bit worried I'd be holiding Jam up (as he has done it before). Turns out I needn't have worried, it was easy to get my balance on the board (all that teenage skating did have a purpose) and it was really natural to control the board. I had a jacket and trousers from the trip that didn't happen but all the hire for the bindings, board and instruction were included in the price of the lesson (including my awesome board, purple with a little cat freaking out on it, erm have we met?). Before I could really get nervous we were at the top of the slope. Instructor Nick showed us the basics of getting in and out of our bindings and explained how the snowboard works (you need to bend your knees to go anywhere and just keep your weight over the board) with that he asked us to try and get down the slope backwards (it's easier than going forwards apparently but obv you can't see where you are going). One of my major worries was that I wouldn't be strong enough to handle the board but I actually found by just relaxing the board went by itself (although I could do with a bit more leg muscle to turn the board over at the top of the slope). The feeling when you are moving though was really magical, I can see why people get hooked, Nick taught us how to refine our balance and also how to go left and right (you basically just look where you want to go, your body does the rest, which is why looking at the snow is bad). At the end of the session we were given our progress sheets and I'm pleased to say I passed level 1 9just like Jam) so we can now progress to beginners 2! Wooo! We were completely wiped after only an hour (its all the getting up the hill and in and out of bindings I think that does it the actual snowboarding was a breeze) so headed off for some tasty Mexican which definitely restored energy levels. I'm hoping Jam and I can work through the grades together and maybe I can hit foreign slopes with him some time? At the moment I'm still really buzzing from the whole experience, bring on level 2! (next challenge get as good as these girls

Another awesome video here:

Freezing up

So yesterday we hit the Freeze festival in London for Lindsay's birthday. Kitty drove the car in to her aunts and then we caught the tube to battersea power station. It was pretty clear where the festival was being held, loads of surfy/ski types were spilling out of the pubs nearby and you could see the main jump from quite a distance (it's build so the kicker-thing you jump off - positions you right in the middle of the power stations chimneys, it truely is a spectacular setting. Lindsay is a pro skier and has taught in Geneva where she grew up so we thought this would be the perfect birthday present for her. Most of the skiing stuff was taking place as we arrived, there were two conests the jumping and also freestyle using various poles/jumps etc set up at the bottom of the main jump. It was pretty absorbing hence why there are no photos of that bit, but I did manage to get my camera out for the ski guys flattening out the snow ready for the snowboarders :-). The snowboarding session was one of the stages in the x games contest & the highest scorers went down to the heat to see who would get the most points going forward. Some of the jumps were epic and you almot forgot how high the jump was. After the snowboarding had finished we enjoyed a couple of desperadoes each (it's beer with Tequila, sounds horrible but is really nice) and grabbed some food before the evenings bands (Calvin Harris and the eagles of death metal) started before finally making our way home. What a great day!