Week 18 - Dropping off
Week Ending 9/4/6

It’s been another fun week this week. The weather has been perfect. Hot, sunny, shorts weather days, mixed in with late season snow flurries have meant the conditions on and especially off-piste have been superb!

I’ve been trying new stuff on my board this week. I’ve tried a few ‘drop-offs’ basically a drop off is a 6ft+ step in the snow (generally over a large boulder or cliff wall) that you need to ride or ski at a good pace, go over the edge, feel yourself drop, then land and carry on moving without falling over.

The first couple of times I tried the one at the top of the off-piste at the Grand Pre piste I just went up to the edge then tipped my board over. The rocks poking out below scratched my board (getting a big Oooh…Ow… from the other guys I was with.) which pissed me off, so I made my mind up to hit it with more speed next time.

At which point I just caught the tail of my board on the rocks, then later I did it with more speed and more confidence and managed to clear the rocks altogether. It felt so good! Next day it snowed more and the next day I took this video. I don’t know if this’ll work but I’m going to try to stick the video into a new page so click here to see if it works.

I had some weird news this week. I was chatting to Jimmy, the head barman from where Cath used to work, and I asked how she was doing because I hadn’t heard from her or seen her for a while. He looked slightly, embarrassed for a second as if he didn’t quite know what to say, then said “You don’t know? She went home about 3 or 4 weeks ago… I assumed she probably would’ve told you…” I couldn’t describe the feeling I felt, I suppose it was sadness that even if we did break up badly, it’s sad that for the sake of all the good times we had she could’ve at least sent a text to say she was off.

Anyway, there was another Natives event this week, this time in Tignes. The Fat Face Night Ski (which Natives organised) involved a load of pro and amateur skiers and boarders doing tricks and jumps onto pre-made rails and boxes. A box is long flat and about a foot wide and a rails is anything under about 6 inches wide.) I’ve never ridden a rail before, only a box at the Milton Keynes snow dome, so I thought I’d enrol in the ‘Fat Academy’ for people who’ve never done it before.

I kept falling off to start with, but I got it by the end. Again, hopefully here’s a video of me doing a 50/50 on the learner rail.

After ‘Fat Camp’ as we were calling it, I got involved with organising the main event by heading up to the top of the course (one huge kicker, followed by a bunch of rails varying in difficulty) to set all the contenders off. I had to pick an entrant then tell them to go at the right time, then radio in their jersey number to the judges.

There were about 60 entrants on skis and boards, and they all ended up taking about 45seconds/1minute on their warm up ‘jam’ session. That meant for some people there was up to an hour’s wait to either start or get a second run. They were getting pissed off, agitated, cold, and it was snowing. I had to try to placate them and keep them in order for the judges. It was pretty good fun, once you put a walkie-talkie in your hand and look a little bit in control, people argue, but they generally do what you say. It’s quite a good feeling! At one point, a boarder sitting behind me covered in snow said ‘You’re doing a good job mate. I don’t envy your role at all…’

We all went to Crowded house in Tignes for the after show party where Fat face and Natives were handing out loads of freebies to the assembled punters and competition winners. It was a really good night and it got me chatting to the girls that work in the Fat Face shop in town, which is a good thing because they’re both really fit, and really good fun.

The next day I happened to meet up with them at the Grand Pre lift and we had a fun afternoon playing around on kickers and teaching each other tricks. I’m now trying to perfect the tail press one of them taught me, where I lean right back over the tail and travel along the piste with my board bent high upwards in a cheeky wheelie. It was good fun going out with hot, girl boarders because it made me want to pull off the tricks and look really flash even more than usual!

I’m really feeling the love with snowboarding at the moment. I can’t believe I’ll be home in a couple of weeks. I know that it took me about a month to get up to the standard I was last year, and it seems a real shame to think I may never be (and feel) this good again if I only have 1 ski holiday per year. It’s really making me think, do I want to work another season? Of course I do, stupid question. But I’ve been out of the country for nearly 3 years now and I still feel like grounding myself is the right thing to do. It’s sad but true. I love the mountains but unfortunately they’re all so bloody far away from home and family.

Anyway, back to this week. Just to prove we can make a drinking game out of anything, Cool Runnings was on the DVD player and we decided to drink every time someone said ‘Bobsleigh’ or ‘sled!’ Then we moved back onto some more conventional drinking games. I also shaved Slash's head (at his request.) I didn't realise how patchy hair goes when you just randomly cut it with scissors...

I went out boarding again with the Fat face girls and found out they both have boyfriends which is quite annoying. Especially as I feel like I’ve lightened up emotionally since I’ve found out Cath has gone. There was always the possibility that there’d be an ugly, drunken emotional scene some night somewhere, and I didn’t realise how much I’d been subtlety keeping my head down when I’ve been out in case she was around. I suppose its emotional immaturity, but I feel like a weight has been lifted that I didn’t even know was there.

With that in mind I went into Jimmy’s bar for a drink and walked into a shit-storm as one of the friends of a girl I’d seen around and had just introduced myself to, went “That’s Matt from the Tov. Cat’s ex, Matt.” At which point I got a look of scorn from about 5 different girls. I knew one of them was Cath’s really good mate so I thought I’d tackle the tiger head on and find out why Cath left, what she left to do and if she was happier now etc, and basically got a bollocking for about 45 minutes. Next day while I was out with the Fat Face girls, I found out they both had boyfriends. I think I should just got back to my original theory from a few months ago that women are a pain in the arse and I should just concentrate on snowboarding.

But where’s the fun in that?