Summer in France

So....it's been a while since I've last written a blog post. Maybe i'll have to go and back date a few when I get the chance! Sshhh don't tell anyone :)

I'm in France for the summer. And I've been really lucky and have really landed on my feet here. I'm living with a french family, renting a spare room. And they are the nicest people, and the nicest family I've met. And i'm not just saying that in case they read it, as they are French :p

I live with the parents and the Grandad of the family as the kids have all moved out. Although they all come by and visit several times a week. And they are all about my age, slightly younger. I feel like i'm part of the family already...well it has actually been almost 2 months! Time flies. Oh, and they have a cat called Jolie, which is even  better!!

I've also got myself a job working in the cafe at a Wakeboard Cable, TNA (www.tna-arenthon.com) I work 6 days a week, but am usually done by 3 or 4 pm which means i have the whole afternoon/evening to ride!! It's great being able to ride everyday...obviously you can't physically ride EVERYday, but it's nice to have the oportunity. Usually after a couple of days of riding your body starts screaming NO, I'M TIRED, and you hav to have a rest. Wakeboarding definitely takes a much bigger toll on your body day to day than snowboarding. Or maybe i'm just not trying hard enough snowboarding :s

  

Anyway, ridings great. It's awesome to be able to do the two sports I love. And at the same time having a break from the other. You get the same buzz from wakeboarding as from snowboarding, but it's also a change of scenery and a bit different. I think it helps you push yourself in the two sports as it doesn't get boring. After a few months the seasons change and it's time to grab the other board!

I made a little edit last week of some riding. I actually filmed it all in one set! So it was all in about 15 minutes of riding...there was a big group of beginners on at the same time so I didn't want to fall off and queue, so just stayed on until I finally fell in! Those of you who ride cable will understand!

Voila, here is the link to the edit

 http://vimeo.com/100221620

Click HERE

I'm pretty pleased with it as I did the editing and found the music...which I think is the hardest part! Let me know what you think!

So apart from that, not much else. My days are work wakeboard sleep repeat. But i'm loving it and hoping to come back next year.

Plans for the winter at the moment are to go to the States for 3 months and ride. Unfortunately without a visa its pretty impossible to work over there, so saving the pennies to make a fun trip. Hoping to get my hands on Katie Blundell and ride with her this winter!!

I've been lucky to get some cool summer wear from Westbeach and Rocket Dog so I can be fashionable down at the lake :) Thanks a lot guys!

   

That's it That's all! Peace

PBRJ Austria, Kitzsteinhorn

Last week there was another Volcom Peanut Butter Rail Jam on in Austria. I headed over with a few of the girls from mayrhofen for the day, Betty, Eva and Bianca. After all this great weather, the forecast was actually for snow showers and high winds! Did I mention Kitzsteinhorn is a glacier.....so yeh it was pretty windy but the weather held out long enough to do the competition! It just meant the run in was a bit icy!

So, we had a quick practice on the setup. It was actually a really nice setup, the rails were really smooth. A few of the options looked a little more daunting, but once I hit them it was fine. Once we found out the format, it turned out we didn't actually have to hit the side features (which were the gap, closeout to downrail options) so most girls opted for the lefthand downrail, double kink, and right hand downrail. The format was best trick on each counts, and you have to hit all 3 features.

The Setup

In the qualis I didn't feel like i had rode my best, as the 20 minute session seemed to go really fast. So I was happy I had another chance in finals. 5 of us out of the 9 entered went through to finals and that went really well. I got my safety tricks down first hits, so then could work on the more difficult ones. Here's a shot of me on the down rail

Front Lip

Really happy to come away with 1st place. All the girls rode really well, especially as we were all a bit cold before going into finals, but after one hike that soon changed! Happy that my two friends Betty and Lisa joined me on the podium in 2nd and 4th place :)

As always, Volcom put on a great BBQ with sweets, chocolates (yum) and even beers! And then loads of throw out prizes at the end for everyone! Definitely one of the best competitions to go to for a fun day out!!

Heres a link to the edit and their write up on the day VOLCOM

Mayrhofen

Mayrhofen!!

I have just moved over to Austria for the winter season. It's the first time I've been here, but I had heard great things from friends and seen some cool videos of the park! I like to try and go to lots of different places, rather than going for the easy option (usually Morzine); so even after hearing how tough it was to find a place to live, I rocked up with my boyfriend Nathan homeless and jobless! 

The snowy view from our balcony,
with Kaltenbach in the background

Everyone was right, it is really difficult. We ended up door knocking for over a week in and around Mayrhofen, using our limited German to try and find an apartment, room or even just a bed! We must have walked miles! Eventually we realised we were going to have to live right out of town if we wanted something soon, and we just wanted to go skiing! We found ourselves a place in Stumm, which is a 25 minute train ride from Mayrhofen. Its really nice, which is what won us over...although it is a good 15 minute walk from the train station across a snowy field and over a tunnel! That'll keep us fit anyway!

So this week we've finally got to go riding! We are close to one of the Zillertal resorts called Kaltenbach which is sick on a powder day! (We've pretty much had powder days everyday!) There are loads of pillows and drops that are really accessible from the lifts...and not even that many people riding them. Lets hope it stays that way once the Christmas crowds get here.

Me and Charlie up at the Hintertux glacier

We've also managed to get up to Hintertux glacier a few times, again we mainly rode powder...but i think we'll be giving that a miss now the other resorts are open as it's REALLY cold up there! I got a bit of a frostbitten nose the last time we were up there in -30 something degrees with windchill!

The baby park in Mayrhofen was open a few days ago, so we went and had a play there on the funboxes for the afternoon....just having a play and getting back into it. But I've heard the jib line might be opening tomorrow so will have to go check that out! 

Snow Park NZ!

Snow Park finally opened at the beginning of the month. We we're all so excited after patiently waiting for the snow to fall! We still haven't got heaps, but it's been enough to get us going. I got some pictures with Tom (TJ) from SWAY COLLECTIVE!  Thanks for the shots Tom!