The ski season is over for another year and I am looking forward to some epic nights at the Castleford Sno!dome catching up with everyone and riding some sick summer setups.
I haven't posted on my blog since leaving for Europe in January but finally I have some time to stop and re-live the 2011 winter..
Urban spot in Livingo, mid March
After the Freeze I took a pre season trip out to Les Diablerets where there was a really fun early winter park. upon returning to the UK I found that the country had been pounded with snow so we set out on a mission to hit urban rails around Leeds and Manchester.
Les Diablerets, Switzerland and Hitting the Quad kink, Beckhill, Leeds
Here is Diggin' in the Crates, a pre season edit showing what we made of this surprise snow, the Diablerets trip and some banger park set ups in the Sno!zone at Castleford.
I Left for Poland at the End of January with Rasta Rob and the rest of the Unity Crew for the first leg of my European trip. The first stop was in Zakopane for the Polish Open. The competition went really well for me, I picked up a second place and received a cheque for 1000 zl, stoked! Here is a write up about the event on the Unity news pages: HERE
After another legendary Polish Open afterparty, it was time to get down to business in the streets of Poland. Rasta Rob filmed all week for the upcoming 3rd Unity movie "Strictly Business". I have seen a sneek peek and this years movie is set to be a huge step forward for Unity Productions. Stay tuned for more on the movie towards the end of the summer. HERE is a write up about the week.
Next stop was Livingo, set to be my home for the next 6 weeks. I lived with The Black Label crew Joe Tomlinson and Nathan Conolly. Livingo was a new experience for us and it did not disappoint, by far the best park I have ever ridden in Europe. Here is a short edit by Rasta Rob of our first day out on the mountain.
I spent the rest of February and most of March skiing and enjoying the Livingo experience. We decided that our crib needed its very own rail garden, it took us a while to get it built however, fun times followed. Here is a little edit we put together...
The Livingo park crew were unbelievable with the standard of their shaping and worked non stop to keep the jumps perfect, here is a quick run I took down the pro line
At the end of March Harry Foskett made a trip out to see us to shoot some pictures for various magazines. He wanted to get some back country shots which was proving to be a little tricky as the European winter had been very dry and we hadn't had any powder the whole time in Livingo. We got lucky at the end of the week as the sky's clouded over and a big storm rolled in. I got one epic day in shooting with Harry in the Livingo Backcounty, Here is a shot that never was, I wanted to do a slash high up on this wind lip but some punters cut across it as Harry was preparing the shot. The other photos from this trip Harry is keeping for the magazines and I will post them as and when they are published.
I Left Livingo for Lake Tahoe on the 27th of March. Before I left Tomo and myself filmed a little Black Label Project edit, here it is, "State Ya Name"
Europe was having one of the worst winters in recent years, in comparison on the west coast of the USA they were having their best winter since they began recording snow fall at the start of the 70's. I arrived in Truckee, Lake Tahoe, California to be greeted by the most snow I have ever seen!
I got to live a child hood dream and got to ski at Squaw Valley in deep powder!
I spent 6 weeks in Tahoe and got to ride at Heavenly and Sierra and got some amazing spring days in at Northstar. When the mountain closed on the 24th of April there was still plenty of snow left to enjoy Boreal which is planning to stay open until July!
Here is a little sunset spring edit I filmed at Boreal with Lynsey
Before I left Tahoe I wanted to Jump off the train tunnel featured in FODT productions "Arena" movie. The conditions were not good the day we went up to hit it and the landing was bullet proof. I had to build a track along the top of the tunnel as the snow had melted but I had a go!
Upon returning to Europe I headed to Kunetal in Austria for a final week enjoying the spring conditions and lapping the Glacier park there!
A water splash at the Kunetal glacier in Mid May
This winter has been an amazing experience for me, I got to travel to some amazing places, ski some great parks and ride some epic backcountry in one of America's biggest winters. I have a ton of footage to review from America and I will try to get a new edit done soon. I will be back at Castleford Sno!dome for the summer and had my first night out on Thursday riding with Andy Collin, Bring on the summer!