First ride of the season!

I'm just back in Chamonix after 3 days riding in Tignes, my first slide of the winter.

I'm over there with a couple of private clients, (one on skis Rhiannon, partner of a regular Snowboard client of mine, Lee) who are training up for a Lyngen Alps trip later in the winter.

We have spent the first 3 days working on technique, which has gone really well. I've worked on building their understanding of how skis and snowboards actually work, building their understanding of what they actually need to do physically to bend the ski or Snowboard in the right place at the right time to make it follow a line that works with the terrain that they ride.

Line and how you look and read the mountains terrain is the key here, you can't change technique if you don't follow a line that works with the terrain. You can't for example work the end of the turn, which is the most important part of the turn in terms of speed control into the next turn, to create a flowing working line, if you focus on looking down the slope at the end of your turn.

You line will basically follow where you look, most riders look at to steep a line down the slope which means they carry too much speed and have to skid and rotate.

Anyway, without getting into it to much, you cant change technique without changing someones concept of where they look and how they ride the mountain. likewise, with out an understanding of how your equipment actually works, in terms of sidecut and flex, you can't really understand the movements needed to actually work your Snowboard or skis.

Simply put...Understanding your equipment means that you know where to apply pressure to it in order to flex it appropriately to the line you want to ride.

Understanding the line that works with the terrain and the speed you want to carry is fundamental, and seems obvious, but you'd be surprised at how many people suffer in their technique and riding simply because of where they look and how they read the terrain.

Once you understand these first 2 elements you then need to learn the simple and natural body movements that are used in order to apply pressure to the board/ski in the right place in order to flex it into the line you want to ride.

When you get it right you riding will flow with the terrain and you can play around with variations of the working line putting your own inspiration to the mountains canvas!

Get it?

Ok, anyway, Tignes has been fun, the Glacier is in quite good condition and the home run is ok but purely man made snow. It hasn't really snowed yet this winter (2 days a few of weeks a go) and so there's basically nothing off piste or below the permanent snow line.

In Tignes this means that we're restricted to the Glacier with nothing else open. Elsewhere, only areas with lift access on Glaciated terrain are open for business so far.

Tignes has been good this last few days and I head back over there tomorrow for another 3 days.

I have a week off and then I'm back to Tignes for a week and then its full speed ahead for the winter through until May!

I had a great day riding yesterday, I'd forgotten how much fun the Jones flagship is to ride. It totally inspired me for the season ahead.

All we need is the snow!

I did another Haute Savoie FFC (French Federation Cyclisme) meet last Saturday at the velodrome in Geneva.

My second time racing and I finished 2nd in the Scratch race and 1st in the flying lap Time Trial (in the masters Cat/over 30's) so I was pretty stoked on that!

I'm going to try to keep this going over the winter but I'll have to see how my legs fair with riding all day and intense sprinting in the evenings?

What else is new?

I just got a load of Salomon high backs in to put on my Splitboard fleets 'Spark R&D' Bindings. This should make them super responsive as last years 'Spark' highbacks where way to soft. This year they have stiffened them up and you can get new highback from 'Spark' to upgrade your old kit. The Salomon ones fit and work super well though so I worked my connections and they 'look and are' the business.

2 places are now available on a Splitboard intro course 23rd Jan, due to a cancellation. These are the last places available this winter, except for 1 place on my Lyngen/Norway trip (unless more cancellations come up, so keep checking back!) Ruth has waiting lists for quite a few courses now so contact her if you want to get on a list for something.

Right, that's enough of my waffle for now, I've plenty to get ready before I head back to Tignes (via a training session on the track in geneva) tomorrow.

All is good out here! But would be better if it snowed some!!

Snow is forecast for the weekend so we wait and see!

Neil.

Final check list before the first ride!

Well, this is it, I start my winter this coming winter with a Private course in Tignes!

So far the skies are blue and we're still enjoying amazing Autumn like conditions out here in the Alps. Great for cycling, but not so good for the Snowboarding!

For the past few years, I've not started my season before the Christmas week though to although there's no snow at the moment there is till another month before I'd normally expect to start riding so I'm no overly concerned as yet.

There's always snow up on the Glacier in Tignes so I'm quite looking forward to getting back on board and having a slide.

I'll be taking my Splitboard along as I'm riding with a couple that will heading out to Norway to tour in the Lyngen Alps (although not on my trip). Lee came out to Lyngen with me on my previous trip but will this year go armed with a Splitboard for the first time and so wants to practice some skills and Rhiannon will be touring on skis so I'll be skiing a little this next week to, which will be fun. There's obviously not going to be a lot of Off piste or touring possible but I'm sure there'll be places to go and it's always nice to just get out the back away from the pistes and have some time in the mountains on your own. I'm looking forward to it!

I've been sessioning the Velodrome quite a bit recently, 2 or 3 times a week! I did a French Federation de Cyclismetrack meet at the weekend were I came 3rd in one race and 2nd in the other. My tactics are shit, I'm all over the place and in the last race in which I came 2nd I had to power my way around the bunch from the back such was my excellent positioning coming into the last 2 laps!

It's great fun, nice to be learning something new and my ability to Sprint quite fast seems to be pretty good. Hopefully I'll keep progressing and my tactics will improve as my confidence builds. At the moment, I kind of hide at the back so I don't knock everyone down, maybe if I'd been near the front I could have won!

This is work in progress, great fun!

So what else is new?

We now have a 25% discount offer for 'Science in Sport' nutritional products for 'McNab Snowboarding' clients. I pretty much love on this stuff and highly recommend it to anyone building their training up for the winter and for when riding and hiking all day up in the hills. Check out the 'SiS' web site and get the 'discount code' from Ruth if you want to take advantage of this offer.

I've been getting quite a few tech questions coming in and so have been updating my Q&A blog.

Check it out and keep the questions coming, I'll do my best to answer them!

http://mcnabsnowboardingqa.blogspot.com/

The McNab Facebook page is getting more and more followers. I'm hoping this page will become almost like a forum for you to use and somewhere were we can share photos from the winter courses. I'll use it to post shots this winter so bookmark it in your browser. http://www.facebook.com/mcnabsnowboarding

Right, I've got my Splitboard set up and ready to go, my Mtn Twin is set and I'll take the 163XL Flagship but I'm still running through those mental check lists of what you need to remember for a Snowboarding trip throwing in a little 'On Piste', 'Off Piste', 'Glacier riding' and 'BC touring' plus some skiing!

I guess I just need everything!!

All is good in Chamonix!

Neil.

Full speed a head for winter 2011/12

Well its been a while since I last posted a news piece, partly because we've been having some behind the scenes web site updates taking place, but mainly because its been an epic Autumn here in chamonix and I've been out playing most days!

Things are moving ahead at full speed towards the winter now though so I thought I'd better knuckle down and get things in order!

First up was the delivery of my new Jones boards, very exciting as always! Not much has changed really in the range, new graphics throughout, a bit stiffer here and there and everything now available in splitboard form!

I loved riding these boards last year, their first production year and am super stoked to get out on them again this winter. It's no understatement when I say that these boards totally changed my snowboarding and gave everything a new lease of life!

For around the resorts I'll be riding the Mtn Twin 164XL which rocks the whole Mtn as you'd expect. Super easy to ride, spin and jib around on, a freestyle board that floats like a dream in the powder too... very nice!

Out of bounds and big mountain riding I'll be out on the Flagship 168XL. This is my do everything dream board. I love this board, it's so stable at speed and super smooth to ride all over the mountain, it can take everything you can throw at it and more, it carves, slashes and launches down the mountain from top to bottom and makes you ride with a smile upon your face. For a 168 it is super nippy and fun to ride.

This is the board I'll ride 90% of the time, this season the nose has been stiffened up a little to stop vibrations at speed. It ripped last year and looks even better this year so I can't wait to get out on it again. Bring it on...

Of course for touring and BC outings I'll be out on the 168XL Solution, which is basically the Flagship split in two for hiking. I've got about 14 weeks of BC courses coming up and so the Solution will be definitely seeing some major action this season. I loved this board and the whole split concept for BC access last year and again can't wait to get out and explore the amazing new possibilities that Splitboarding has opened up over the past couple of years.

However, my most exciting board this year is the new 160 Hovercraft! Yeah 160... Last year I had some of my best tree riding and Off Piste powder days on the Hovercraft 156 but found it a little small when I rode BC with a heavy Backpack full of BC and High Mountain/Glacier riding equipment. The 160 should be able to handle the extra load and so at the first sign of powder this board will be out in force! The Hovercraft carves like a hard core race board too so it'll be getting some play even when its hardpack too.

Soon after the boards arrived a couple of big boxes of kit arrived from Billabong.

Billabong were my first professional sponsor back in the 90's so its been great to travel full circle and come back to them, this time working with them on a new Advanced range that is suited to the type of Big mountain Freeriding that I love.

So far I've received some of the regular 2012 range which is more suited to Park and Piste, but any day now I should be getting the 2013 Advanced sample range which we have been working on through out last season.

Again, very exciting times, Billabong have such a good development ethic, all ride, surf and play, its all about getting out there and catching the big waves, the big lines and pushing your limits with the biggest smile upon your face! Love it!!

Last season I played around with a few different brands for boots but this season I've decided to go with 32's who I did some test work with last winter. I loved last years (this seasons) Prime and Team Two's so will be riding these again this season and should also be getting the 2013 boots at the beginning of December so all good, can't wait to see the new products. Again like Billabong 32's are another great company to ride for. Rider run, super chilled and very progressive. I look forward to working on the new line with them over the coming season.

So the scene is almost set, all we really need now is for the snow to start falling and it seems that the forcast is saying it might this weekend.

Until it does though I'll be out on the bike getting in some big rides before the winter changes the rules. I've also just started track cycling at the geneva Velodrome which is great fun and completely addictive, although that might just be my OCD nature coming through.

I'm all about training for the track racing at the moment, lots of squats and sprinting all of which will hopefully give me super strong legs for the Snowboarding season too.

We have about 2 places left on courses this season and waiting lists on quite a few. We took our first provisional 2013 winter season booking this week! I've not even thought that far ahead but it seems some of you are already which is great!

All in all things seem to be pretty good and right on track so its full speed ahead for the coming winter and I start in Tignes in just over 2 weeks time!

All is good in Chamonix!

Neil.