The Life of Sloth

July 2006 - Posts

• Cardrona Closed due to Virus

  Been on the news quite a bit recently - Cardrona has had a pretty severe virus  outbreak (last I heard there were 130 people, mostly staff, taken ill). Resort's had to close today then: [from their website] "Cardrona Alpine Resort has today implemented additional precautionary measures in an effort to eliminate the virus that has been causing illness by closing today (31 July) to undertake an intensive cleaning and assessment programme of its base area facilities and water supply. Although Cardrona Alpine Resort is still waiting for definitive lab test results to identify the cause of the viral outbreak, following consultation with Public Health South it decided to further boost precautionary measures by closing the resort today. Cardrona is hopeful of reopening tomorrow subject to the results of this assessment and any remedial action." Can't say I've ever heard of anything like this happening, but spose it does now and then. We were planning on going there this week, but might have to give it a miss for the time being! Posted Jul 31 2006, 11:22 AM by le_sloth with no comments Filed under: Snowboarding, New Zealand

• A couple of days off and The New Seeker

  After getting quite a bit of riding in last week (Tues, Thurs, Fri, Sat), Alan was on my case again so have had a few days off now. In fact he's been on my back a bit cos have definately tweaked something there, maybe landing in a bit of a Colonel-standing-to-attention off Remarks kicker didn't help? And Curly Top has left me with possibly the longest hangover yet - day 3 and I'm sure I'm still feeling it! How long does Chartreuse take to get out of your system?! Time down here means can get some much-needed board tuning in (edges blunter than a blunt thing) so have just got round to buying my own kit - got a bargain in Alta (Greesa is the New Seeker - good lad, gave me some good tips on tuning and a $20 discount ). Am the proud owner of edge tool, scraper, wax that smells like pineapples, wet stone and ptex (yeh i get thru that quite a lot!). Gotta crack on down to The Warehouse (where everyone gets a bargain) for a cheap-as-chips iron. Sarah's been showing me the way to go with waxing etc. and although I'm doing it at the speed of a Sloth, it's getting there now. Some board tuning tips Ok, these might be beginner tips, but that's what I am! Wet stone - soak in water for a bit first - lasts longer. Get the edge tool file a bit wet too if you like. Edges: use the wet stone to take off any burrs first so the file lasts longer. Often just using the stone will be good enuf rather than edging every time Edges: only edge the side edge, not the base edge (I knew that!) Edges: remember to detune towards nose and tail (knew that too) Wax: Leave about 1 cm of wax along each edge. This helps to stop your scraper wearing out too quick - that bit of wax will come off after a couple of runs anyway. After scraping, finish the base off with a fine scouring pad. Long vertical motions keep the marmottes happy. (Ok, that was Sarah's tip) Don't use matches to burn Ptex if you can avoid it - cos it'll leave nasty dirty burnt bits all over your base (that's mine) In other news, check out the weather for the next few days! Looking promising...Got rail comp in town to watch 2moro then Burton Open at end of this week. Posted Jul 31 2006, 08:05 AM by le_sloth with 5 comment(s) Filed under: Snowboarding, New Zealand, Winter 2006

• Winter 2006 Season - Day Twenty-Three (5th Saturday Lesson)

  Bit of riding then teaching and demos all afternoon as far as I can remember. Am writing this over a week later, my head is full of nails so hard to say really. Posted Jul 29 2006, 08:30 PM by le_sloth with no comments Filed under: Snowboarding, New Zealand, Winter 2006

• Your friend Johno

  Just in case Mr Jarmarl has a bizarre, unexpected lack of being busy for a moment or two, maybe he'd like to know what his hero Johno Verity has been up to lately. Sure there's always time for Johno. Johno Verity's site and his MySpace site Posted Jul 29 2006, 07:19 PM by le_sloth with no comments

• Winter 2006 Season - Night Twenty-Two (how hungover?)

  Yes, that's right, we didn't even make it up during the day. Most ridiculous hangover for a long time. Has defo made it in to my top 5. Didn't actually manage to fully shake it off until day 3!! We did however manage to farm out quite a bit more footage for the new Fancy That Production, so watch this space (not for too long, Bob - you may damage your eyes). There's something about sunset/night riding that seems to shake any FEAR off pretty quickly. CT still had some on his first run, but was riding so much bettererer! Stuck with it and within an hour or so was getting down the whole of the Big Easy (long green), linking nice controlled turns without falling! Sweet. I love it when a plan comes together. Despite no snow for a few days, was riding pretty well - good soft stuff all over. Spent my time just pissing about, being jib kid. Good to see Fancy That Productions (Queenstown Branch) were out in force. Posted Jul 28 2006, 08:29 PM by le_sloth with no comments Filed under: Snowboarding, New Zealand, Winter 2006

• Fancy That arrives in Queenstown

  After a great day's farming, there's nothing better than a good night out farming. Said Sloth. Seeing as we have real creme fraiche over here, what better to bother Mumhead than to cook up her very own signature dish "Pasta Creme Fraiche"? Sarah-Jaye cooked us up a beauty, presented here by Extra Curly Top. Farmed that out, before coming up with a use for the free bottles of Baileys we've been getting. Never drink the stuff, not good. Dessert Derby, Queenstown Style You know the rules! Mr Fancy vs. Extra Curly Top, both donning beauties of ski suits, hair and the like. Steam puddings with ice cream, shot of Baileys each between each mouthful. Until the bottle's gone. Got a video of that. Baileys + Beer = Curdle No sooner had we got into town had we started feeling the curdle. Ugh. Gin, please, followed by something like Chartreuse, Squashed Frogs?, Gin, Tequila, Sambuca, Jagers, beers and more beersh. Alan and Herman were out in force. All the usual, as soon as we got in anywhere, a barrage of "can we have our photo taken with you?" and plenty of farming. Great news. Farmed out Winnies, where we (CT mainly!) hussled the pool table, The Buff, Tardis,  Bunker and various other animals. Tried getting in the casino but no chance of that! Damn pikies.My Nottingham Pikie Casino membership didn't even work. All went very wrong as the evening continued, big gaps dunno what went on, but it all ended in a damn big Ferg burger, Sloth somersaulting over a bike rack and "Dance MuthaFacker, Dance!!!" To be continued... Photos are all here Posted Jul 27 2006, 10:17 PM by le_sloth with no comments Filed under: Fancy That Productions, New Zealand

• Winter 2006 Season - Day Twenty One (Curly Top's first day)

  So, how much FEAR would Mr Curly Top of Perth have on the drive up to Remarks? Not too much it would seem...roads were clear and chain-free, so no worries there. Got cracking straight away on the beginnner slope to see where we were at. Pretty much straight-lined the whole slope, before going down on the knees at the bottom! Soon learnt that Mumhead's teaching had involved "Get the board on, do some shuffling around, go down the slope." Ok, time to get some turns in there.Started off with Floating Leaf, moved on to guiding him down heel-side then toe-side, before letting him farm it out himself. Heelside fine, toes not so good. Tried everything, pretty much ran out of things to suggest. CT had a 1 hour private lesson to work on a few things while Sarah-Jaye and I headed up for a couple of runs. Not too much else to do up there bcos conditions very hard-packed up top, so got myself going through the park again - this time taking in all 3 boxes and 2 kickers (still relatively small compared to the big muthas!) Sloth 1 - Instructor 0 Shadowed the last half hour of CT's lesson - still seemed to be having trouble with toeside turns tho! Right Sloth, think through it, what do we check? Boots! Ah, that's the one - liners not done up at all, not gonna hold him in there or help in the "feel the tongues" business. Again, Mumhead's fault. The rest, as they say, speaks for itself - check out how we got on in this little video. Sarah-Jaye in the Park? Ah yes, so there I was, heading up on the chair to try and find Sarah-Jaye, who was also having a lesson, looked down towards the park and thought "Hang on, it can't be? Erm what's Sarah-Jaye doing riding the park?!!" Turns out that everyone in the lesson was keen to do something a bit different (albeit they were only level 3!), so the instructor took them through the park. SJ landed the biggest of the 3 boxes and went for the rails at the bottom (not my bag!). Great news - there'll have to be some more of that then. Footage needed please! Back in time for a nice couple of beers on the balcony, watching the sunset before Fancy That Productions rolled in to town... Posted Jul 27 2006, 08:26 PM by le_sloth with no comments Filed under: Snowboarding, New Zealand, Winter 2006

• Winter 2006 Season - Day Twenty (Back in the Park)

  Quick drive up to the Remarks this avo (dry, chain-free road!) cos Sarah-Jaye was finishing in time for a quick bit of riding (f'narr, f'narr). Great, clear and sunny day, but any powder was long-gone thanks to the wind. Remarks really is pretty boring on days like this. Lifts are painfully slow and keep stopping. Sarah-Jaye riding much bettererer, definately very useful my instructor training stuff cos I can point out what needs improving. Last couple of runs I took myself through the baby park, couple of boxes and kickers. Keeping with my theme of changing my board stance every week, this week's wide-boy one is tres bon. Practised a bit of butter action on the way back down, chucking in some lying down too...hmm, that wasn't sposed to happen! Back down in time for tea and schnitzel. New toy's just arrived, gotta go and play. p.s. great to speak to you all this morning, Zipsers and Le King. Farm out the Oompaa Loompaas! Posted Jul 25 2006, 08:43 PM by le_sloth with 1 comment(s) Filed under: Snowboarding, New Zealand, Winter 2006

• Winter 2006 Season - Day Nineteen (4th Saturday Lesson)

  So there it is, all that pow that fell yesterday, got up this morning nice and early and it's bluebird!! Head up to Coronet for my course, and there it is "right, we'll just be doing a couple of runs today then spend the rest doing teaching practice". Argh! No! But, but, yeh but, no but, look at all the pow!  Made the most of the couple of runs we did, and any bits of untracked we could while doing level 3 demos (back to basic skidded turns, perfect stance etc.). Spent rest of morning and most of afternoon either in the classroom going over movement theory, or out on the beginner slopes teaching mock level 1 and 2 lessons. Still no sign of my snowboard manual, so had to pretty much make it up as I went along. Actually quite enjoyed it, despite the public speaking type thing not being high on my list of things I like to do. All of us in the group swapped boards, big to small, goofy to natural etc. to see what things might feel like for beginners with dodgy/unfamiliar equipment. Except nobody could use mine bcos their feet are all too small (likewise how was I sposed to fit my size 11s into small bindings?!). So, haha very funny, Dustin (our instructor) had me ride down switch with my heelstraps undone. Heelside turns still work, but damn tricky toeside!! Stayed on for some sunset / night riding to make up for lost daytime stuff, quite a few jumps around and about, though wasn't riding too well so home for me. Posted Jul 22 2006, 08:30 PM by le_sloth with no comments Filed under: Snowboarding, New Zealand, Winter 2006

• Winter 2006 Season - Day Eighteen (Coronet's Big Dump)

  "Get up and have a look at how much snow there is outside!"...grumble, grumble, groan from Sloth..."Woah! ok then, now we're farming!" This was only supposed to be a small front coming in, but turns out to be Mr Dumpy's Special Stuff. Bit of a car nightmare, cos Sarah-Jaye had ours in at work in town, Jon had fishtailed his twice yesterday on way up to Coronet and Canadian Sarah's was stuck with her in snowed-in Fernhill (6 cars had crashed, blocking the roads. Kiwis + driving + snow = no idea!). Still, got it sorted in the end, got up only as far as Gorge Road (that's just 1km out of Queenstown) before we had to put the chains on - never seen it like this! Was still absolutely belting it down, roads not cleared at all. After a few false starts with the chains, putting them on to quick trying to beat everyone else, then falling off again , got cracking up to Coronet. Took around 1 3/4 hours compared to the usual 25 mins! Where were the snowploughs? Too much snow for you was it? Headed straight up Express chair, got blasted by wind and snow, blind leading the blind up there (I could lead as I could see out of the corner of my right eye). Powder everywhere - must've been about 30cm on the piste alone. And then we ventured into the unknown.... Ok, total whiteout, riding down blacks in deep pow, no markers. Pop quiz, what do you do? Picked our way through using the only couple of things we could see, bits of rocks, snow canons etc. Ended up riding through more and more unknown, all completely untracked, eventually ending up on the piste towards Rocky Gully (deep, untracked again!). From then on, rode the T-Bar all day long, taking in acres of untracked pow, with not a single other person on it . The lifty had so little to do he ended up building a snowman - we were pretty much the only ones riding his lift! Could barely see anything for most of the day, except for a couple of 5 minute breaks now and then - when this did happen though it was clear that there were only our tracks out there! Love that. The Massey loved it, the Anthem loved it, we all loved it. I could bang on about the pow all day, but those of you not riding at the moment won't be loving that. There was a great war cry from Sloth as he charged, straightlining it towards a windlip, took off, flew past Jon and landed in a big pile of fluffy white stuff. In these conditions it just doesn't matter what happens! Got back to the car and there was a Jarmarl moment - car keys. Gone. Might not see them again till spring. Ah well, got a lift down, back home and time for a couple of beers before Alan grabbed hold of the situation. Days like this remind me why I love this ***. Miss you all, was riding with you all today. Over and out, powder Sloth. x Posted Jul 21 2006, 08:10 PM by le_sloth with 3 comment(s) Filed under: Snowboarding, New Zealand, Winter 2006

• Winter 2006 Season - Day Seventeen (Better than yesterday!)

  After yesterday's appalling weather effort (couldn't see a thing on the webcams all day, thick cloud, snow, wind), waking up this morning to pretty much blue skies was a relief. I hadn't been riding for 4 days so really needed to get out the house! Today we had Sloth of Everywhere, Sarah-Jaye of Australia, Sarah of Canada, Jon of Wales and Gareth of Wales. Should have been loads of powder up there, but somehow it was mostly tracked out already by 10am . Took Sarah-Jaye up and down a few runs, and was now able to point out what's right and wrong / how to improve bits with my new teaching skills - seems I must've taken something in already. Still managed to find myself a nice couple of bits of ice here and there, so straight on the *** for me thanks. Thanks for that. Snowballs, plenty of them too. I've got some GTA to play now...potentially a roadtrip to Treble Cone 2moro, we shall see...adios Posted Jul 20 2006, 07:10 PM by le_sloth with no comments Filed under: Snowboarding, New Zealand, Winter 2006

• Winter 2006 Season - Day Sixteen (3rd Saturday Lesson)

  Another early start and out the door before the sun was up this morning. Up to Coronet for my 3rd Instructors course. Slight name change there bcos it's really getting a lot more focused on that side of things now. Seems I'm actually the only one in our group who's not planning on doing the exam - maybe I should just crack on with it anyway? Thing is, it's not really something I can see myself doing (being an instructor), it's another load of money and it means studying a bit. Although it would be a pretty good thing to have and NZ's qualifications are the most widely accepted. Help me! Sloth the instructor or not? Answers below please... Anyway, so what did I do today? After a warm-up run, got filmed again coming down the Hurdle - so much better riding this with some pow on it compared to the previous week's ice! Gutted tho, the camera broke so didn't actually get to see how I'd ridden it. Definately improved tho, almost got rid of unncessary upper body movement and loads more control on the steep stuff. [by the way, all this theory and stuff might sound a bit boring but I only have to do that once a week. All the rest of the time it means getting loads more out of my riding than before. Sweet] Back to practising nose rolls and getting towards some butter action - loving that, still definately easier switch to regular tho. Went down the Exchange Drop a couple of times, taking in all the hits on the way. Seems I pulled off the biggest air of the group (except instructor!), helped by changing my technique a bit and using more speed (apparently the you're at the right speed if you think you're going too fast ). After all that, went off to the beginner slopes to go back to basics and basic skidded turns - this is actually harder than you'd expect, but is the stuff for teaching level 2. Followed on with movement analysis - picking out beginners and what they're doing wrong and how to resolve it. Was tempted to stay up for some night riding cos conditions were still pretty nice, but settled for just a few at sunset. Managed to ride down the whole mountain switch - killer on the legs but sweet to have done it. Another great day. Another day ends @ Coronet Peak p.s. that's 16 out of 31 days this season. pretty good, but need to get my percentage up to 60% i reckon Posted Jul 15 2006, 07:44 PM by le_sloth with 5 comment(s) Filed under: Snowboarding, New Zealand, Winter 2006

• Winter 2006 Season - Day Fifteen (Powder @ Remarks!)

  A welcome return by Mr Dumpy yesterday meant we just had to get up to the Remarks today - perfect blue skies and around 20 cm of pow to play with . By the time we got up there it was already getting pretty farmed out, and they'd just opened the Homeward Bound area for the first time this season, so no time for a warm-up - straight to the pow. Loved it - massive open bowl of fluffy white stuff to ride down. Still could do with another metre (greedy!) in some parts, but didn't manage to hit any rocks this time. Have to wait for the "Ghetto Bus" back up, bcos it comes out a lot further down the mountain, but is all worth it. Headed straight back up, this time Jimmy and I did a hike up a bit higher than we'd started before - amazing views over Queenstown and the lake, but definately didn't want to go any closer to that edge behind me in this photo: Me at top of hike Stayed up at Remarks for most of afternoon - even on-piste was powder so all good. Must have knackered myself out again tho cos was asleep at 9:30 - Alan is really on my case at the moment. Have decided it's about time I got round to looking after my board myself, so Canadian Sarah's gonna show me the ways of the wax and edge this week. Seems like I'll save myself a couple of hundred dollars over the season between both mine and SJ's boards. Posted Jul 14 2006, 07:31 PM by le_sloth with 2 comment(s) Filed under: Snowboarding, New Zealand, Winter 2006

• Winter 2006 Season - Day Fourteen (Return of the neige)

  Sweet! Bad weather all day yesterday down at lake level meant it was snowing up top, and it continued to do so for most of today too. Thing is, it was actually looking sunny when we left this morning, so I'd taken out my orange lenses and put the mirrors back in. Mistake number 1. Heavy snow when we got up to Coronet, couldn't see much at all. Still, at least it was snowing again! There I was riding along, thinking I'd been getting better at this weight over the front thing. Must have given it a bit too much bcos all of a sudden Sloth's spectacular fall of the day, seemed to have caught the nose and flipped myself straight over. Neige kept on farming down all morning and into the afternoon - had a few more runs and definately in much better condition out there now - prob around another 20cm or so. Managed to leave just as skies started to clear, had an argument with the wrong size snowchains and got back down. Should be heading back up 2moro, may give the Remarks another go... Posted Jul 13 2006, 04:10 PM by le_sloth with 1 comment(s) Filed under: Snowboarding, New Zealand, Winter 2006

• Winter 2006 Season - Day Thirteen (No bad luck to report of)

  Just another day crusing around Coronet today. Took boardgirl / Sarah (of GoneBoarding) up there for her first day of the season. Snow ok in places but mostly needs a bloody good dump on it. Come on mr dumpy, sort it out! Actually, as long as the temperature has dropped it could well be neiging up there at the moment. Thing is it was about +2c up there earlier so if it's stayed like that it could be raining We shall see Posted Jul 11 2006, 04:05 PM by le_sloth with no comments Filed under: Snowboarding, New Zealand, Winter 2006