A walk in the Park

Well we all thought this winter is gonna be a good one, cause it already started snowing in the alps at the end of October...... compared to the season 2006, where it started like in February 2007 for 2 days, that was realy early.

Far out!!! The so called winter season is becoming more and more a spring like "drytime" in Europe. So what should we do our Crew is waiting in vain for some snow to come so our freeride sessions could begin. More and more agony is widen out in our souls that we have to travel far far away to get that feeling of fresh cold powpow in our faces....

Last weekend we packed our gear again in the hope to finde a "virgin" spot which still coud be ridden..

After a 2 hour drive on Friday night, arriving at the Biberwier cabin at 11pm we gave an ejaculatory prayer to the Loard of the Boards and went to bed. The sun came up and traditionally we got woken up by Dundee with Rocky`s Eye of the Tiger....
Half an eye open I riped the courtains open, in the hope the weatherforcast was atleast one time right.. far out..... nothing like it .... Well at least the sun was shining like in mid summer.
Having had a huge breakfast we got our cameras and equipment together and agreed to go jibbin in the park...
A 10 minutes drive later we were at the ski-lift. Another 10 minutes later we arived at the park ....

It was packed with hunderts of poepel who had the same idea: "No snow, so lets go for the Park...!!"
After a one hour Photo- and Film-sesion with hundrets of breaks , because of uncababel Bananarams lying in the ladinzone, breaking their sculls we finaly gave up with 5 min. film and 6 good pictures in our pokets we left and shaped our style on some nearby hill....


Still though it was a fantastic weekend and the fazit we can give to everyone of you:

If the park is full go and shape yourself!!!

So long in hope for snow to come , keep you tail on the ground!!

Jibb it!!

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Obertauern Outtakes

Shape Your Style

The longer you `ve been in your bindings the better you board or ski... thats a fact!! So most of the peopel whoe love the feeling of getting smothered in fresh, christall clear, cold powder are eager on doing tricks and landing thoes in the beloved cloud of exploding powder when stomping the trick in the landing zone...... Before we give you an aproximate lesson on how to do rails, flipps, airails and all the other stuff the base for doing thoes is needed.

Lets go and shape that kick!!!

In order to do so the main aspect is the right spot. It should be on a hillside which is steep enough for the inrun, has a sort of tiny flat-part following a nother steep part.

Check for:
Is there enough powder in the landing?

Is the landing zone free of obstacles?

Is the inrun to the kicker too kincked?(this could lead to a heavy compression leaving you out of controll)

Plan the plan:

Befor building the ultimate adrenaline kicker you should be dacor on the hight of the obstacle and how big and far you wanna go. If the landing is quite flat, plan a kicker with less top peak as you dont wanna hit a flat landing from a 5 m free fall (it`ll eventually break your legs), instead you wanna go far which is the basic for good spinns. Opposit counts for steep landings here you can combine the distance of the jump with a good hight, steep landings give you the opportunity of going biiiiiiiig!!!!

Construction:
Depending on the snow conditions there are divers construction strategies. If the snow is kinda wet the easiest way is to roll up big snowballs, as you would do in order to build a snow man. Bring thoes in shape of a kicker and fill up the emty spots with snow. Then start shaping the peak of the obstacle. If the snow has the cosistency of powder, use your boards and skis to build a casing, fill it up with snow, then use one board to jump on top, whilest the others keep the casing tight. This will compress the snow and the kicker won`t collaps when you hit you first airail...
The kicker should be at least as wied as a board is long, in order to do some nice spins and flips.

Fine tuning:

Building the inrun is another imortant aspect. As we said befor a shitty inrun could lead to bad injuries!! Usually the best way is to pull the snow aprox. 7m infrot of the kicker of the surface; this snow could be used to correct unevenesses in the inrun, also it will even out the inrun too.
Last but not least you gotta decal the kicker; run up the kicker and use your boards to plane down the kicker, whatch out that all dents are fully filled.

All set!!!

Go big and wip that tail !!!!!

Avalanches

Ever had the opposite feeling of butterflies in your stomike when going out of bounds? Did you ever think of the risks? Avalanches can already break off in teretories with a aptitude of 30 degrees. Just when the weather is getting warmer and warmer, you hear the weatherforcast and they tell you the rest of the week there will be snow coming down in masses maybe its the last good day for shredding... You think:" Damned this guy in his wierd grey gay suit is right...!!! You call up your buddies and off you go .... still not thinking of what dangours are slepping underneath the fresh snow mantle.....

Here we post you some rough information on hown to secure your out of bounds tour:

First of all there are three types of avalanches a) the snow slab avalnache b) the wet snow slab avalanche and c) the dust snow avalnache

What are the main aspects of making a steep teretorie become an avalanche area?:

- Fresh snow with strong winds
- fast and distinctive termal shock
- fragilelayers of snow within the snow mantel

Explaining the different avalnaches:

a) The snow slab avalanche:
This is bonded snow (most of the time the fresh fallen snow) on a fragile snow mantel, a whole snow slap, up to 30 sq m can break off.

b) The wet snow slab avalanche:

This avalnach mostly happens in February to April, when the weather is getting warmer and

warmer. The snow matel is loosing more and more of his consistency through wetting. Riding

in this condition is very dangerous and should only be done together with a Guide who knows this terain very well. Still though if the night was very cold and clear, you can go out of bounds; still though you should leave very early as it is only possible to ride safe in the moring when its cloudy and still very cold, the snow will melt again in the afternoon creating the dangour of wetting!!!!

c) The dust snow avalanche :

This is the "most" nonhazardous avalnche.... still though you can die if you aint careful. as this

avalanche can also cause suffocation. This avalanche is generatded when the lower snow

mantel is propper frozen and a new very smal mantel of powder lays on top. Pro riders often

ride in these avalanches, for great videos (e.g. 91 words for snow), if you ain´t one of thoes

turn your back and leave the slope!!!

Here are some tipps for securing your ride, please be carefull these tipps should not be done without professional help!!! Also always check the teretorie wether an avalanche could hit a Skiing Slope, a village or anybody else!

The poor mans tests:

a) The Poor Mans Bomb:

take a very long climbing rope with you, tour up to your spot; Throw the rope infront of the

backlog and cut the snow tongue by moving fast across to your buddy holding the other end

of the rope. Be carefull no to fall behind the avalnache , always keep a big distence between

you and the point of "cutting".

b) The cloum Test:
this is to find a soft spot in the snow mantel; Hit a colum of 30 x 30 cm 30 hits from the wrist,

then another 20 times from the forearm and another 20 from the elbow, if it aint broke yet,

cut it out and try to break it the harder it is to break the better is the consistency of the snow.

Circumstances for avalanches:

Critical amount of fresh snow meaning deadly peril:
10 -20cm by advers circumstances

20 - 30cm by middel dangerous circumstances

30 - 50 cm by fortunate circumstances

Circumstances:

Adverse: intensive rain in a short time , heavy winds ( > 50 Km\h, you can hear the wind);

Cold temperatures (-5 to -10 degrees), glazed surface

Fortunate: light winds; temperatures just below 0 degrees and an abnormal surface

Also think about:

a) Gradiant: always measure the steepest point of the slope (use your snowboar or ski pole),

if you have to do switchbacks the gradiant should´t be above 30 degrees; if the

is interspersed with cliffs and rocks it should`t be above 40 degrees.

b) Hillside situation & Terain:

Rolling terain will give you a secure ride

slight winds will not secure your from avalances

Mountain backsides are more secure than dells;

Crests are of blowen off meaning good old snow surface (could also instabilise the snow tounge); Dells can be filled with droven snow high hazourd of getting submerged.

Keep this in mind when you start your tripp, check everything doubble and dont go out in too big groups, only go with peopel you can trust, only go freerideing with guides and only if you know the tereain, always be responsibel and never loos your head, always cary a mobile phone or an avalanche biper with you..

Enjoy and respect mother nature shes the one watching over you .. dont make her angry for her it´s a finger flipp and you checed out of the amazing Hotel....

keep it safe

c u soon!!!

CASH

Cash is a multi-talent; wehter he is on a skateboard, a BMX or a snowboard, he will pull tricks that keep your mouth stand wide open. As his first words were: "Mumy bike!!"; his parents bought him a BMX from which he didn´t get off yet, except for changing the bike whilst getting older, and soon got sighted by the, at that time "very" small, DC Shoes Company for sponsorships. After having participated at the X Games in Los Angeles in 2003, where he had to give up because of injuries sitting tight in 15th place, it becam quiet around Mr. Cash... untill now ....

It seems as Mr. Cash is starting his come back with the SHAPESHIFTERS as a virtuoso; still his main act is the BMX, though he is starting to get of the paddels and slowly groping the tereain with his feet on a board or a deck doing tricks in which u can see the inharitance of a years expirence in paddling..... his secondary home is becoming the Snowparks.....

Unfortunately his vehicle momentarely is a bitt angry with him and doesn´t wont to be ridden... so hopefully next week he will be abel to show us around munich riding the best spots ....
of course we will post a story on that, also we will put up all the spots with fotos on our spot finder ....

keep riding

c u soon