always something...

today was the day we've waited for since the start of camp. the wind actually died, it was bluebird and absolutely gorgeous. unfortunately the pipe was under vert, and turned to pea soup slush very very fast. the melt has been taking it's toll on the pipe and the walls are shrinking. it kind of feels like late spring, cause it is, and you just can't seem to get everything to align perfectly.
Thankfully, the Bagjump has been setup this week so we've been entertaining ourselves on that for a good chunk of the day. It's a lot easier to just take care of 2 small hits then a whole pipe. and the walls that we're hitting into the bag are at actual full height that a pipe would be. so really good practise none the less. It's pretty much stress free riding cause you can try whatever pops into your head and see if it could actually work without worrying about the consequences like we normally would. I've been working on 2 different double corks over and over. The pipe hasn't been crazy good for those this week, so jumping into the bag has been the best way to practise them the last few days.

Tomorrow is our last day on hill. Supposed to be another beautiful day. hopefully the wind stays light and the pipe will have some more vert. we'll see. either way it goes, it'll be fun. snowboarding always is.
jl

snow and surf in a day and the never, ever, ending wind.

kia ora from NZ. Our trip has been going pretty good so far. We're all stoked we've actually gotten in 5 days a week of riding. a few of them have been pretty suspect days but we're riding. The weather has been slightly difficult this past week and a half. Super slushy (way too slushy), crazy bullet proof ice, foggy, rainy, snowing, and wind. wind every day. A typical day has little wind down here in wanaka and howling winds up on the hill. we're stoked when it's only 40km/h up there. but we hear from the locals that the wind stops in like, february. awesome. But generally the sun pokes out at some point, the wind will gust and back off for a second or two. so we just wait for a quick break and drop in.

last week i took brad martin for a snow and surf day. a few friends lent us some boards so we jumped out to the west coast after riding to get an afternoon surf. It's only the 4th time in my life i get to do both in the same day. For being obsessed with both sports that number kind of surprises me. the surf pretty much sucked but it was fun. chest high kinda sucky shorebreak. a few dolphins swimming around. no matter the conditions whenever i get to do a double day i love it. brad had a blast too. so totally worth the effort.

The bagjump has arrived. The japanese team paid to have the bagjump down here and a few other people are getting in on the fun. I got a few jumps on it yesterday, and tomorrow we're gonna have dustin craven, jeff batchelor, brad, sarah conrad and myself hitting it. The setup is an idea that i'd talked with the bagjump guys about this summer. a big spine with both sides groomed with the pipe cutter so you can easily hit both sides into the bag and it's still like hitting a pipe wall.
If i can get it up i'll post a video of us hitting it. internet is super slow again this trip.

It's super windy out today(90+ km/h winds), so no riding. I'm gonna hang out in the backyard, ice my ankle in the creek, go on a bike ride and enjoy my second spring of the year.

jl




what it says. jackson bay.



brad martin suiting up for his first nz surf session. i didn't tell him about the west coast being real sharky until after the surf..



west coast driving



spring time



the neighbor's backyard



13 people in a house means a full garage



bagjump setup

back to NZ

So you jump on one of the longest plane rides of your life to get to NZ, (good 12-14 hours) and jump off in aukland. Yes! back in NZ. Then through the wonders of the Aukland airport you're ushered into the longest customs line you've ever seen. because every international plane lands in aukland one after the other. So you wait a good hour and a half for customs. sweet. grab your bags and go. oh wait. another line. they need to xray all your bags to check for food, seeds, etc. Ok out of that line. sweet we're out. oh you need to transfer to a domestic flight? wait in that line over there. then finally make your way over to the domestic terminal. it's a pretty awesome trip to get here.

I had our new assistant coach Kris decoste and teammate sarah conrad on my flight out of LAX, then in aukland met up with a few more people from the team. Quick flight to queenstown, a meal at Furgburger (it's a must in Q-town) and we were on our way to our house in Wanaka. It's a fairly big place but is a bit of a zoo. we've got all the canadians staying under one roof. I think it's 13 people in total.brad martin, Dustin craven, kris and myself are in one room with bunkbeds. it's pretty sweet. we got enough room in there for all of us to chill and get away from the living room. and it's right near the lawn bowling so we've been getting into that in the afternoons. and i can see why it's an old person's game. it's a little slow.....

We've had 3 perfect days up at cardrona so far. The hill is closed and it's just the people that are there to shred the pipe. The kiwis obviously, a few polish riders, aussis, shaun white and us. it's a pretty mellow scene. Danny Kass and some of the japanese team just showed up also.

My ankle is feeling pretty good while riding. Just been riding super mellow to get my ankle back into it. but everyday is a little better and i'm bumping up the riding each day. So hopefully in a day or 2 i'll be up at full speed and trickery.

we're now on 2 down days due to rainy, cloudy crappy weather. We're spending the time on our super slow internet, gym, frisbee-ing, hot pools, video games, stretching. whatever picks your interest.

We should be back on snow tomorrow and the weather is looking sweet for the next little while.
later
jl




i've seen this a lot in my life and always wanted a shot of it. early morning hike up a freshly cut pipe.



customs in aukland

packing..

Just came home from vancouver island a few days. the surf was on. awesome last weekend of summer. temps dropped and the weather turned stormy and snowed in the mountains! seems like fall is here. The surf was super fun, and my ankle was holding up good. Had some good sessions with the adanac crew (www.surfadanac.com) they hooked me up with some sweet sunglasses upon hearing that still don't have an eyewear sponsor. adanac is hooking up the canadian surf stars (pete devries, noah cohen...) with sick traction pads, limited edition glasses and clothes.
now packing up for 3 weeks back in NZ. semi-private pipe sessions are going on up there as the rest of the hill is closed for the season. hopefully it'll be good! never been in NZ to shred in oct. only surf. so we'll see.
jl