In today’s world of cheap airfares for long distances flights with limited luggage weight allowances, we as the traveler are always looking to save as much weight and room as we can while still packing everything in. Traveling with your skis or snowboard can be a pain especially when these items take up a lot of our weight allowance and space. If you’re going for an extended time you may want to pay the extra fee on that budget airline and get an additional bag. If you’re going to get the extra bag, look at the not so budget airlines as these usually have the additional baggage allowance built into the airfare price. Here are a few hacks for saving weight and room. Board bag and ski bag. When buying a ski or board bag always keep an eye on the weight of the bag empty. Just because it’s a big bag and you can fit everything in it doesn’t mean it will save you in the long run. A bigger bag means more weight which can mean less gear to take with you. It’s a catch 22. You could get slogged for overweight baggage and the bag might not even
13 REASONS: YOU KNOW YOUR A SKI BUM WHEN…
- General, Uncategorized
- Adventure, beards, big mountain, experience, funny, goggle tan, humor, living on a budget, mountain culture, mountain life, mountain town, powder, reasons, Ski, ski bum, Snow, snow equipment, snowboard, snowboarding, snowskiing, tours, Travel
The French Climber Lionel Terray famous term “Conquistadors of the Useless” Which I think is a perfect description of the enlightened ones that call these beautiful mountain towns home for the winter and life becomes a lot simpler. After many years of living this dream myself I dedicate this to our fellow Conquistadors! 1. You consistently buy bulk instant ramen. 2. You have all the free Wi-Fi passwords in town. 3. You think beer is a legitimate form of currency 4. You use duct tape to fix everything clothing, furniture, vehicles etc. 5. “Doing Laundry” consists of cycling through different flannels on your floor. 6. You have a day job anight job and possibly a third job for the “hookups” 7. You might not have been a gear head but you are now. 8. You collect all your old seasons passes and grow your moustache all summer for the photo. 9. Your goggle tan is the only tan line on your whole body. 10. You find yourself storm chasing with a car full of gear, sleeping bags and beer. 11. You yank broken skis and snowboards from a dumpster and think: “With a touch of epoxy, these could last an
The Essentials
- info, TOURS, Travel
- epicsnow, japan, luggage, Snow, snow equipment, snowboard, snowboard boots, snowboarding, snowpack, snowskiing, Travel, travelinsurance
When travelling to cold places its always good to plan your wardrobe before you go. I have so many first time working holiday visa kids heading to places like Canada, USA, Europe and Japan coming in to the shop saying that “they will just buy every thing over in place X when they get there”. To me this is dumb. What do you do when you get off the plane in say Calgary and its -30 outside and you brought your “Australian winter hoodie” yep thats right you freeze your arse off until you get to a shop to buy one and that may not be right away as soon as you land. Us veterans do know how to do the luggage pack and know that when we are on holidays that wasting time searching for that jacket that is just right takes away form precious time on the hill. So its always good to be prepared before you go and have every thing you need. A good start is the basics. Here are a few essential items to start with. Walking around wear – not ski gear although the cool kids do both Soft shell Jacket down parker/jacket for the
Snowboard Binding review: How to buy the best bindings you will ever own
- Gear, info, Reviews
- Adventure, back country, bindings, free, gear, park, performance, pow, review, setup, skiing, Snow, snow equipment, snowboarding, straps, tours, Travel
If you can imagine your snowboard as a car, your snowboard bindings are definitely your steering wheel. As anyone who has watched the Fast and the Furious will know this is an imperative to winning the next quarter mile and for your shred setup its vital for your Performance on the snow. There are three main things to consider when choosing your snowboard bindings: Fit, Flex and Features. 1. Fit Obviously bindings come in different sizes to fit different boots, and a snug fit between boot and binding is vital for effective control. Perhaps less obviously, different bindings also fit different boards. While most brands’ products will work OK together there are exceptions Burton for example, make their boards with three-screw insert patterns, meaning you need a set of Burton bindings to ride them. These days, a lot of their boards feature the ‘ICS channel system’, two sliding inserts which also require a conversion kit (which Burton provide with new boards) or better still, one of their EST bindings. These are designed specifically to work with the channel, so won’t fit with other companies’ boards. Make sure your bindings will fit your boot and your board before you buy them!
ESCAPE
- Travel
- Adventure, culture, japan, japow, Lifestyle, Roadtrip, Ski, Snow, snowboarding, Travel, Wilderness
You learn a lot from going snowboarding: the changing of the weather and the seasons, the ability to read terrain, the limits of your own physical capabilities; all those valuable skills that we pick up from years of riding. To some these lessons seem insignificant. They are certainly a far cry from what I learnt in my tertiary education. But I think what we learn in the mountains has an application that can reach far beyond the limits of the snow line. The sum total of all these lessons is experience. I sit here writing this looking at reports from another massive dump in NZ almost a meter just this week are blanketing the peaks. Almost the reverse of last year. As I’ve gotten older I’ve realised that it’s not the depth or quality that defines my enjoyment in the mountains, although it certainly helps! It’s the feeling you get when the mountains fill your windscreen and the lights fade in your rear view mirror and the high country opens up before you. I’ve stopped worrying about how much snow we will get when we head for the hills. The snow will come and all our worries will be forgotten, and all
Rescue in Revelstoke
- Travel
- Adventure, BC, rescue, revelstoke, Ski, Snow, snowboarding, snowskiing, Travel
Panic…. No don’t. That’s the first response you have when you realise you have a friend lost out on the mountain. Revelstoke B.C isn’t just your regular ski resort. This mother of a hill is a free riders wet dream. 5620 feet of vertical fall line with the very best of British Columbia’s famous snowfall almost 18 meters annually and that’s what makes this a destination for any skier or rider worth their salt. This mountain is anything but forgiving. The regulars for any of our road trips Matt, Tom, Del and our friend Joe who was visiting from Oz. We were meeting with our friends who call the town of Revelstoke home. These guys are the real deal. Living day to day and meal to meal. As long as they got on the mountain they sleep better than any baby,and they know the mountain like the back of their hand. After a massive day on the hill. Which involves a non stop top to bottom thrashing of our legs we were all ecstatic with the day’s conditions. Blue bird day and 30cm of fresh blower pow! So we regroup and decide to do one more. A wee hike into
Aero plane food. Late 2011 I was on my way back to The Northern hemisphere for my second full season in the Canadian Rockies. This one was going to be different. I spent the last 6 months working crazy long days to save as much as I could. I was doing a ski bum season! This was the dream. Halfway through my second flight, Auckland to Vancouver the long haul, I started to feel quezie in my stomach. “It’s ok I thought” “I’ve never had food poisoning” oh wasn’t I wrong. I’ve never had food posing that I can remember and definitely in my adult life. Never had I grasped the full scale of what people meant when the say “it was coming out of both holes” but yep that’s where I was in the cramped aeroplane cubicle with it coming out of both ends. Not the nicest clean up. Geez I smelt. But what did I eat? I’ve heard that it can take 6-12 hours to kick in, so I can only put it down to three meals. You know what it’s like when you fly- you get bored so you eat. 1st meal At the Brisbane airport with mum
Hank Williams Jr., Slayer, MGMT, Steel Panther. Besides being good old fashioned legends these artists are a few of many that make up my Snowboarding playlist. That’s right! I spend hours over the summer months compiling a 200+ song playlist that will be my companion every day of the season. It never asks for anything either, just a little power and and this little guy keeps me singing on every chair and tree run from November right through till May. Feeling nervous on top of a jump run in the park? Or had the perfect song come on floating through the trees? That’s the difference a song can make! The purists out there who say “I need to hear my carve bro” have never had deaudmau5 aural psynapse while hammering tree lines or Midnight Oils ‘Beds are Burning’ blaring at the top of a freshly blanketed groomer run. Take it from me friends, it’s hard to top! Combined with this must have essential you must also be aware of the risks. 1. During your rigorous check list of pockets before heading up you take one step off the gondola and realise that your faithful but shoddy apple headphones that are holding together
Quiet possibly my two favourite things in this world, and not necessarily in that order. In another life I was a Chef. And food has been a passion that has never left even after I left the kitchen, so coming to Japan I had a list in my mind of food conquests I was going to consume shortly after landing. The list didn’t consist of the extreme or exotic like Fugu or Horse sashimi. But on top of that list was Ramen! Without a doubt the king of all foods in Japan is the mighty bowl of “Ramen”. It sits on the throne ruling over all the other dishes. Being such a regional dish there is no end to the variety of different interpretations of Ramen as we made our way through the country chasing legendary snow. Imagine this; being up before the sun and stretching out your not so fresh legs for the day ahead to ride another textbook tree run in Japan’s famous snorkel deep snow with your buddies and coming in cold and wet after being outside in wind and snow for 6 hours to the smell of a life giving, restorative and decadently delicious bowl of Ramen.
Why I Love Travel Insurance
- info
- accidents, Adventure, ambulance, epicsnow, hospital, Insurance, snowboarding, snowskiing, Travel, travelinsurance
I’m lying here in a Canadian Hospital in what is without a doubt the most pain I have ever been in. After being rushed to hospital while on our snowboard trip between Japan and The Canadian Rockies I am admitted in to hospital not for a torn ACL not for a broken collarbone that would be more fitting for someone that has been on hill everyday without any regard for his personal safety. But I’m in hospital praying to whatever higher power there is to take mercy on me and for that all to relaxed nurse to give me some Morphine. After X-rays and and ultrasound around my abdomen its conclusive… Bloody…kidney….stones. I’m feeling every one of my 31 years and cursing everything that might have done this to me (mostly myself for too many drink yourself sober nights from my youth.) The one thing that I’m not regretting is the assuring memory of my sweetheart having all our travel insurance details on hand and calling the emergency phone line to start what I thought was going to be the not so pleasant process of dealing with an insurance company on the other side of the world! It’s one of