I had a week in Courcheval (La Praz) with Ian Storer and friends. There was about 13 of us in total with another 4 guests staying at the chalet we'd booked, which was fantastic. Food and wine included, with a guide everyday and people were fun, outgoing and up for a laugh.
Only three of us were boarders, so we instantly formed a little group of "Radical Riders" and determined to pull our weight amongst the pansy skiers.

The snow absolutely dumped on the first few days and the powder was immense! Better yet, the visibility wasn't all that great which kept most people off the mountain (or lower down the mountain in the sheltered parts) Unreal!
Lots of boarding, lots of wine, lots of cheese and plenty of beer. I couldn't ask for a better week.

(We even had a beard growing contest)



The chalet



Snow on day 2 !!



Top of the first lift



Magnus in powder, powder, powder



Tania charges down



Philippa on the piste



Ian on a speed run



Ed finds some more powder



Lunch in Meribel



Ian coming down



Waiting at the top of Jean Blanc (best run, ever!)
Note  the ropes closing it off



Ian on Jean Blanc



Mangus attacks Jean Blanc



Philippa judges Ian for the beard contest



Philippa judges the beard softness



Ed judges beard style

Dad and I went to see Birmingham play Crystal Palace this weekend. We met some of Mum's friends (who are Palace supporters, boo, hiss) and went for a few calming drinks beforehand.
After taking our money at darts, we all walked to the stadium and went our seperate ways to join our respective fans. I'm sure Dad and I were the most apprehensive, Birmingham aren't known for their friendly fans. So, Brummie accents in place, we took our seats amongst a crowd that could be best described as "electric" (some might say "drunk" and "high")

It was an awesome game, Birmingham played the far better game and we won 1-0! Result!

Dad made some remarks about certain supporters only going to home games, whereas real fans go to away games as well. :)



Go Birmingham!



1-0 up!

I organised an informal competition "The London Kitesurfers Big Freeze" for a weekend on the South Coast.
Sadly the wind failed to play with us but we still had a ball and managed to give away the prizes.

Adam : Best Trick
Tone : Going Big (A 17m Speed 2 foil kite might have helped!)
Ed : Best Stack (straight jump, kiteloop to faceplant in 12 inches of water)
Dave : Spirit of kitesurfing
Tom : Unluckiest kiter (dropped his brand new Atom onto some rocks)
Kev : Best wave
Jess : Best (and only) Girl



The stylish trophies



Talking rubbish on the beach.



Dave pumps up his new kite

Well, there's no let up so far in the weather, it's been windy every weekend since Christmas. Hurrah!

I'm still based at Tesco's and a bit of a weekend warrior at the moment. I've met a fun kite crew and I've even been on my first UK downwinder (only about 5km, but fun)

Not much else to report and no photos for now. I do have a competition coming up so watch this space!

J

Lots of windage again meant that I just had to get down to the beach again. Southend this time for some flat water sessions with the LKS (London Kitesurfing) crew.

Bit of a laugh, 20 knots and a few beers afterwards. Can't argue with that!
Took a few pictures from a pier that runs quite a way out. A nice spectator spot, if a little exposed.

  Tone

  Adam

Sorry for being so slack again, here's a quickie of what's been happening.

I'm still working at Tesco, I haven't quite quit this job yet! There's some "exciting" projects coming up (read "hard work") so it should be interesting to see how the UK's #1 online retailer does things. Name dropping? Me? Never.

Kiting is still going on as planned although I'm a bit of a weekend warrior. There's a good crew around though and I've linked up with some good people. Pity that most of them prefer flat water but I'm working on it!

I've joined the trendiest gym I've ever seen, right in the heart of London. It's a boxing/regular gym, that I joined to break up my commute on the way home, and it's right in the heart of Covent Garden. They have a d.j. in there, cool lighting, sport videos everywhere, big screen t.v., lot's of trendy people looking cool (and some of the girls wear makeup) so I'm not sure I'm a perfect fit, but the boxing classes are fun without the usual feeling of being a human punch bag that you get in more serious boxing gyms. Who knows, in 6 months time I could be wearing trendy trainers and a trendy matching top  with a cool haircut. Or maybe not.
www.gymbox.co.uk

Here's some photos of people getting ready for another kiting session. Mmm, looks warm huh? I timed it just right (it stopped raining for 5 minutes)


Adam



  John (not me)

Sorry for the lack of updates over the last month, but I've been reasonably busy

I have another job! A company called Ivis Group and I'm one of their software consultants who's now based at Tescos in London. Good pay and a great job for the c.v. (Tesco's has the biggest retail e-commerce web site in the UK), sadly the 2 hour commute each way is a bit of a killer at the moment! THis should be sorted when I move up to London, but right now I'm living for the weekend!

My kite arrived and I've had an awesome (overpowered) session on it at Southend. There's banks out the back which leave the most incredible flat water sections that I've ever seen. There was a bunch of windsurfers doing speed runs and I couldn't resist a race. 30 seconds later my board was vibrating wildly and, although I was overtaking a windsurfer, I thought that he was more prepared for a crash with his helmet, impact vest and goggles! Anyway, it was good to get out and get wet again!

The cable park shuts this weekend until March next year, so I couldn't resist one last blast. Great fun and I'm still causing a stir using my finless, flat kiteboard that no one thinks I should be able to ride. (and their right, I can't ride  ;o)   )

Here's some photos, sadly I had the film speed set wrong so there's some blurring. You wouldn't expect anything else from me though would you!




18 Year old kid shows me how it's supposed to be done





Deciding what piece of equipment to hit.
(answer, none of them)

I managed to drag Lloyd along to the cable park this time. Another couple of days of good fun!

Here's a nice faceplant video of me : Faceplant






  Lloyd suited up

  And away!

Getting a bit bored of waiting for a company to come back to me about a contract so I hit the  cable park again!
I turned up to the bemused looks of the local wakeboarders who all thought I was a little bit mad going out in this cold weather, but 30 minutes later I was joined by five 18 year olds who had decided to show me how it was done. (Yes, I felt a bit old and crap after watching them)

Still great fun to get out and get wet. It's awesome to board in some totally flat water instead of the wind chop I'm used to. I may have to join the club! Pity they're shutting down in a month's time  :o(

Fingers crossed I hear from this company soon, I've not been working for a week and it feels a bit wierd! (and not much money to do stuff with)

Whilst I'm not working (I quit last week), I thought I'd pop along to my old favourites the Science Museum and the Natural History Museum.
Imagine my surprise when I found out that the Science museum had a computer games display on, so I just had to check it out. It was full of old consoles and arcade machines, all free to play, and the memories came back quick and fast.
After destroying the Death Star, eating some spots and defeating the invaders (again), I thought I should really get back to the rest of the museum. Sadly the rest of the Science museum wasn't quite as interesting and I only managed to spend 15 seconds in the "History of Mathematics" before getting bored.

I then moved on to the Natural History museum which was more like it! Dinosaurs, woo hoo!

  Pacman!

  Animatronic T-Rex

  A real life (dead) Kakapo.