Sweet As…Snow Park
Thursday the 11th of August. We packed up all our gear and loaded it in
the vans and trailer because we were moving to Wanaka after riding
today. Chris went to go bungie jump and Patch went to observe so they
were going to meet up with us later in the day. We left Queenstown
and on the way to Wanaka (with a nice winding mountain road to get
there at one point, that was pretty cool) we turned off and went up to
Snow Park. Snow Park is a
little different because it’s a terrain park only. They have boxes,
rails, kickers, and a half pipe.
The objective for today was to get some more freestyle skills because
by doing that you get better control of your board and that improves
your freeriding. Since Alain had taken the guys to the bungie jumping
Keith and I worked with Mani for part of the morning. We road up and
the visibility was really bad, we were in and out of clouds all day up
there. The first thing we did was ride down and look at the small
kicker. We were just trying to get an idea of how it looks and what
to expect. We then rode down the slope to the easy flat box and
checked it out. We hit the lift again and rode back down to the
kicker, this time to try and ride on it. Mani gave us a good long
explanation and rode it once to show us how it was done. Keith rode
around the side because he didn’t see it (and I don’t blame him, it
was hard to see) and I just rode up and over. Even though I didn’t
ollie at the end I did get some air. In fact Mani said I did “fucking
high air.” I was pretty stoked to have made a jump like that.
We then rode the box and I didn’t do it at all because I wasn’t lined
up straight. Another go around the park and I did the kicker again
and actually rode the box straight. After that Mani went to work with
the other riders and Keith and I just kept riding and trying the
kicker with a few failed landings and the box. I totally messed up
one box ride and ended up rolling onto my back and sliding down the
box. Keith thought I was hurt, but it was actually kind of fun in a
“weeeeeeee” sort of way.
The visibility was really poor and we took a long lunch. Snow Park
has the best food of any resort I’ve been too and it was pretty
reasonable on the price to boot. A lot of people went over to the
retail shop and got Snow Park gear because it was honestly some of the
coolest stuff around. I got a SPNZ hoodie sweatshirt and I think I
might get a hat or t-shirt if we go back.
After lunch Keith and I did three more rides, most of which was spent
waiting for the visibility to clear a bit so we could ride. With the
low visibility it was really hard to be confident riding and landing.
I get the idea but I’ll need to practice more.
One aspect of my riding that is definitely imported is being able to
get up from being seated without having to roll over. Previously I
was unable to push/raise myself from a seated position, but now that’s
pretty much all I do, unless I’m really tired.
On the way home we got to see the Cardrona Bra Fence, a crazy
back country fence where someone started putting bras and now people
just leave them. It’s strange, but not entirely unexpected for this
country.
