señor taco’s travels

src="/SenorTaco/images/freeride-day-10.jpg" />

Our last riding day in Wanaka found us returning to href="http://www.snowparknz.com/">Snow Park for some more
freestyle work. The whole group started on the half pipe and Alain
video taped us from the bottom. I got a few runs in after I got over
the intimidation of the launch hill and the really good riders also
riding there.

After lunch we did the superpipe one more time and then went on to
ride the kicker and the flat boxes more. Keith and I were just
working on that and I landed pretty much every time. The one time I
went to do an ollie off the box I was too far forward and ended up on
my back. Another couple of good runs and the day was over on a good
note.

Tomorrow we drive to Mt. Potts for snow cat riding. The rest day will
be good.

The picture up there is of Keith actually doing an ollie off the box,
something I still have to work on.

src="/SenorTaco/images/freeride-day-9.jpg" />

Today was the day, we were going to go heli. We drove about 70km
north of Wanaka to the site and got ready to ride. All of us got
fitted with avalanche transcievers and then we talked a bit about the
weather conditions. A storm front was approaching and there was a
possibility that we would have to cut our day short.

The first group took off in the Heuey D500 and the rest of us waited
around for our turns. The helicopter only holds five people including
the pilot so that means that there were only three riders and a guide
on each trip up. When getting to the top it was quite nerve-racking
to see how small the people were against the mountain.

Exiting the heli and staying down until it was gone was quite the
experince because you’re on top of a mountain and the rotor draft is
blasting snow at you. We then got together and our guide took us down
the slope and into a gun barrel (ravine). I had a mess of the first
run because I was so nerveous I was shaking.

We waited at the bottom for the heli to pick us up and then did two
more runs before lunch. I did much better on those two runs and I
really was enjoying riding the fresh powder. In fact, I’ll have to
say that was the best damn day of riding I’ve ever done (once I got
over the nervousness and trepidation). The distances we ran were
pretty incredible. We not only did a lot of vertical distance, but
also a good bit of horizontal.

The first run after lunch, my fourth, was the one that did me in. I
was so worn out I had trouble staying up and traversing. Once I got
to the bottom I called it quits and waited for the heli to ferry me
out to the base.

While waiting I was watching other riders way up on the slopes. I saw
a group of snowboarders shooting to the left on a ridge and right
behind them was an avalanche (the first of the day, and we hadn’t seen
signs of any others at all). It apparently had split in two on the
ridge just then we saw the other half come up on their right. It was
a pretty scarry sight. If the ravine we were in had been more loaded
with snow it could have continued down to where we were waiting, but
it didn’t. Later people went by the fracture point and said it was
about four feet of snow that slid. One guy got tumbled in it when he
set it off, but he ended up under a rock ledge and was okay. No one
got hurt or buried and so it was a damn fine day.

Sunday found us getting 15cm more snow at href="http://www.treblecone.co.nz/">Treble Cone. I was tempted
to ride today, but I’m feeling a little worn out (knackered as Jake
would say) from riding six days straight so I’m taking a rest day.
I’m going to walk into Wanaka and check it out a little. Hopefully
I’ll be rested well enough because it looks like tomorrow will be our
helicopter day. I just hope I can ride the snow there okay.

Just a quick note on the site, I had to disable comments as I got
slammed by a comment spammer, I’ll put them back up once I’m back int
the states.

Waking up on Saturday morning we were greeted with the news that we
had about 30cm of fresh snow to look forward to. We headed up to
Treble Cone which is a
freeride only resort to see how it all was.

Getting there was interesting with the road being the narrowest so
far. Then, the backside of the mountain wasn’t open so the queue on
the one lift that was open was a horribly long wait. When we got to
the top Alain decided to take me over to a steep basin that was really
deep in powder. I struggled to get out as we traversed over to some
easier terrain. The depth of the snow combined with the steepness
were a little intimidating to me. After getting worn out getting out
of there we rode some easier groomed trails and only small areas of
powder.

After lunch we got a few more runs in and the backside opened up so
everyone else went to ride that while I just cruised down to the base.

I was pretty worn out at the end of the day and almost fell asleep on
the couch.

Friday the twelfth. We went up to href="http://cardrona.com/">Cardrona which is opposite the href="http://www.snowparknz.com/">Snow Park. The visibility was
again spotty and it was snowing. Not being able to see clearly was
again a confidence reducer.

Keith, Jason, Alain and I rode to just get more practice. We did
switch and slide 360s a lot and hit the box before lunch. Keith and
Jason were hitting the box really well. I was being dumb and looking
down rather than where I was going to be going and it was my downfall,
literally. I kept falling on the landing, but I think I’ll get it
the next time I try to ride a box.

The entire group actually ended up taking off early because of the bad
conditions. Some guys went to a spa and soaked in the hot tub before
heading out for the night. We ended up at a bar that was having a
“superheros and villans” dress-up night. Some costumes were better
than others is all I can say.

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.

Wednesday found us returning to the Remarkables and getting to have
fun on the fresh snow. The crazy thing about resorts in New Zealand
is that they are way up the mountain and the access is generally by
winding dirt road. Even though they are maintained they are a bit more
like goat trails that what we’re used to in the states. We got up to
the resort and Keith decided to join in with me and Alain to work on
his skills for the day.

We just rode with Alain and got to learn how to ride switch (riding
with your normally back foot forward, so backwards) and continued with
the ollies (hard today, they wore me out) and boardslide 360s. I
really seemed to get the hang of the boardslides and was doing them
pretty well by the end of the day.

Keith and I kept running the same routes, but trying new things all
the time. We got video recorded by Alain for later analysis. At the
end of the day I was very tired and I broke off from Alain and Keith
and rode on my own. I was able to ride switch and slide 360s the
entire way down the slope so that was good.

That night we got to see the video and watching yourself doing things
helps you really realize what you’re doing right and wrong. We also
get to see other people and hear the tips they’re getting so that we
can watch out for things later.

src="/SenorTaco/images/freeride-day-3.jpg" />

This Tuesday found us waking up to a wet morning in Queenstown.
Thankfully that meant snow in the mountains. The mountain outside of
our apartment had snow down pretty low so that was a good sign. We
all left the place and drove up to Coronet Peak. On the entrance to
the resort we had to install chains on the vans. Yippie!

We got up on the hill and the visibility was really bad but the snow
was nice and soft if a bit wet. I was riding with Alain by myself
(the others had moved up to the more advanced riders group). We did
some runs and I had a good time. With the difficulty seeing there
were a few bumps and crashes but I came out of it just fine (although
my ankle was a little sore).

The runs there were much longer than runs I had become accustomed to
in Tahoe. That combined with the snow being very wet and thick made
me get tired early so I stopped before the 4pm quit time. All in all
it was a good day as I picked up some more great instruction, even if
I couldn’t see very well on the slope.

On the way back to Queenstown we stopped at a place on the river and
rode the Shotover Jet.
It’s basically a giant jet ski that can hold twelve people and a
driver. It only needs four inches of water to run on and the driver
is able to make turns in the blink of an eye. It was a lot of fun to
say the least.

I woke up at 7am and ran down the stairs to call about my lost bag of
snowboarding gear. When I got through to a human I was informed that
my bag hadn’t gotten off the aircraft in Auckland and instead went on
to Brisbane. They found it later the afternoon before while I was
flying to Queenstown and put it on a plane for Christchurch.
Unfortunately the last flight from Christchurch would be leaving
before the flight from Brisbane would arrive and my bag would be on
the first flight in the morning, arriving in Queenstown at about
8:30am.

I called and tried to get through to a human at the airport, but the
line was busy. Alain and I decided to just drive down there and see
if the bag came in. Thankfully it had arrived but no one was even
going to process it until 9am. I showed some I.D. and took my bag,
relieved that I had finally had my snowboard kit and I was ready to
rock on the first day of riding.

For our first snow in New Zealand we went to a resort called The
Remarkables
outside of Queenstown. The snow was pretty good, but not
super fresh and thin in some spots to where rocks were showing
through. At first we all rode up together, did some stretches and
then rode as a group so that Alain and Mani (the other instructor)
could gauge our skill and see where to split us up.

After splitting up I was in a group with Alain and we did some work on
basic skills. We ended up learning how to do boardslide 360s
(spinning left or right on the board in a 360 degree rotation while
moving downhill) and ollies (a little hop on the snowboard similar to
an ollie on a skateboard). I got some great pointers about my riding
stance and things I needed to focus on, mostly that I didn’t bend my
knees enough and I keep my arms at my sides too much.

I was good and tired and we all went out for some dinner and retired
to a good nights sleep.

Friday August 5th @ 1:00pm PDT
The shuttle bus arrived and my adventure in (and heading to) New
Zealand begins. I was surprised that there were not any more people
to pick up so the trip was a quick thirty minutes. Checking in was
painless and I just waited for the flight. That went off without a
hitch. Then the wait of over four hours in LAX was to begin.

The best thing was I contacted my friend href="http://orangehat.org/">KP because he was going to be
visiting family in Los Angeles after the href="http://siggraph.org/">SIGGRAPH conference. He came out and
we went to a hotel near the airport for some food and drinks. It was
good to hang out with him and kill some time before my flight to
Auckland.

The flight to Auckland (AKL) was about twelve hours. It really wasn’t
too bad over all. I did have to play musical chairs for some reason,
but it all worked out in the end and I got an aisle seat with an empty
next to it. The Qantas crew was very nice and attentive and pleasant.
Had I not slept for about three hours two different times I think the
flight would have been much worse on me, but as it was I came out of
it with very little (if any) jet lag.

The worst part of it all was that I not only had a ridiculously short
layover scheduled in AKL, but that by the time my connecting flight
left Auckland for Christchurch and then Queenstown I was just getting
my bag off of the flight from LAX and still had to go through customs.
The worst thing I feared was that my snowboard bag with all my gear
wouldn’t show up and, wouldn’t you know it, it didn’t. We waited, we
went and checked at the customer service desk, and nothing was to be
found of the bag. I had my snowboard, boots, socks, jacket, pants,
pads, helmet, and goggles in there. Pretty much every thing I needed
for this trip and not having it was a big downer. That there was a
friggin’ bar code on the bag and they had no idea where it was was
even worse.

I got a tracking number and a free phone number to call and check in
on the status. I must have called ten times in the course of the rest
of the day. The other bad part was that because I missed my flight I
now had another four hour layover. It wasn’t all that bad. Keith
(who flew in on another airline and overlapped with me a bit) and I
hung out in the Air New Zealand domestic terminal for a bit and walked
around a little. We got a chance to try local Coke made with sugar
and it was by far the best Coke I’ve had in a long time (why it’s made
in the USA with high fructose corn syrup, which is crap, is beyond
me). Anyway, Keith got on his flight and I went to my terminal to
wait for my flight. I met a team of hockey playing Kiwis and they
were pretty cool to talk to. It was interesting to find that hockey
is getting bigger in New Zealand, yet it’s got nothing on rugby and
cricket.

After about two hours flying I got to Queenstown. My bag wasn’t
there, but Keith and Alain from
Access Trips were. Getting to
Queenstown was a relief as it had been more than 28 hours in travel
for me at that point. That’s a long damn time to be going somewhere,
but it’s going to really be worth it in the end.