My new LOMO!

I picked up a new source of enjoyment the other day, A lomography Fisheye camera!!! YEEEEEAAAHHHHHH!! I 've wanted one for a while now, just another way to document days and events. Its a 35mm with a fisheye lens,Gives that fihsbowl look with a really cool grainy finish. It made it's debut at Steve's 24th birthday,here's a few shots!

A few more from Seymour and Baker.

Hand stands at Mt. Baker.

Backcountry rollers Mt. Baker.

Poss Nike 6.0 park Mt. Seymour

Rick and Bec. The View from Mt. Seymour.

Rick, Aiden and I at Sunset on Mt. Seymour.

A few more happy snaps.

Mt. Seymour and Mt. Baker Expedition.

As rad as Whistler is it can fell like a prison at times. Cut off from the real world in a constant whirlwind of routine, work-ride-sleep-ride-work-drink-try and ride hungover-sleep...you get the picture. This routine needs to broken every so often to be able to have a peaceful existance in the bubble that is Whistler, So a few weeks ago it was time to break free!! A few good friends and myself rented a mini-van and set off in the wee hours of the morning to hit Mt. Seymour (North Vancouver) and Mt. Baker ( Washington, USA). None of us had ever riden either mountain so everything was to be a new experience, first stop Mt. Seymour.

Mt. Seymour is tiny! after coming from Whistler most mountains seems small but the two 2 seater chairlifts that is Mt. Seymour is by far the smallest mountain I've ever riden . Don't let it's size fool you though,it's a really fun hill,like anything it's what you make of it I guess? We found a cool cat track gap, some side hits to grease some grassers over and the park was really fun.They had just landed Nike 6.0 has a sponsor so they have built a couple of gnarly features replicating some of the most famous spots from vids. We sessioned the "red ledge" untill sunset taking a few snaps here and there then caught the chair back up top to watch the sunsetting over Vancouver.,AMAZING! that alone made the day,we we're lucky enough to score a clear day and has the sun retired from its hard day at work so did we. Back down to Van for a massive feed of thai and a some rest before heading out to Mt. Baker in the morning.

Another 5am alarm wake up call and a tired eyed drive to the U.S. border. No dramas except for trying to smuggle in a few illegal citrus immigrants which quickly got handed over to the authorities, A hour or so later we were lacing up about to check spot two. I had no real idea about Mt. Baker except for it's infamous "Baker road gap", which we couldn't really see, I knew they got a heap of snow but that was it. A storm front had dropped a nice 10-15cm overnight so most of the mountain was shredable.We got a couple of good lines under the main chairline first, the terrain was sooooo sick!! It's like mini backcountry steez, small drops through trees,natural spines, windlips and steep all the way down. I wish we had just a bit more snow cause it was still abit hard underneath but still super fun. The banked slalom course was something different,hooking through each corner untill it all got too much and getting bucked out of a turn, everyone was having a killer time. We rode every chair and attacked about every notable line we knew about, It had been a while since I had riden all day so by the end of the day i was exhausted!!! Time to make our way homeward bound but a U.S. trip wouldnt be complete without a stop for a burger in a greasy backwards pub. After injesting my heart attack in a bun and one too many beers I was out like a light and before I knew it back in the comfort of the Whistler bubble.

It was fun to ride with no agenda, normally when I go up I have a certain place to go or a particular trick to try but here it was just about hanging with friends and exploring somewhere new. I think Rick put it the best, as Poss inquired into the condition of the line rick had just taken he got this as a response "It's just snowboarding man!", hahaha, He left out the part about the overlaying trees,exposed jaggered rock and lack of snow covering such rock but who cares Poss took it on anyway and everybody got a good laugh afterwards....sometimes it's the shit parts that are fun...it's not all back10's and knee deep pow that puts a smile on my face. The trip was the spark I needed to get stoked on straight up riding again, the bubble was burst and now I'm ready for my next stint inside.

Thanks to the crew for a fun trip: Rick,Bec,Poss,Linda and Aiden.

Germania Adventure 1.3

Mayrhofen, Austria.

January 15-16th and 17th:

Mayrhofen is situatued amoungst the Zillertal range in the Austrian alps. The area is littered with various resorts found in a series of ajoining valleys,alot of the resorts are linked together through a network of gondolas making for a almost unlimited amount of terrain...especially if your only there for a few days like I was.

It was a 2hr drive from Munich, the trasition from inner city to mountains was really cool...it always is switching from some of the best architecture man has made to mother nature's finest creations,the alps truely are a sights to see. As the sun slowly disappeared into the valley beyond I couldnt wait to see what was instore for the following days. We arrived at our B&B after dark and was greated by a super friendly Austrian lady, she gave us the grand tour..not realising I had no idea what she was saying, she did a speil on the place, I just kept nodding and smiling.....Lena seemed to enjoy it occasionally laughing and looking over at me knowing I was utterly confused. The decor was exactly what I invisioned to be in a budget Austian bed and breakfast, framed tapestry above the bed, the horns of some small antlered creature all over the walls and a fine collection of taxedermy! It was pritty funny. We were still waiting for the two other members of our crew to arrive so a few aggresive games of snap went down before hitting the hay,blood was spilled and tears were lost but I definatley came out the victor,ha.

Day break and the sun was shining! I was sooo stoked. We chowed down our breakfast and headed to shred MAYRHOFEN! The first thing I noticed was the difference in terrain compared to north america,It was so much steeper! Everything here was straight down,all the off piste is staggered with avalanche barriers and all above tree line too. I could see that with fresh snow it would be amzing! really long steep laps and if you were game to venture off piste (its not controlled like in north america so it can be super sketch) a flurry of cliffs and wind lips would ensure a gnarly ride down. Unfortunatley they hadn't had new snow so we kept it chill doing fast laps on the groomers weaving in and out of tighly wrapped euro crew. Lena was loving her new board I got her for xmas,the fresh edges were killing the steeper icey runs, my detuned rocker wasn't exactly destroying shit as it's name intends but everything came good after a couple of laps. The scenery was amazing and over the next 2 days we managed to cover most areas on the mountain...riding the 150 person gondola,taking on one of the steepest piste runs in europe... shredding the vans penken park (one of the best terrain parks in europe), enjoying 8-10seater heated lifts with only 2 people...chilling on sun chairs watching paragliders dip and weave in the sunshine....it was a really cool experience. After the first day of riding the fun kept going, a few euro apres...hahaha...those guys get pritty wild, so funny watching 40yr old mum's get all haggard to sexy euro dance party music! Then we went to a water park to ease our aching muscles although I think it only made it worse hurling ourselves down the small indoor waterslides, throw in a case of food drunk to end the day and I couldn't of asked for a better day!

Day 2 was pritty mellow, Ramona had hurt her wrist on the first lap of day 1 (ended up being a hairline fracture) so she called it early and me and lena just cruised around checking out all the stuff we'd missed on our first days adventure. I had to conquer the 60ft down bar in the Vans park,the thing had been haunting me since day 1 so it had to be done!! the beast that had allured me all day yesterday, laughing in my face at every attempt, bowed down in defeat on my first hit! Lena managed to get a cool shot from the chair too..YEEEAAHHHH once I could check that off the list we decided to head back to Ellwangen for some relax before the next voyage to Hamburg!

Overall Mayrhofen was one of the best parts of the trip,It was just super fun, everything worked out perfect. The accomodation was rad,only 20euro a night! the weather was epic, the waterpark was really fun and the riding was amazing! Best of all I got to enjoy it all with my lovely lena,I couldn't of been happier.

Germania Adventure 1.2

Thursday January 14th:

Time to hit the road!! The autobahn was calling us westward, A new city awaited and cruising at 180km the volkswagen passat turned formula 1 and we arrived in no time. The shades of grey had cleared the sky leaving a blanket of blue as far as the eye could see, i was already warming to Munich. This was my first taste of a big European city, simply walking around was a cool experience, The streets a maze of history. Being from Australia our oldest building stands only a couple of hundred years old, Its crazy to think how the times have changed since the first building was erected in the heart of Munich. My favourite building was the Neues Rathaus, the new city hall. It's right in the centre of the Marienplatz, which is where most of the action takes place. The detail in the architecture was amazing, I'd never seen anything like it. This was just one of many rad buildings and churchs we visited but it was definatley a stand out attraction. The rest of the city seemed to sprawl out from this point, I'm a simple guy with simple pleasures so just walking around was fun for me. I was super stoked on the bakeries, which could be found on almost every corner, all of them had fresh sandwiches good to go. That was to be my staple diet for most of the trip! A mandatory stop at the Hoftbrauhaus was in order and I was greeted with the biggest beer I've ever had! Every stereotypical thought of Germany was found here under one roof,haha. Beer,pretzels,assorted meats and a group of big Bavarians wearing lederhosen even a sausage dog!!!....It was Hilarious.The beer kicked in a little and it had been a long day so we decided to retire for the night and continue in the morning.

Friday January 15th:

After a good rest at our retro style hotel(http://www.hotel-coccon.de/ if your ever in Munich) I found myself realising why I hadn't been to a museum since high school. The "Deutch Museum" was a big let down,I don't know why we thought it would be fun. Who really wants to know the history of textiles?? I figure museum's are only good if it's specific to a topic that interests you, otherwise they're just full of random shit that you really don't want to know about. Anyways....That plan was a bust so we decided to take in abit more of the local scene around town. The St Peters chucrch was rad, you can climb the 306 steps to the top and get a full 360' view of Munich. The city littered with roof tops and towers from other churches, It was an awesome perspective of the city and a great spot to view it from. A quick stop by the Viktualienmarkt ( a massive outdoor market)lead me to sample my first pork knuckle,a must have according to Rick. I wasn't even hungry but the food drunkeness that followed was well worth it! The market is a sensory overload, a mass of open stalls selling everything from fresh fruit to pig livers...This is another big attraction in Munich and for a food lover it is paradise. Unfortuantley this was the end of my Munich stop, It had been a full week since I'd touched snow and the Austrian peaks were next on the list, So it was back in the passat race edition and off to Mayrhofen!