Tuesday, 29 March 2011
Into the Wild
We watched Into the Wild last night. This is the first film in ages that I have watched and thought was very good! It's based on a true story and definitely worth a watch.
Monday, 28 March 2011
Last Few Days in Les Deux Alpes
Over the last few days of the session I didn't really get time to do a day by day blow of what was going on. Needless to say, it was ace :) The sun stayed shiny and the conditions held.
It was so crazy hot! At the top of the glacier (3600m!) it was 10 degrees and 24 degrees in the town. I was amazed at how well the snow kept. It so often is hard and icy in the morning and then dead slushy in the afternoon. It only really got slushy on Thursday and Friday and even then wasn't particularly bad.
The other peeps staying in the hotel were dead good. There was the obligatory annoying couple, but they were suitably ignored. We played poker, drunk beer and generally had a laugh.
Nic continued to produce the goods on the mountain and for the first time there were moments when I had to ride at a good pace to keep up with her. We spent an afternoon with a couple of lads who were in our hotel (Martin and Gabs), so I did a bit of GoPro videoing of them. Gabs pulled off a superb face plant, so there could be a £250 from YBF on it's way ;)
We had such a great time. Although the mountain isn't that big, it is high and we would almost certainly go there again.
Roll on next season! Well, at least after a bit of surfing first ;)
It was so crazy hot! At the top of the glacier (3600m!) it was 10 degrees and 24 degrees in the town. I was amazed at how well the snow kept. It so often is hard and icy in the morning and then dead slushy in the afternoon. It only really got slushy on Thursday and Friday and even then wasn't particularly bad.
The other peeps staying in the hotel were dead good. There was the obligatory annoying couple, but they were suitably ignored. We played poker, drunk beer and generally had a laugh.
Nic continued to produce the goods on the mountain and for the first time there were moments when I had to ride at a good pace to keep up with her. We spent an afternoon with a couple of lads who were in our hotel (Martin and Gabs), so I did a bit of GoPro videoing of them. Gabs pulled off a superb face plant, so there could be a £250 from YBF on it's way ;)
We had such a great time. Although the mountain isn't that big, it is high and we would almost certainly go there again.
Roll on next season! Well, at least after a bit of surfing first ;)
I've got a video coming soon - more likely to be YouTube than Vimeo ;)
Tuesday, 22 March 2011
Day 2 in Les Deux Alpes
So following on from day 1, day 2 was much the same. Great sunny weather with good snow and superb visibility. There were a lot of red faces about from the day before and some major money had been had been invested in sun cream!!
I managed to rig up the GoPro on the front of the board and got some cunning footage. I'll get some put up on YowTube, when I can be arsed to edit it ;) I was a bit worried about it falling off - and it did a couple of times. It came of the first time when I landed a jump and the second when I was motoring on a bit. No damage though!
I managed to rig up the GoPro on the front of the board and got some cunning footage. I'll get some put up on YowTube, when I can be arsed to edit it ;) I was a bit worried about it falling off - and it did a couple of times. It came of the first time when I landed a jump and the second when I was motoring on a bit. No damage though!
I used a wicked app on my phone called My Tracks. Takes a GPS reading and shows where you've been, speed, distance, etc. The novelty of this ace! And I couldn't believe that in half a day we covered 28km! So I'm going to set it going hopefully for the full day today (although we're starting late today).
There was ace boarder cross track that was being used for a race. So we didn't get to go on that (maybe today), but the training cross track was open and Nic was well loving that! Rock 'n' roll :)
Monday, 21 March 2011
Day 1 in Les Deux Alpes
Had a really good day today :) The sun has been shining and our initial worries of lack of snow were quickly put to bed when we took the lift up the mountain. Although there wasn't really enough snow to easily make it back down to the town, there was plenty higher up
Nic has done amazingly well today - probably the best she has ever done. Confidence was good and with it an improvement in skill.
I took a massive stack on one of the first few runs. Ouch! Bruised my chest and jaw. My right shoulder could be better - starting to really stiffen up now - a bit more stretching I think ;)
Only managed two piccies today which was a shame as the weather was so brilliant - batteries weren't charged! But planning on taking the GoPro tomorrow.
Oh and I have done a super job on waxing my board. Possibly the best ever! It ran better than it ever has. Sweeet.
Nic has done amazingly well today - probably the best she has ever done. Confidence was good and with it an improvement in skill.
I took a massive stack on one of the first few runs. Ouch! Bruised my chest and jaw. My right shoulder could be better - starting to really stiffen up now - a bit more stretching I think ;)
Only managed two piccies today which was a shame as the weather was so brilliant - batteries weren't charged! But planning on taking the GoPro tomorrow.
Oh and I have done a super job on waxing my board. Possibly the best ever! It ran better than it ever has. Sweeet.
Friday, 18 March 2011
St Paddy's Day - 2011
I'm pretty sure that yesterday was the first time I celebrated St Patrick's day. We had an excuse this year (thanks Melissa). So Uncle Knob Head sorted out some t-shirts for us and we sampled a couple of G's :) Nic had some home-made Baileys (basically just whiskey and cream!). The Dubliners were played all night. That added a certain something to it ;)
Highlight of the evening. Well, that would have been the IRA attack in the living room with the threat of being "toe" capped (I think it was supposed to be have been knee capped!). Thanks Lorraine for a truly unique entrance wielding an axe and tripping over the dog! Classic!
Highlight of the evening. Well, that would have been the IRA attack in the living room with the threat of being "toe" capped (I think it was supposed to be have been knee capped!). Thanks Lorraine for a truly unique entrance wielding an axe and tripping over the dog! Classic!
Oh yeah - we ate potato too - raw of course :)
Monday, 28 February 2011
How to Transport a Surfboard on a Motorbike
So you're a motorcycle fan and need to transport your precious surfboard around with you? Well, this guy has the perfect idea...
Genius!
Thursday, 3 February 2011
Monday, 31 January 2011
MotoGP 2011 Season - Coming Soon
I'm really looking forward to this seasons MotoGP. I miss the bike racing and fortunately my father-in-law has Sky TV so he records most of it on Eurosport for me :) Although saying that I quite like the guys who comment on the Beeb to be honest (even though they bizarrely are not generally liked).
Anyway, here's a bit of VR doing some testing on 1198 :)
Anyway, here's a bit of VR doing some testing on 1198 :)
Wednesday, 26 January 2011
Killing Time with Games
I wanted to kill a bit of time just before lunch today and thanks to @qikipedia I found this little fella http://sinuousgame.com/. A charming and not stressful way to kill off a few minutes :)
Monday, 10 January 2011
Standard New Year Post
I haven't blogged in ages - it's shocking and odd feeling really. I suppose the crux of it is that nothing too crazy/interesting has been happening or has it??
Seemed to have had a pretty busy December (got me new board!) and took a trip to La Plagne snowboarding in France :) Well, sort of. In so much as I will ill in bed for most of it boo :( It dumped massively for a couple of days, so some of the guys were having a proper ace time in the "puff". Nic was loving the new snowboard after a slow start and I performed the worlds best crash. Managed to land upside down in a tree - eek! Quite funny :)
Christmas day was spent with Nic's family and then headed down to my lot in Hereford for Boxing Day. After a wine spilt New Years eve with Alex and Caz we headed to Cornwall to stay with Jo, Andy and Nina and I got to finally to try out the new longboard and what a little beaut it was :)
Back to work now - boo!
I don't do New Year resolutions, but maybe this year should be more surfing, kiting, snowboarding and find a job that's fun...
Seemed to have had a pretty busy December (got me new board!) and took a trip to La Plagne snowboarding in France :) Well, sort of. In so much as I will ill in bed for most of it boo :( It dumped massively for a couple of days, so some of the guys were having a proper ace time in the "puff". Nic was loving the new snowboard after a slow start and I performed the worlds best crash. Managed to land upside down in a tree - eek! Quite funny :)
Christmas day was spent with Nic's family and then headed down to my lot in Hereford for Boxing Day. After a wine spilt New Years eve with Alex and Caz we headed to Cornwall to stay with Jo, Andy and Nina and I got to finally to try out the new longboard and what a little beaut it was :)
Back to work now - boo!
I don't do New Year resolutions, but maybe this year should be more surfing, kiting, snowboarding and find a job that's fun...
Monday, 6 December 2010
The Complete Opposite
As I look out the window, my environment couldn't more the complete opposite of this...
New Addition to the Family
I am pleased to announce the latest addition to the family :) A 9'6" Gulf Stream Saunton Foil. Firstly sorry for the really rubbish pictures! It's so cold outside, there's just no way I was taking it out there to photo it. I will have to do some more when I take it out for a sesh.
This is the best one and this is the one I took in the shop with my phone. It's a mustard yellow with black and white pin stripes. Here's a another couple..
And if you look closely (again - rubbish pic sorry!), it says "For Rob by Jools" - sweet :)
This is hopefully going to be a life long relationship and I'm sure we will have our ups and downs. But right now, I need some nice small to medium clean waves so we can get to know each other a little better...
Big thanks to Skelly at Gulf Stream for being a great help in helping get what I wanted and helping Nic work out what design to have on it and a big thumbs to Jools for the shaping magic :)
Once we've settled in, I'll give Finshack a shout to line up some alternative fin action as well :)
Tuesday, 30 November 2010
I Am of Box!
Finally! I have a new Xbox 360 :) After having fixed it from the RROD, it gave up again :( So with Xmas quickly approaching it seemed like a perfect present.
I will no doubt be giving it some major stick tonight :)
I will no doubt be giving it some major stick tonight :)
Thursday, 25 November 2010
Saltmotion - Sydney
I came across Saltmotion in Sydney. Not because I was in Sydney unfortunately :( They have some great surf pictures in their galleries and I'm particularly loving this one from the longboarding gallery:
Picture courtesy of Saltmotion
Tuesday, 23 November 2010
Wednesday, 10 November 2010
T5 Interior - Part 1
Not a lot has been happening in the SuperGypo world recently - well apart from some retard smacking into the back of me new T5 the other week. That was obviously great news and needless to say, he thinks it's 50/50, even though he ran into the back of me - hey ho!
On a more positive front, we have started putting the new interior into the T5 :) In case you can't remember the old layout, here's a couple of piccies:
The keen eye will see that where the buggy is tied up, there is another flap that is anchored to the side. This drops down (when the buggy is moved of course!) to make another base along side the base that is currently down. Then a box makes up the open section where the side door is. We then have somewhere to kip on and it all folds up to still give us the complete van if we need it - happy days! There's also a rack that runs from side to side (see it up by the back window and buggy wheel and just by the left side top of the side door). The surf boards get put on there. These are supported by wooden legs screwed to the top and bottom of the side panel.
We had that layout for a few years and as the time went by, thought of a few more pimps we could do to make it more comfortable and practical. So, with the new van comes a new interior. We (me and Nic's dad, Pete) set to work last Saturday doing part 1 of the installation.
Needless to say, as the time has gone by, the board quiver has grown. The kite quiver has remained pretty static so no requirement changes needed there. The new vision was to do pretty much the same sort of layout again, but with improved seating, better (safer!) side access and a bit more convenience for cooking. Where possible, we're trying to re-use as much as we can from the old interior. As it was, Nic was known, quite regularly, to dismount the side door in a very ungraceful and un-ladylike fashion. The was mostly to do with the restricted access because of the section partly blocking the side door. So that section will be shortened to not infringe on the side door.
The other side (where the buggy is pictured), we planned to add a box sort of affair to slide a surfboard inside of. This would mean all 3 boards are safe inside the van. The board running down the side would also be protected from us leaning on it in the evenings. We also use that side to sit on in the evenings and have the other side tied up out the way. Because of the depth of wood, it became a little uncomfortable after time. So the board box has been made with an incline for improved comfort and the wood panel will not be quite so deep for easier leg hanging over :)
Check out the hinged door on the end of the board box. This is to give me easier access when pulling the board in and out of the box.
On a more positive front, we have started putting the new interior into the T5 :) In case you can't remember the old layout, here's a couple of piccies:
The keen eye will see that where the buggy is tied up, there is another flap that is anchored to the side. This drops down (when the buggy is moved of course!) to make another base along side the base that is currently down. Then a box makes up the open section where the side door is. We then have somewhere to kip on and it all folds up to still give us the complete van if we need it - happy days! There's also a rack that runs from side to side (see it up by the back window and buggy wheel and just by the left side top of the side door). The surf boards get put on there. These are supported by wooden legs screwed to the top and bottom of the side panel.
We had that layout for a few years and as the time went by, thought of a few more pimps we could do to make it more comfortable and practical. So, with the new van comes a new interior. We (me and Nic's dad, Pete) set to work last Saturday doing part 1 of the installation.
Needless to say, as the time has gone by, the board quiver has grown. The kite quiver has remained pretty static so no requirement changes needed there. The new vision was to do pretty much the same sort of layout again, but with improved seating, better (safer!) side access and a bit more convenience for cooking. Where possible, we're trying to re-use as much as we can from the old interior. As it was, Nic was known, quite regularly, to dismount the side door in a very ungraceful and un-ladylike fashion. The was mostly to do with the restricted access because of the section partly blocking the side door. So that section will be shortened to not infringe on the side door.
The other side (where the buggy is pictured), we planned to add a box sort of affair to slide a surfboard inside of. This would mean all 3 boards are safe inside the van. The board running down the side would also be protected from us leaning on it in the evenings. We also use that side to sit on in the evenings and have the other side tied up out the way. Because of the depth of wood, it became a little uncomfortable after time. So the board box has been made with an incline for improved comfort and the wood panel will not be quite so deep for easier leg hanging over :)
Check out the hinged door on the end of the board box. This is to give me easier access when pulling the board in and out of the box.
There are a couple of other plans, but I'll let you know about these as we get to do them ;)
Tuesday, 9 November 2010
Pictures of Rossi on a Ducati - Valencia 2010 Testing
I thought I'd kill a bit of time this morning and watch the Valencia testing. So far, not a lot has really happened. But what everybody was waiting for has just happened! After 7 years with the Yamaha MotoGP racing team, Rossi has finally ridden the Ducati!
Here's a couple of screen grabs courtesy of the BBC (in no particular order):
Here's a couple of screen grabs courtesy of the BBC (in no particular order):
And of course a quick one of Cal ;)
Tuesday, 2 November 2010
Moving On With Snowboarding
We're officially saying goodbye to the summer now, what with the clocks going back. Here I am sat looking out the window and seeing a dull, rainy and dark 4 o'clock in the afternoon.
This isn't all bad. For sure, I'll be missing the sun and light evenings, but this darkness does mean that the snowy season is finally getting here :)
Having been on Twitter now for a few months now I thought I'd follow the whitelines snowboard mag. They've not long put up an article saying Terje Haakonsen might be pushing to have slopstyle added to the 2014 winter Olympics.
I can't believe how snowboarding has changed over the years. When I was a lad, snowboarding being in the Olympics encompassed everything that snowboarding was not about. Couple that with it being managed and controlled by the FIS - outright offensive.
Oh how things change...
This isn't all bad. For sure, I'll be missing the sun and light evenings, but this darkness does mean that the snowy season is finally getting here :)
Having been on Twitter now for a few months now I thought I'd follow the whitelines snowboard mag. They've not long put up an article saying Terje Haakonsen might be pushing to have slopstyle added to the 2014 winter Olympics.
I can't believe how snowboarding has changed over the years. When I was a lad, snowboarding being in the Olympics encompassed everything that snowboarding was not about. Couple that with it being managed and controlled by the FIS - outright offensive.
Oh how things change...
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