Switch Flicked from “Off” to “On”

Leading up to the 2011/2012 winter I had arranged two weeks in Breck, a week in Les Arcs, and I had this plan to ride as much as possible in the snow-dome before the first trip. I notched up 10 sessions in 11 weeks! It was a great opportunity to set myself up for the season's riding.

I needed it though. The previous two winters I'd barely snowboarded at all. 2009/2010 I injured myself on the first day of a two week trip; 2010/2011 I didn't ride at all, following a bad break to my leg the previous summer.

So last season was kinda like a comeback for me. I wanted to put in some "prep-work" before actually getting to the mountains, and I wanted to ride hard, in two good resorts. All those things worked out well.

I aimed to repeat the time spent in the fridge, and I wanted to do that before Christmas. I didn't expect to make as many trips as I did last time, but a handful seemed a reasonable target. It just didn't happen. Other stuff, like work, got in the way.

I've also planned something that's been on the cards for a number of years now – a visit to Thailand in March. As awesome as that's going to be, it's encroached into winter. As a consequence, I've got a single snowboard trip planned for this season, a week in Morzine/Avoriaz.

On top of that, I'm one of those people who's always working on something; one of these other projects has been taking a lot of time, a lot of mental power. The end result, for snowboarding, is that it's been off the radar.

For me, the stoke doesn't go away. It's been lingering, in the background. Looking back, apart from the year I couldn't snowboard, this is the least snowboarding I've planned for a winter, since starting to snowboard back in 2003. But I can't be bummed out by this. It's snowboarding; a week in the mountains. I simply can't wait to get there!

One of the side effects of the switch being "off" has been a lack of content and activity around here. I'm sorry for not bringing much to the table. No doubt any snowboarders reading this will have found plenty on offer in the new season to whet the snowboarding appetite.