ZURICH, SWITZERLAND (Team Geared Up) - Want to know about how snowboarding started and some of the major events involving snowboarding without having read several paragraphs of wiki articles? Then check out this brief yet informative vid, you might learn something you didn’t know…

ZURICH, SWITZERLAND (Team Geared Up) - The big thing stopping me from back country or off piece snowboarding is all the horror stories you hear about people getting in an avalanche and eventually suffocating if the force of colliding snow didn’t already kill them. True, methods of avalanche prevention and rescue have drastically improved but sometimes it still isn’t enough. The clever people at Snowpulse (from my country of residence) are coming out with The Life Bag, a snow sports airbag basically that will drastically improve your chances of survival in the event you are caught in an avalanche by keeping your head and neck stiff and helping you stay to the top of the snow flow. That and if you are stuck on 7 hour economy seat night flight, my guess is this thing would make for quite a comfy instant neck and head rest. It could scare your neighbor and possibly smack them in the side of the head on inflation, mind.

The « Life Bag » is an airbag for avalanche designed for all winter sport addicts, and professionals. The airbag is triggered manually by pulling a handle. Once the handle is pulled, the 150 Liters of the Snowpulse airbag inflate in only 3 seconds.

The « Life Bag » can easily be reused and refilled. Professionals and resellers have the possibility to refill the air cylinder themselves. Training is therefore possible since you simply have to refill the cylinder after trying your Snowpulse airbag.

* The « Head on Top® » technology maximizes the chances to get the head out of the snow
* Head and thorax Head and thorax shock protection
* Respiratory track protection
* Creation of an air pocket in case of burial

* Weight of the system is only 1.3Kg !
* Compact system : volume used within the backpack 3 Liters
* Release handle can be stored in a dedicated pocket to avoid unwanted inflations during backpack handling.
* Mountain professionals and Snowpulse resellers can refill gas cylinder themselves. No parts have to be changed after use, you can train yourself
* Snowpulse airbags are the lightest and most compact airbag solutions in the world

The « Life Bag » is designed to bring you the best protection, while still remaining light, compact and user friendly. Snowpulse airbags are a set of innovative solutions.

-Alx-

(Image credit: Snowpulse) Via MedGadget

LONDON, UK (Team Geared Up) - Well you enjoyed our top 5 mountain bike crashes, so here’s the next in the series! Top 5 Snowboarding Crashes by TGU.

At 5… Hitting your face off a rail!

At 4… Jumping steps and clipping a rail. Head landing!

At 3… You don’t even need snow to snowboard, all you need is beer!

At 2… Best to stay on the piste mate!

And in 1st Place… Head Plant!

-Robin-

(Image Credit: Author Gets Air, and actually landed this one!)

Trying to explain how the patented truck system on a Freebord works is nearly impossible. But watch one of the videos on their website and you’ll swear you’re watching someone snowboard on pavement.

Position your weight over the board’s edges and you can carve turns. Shift weight onto the base and you can slide. So once you get it dialed, you end up with a board that rides just like a snowboard allowing you to edge in for carves, drift a 180 into switch, slide to control speed or come to a complete stop. This is easily one of the craziest looking boards around with four standard but very outstretched wheels on the front and back and then two shopping cart style wheels underneath. If you are a snowboarder, take a look at this video, you will instantly be hooked. I am determined to try out this board and tell you guys about it. This looks to be the ultimate urban adrenaline junkies dream.

-Alx-

LONDON, UK (Team Geared Up) - The Ski Club of Ireland will re-open for the 2007/2008 Winter Season on Monday 3rd September 2007 for practice session and classes for all
abilities.

The dry slopes are located in Kilternan, Dublin, and boast two ski lifts, two nursery slopes, an intermediate slope and a 180m main slope.

The Ski Club is run by a committee of volunteers and trustee’s. There are over 120 fully qualified Ski & Snowboard Instructors actively teaching weekly from September to April each year.

TGU can point you to Special Offers for September!

-Robin-

(Image Credit: Skiing in Alpe D’Huez, Jan ‘07, by the author.)

Head over to The Anti Hype blog where I will soon be posting a snowboarding playlist for you to test drive this baby with.

Features

* Motorola® Bluetooth® wireless technology
* DJ-Style Headphones
* One-Touch Mute
* Compatable with any iPodâ„¢, MD, CD, or tape player
* Removable headset included
* SoftFITâ„¢ Comfort Liner
* Removable Goggle Gasket
* Ultra Lightweight In-Moulded Polycarbonate Shell
* Quick Clipâ„¢ Earpads
* Zip Clipâ„¢ Ratcheting Chin Buckle
* ASTM 2040 / CE 1077 Certified
* Compatible with Bluetooth 1.1 or 1.2 phones that support headphones and hands-free profiles
* Compatible with devices that support Bluetooth Stereo Music (A2DP) and Control (AVRCP) Profiles
* Includes Motorola S805 Bluetooth Stereo Module

LONDON, UK (Team Geared Up) - A tip-off today (thanks to reader KM!) alerted TGU of two upcoming courses being run by the ‘Irish Association of Snowsports Instructors’. While we don’t have exact dates, details or costs yet - we’ve been promised the press releases are on the way:

* Dry Slope Instructor qualification courses in October in Kilternan.
* Snow based courses in Chamonix & Hintertux.

IASI is the national accrediting body for snowsport instructors in the Ireland. If you have ever thought of becoming a Snowsports Instructor then you have come to the right place. Whether you’re taking your first steps up the qualification ladder or building on the qualifications that you already have, IASI provides a comprehensive list of training and assessment courses to help you gain your qualification.

The IASI system is designed to take instructors from Artificial Ski Instructor Level 1 through to internationally recognised instructors Ski Teachers (Level 3) and National Ski Teacher (Level 4). You move through the stages:

Level 1 Artificial Ski Instructor
Level 2 Ski Instructor
Level 3 Ski Teacher (ISIA)
Level 3 Performance Coach (IVSI)
Level 4 National Ski Teacher
Level 4 National Ski Coach

Watch this space for course details or visit their site at: www.iasisnowsports.ie

-Robin-

(Image Credit: Irish Ski instructor shown on IASI Homepage)

I’m snowboarding as much as I’m willing to. The snow is still pretty lacking here at present so I’ve only been boarding a few days a week and this is purely to keep me sane (and justify my season pass ;). I came away with three aims for my snowboarding this year: Improve my switch riding (i.e. riding with right foot forward), ride powder (lots of powder!) and Learn jumps (180’s, and hopefully start trying 360’s). All in all, the technical parts are going well with a lot of effort being put in however there’s tiny amounts of snow so no powder practice. I’ll keep that for my next snowboarding location (the land of powder :)
I’ll post a review of the boarding gear also soon. Anyone want to know about Burton Seven board, and Burton Mission bindings?

Other than that, I’ve been following a 10-week hill training program (it’s all based on running for time, not on distance which for some reason I feel more motivated to run by) on the side as much as I can considering I’m also boarding which is also pretty abusive on my knees. Progress on that is going along nicely, and getting at least a one-hour run each week (max time). Wanaka is wonderfully hilly meaning there’s lots of variation to just running on the flat. On a side note, my Salomon XA Pro’s are starting to show their age from being continuously worn for almost 8 months solidly along with a respectable amount of running. Looks like a replacement will be required soon.

And, of course, where would I be without my climbing? :) I haven’t been climbing outdoors (bar an hour at a local bouldering venue last weekend) in New Zealand yet, and have primarily been just taking a break from routes to just focus on some training. My fingerboarding has been progressing along nicely - I’ve dropped another rung size on the Metolius fingerboard (which just happens to be the same one back in my house in Ireland which is great for benchmarking off) after 4 weeks of focusing on strength work so finger strength has gotten better (again ;) but my shoulders are as weak as kittens. I’ve the physique of Dave Graham at present - strong fingers but the shoulder strength of a 6a/5.10 climber :) Working on sorting that out. The next few weeks will more focused on intervals and getting the arms used to a major pump once again.
So all in all, lots of effort being put in, and with a short two-week trip back to Thailand coming up, I might get a chance to get on some hard routes. Stay tuned!

WANAKA, NEW ZEALAND (Team Geared Up) - Another DVD but this time of a different sport.
I’ve been trawling Burton’s website in the hope of finding this and have had no luck through Google, but since I’ve just been to the world premiere, I thought I’d post a quick entry.
The Burton Open is currently being held here in Wanaka, New Zealand and as part of the event, they premiered this year’s new DVD of their pro team in action, ‘Thanks in Advance’.
Considering some of them hadn’t even seen the footage before it was shown, it made for interesting viewing! And with all the big names of snowboarding in the room, there was a great buzz.

In short, the DVD has no real order to it, but the footage is pretty incredible covering exotic locations from the usuals of France, Canada and New Zealand to more exotic locations like Chile and Iceland. As always with a snowboarding DVD, the footage was stunning and proves what is possible on a snowboard. With the original footage of the 9.9meter jump on a quarter pipe and the boarder in question almost crashing heavily after over-rotating, this DVD will easily keep you occupied for the 45minute duration.
Unfortunately I’ve no idea when it’ll appear as there’s no record of it on Burton’s website yet!

- Neal :) -