My Default Blog
Tuesday, January 06, 2009
After an hectic pre season I was ready and excited to
leave to Austria with my friend Vanessa Andrieux. We go there every year to
find good snow condition, I was all packed, board and bags in my trunk and as i
was driving back from Barcelona it started dumping everywhere, and by the time
i was in Switzerland my home mountains were covered by a good 60cm of fresh
snow !
This is when we both decided to join the Demonium base
camp in les diablerets (definitely the best place to stay, hang, mini shred and
skate up there) and shoot a couple things home before heading to the austrian
mountains. We waisted the first day looking for features to shoot along the
road and at 12pm, after 3 hours driving around for nothing, we decided to go up
on the mountain and shred. luckily the place wasn’t totally tracked yet, I
found a couple good friends at the first chair lift, they took me to the good
spot and I got chest deep for my first run of the winter !! I can’t remember a
better start of the season ever ! sik !
The next day we built a kicker with Eman, Damien, Nico
and Tonton not too far from the road in a safe area as avalanche danger was
quite high at that time. It was fun to be shaping a kicker already. The snow
was deep in the landing, the sun was shining we had a good thermos with hot tea
and good meet, cheese, bread and chocolate. Family style !
After that we joined Nicolas Droz in Chatel to get a
couple shots, each day we were pushing the austrian destination a bit later and
we finally never made it there.
That’s when my friend Annie Boulanger called, there was
no snow in whistler and she jumped in the plane to come shred with me.. I was
so stoked to have her here because I m always the one going to canada or US and
for once I got to show my place to a good friend ! as soon as she got off the
plane we called Jonas Emery who could eventually give us heads up on the
conditions where he was staying.. and we ended up staying at his place for a
good 4 days.. We got sik tree runs in still really good snow on our first day
and it dumped overnight !! We went to Verbier the next day, same thing, good
tree pow runs under the cabin, and the great thing is that no one was on the
slopes before christmas ! We joined Emilien Badoux the next day for the same
luck with sunshine this time!
After that we headed to my home resort with my both of my
parents my cousin, my boyfriend and 2 other good friends with whom we shredded
all weekend.. It really felt like christmas !
This last couple of weeks were such a blast, I got to
practice some Quebecquien expressions, I got to shred for the fun of it which
happens very rarely, i got to stay at my grand parents cabin and the conditions
were fantastic !
That was definitely my best christmas present this year..
and i wish you just as much fun and good shred !
 
WWW.ANNEFLOREMARXER.COM
Hey Mate!! I was at the Oakley Style Wars in Fallscreek
Australia last week.. I had tons of Fun there! great parties at the
Silver Ski Lodge with the whole Epic crew! I got to see my old friend PC from
the Epic book.. runs in the gum trees, watch Travis’ movie.. I was hosting the
contest for the web.. which was kind of funny.. I had tons of fun at the parties!
we have seen some water spitting, beer fights,and even some wrestling at some
point.. all in a fun party mood in the Aussie way. A that we improvised a trip
to Torquay on the way down and went surfing, the water was freezing cold, but
it was fun to catch a couple waves..
After the surfing, I joined the 2 Kristis ( Leskinen skier, and
KT the Oakley marketing girl in Australia). We flew Sydney, ate some kanguru,
did a couple PR stuff there with Alpha magazine and Sports Tonight Australia. I
pet a koala and flew to New Zealand.. we spent the first day in Auckland for
some more interviews for Sunrise (TV), Curl magazine, Sports Tonight NZ (TV),
couple radio stations, and last but not least, we got on the Sports Cafe show
hosted by some of the All Blacks (NZ national heroes).. they started asking us
some tricky questions when a streaker jumped out of the public and shaked it
right before my eyes on live national TV!! I was quite stoked to be there when
that happened
anyways got to Queentsown the next day for the Oakley Chicks day
out! which took place in Snowpark with another 50 girls.. the sun was shining
and the park was super good, we shred together all day, i tryed to give them a
couple tips, and we all rode back together to queenstown in a very loud
busride. At night we all went for a bootie shake at the subculture bar where
our friend RIA was DJing.. she killed it! she played tons of funk, which i love
and we all danced all night.. and now I m tired and ready to go back to
Euroland!
Thanks to Oakley and thanks tons to KT for organising this trip!
thanks to all the girls for coming shredding with us, see you all next year!
ANNEFLOREMARXER.COM
Today I just arrived in Saas Fee for the first day of the FIAT
rookie camp.. we all arrived in saas fee in the sun which became rain after a
short and necessary lunch brake..
Romain de Marchi, the 15 kids and I. The rookies were selected based on
small video parts they sent of themselves snowboarding, and invited by FIAT to
come spend 3 days with us.. we first introduced each of us.. the hello my name
is, i come from and my favorite trick is.. etc.. then we played beach
volleyball in the sand with a soccer ball so right now i m pretty much soaking
wet with about a pound of sand in my hair 2 radiating red fore arms and 2
scratched knees .. oh! and guess who is here? remember Ramona? the coolest
letter i ever recieved? well her sister and brother are here.. and she draw
another really cool pic!
our first riding day was chill.. i didn’t feel like riding much
but it was cool to watch the kids ripping and to feel their motivation.. being
in saas fee reminds me of when i came here to ride everyday for 4 months.. and
those kids are in that exact state
of mind.. they want to shred all day everyday.. it s inspiring! after riding we
had a run through the vita course with Romain explaining to the kids how important
training is to avoid injuries.. and we played some more volley ball..
the second started with very icy slopes and kicker but got
really fun after a couple hours.. it was fun to shred and to get some of their
motivation. the afternoon was spent on tips on how to contact sponsors, the
basics of a sponsorship contract and a couple of what to do and not to do on
interviews.. then we went hitting some golf balls.. the cool thing with this
camp is that they didn’t know eachother before coming here and now they are
shred buddies! i m sure they ll keep in contact with each other the camp.. and
that’s really cool!
sunday sunny morning on the glacier of saas fee judging all the
kids hitting the last 2 kickers of the park.. out of the 15 rookies, it was
cool to see the 2 girls shred.. Anais Cettou was doing good on her frontside
360 and 540.. for the boys the top 3 rode really well; Basile Specker got 3rd
with stylish and good amplitude on backside 720 to frontside 720, David
Bertschinger finished 2nd with good style on frontside 900 to cab 720, and our
FIAT ROOKIE 2008 is Patrick who stomped almost each time with great style and
technicity, changing tricks on each of his runs, backside 720 to frontside 720,
cab 900, switch backside 900 to backflip (those are the stomped ones).. quite
impressive for a 14 years old!!
I was stoked to take part of this FIAT camp and get to meet all
those young shredders.. hopefully i ll see them soon again.. they’ll probably
take my job soon enough!
ANNEFLOREMARXER.COM
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Published by anne-flore: 3:11 AM
Updated On: 10/20/2008 at 3:14 AM
|
Russia,
I’ve always wanted to go there!! And here I am, landing in Sochi designated
host of the 2014 Olympic games. The small airport stands by the black sea and I
m quite surprised to see palm trees through the plane window.. We made our way
through the taxi drivers scrum,
chose one of them by the size of his car and drove up towards Krasnaya
Polyana.. It s a 45 minutes drive.. this place looks like a remote and small
European resort.. but 40 years ago. Oakley is
always a fun crew! Grete Eliassen, Gretchen Bleiler, Angeline who has missed
her flight, Marie-France Roy who had some visa issues and will arrive a couple
of days later and I.
The lift is sketchy!! You sit on that red metal 2 seater
chairlift while the chairlift guy holds it by handcraft for 1 second.. your
board on your knees as well as your backpack, gloves, ipod etc.. you are
hanging about 40 or 60m off the ground and the lift makes weird noises.. or
stops and runs the wrong direction for 10 seconds.. the way out is even
sketchier! Same thing, the guy grabs the chair and you have 1 second to jump
off and run with your gear in your hands…
Everywhere nearby the chairlift you can find some tough
Russian body guards.. they looked scary.. but Gretchen got them to be our friends
by getting them into our photo albums! So everyday.. they looked just mean and
tough.. but when we showed up, they gave us their biggest smiles.. with hardly
any teeth appearing or maybe a couple golden ones.. Never mind, it’s sunny and the snow looks epic.. but it’s
really warm.. and yep it has been really warm and sunny a full day already, you
should have been there YESTERDAY! It looked like fun hot pow but my board got glued so hard to
the ground that I couldn’t even turn or keep my nose up! That snow was pretty
much the worst you can get! No way to work it.. and worst was to come.. it
rained for a week.
And still we went up and got a couple of jibs done.. there
was no water in the house (no showers) but all was good.. cause the girls were soo fun to hang
out with! While the skiers were building a wall ride, Gretchen and I
took the lift to the top.. Super sketchy avalanches went down on the whole mountain!
Wett heavy huge avalanches all over the place.. but the top stayed good.. cause it was just cold enough to
keep it together.. That night we decided to drink it blue witch is an easy
thing to do in Russia.. Anna showed Gretchen and I a couple breakdance moves, I
painted on Shin’s face while Marie-France was holding him and thanks to Grete
who puked that night cause it worked and got sunny the next day!
It had snowed and blown quite a bit on the very top.. and
that was our chance to make it happen.. we hiked 2 bowls behind the top
chairlift and found a couple lines, slashes and cliffs… the snow was super fun
in the shady spots.. I was stoked to finally get to ride! And to slash pow
YEAH!! The last run down was soo fun!! And then we had to traverse for about an
hour and hike another hour to get back to the slopes.. it was close to dark, all lifts were closed
and there were both of Grete’s fans!! Waiting for her to appear out of the
woods. What a good day!! It s funny how 1 good day makes it up for ten bad
ones.
That was our last night in the mountains and we all went to
the Russian Sauna to get naked and
beaten with branches by a Russian type of Tarzan!! The best thing ever!
We left to Moscow the next day and that was super fun too!
The Red Square was on my to see list.. pretty mind blowing! Thanks to Oakley, Shin, Anna and Marie
for making this trip a trip to remember!
annefloremarxer.com
Monday, February 25, 2008
Day 1
We are sitting on that oldschool chairlift in White Water BC, it s bouncing.. the slope is still untracked.. The fog is going up and the sun starts appearing behind the evergreens. The snow builds up on the trees,, they are frozen.. everything is white and crutsy, humid, fresh tracks, pillows, cold and heartwarming. Runs in the trees all the way to the road and hitchhike back to the lift. Small resort, 2 lifts.
This is how poetic the trip started.. and the crew made it all become funky and adventurous! Leanne Pelosi, Janna Meyen, Natasza Zureck and I are following Shandi Campos and Scott in the deepest of their mountains..
Day 2
Crazy way up the hill this morning, cross avi passes.. huge avalanches. Danger zone.
The sleds go down, shandy saves us all.. I m on the radio.. I m so important with my radio!! Next one! Sweet and mellow Pillow lines.
Nat let her sled go straight into a tree.. half of it just commits to suicide.. the sled seems fine.. upper bowl I spit my lungs in the death zone. Cant see shi*t.. scared as hell..
Adrenaline I love you, best drug ever. Scott shreds down that line I was way too scared to do on his noboard! That’s the coolest thing by the way!! No Boardng? Love it!
Janna rips it on her sled!! She jumps even! Randy (Shandy’s dog) runs faster then any of us on the sleds.. and hangs with us all day up there! Warm and sunny. Christy runs over that other dog. Bamboo or meetball should we call it? The dog goes under the track of the sleds and gets spit out the other end. The dog seems to be used to it..
We find sick cliffs and sweet pillow lines.. the snow is epic! On the ride down a huge avalanche had crossed our track back.. our only way out.. we had to dig our way through tons of heavy snow! Happy day.
Day 3
On the third day we found huge rocks pillows field! Messy day.. tired day.. Janna is having enough fun for all of us! Huge airs out of that one sick rock pillow.. me hungry, me grumpy when hungry.. me not friendly when grumpy! Sorry..
Day 4
Janna is a sledneck, she went TTT (to the top) on her sled high marking way better then any of the sled duds.. scott fs 360 on that natural hit in the middle of his line on a No Board! What?! All the girls are killing it! We all stomped our cliff lines first track! We are all done by noon and just have a good time. The dogs are here too, they are so cool.. they just run all the way up the tracks and hang out with us all day..
lunar eclips and famly dinner.. good times..
Day 5
Tired.. sketchy avalanche area, no roping for the first time, it s really like surfing on snow. WE are all quite tired, lucky that Natasza is hard working for us all, and she didn’t die on that first try. We watch and sit in the sun. move the sled to sun little by little as the shadow gets us.. wett boots tired back to our hobbit houses. Me tired, me even stop talking when tired. Good night. The week end approaches and it’s time for us to rest before we keep on shooting.. That was an epic week and certainly the most productive in a long time.. check next year’s Runway movie to see the footage!
www.runwayfilms.com
www.annefloremarxer.com
Thursday, January 03, 2008
The first of January has always been one of my favorite riding day of the year!!
Because you are riding with your friends and family, and because they are many less people on the hill due to that international hangover day!! This year I went riding in Bareges-La Mongie in the french Pyrénées.. The cool thing there, is that it’s warm, riding in the sunshine helps making it a better day!! And people from the south are friendly and smiling in all weathers. (www.tourmalet.com)
We just went crewsing down some slopes jibbing here and there..
We had a delicious home made soup up on the mountain with the extraordinary view on the Pic du Midi, which is one of the highest star observatory in Europe.. from which the panorama is absolutely fantastic! I highly recommend the visit of the site.. quite impressive place to see.. (www.picdumidi.com)
The snow conditions were good and that first small kicker of the park made that whole run totally worth it!! The park can be soo epic! it s shaped by the Ho5 crew (www.ho5park.com) good friends of mine who always make it super fun to ride..
Big ups to all who went riding on the first of January!!
And happy new year 2008!
aflore
Thursday, January 03, 2008
Hi all!! Yes I was in brazil for some surfing before the season really takes off!!
It felt soo great!! The trip was my brother, my boyfriend and I! We landed in Rio de Janeiro and directly drobe to Ubatuba on the beach of Itamambuca where you can surf all day long!! We found a sick Pousada (www.tocadoguaiamum.com.br) at the very end of the road.. we would wake up, grab the surfboards and walk to the beach.. we had to walk 5 min in the jungle and then cross a river to get to the beach!! We felt like adventurers..that place is soo sick!! All the 10 olds from the village surf there all day and they kill it!! They are mad good!! I got some surf tips from a 7 year old brazilian piece of woman who was surfing 1 meter waves!
After a week we drove back through Rio to Buzios.. the St Trpez of Brazil.. we found the good local spot just outside of Buzios in Tucuns, it felt so nice to be with just some locals and not the whole jet setters crowed.. we couldn’t speak a word of Portuguese.. but made friends with the other surfers in the water.. I got soo stoked to surf some waves that were kind of big for my swiss surf level.. anyways we got kind of tiered of the spot and went back to our paradise itamambuca for another week of chill and surf..
Which was soo awsome sick sweet yeah!! Loved it!!
Of course we went to Rio for another 3 or 4 days to enjoy Copacabana, ipanema, see the Christ and Dance Samba..
It felt quite funny to celebrate Christmas in the south atmosphere where where santa was melting under his red coat!!
Aight!! Up for winter now!! Cant wait to shred some powder!!
Thursday, January 03, 2008
I LOVE Japan!! Stoked to be there again for the Burton store Opening in Osaka!!
Japanese Madness. My ears and my eyes are overwhelmed lights, sounds and people everywhere.. polite, polite, maybe impossible, karaoke my favorite, sushi, crazy fashion, mini crewsers, best spray toilets ever, sake, photo, photo..
The cool thing on that trip was that we weren’t stock just between snowboarders.. Sweet to have Nicolas Muller in the crew as always but also gravis surfer Kassia Meador and Analog’s Arto Saari!!
To honour japanese traditions we serve sake to all people coming to the event.. obviously we cheared with them, each of them and had a sip! But that was alright since there was only about 700 people.. Arto (wearing an dupa stylish 80’s wig) takes the mike and welcomes the crowed to the store opening with the gayest Carl Lagerfeld’s attitude ever!! Very fashionable..
The sake session is followed by a 3 hours signing session.. I find it hard to find 700 different very special dedicated comments to give to each of them.. so I just got artistic.. I drew moustaches, pretty flowers and about 650 I LOVE Nipon.. it s like writing fitness!!
Japanese people like to fire us with their digi cam.. so I just fire back with my plastic one way use camera!!
That super people shower luckily came to an end and the whole burton extended crew went for dinner.. I sit next to Moblow and his wig, he tells that girl who was wearing a moustache something like she was nice and doll, or something like that.. she didn’t like it and answered that she could beat him up.. I said he would love it!! So she punshed him in the eye and left him with nothing else then a black eye.. you shouldn’t mess around with those girls who wear the moustache!! The night goes on to a karaoke bar.. my all time favorite!!
Marc and I end up walking with no where to go in town.. a guy is pying in the street, I run and catch the perfect moment and angle.. all his friends laugh, so do i.. I really wish I hadn’t forgotten the cap on my almost digi and actually got the shot!!
The next day, the snowboarders crew travels to a dome.. tons of people come to watch.. they are like an orchestra.. I make them do the HOLA.. I take some family portraits etc.. everyone is so happy and friendly here!! Trevor sings, we sign tons of things.. everyone politely waits in line for hours.. that is what impresses me most from Japanese.. they are soo patient and respectfull!
The next day we are all in Tokyo for he first birthday of the burton store.. everyone sits down like kids in school..cute!! they watch the movie.. we get a huge cake in snowboard shape with bindings.. Jeremy Jones claims he is gay, some more pictures, signing and graffity later I drag Arto, his sushi and Moblow to a gay bar on a Monday night.. everything you need to become intimate with the bar tenders!! Some more karaoke and this trip made it to my top 3 favorite trips ever!! 1000 Thanks to my friend Kosuke who makes each of my Japanese experiences magic!!
Thursday, January 03, 2008
Hello my name is Anne-Flore I come from euroland, I hate cigarette smoke. I love chocolate, dancing, ice cream, karaoke, yoga, laughing and surfing. My favorite colour is blue.. sometimes purple.. My favorite trick is bs 180.. easy but fantastic sensation!
This is how the camp stsarted.. Silli, Gretchen, some Radler all the girls and I..
I m not sure if I can teach anything.. besides how to brake your arm, knee and nose.. but anyways these girls are all here to have fun and fun snowboarding! That I can do for sure!! First day up in the blizzard.. we ride all day but cant see shait! my crew is extra motivated they keep on riding even when everyone is down already! it s only once the lifts close that they finally give up! Ouf!! I was ready for some rest!! Back to the hotel room! Silli goes yeah!! Let s go to the gym.. she drags me in.. and then to the swimmingpool! The pool was cool! All the girls are in there.. 3 poor boys are lost in the female crowd.. we play with it.. we follow them around.. they pretend we are not there.. 3 boys for 23 girls What!? They get scared and leave.. boys.. soo sensitive..
Aight dinner and sleep.. I m smashed!
Second day blue bird! Sweet!! The park is groomed! On the mountain I find some of my filming boddies.. Mone gives me a slash everytime he passes me.. haha! It s Aleksi Vanninen’s birthday.. the method TV crew is here too! it s like the day back on snow! Ok girls!! We are gonna do some runs!!
What do you want to do? Anything special?
-I want to ride the box!!
-I want to learn how to do an alley oop
-I want to do a 360
-I want to learn how to jump!!
Woaw!! Ok well The pipe is super fun today so we are gonna start with that!
We ll do alley oops and we ll use the very end of the pipe as a mini jump.. where we ll do fs 180.. then we ll hit the rollers and we ll do some bs 180.. aight!! Runs after runs, makarena after the lasso dance in the lift line, the girls were just killing it!! YEEHAH!!
By the end of the day the could all do alley oops on both fs and bs, cab, fs and bs 180 some perfect fs 360 too and box tricks!! that s a lot of new tricks in one day!! Plus they are cool I m having a great time! aight we go down but hey!! Here is an après ski party!! YEEHAH!! Let s dance like mad!! And for once, I m not the only one on the dance floor!! That s the best part of hanging out with girls!! They are always up for a good time!! Sweet!
We get down and all get a massage!! I like!!
Tonight is the party night! We go up in a typical Austrian Mountain Hut!
We order tons of food.. Wiener Schnitzel, Schpatzle and some salads.. we all jumped on it and the only left overs were the poor fitness salads.. no time to waste on that kind of boring stuff! Ten comes Peter.. or whatever his name was.. he plays acordeon and sings après ski songs!! Everyone holds each other’s arm, sit dances with each other, klaps hands and sings! That s what I call a good time!! all faces happy! Then we dance.. Gretchen looses a bet.. and get to dance on the bar.. I m glad I did not play that bet! That s for sure!!
The next day we are all kind of tired.. but still the girls are cool!! They ride no mater what!! We have more then snowboarding in comun.. we share the passion for FUN and GOODTIMES!! YEEHAH!!
I still think I m not any good at teaching anything but hey!! I had such a good time!! cant wait to do it again!!!
Thanks to all the Oakley crew and to the girls!! That was an amayzing trip!
You can check the Oakley camps on
www.womencamps.o-juice.de
www.oakleywomen.com
Thursday, January 03, 2008
Chaque ete, je vais au Chili avec Victoria Jealouse et Natasza Zureck
pour le photoshoot Burton. Ce qui me rejouis le plus c’est qu’on
rejoint les 2Tiempos, un crew de riders qui ont ramenes des sleds au
chili. Du coup ils nous emmenent sur les spots incroyables et
inaccessibles des Andes.. Cette annee on va a Lonquimay, une parcelle
abandonee du pays.. C’est au bout le plus sud de la route.. après elle
s’arrete et il faut retraverser et longer du cote argentin avant de
finallement retrouver le chili sur la pointe du continent
sud-americain..
Le camion des 2Tiempos vient nous chercher a l’aeroport, un enorme
camion amenage maison avec 2 sleds suspendues au dessus de 3 autres
autres submergees par nos boardbags.. La route est longue et on
s’arrete a Chipilemu, un spot de surf ou les vagues sont monstrueuses
ce jour la.. E N O R M E S !! Des Tubes de 12 metres off shore!!
On n’arrive a Lonquimay que le lendemain soir.. il fait trop chaud et
la neige fond a grosses goutes! On part explorer les environs avec les
sleds mais la neige est vraiment mauvaise! Impossible d’imaginer faire
quoi que ce soit sur cette colle! Deception.. Apres deux jours de
photoshoot en studio pour le catalogue et puisqu’il pleut encore, on
decide d’aller voir le marche local.. J’adore les missions culturelles
et shopping avec Victoria! Qu’est ce qu’on rigole! (et qu’est-ce qu’on
achete!) je me suis ruee sur les cagoules en laine tricotees mains pour
les jours de sleds et plus encore sur les boucles d’oreilles.. et
j’etais pas la seule!
La pluie ne nous lache pas! Heureusement que Victoria a la langue
facile! Elle nous raconte des histories acadabrantes avec le son
ssurrounded et les grimaces! Le soleil pointe son nez pour le dernier
jour de ride.. Tous curieux et excites de pouvoir enfin trouver des
spots, on s’est d’abbord enlises dans la boue! Mais les mecs etaient
persuades de pouvoir nous en sortir et nous pousser jusqu en haut de la
cote.. bien evidemment ca n’a pas marche et ca leur a mis une heur
avant de s’avouer vaincus! Du coup on a pris les sleds en traversant la
route tous les 50 metres pour trouver un passage entre les buissons,
les clotures, la riviere et la boue.. tu parles d’un parcour
d’obstacle! Toute la neige avait fondue et il a vraiment fallu forcer
le passage!
C’est donc 3 heures plus tard qu’on atteint le sommet de la premiere
crete.. qui donne sur une gigantesque riviere de lave qui date d’une
explosion de 1988.. M A L A D E !
On etait juste a cote du volcan, du coup j’ai decide de grimper jusqu au sommet du crater..
La pente etait faite de gravillons volcaniques chauds qui s’ecroulait
sous mes pas, je me demandais a quell moment j’allais etre emportee par
un jet de lave..
La chaleur avait creuse des caves dans les metres de neiges encore la,
et de la vapeur s’en echapait de temps a autre.. J’etais vraiment
contente d’y etre montee!
La premiere et certainement aussi la derniere foi que j’etais au
somment d’un volcan actif! Et puis j’ai pris ma GTwin et je suis
descendue en ridant..
TROP BIEN! Voila pour cette annee en amerique du sud en esperant que la neige sera meilleur l’annee prochaine!
Thursday, January 03, 2008
Chaque ete, je vais au Chili avec Victoria Jealouse et Natasza Zureck
pour le photoshoot Burton. Ce qui me rejouis le plus c’est qu’on
rejoint les 2Tiempos, un crew de riders qui ont ramenes des sleds au
chili. Du coup ils nous emmenent sur les spots incroyables et
inaccessibles des Andes.. Cette annee on va a Lonquimay, une parcelle
abandonee du pays.. C’est au bout le plus sud de la route.. après elle
s’arrete et il faut retraverser et longer du cote argentin avant de
finallement retrouver le chili sur la pointe du continent
sud-americain..
Le camion des 2Tiempos vient nous chercher a l’aeroport, un enorme
camion amenage maison avec 2 sleds suspendues au dessus de 3 autres
autres submergees par nos boardbags.. La route est longue et on
s’arrete a Chipilemu, un spot de surf ou les vagues sont monstrueuses
ce jour la.. E N O R M E S !! Des Tubes de 12 metres off shore!!
On n’arrive a Lonquimay que le lendemain soir.. il fait trop chaud et
la neige fond a grosses goutes! On part explorer les environs avec les
sleds mais la neige est vraiment mauvaise! Impossible d’imaginer faire
quoi que ce soit sur cette colle! Deception.. Apres deux jours de
photoshoot en studio pour le catalogue et puisqu’il pleut encore, on
decide d’aller voir le marche local.. J’adore les missions culturelles
et shopping avec Victoria! Qu’est ce qu’on rigole! (et qu’est-ce qu’on
achete!) je me suis ruee sur les cagoules en laine tricotees mains pour
les jours de sleds et plus encore sur les boucles d’oreilles.. et
j’etais pas la seule!
La pluie ne nous lache pas! Heureusement que Victoria a la langue
facile! Elle nous raconte des histories acadabrantes avec le son
ssurrounded et les grimaces! Le soleil pointe son nez pour le dernier
jour de ride.. Tous curieux et excites de pouvoir enfin trouver des
spots, on s’est d’abbord enlises dans la boue! Mais les mecs etaient
persuades de pouvoir nous en sortir et nous pousser jusqu en haut de la
cote.. bien evidemment ca n’a pas marche et ca leur a mis une heur
avant de s’avouer vaincus! Du coup on a pris les sleds en traversant la
route tous les 50 metres pour trouver un passage entre les buissons,
les clotures, la riviere et la boue.. tu parles d’un parcour
d’obstacle! Toute la neige avait fondue et il a vraiment fallu forcer
le passage!
C’est donc 3 heures plus tard qu’on atteint le sommet de la premiere
crete.. qui donne sur une gigantesque riviere de lave qui date d’une
explosion de 1988.. M A L A D E !
On etait juste a cote du volcan, du coup j’ai decide de grimper jusqu au sommet du crater..
La pente etait faite de gravillons volcaniques chauds qui s’ecroulait
sous mes pas, je me demandais a quell moment j’allais etre emportee par
un jet de lave..
La chaleur avait creuse des caves dans les metres de neiges encore la,
et de la vapeur s’en echapait de temps a autre.. J’etais vraiment
contente d’y etre montee!
La premiere et certainement aussi la derniere foi que j’etais au
somment d’un volcan actif! Et puis j’ai pris ma GTwin et je suis
descendue en ridant..
TROP BIEN! Voila pour cette annee en amerique du sud en esperant que la neige sera meilleur l’annee prochaine!
Thursday, January 03, 2008
Back in Chile for the Burton’s summer photoshoot
Victoria Jealouse, Natasza Zureck and I are going to Lonquimay which is about 10 hours drive from Santiago.. I love to come down here for the Burton summer photoshoot cause we team up with 2Tiempos, a sled company pull together by Christian Vahrhan.. this guys guys are dope! Los Andes are huge and deep mountains with Volcanos and the sleds make them easily accessible.. they avoid extra hiking too.. J
The Orange Truck came to pick us up at Santiago’s airport for a long drive.. we decided to stop at the ocean in Pichilemu on the way after we heard that the waves were huge that day! And they were! Man I had never seen such big waves and by the time we got there, they were much smaller they said! The morning of the same day some Chilean surfers had droped into 12 meters high waves.. one of the surfers even just paddled into it! C R A Z Y !
Last year one of them had won the Billabong XL Award on one of these waves..
I m glad we got to see that! Cause traveling like mad I often don’t get the opportunity to see anything else then mountains..
We got here in Lonquimay which is a very remote place, in poor snow conditions.. the worse snow conditions I had ever seen actually! After a day of scoping and a day of studio shoot we went to the Market waiting for the rain to stop.. that was cool! I got cool bellaclavas for the cold times.. like sledding days or bike missions or anything like that..
Victoria and I were on a mission.. we love south American markets and any cultural shopping days! And we got tons of really cool sick dope earings!
Victoria always has crazy stories to tell.. and this time she came prepared with tons of dvds and printed sheets etc.. she is rad! Finally the weather cleared up for the last day.. all excited and curious on what we would find we first got stuck about in the mud.. but the guys thought they had big muscles and could push us through that crazy f*cked up dirt road..
Only an hour later they admitted we wouldn’t make it.. so we got on the sleds.. crossing the road bank from one side to the other.. trying to find a way through the bush the river the houses and the dirt.. most of the snow had melted and the way was hard to find..
We finally made it to the top of the mountain from where we could see a huge lava river from a volcano that exploded in 88 I think.. C R A Z Y !
we were right next to the crater that exploded.. so I decided to hike and to check what was in there.. it took me quite wild to get to the top.. all rocks were falling under my feet and the heat coming out of the ground didn’t make me feel any more comfortable.. scared that I was gonna blow up the next second.. the crater was cool! The were caves sucked in the snow to deeper level of the earth.. with smoke coming out from time to time..
I felt blessed being up there! First and probably last time I was gonna be on top of a volcano! Then I straped in my Gtwin and rode the dirty black sticky snow down the volcano..
S T O K E D !
That’s it for 2007 Chile. Hopefully we ll get better conditions next year!
Thursday, January 03, 2008
august 2007
I…. Have the time of my life…<br>Taking Marty Kudelka's dance class!<br><br><br>Marty is one of the very best choreographers in the world.. He is directing Justin Timberlake's show all around the world and I met him while I was in NYC in august this summer.. I always loved dancing.. it s the one thing I always loved but never got the chance to get into.. or never took the time.. besides the party aspect of it of course.. but anyways.. Marty and his dancers.. while they are tour teach dance classes all around the world as soon as they get a day off! and I wouldn't have missed it for the world! <br><br>So here I am, in English Town at the Icon Dance Complex for my very first dance class given by the best dancers in the world! The first class was given by Nick Bass and he was way too good! I wasn't able to follow a single move.. but I was loving it! So I stayed for the second class given by Sky Hoffman.. and that one was dope!! He teached us some moves of Locking! Which is a super fun 70's west coast dance.. picture it: all dudes with huge pants up their chest with suspenders and exaggerating each move!! Hell fun! And I got lucky on that one cause Dana Wilson another pro dancer followed that class right next to me.. which allowed me to check her feet and gave me a chance to do some of the moves!! That class was for sure my favorite! Somehow it felt way easier by the fun of that dance style!! I had a smile stock up my face for the whole day after that! And I stepped to the side when Marty's class started.. it was quite impressive to see all these people following all these crazy moves! Insane! <br><br>Marty s got skills for sure! <br>And he loves snowboarding too! He went skiing for the first time when he was 25 in Big Bear Mountain.. holing ass through the whole park with the only solution crashing to stop! Then he learned how to turn and how to slow down.. Classic! Everything felt quite easy and he had a blast but after 2 days of skiing he decided to try snowboarding.. and that's where things got challenging he couldn't just go for it.. he had to work for things to happen the way he wanted to.. with crashing and the whole progression process.. and that's what made snowboarding interesting and fun.. since then Marty has been riding sick other spots like Mammoth and Whistler.. or Scotland!! Even though he seems to keep a quite bad memory of the Tbar that he wouldn't let go! His favorite grab would be a big suitcase! Yeah! Marty!!
Check videos of Marty's class! Soo sick! google him! he s got sick dance videos on!
And THANK YOU MARTY so much for the good times!
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