Bon Jour! In July 2008, I was invited by my mate Jonny to go on a ski trip somewhere in the French Alps. Back then I only just arrived in the UK on a temporary basis, but I still said yes anyway. My only hope would be that I would get my visa before the ski trip because I had to return to New Zealand in order to receive it. Fortunately it did go to plan so once I got my visa in New Zealand, I flew back to the UK, legally entitled to work, and was ready to take a holiday in France.
For the holiday, I had to decide whether I would ski or snowboard. After lots of thinking, I decided on snowboarding because I've never done it before and have always wanted to imitate those pros who can execute 360 degree aerial manoeuvres. Having done skiing a few times (mostly at Auckland's Snow Planet, and once in Japan when I was 16), snowboarding was going to be an interesting learning experience.
For preparation, I had to buy some snowboarding gear. In the weeks leading up to the holiday, I purchased a snowboarding jacket, goggles and three pairs of thick socks from a sports shop in London. The pants, gloves and wrist-guards were kindly supplied by Jonny, and all I needed to complete the set was to hire a snowboard, boots and helmet from a ski shop in the resort. Jonny also lent me his DVD on snowboarding, but I only managed to watch the DVD the day before the holiday. The only thing I managed to learn in that short space of time was the Falling Leaf technique in snowboarding. A very useful technique indeed!
Come Saturday 27th December, I had to travel to London Gatwick Airport and wait for about 9 hours for the flight on Sunday. The early train from Reading to Gatwick would not have made it on time for the flight, so I was forced to travel the night before. It was not a comfortable wait as I slept on the airport seats on and off for around 4 hours.
What seemed like forever, we finally departed from London Gatwick en route to Turin, or Torino, whichever you prefer. Once we landed, we took a 2 hour bus ride to the Serre Chevalier ski resort in the French Alps, not far from Grenoble. The views of the snow-covered alps was breathtaking, and I was getting excited of the fact that I would be finally hitting those slopes on a snowboard.
We got to our destination, a small chalet in a village called Villeneuve, which is part of Serre Chevalier. Ten other people shared the chalet with us, and over time we became as one skiing family. I did feel a little overwhelmed that everyone else were enthusiastic skiers and snowboarders. The very serious ones in our group liked to talk about their skiing experiences in other countries and ski resorts; I had absolutely no experience whatsoever. But the others were very encouraging towards me as a complete beginner. The chalet host was very hospitable in making our stay a worthwhile one. He provided breakfast, dinner and drinks on all nights except one.
Finally it was time to hit the slopes. To get an introduction, I signed up for three morning lessons. Over the course of those lessons, we covered the basics, like stance, balance, edge control and turning. The first two mornings seemed very frustrating. I just couldn't get it together, but on the third morning it all fell into place magically. Pretty soon I started moving from the nursery slopes, onto the green runs, and then, with the coaxing of Jonny and co, moved to blues, reds and blacks. For the first five days of snowboarding, I mostly kept myself on the green runs, practicing the basics, keeping control and trying not to fall over.
However, I saved my best for last on the last day of snowboarding. This time I joined Jonny and co, who decided which runs to go on. I was a bit apprehensive about attempting blue, red and black runs, but once I got a taste for it the entire snowboarding experience felt really comfortable. I did fall over and wipeout on the difficult runs, but I still managed to negotiate them slowly without any major problems. I also learned how to read the piste map in order to negotiate your way through the different runs on the mountain; before I only stayed on a couple of green runs but never managed to explore the mountains. While exploring the mountains I had no idea how many runs were available to us. It was as if we were on some kind of adventure, navigating up and down the mountains and negotiating our way through the various runs. Indeed, it was literally one gigantic playground of snow.
The last day certainly summed up a successful holiday - I learnt how to snowboard, I managed to explore the mountains of the French Alps, I managed to do the difficult runs and overall I had an experience I will never forget. If I had the opportunity to go on another skiing holiday in another country/resort, I wouldn't hesitate for one second. I am thinking about taking up snowboarding more seriously as a hobby and even buy my own snowboard. And I am definitely keen to go to other countries for skiing holidays, e.g. Austria, Italy, Finland, to name a few.
During the holiday Jonny and I managed to dine at a French restaurant, where we cooked meat on a hot stone. We also had New Years Eve celebrations in a small bar, and there were many revellers and drunken antics to go with it. Probably one of my best New Years celebrations so far!
On the last day, we packed up, left that chalet and went back to Torino airport. Unfortunately our flight was delayed by 3 hours, so it was yet more waiting at the airport, which is definitely an uncomfortable experience. We finally left Torino and landed safely back at London Gatwick. By the time I got back to Reading, it was already 9:00pm. I basically crashed in my bed, and had to go to work the very next day.
It's now a week since I got back, and I have recovered sufficiently from my snowboarding holiday. The aches, pains and bruises have all but gone from me. I didn't realise that snowboarding took so much out of me; on some mornings during the holiday I had trouble getting out of bed. At least I didn't break any bones, that was definitely a victory!
Finally, here is a photo of me on top of Serre Chevalier, 2491m above sea level.
Au Revour!
For the holiday, I had to decide whether I would ski or snowboard. After lots of thinking, I decided on snowboarding because I've never done it before and have always wanted to imitate those pros who can execute 360 degree aerial manoeuvres. Having done skiing a few times (mostly at Auckland's Snow Planet, and once in Japan when I was 16), snowboarding was going to be an interesting learning experience.
For preparation, I had to buy some snowboarding gear. In the weeks leading up to the holiday, I purchased a snowboarding jacket, goggles and three pairs of thick socks from a sports shop in London. The pants, gloves and wrist-guards were kindly supplied by Jonny, and all I needed to complete the set was to hire a snowboard, boots and helmet from a ski shop in the resort. Jonny also lent me his DVD on snowboarding, but I only managed to watch the DVD the day before the holiday. The only thing I managed to learn in that short space of time was the Falling Leaf technique in snowboarding. A very useful technique indeed!
Come Saturday 27th December, I had to travel to London Gatwick Airport and wait for about 9 hours for the flight on Sunday. The early train from Reading to Gatwick would not have made it on time for the flight, so I was forced to travel the night before. It was not a comfortable wait as I slept on the airport seats on and off for around 4 hours.
What seemed like forever, we finally departed from London Gatwick en route to Turin, or Torino, whichever you prefer. Once we landed, we took a 2 hour bus ride to the Serre Chevalier ski resort in the French Alps, not far from Grenoble. The views of the snow-covered alps was breathtaking, and I was getting excited of the fact that I would be finally hitting those slopes on a snowboard.
We got to our destination, a small chalet in a village called Villeneuve, which is part of Serre Chevalier. Ten other people shared the chalet with us, and over time we became as one skiing family. I did feel a little overwhelmed that everyone else were enthusiastic skiers and snowboarders. The very serious ones in our group liked to talk about their skiing experiences in other countries and ski resorts; I had absolutely no experience whatsoever. But the others were very encouraging towards me as a complete beginner. The chalet host was very hospitable in making our stay a worthwhile one. He provided breakfast, dinner and drinks on all nights except one.
Finally it was time to hit the slopes. To get an introduction, I signed up for three morning lessons. Over the course of those lessons, we covered the basics, like stance, balance, edge control and turning. The first two mornings seemed very frustrating. I just couldn't get it together, but on the third morning it all fell into place magically. Pretty soon I started moving from the nursery slopes, onto the green runs, and then, with the coaxing of Jonny and co, moved to blues, reds and blacks. For the first five days of snowboarding, I mostly kept myself on the green runs, practicing the basics, keeping control and trying not to fall over.
However, I saved my best for last on the last day of snowboarding. This time I joined Jonny and co, who decided which runs to go on. I was a bit apprehensive about attempting blue, red and black runs, but once I got a taste for it the entire snowboarding experience felt really comfortable. I did fall over and wipeout on the difficult runs, but I still managed to negotiate them slowly without any major problems. I also learned how to read the piste map in order to negotiate your way through the different runs on the mountain; before I only stayed on a couple of green runs but never managed to explore the mountains. While exploring the mountains I had no idea how many runs were available to us. It was as if we were on some kind of adventure, navigating up and down the mountains and negotiating our way through the various runs. Indeed, it was literally one gigantic playground of snow.
The last day certainly summed up a successful holiday - I learnt how to snowboard, I managed to explore the mountains of the French Alps, I managed to do the difficult runs and overall I had an experience I will never forget. If I had the opportunity to go on another skiing holiday in another country/resort, I wouldn't hesitate for one second. I am thinking about taking up snowboarding more seriously as a hobby and even buy my own snowboard. And I am definitely keen to go to other countries for skiing holidays, e.g. Austria, Italy, Finland, to name a few.
During the holiday Jonny and I managed to dine at a French restaurant, where we cooked meat on a hot stone. We also had New Years Eve celebrations in a small bar, and there were many revellers and drunken antics to go with it. Probably one of my best New Years celebrations so far!
On the last day, we packed up, left that chalet and went back to Torino airport. Unfortunately our flight was delayed by 3 hours, so it was yet more waiting at the airport, which is definitely an uncomfortable experience. We finally left Torino and landed safely back at London Gatwick. By the time I got back to Reading, it was already 9:00pm. I basically crashed in my bed, and had to go to work the very next day.
It's now a week since I got back, and I have recovered sufficiently from my snowboarding holiday. The aches, pains and bruises have all but gone from me. I didn't realise that snowboarding took so much out of me; on some mornings during the holiday I had trouble getting out of bed. At least I didn't break any bones, that was definitely a victory!
Finally, here is a photo of me on top of Serre Chevalier, 2491m above sea level.
Au Revour!
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