On the Ed

I wasn't going to post again until next season but I had to say how much I enjoyed Ed Leigh's documentary on the BBC iPlayer recently, Siberia To Sahara: A Snowboarder's Odyssey.

The programme follows Ed as he travels from Siberia to Morocco via Hokkaido and the Himalayas in pursuit of some of the world's most exotic snowboarding locations.

Not only was this film beautifully shot and informative but it was even more notable for the things it was not - lecturing, condescending and full of cliches. Well, maybe the soundtrack was the usual kinda thing.

Ed was probably the most genial and chilled host I have ever seen him (well let's face it he is usually on TV whooping it up at some big air comp or rail jam) but he still managed to get across his love and enthusiasm for snowboarding.

If you ever get the chance to watch this, I'd recommend that you do. Even if you think you know everything there is to know about snowboarding, you could learn something from this.

The stupidest gadget ever?

Over the last 10 years snowboarders have probably noticed the effects of Global Warming more keenly than most - so what idiot in their right mind would invent a MOTORISED SNOWBOARD!?

Usually I am a big fan of Channel Five's Gadget Show but to see presenter Jason Bradbury enthuse about possibly the most pointless invention ever, The Powerboard, is not a high point.

What the world needs now is *not* an environmentally unfriendly snowboard when it we already have something elegant and quiet than runs on gravity, can be carried under your arm and for the most part is made from sustainable materials.

So we need a motorised snowboard like a hole in the head. The Powerboard is a snowmobile crossed with scooter. It has a 4 stroke engine and can travel a yawn-inducing 18 mph.

As if skiers aren't bad enough, the prospect of dodging idiots on these things too is just too much. I suppose on the bright side it might keep some stupid rich people off the lifts.

See the ridiculous item on The Gadget Show

Big Air in Japan

It's a long held dream of a friend and I to go snowboarding in Japan. Until that happens I live vicariously through Haruki Murakami novels, writing my Asian cinema blog for MSN UK, and watching movies like Trouble In Japan.

In February 2007 the Analog snowboard team shot Trouble In Japan as part of their Moving Picture Project. Genially hosted by 18 year old Danny Davis, it documents what the life of a pro snowboarder is really like as the riders compete in Japan's Toyota Big Air and the Nippon Open.

Not only does it include footage from both comps but there's also lots of behind the scenes footage, night and day riding on the slopes of Rusutsu and Furano resorts,  and we get to gig with veteran rider Trevor Andrew's band.

It also features a couple of my favourite snowboarders Heikki Sorsa and JP Solberg, as well as Danny, Trevor, Mikkel Bang and Kevin Pearce.

Besides all the wall-rides, car tows and general larking around, there's an excellent soundtrack from Kudu (awesome bass line on their tune), Stiffed and Trevor Andrew aka Trouble.

Not only is this a free movie but its makers positively encourage authorised distribution so BitTorrent it now or visit the offical Analog clothing site and watch it in their video section where there's an iPod friendly version available.

Watch Trouble In Japan on Analog's official site

Asian Provocateur - my Asian cinema blog

Unbelievable!

Travis Rice rocks a Double BS Rodeo at the Nokia Air & Style 2007 comp. Seeing is not always believing!



Trice rules. Again.

Watch the clip on YouTube

Your fave MySpace photos delivered to your desktop

If you have Windows Vista on your pc, here's a way you can have your favourite snowboard photos on your desktop.

There is a widget for the Vista SideBar that you can download from here:

MySpace Image Viewer

If you enter the ID number of someone's profile on MySpace e.g. a pro snowboarder or your favourite magazine, you can get all their public MySpace photos delivered direct to your desktop in a scrolling gallery.

All you do is install the gadget, click on it's tools icon and enter the ID of a MySpace profile. For example my fave snowboard mag is White Lines. Their MySpace profile url is:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=112011604

So you would enter 112011604.

Respect peoples' privacy if they have an obviously low key profile. Not all pros like to be public figures but many want to promote their photos and even invite comments.

Be your own camera man HeRo style

Heikki Sorsa and Eero Ettala demonstrate what camera phones were invented for.

Heikki and Eero filmed this themselves on their mobiles! Watch out for the hand-off at the end.



The boys at White Lines have a longer version of this video which is even better:

Watch the full video on White Lines
Check my review of Heikki and Eero's movie Picture This

Now that's what I call a Good Friday

Method.tv to webcast the Burton US Open competition LIVE over the Easter Weekend!

Better than an Easter Egg, Method European snowboard magazine will be webcasting the final of the US Open LIVE from Stratton Vermont.

It all kicks off at 4pm (Central European Time) on Good Friday, March 21st and continues Saturday. So that's about 3pm in the UK by my reckoning. On the other hand I suppose you could always watch Countdown.

Watch the Live Stream