Last Trip of the year

Will has flown off for his final snowboarding trip of the year ,so he's with the Park and Pipe crew in Tignes, France. Sounds like he's having a great time , doing some mountain skills training and just generally having fun.

Also TSA recently did this little video the first of a series featuring their sponsored riders , and Our Will and Harry Winnard are the in the first episode .. 

Tsa-gangcasts-episode-1

Trip to Lublin Sportival in Poland

So Will was invited a few weeks ago by his sponsors  Dragon and Stance, to attend a new up and coming rail competition in Lublin , Poland. He was due to fly out last weekend  with fellow Dragon Rider ( and UK big hitter) Andy Nudds. Unfortunately at the very minute Andy was'nt able to go, so I was the lucky person to get to go along with Will as a very poor stand-in for Andy.

Lublin was a great city and where the event was staged was spectacular, in front of the old medival castle . The Polish people were very friendly and welcoming to us both.

The rail competition started with practice sessions, and then there were three 20 min heats to qualify  through to the final. Will rode with his usual style against a crew of Eastern European big names including Dragon Rider Ziga Rakovek and the two  Redbull riders Wojtec Pawlusiak and Denis Leontyev.

He was really pleased to get through to the final , where he was competing against the top 9 other male riders ,being by far the youngest rider. In the end of an amazing final with everyone throwing down really stylish tricks, the top riders were Darek Bergman (Czechy) who came first, Wojciech Pawlusiak (Polska) who came second and the very smiley Jessi Blackwell (Norwegia) who came third. 

Through to the Final

The huge Polish crowd took Will to their hearts when he was riding and he also got a great reception from all the other riders. In all , it was a great experience for Will for his first European competition , and it was amazing of Stance and Dragon to make the trip happen. Will was also really lucky to get a new GoPro camera from The Snowboard Asylum. We used it to video some of his riding and this is in the clip below...

Telegraph Ski Snowboard Show

Well its been a really busy few days for Will and the rest of the family. Will has been riding in the Telegraph Ski Snowboard Show again ,down in its new venue of Battersea Park. The Soul Sports guys built a  scary looking big air jump ,and invited Will together with   a crew of rad snowboarders like Sparrow Knox, Matt McCormick and Andy Nudds and Skiers such as little Bradley Fry and Olympian Murray Buchan  to ride it.
In all the weather stayed overcast but fair and the  guys put on a great demonstration of  riding over the four days.
It was a fab show with lots of atmosphere and a good chance to meet up with many of the friends in the snowboarding and skiing industry.

 So coming up there is Will's good friend Jake Binnee's Only Fools and Horses themed park night this Thursday at Snozone and then a potential trip out to Europe to take part in something exciting. Plus a little video blog that Will recorded with the guys at TSA is coming out any day now...

looks quite scary from this angle !

The Brits and Hintertux

It has been an eventful weekend , with the indoor Brits up in Manchester on Saturday . Will rode really well on the day and after 5 hours riding he came away with a bronze medal for coming 3rd overall to friend and fellow  MK snozone rider Jake Binnee's,  well deserved  1st and Scott Walshes 2nd in the men's category .  Really proud of Will as always.

Then it was a quick turnaround to get his snowboard gear dry and packed ready for heading out to Hintertux , Austria today to do some snowboarding with the Park and Pipe crew. Thanks to the guys at TSA for sorting out some awesome merino wool thermals for Will to take away with him so he doesn't get cold out there in the mountains .

Winter's Coming.......

Once again I've left it too long between posts, but to be fair,not a lot snowboarding has been happening. Apart from a great night  last week at Will's home dome when Halldor Helgason and Tor Lundstrom came for the VonZipper night. It was a really great atmosphere as snowboarders came from far and wide and made it a great night for Will and the rest of the MK riders.

Tor Lundstrom and Halldor Helgason with our Will

                 James Streater has taken some great pictures of Will in the last few weeks too.

Photo credit James Streater

Photo credit James Streater

Photo credit James Streater

Photo Credit James Streater

Photo Credit James Streater

So there is some exciting times for Will coming up in the next month or so, He's heading out to Hintertux glacier very soon to train with the Park and Pipe Academy and the Main GB team, and  yesterday he filmed a little interview to appear on the TSA website which will appear really soon  . Plus  there are more other interesting opportunities developing. Its amazing what snowboarding is bringing to Will.

Trip to High Cascade

Scott Stevens, Jesse Burtner, Will and Chris Grenier

Its been a busy Summer Holidays for Will . Just a few days after coming home from the Park and Pipe trip to Saas Fee.Will was off to America to take part in session 6 of the the High Cascade Snowboard Camp in Oregon.

Seattle Needle

Seattle Harbour

We had a couple of days sight seeing  in Seattle before heading down to Government Camp in Oregan.Although the snow was really poor Will had a great time riding with fellow HCSC riders from all over America.As well as making a load of new friends Will rode with Chris Grenier and Scott Stevens as the signature session riders,  as was featured in a little instagram edit by Scott Stevens. Then after a week of rad riding and skateboarding (mainly by Will) we headed back to Seattle. It was there that Will met up with Capita Snowboards Owner Blue Montgomery, for a tour of the Capita base in Seattle and got a sneaky peak at the cool new 2017 board designs. Will came home gifted with a great new Scott Stevens skateboard deck and  armful of Capita tshirts and we were both sad to say goodbye to the west coast of America. Hopefully we'll be back next summer.

Then when we got home there was a great  Edit ofWill and fellow Park and Pipe rider Scott Walsh  released by the Park and Pipe Crew.

Trip to Mount Hood

So we are excitedly waiting for Will to arrive home tomorrow from Saas Fee.
He's been having a great time out there. There weather hasnt always been good enough to get up the mountain snowboarding, but he's been climbing, downhill scootering, swimming , skateboarding and just having fun.

He's stoked to have mastered his 720 spins though , in the little time they've had on the snow. Then its a quick turn around with washing and packing as Will and I are heading over to the States for Will to take part in session 6 of the High Cascade snowboard camp over on Mount Hood.
Its the first time I've been able to take Will away snowboarding as most of his trips are in school time.
I'm unsure of access to the internet though whilst we are out there so it may be a few weeks before our next update.