Scottish Winter Park Time
March 23, 2009 on 10:25 pm | In Snowboarding, Uncategorized | No Comments
As Easter gets closer and the Easter storms are coming in I am looking forward to getting in the park and riding in the longer hours of sun light and hopefully also getting out into the Scottish wilderness for a bit of spring touring. I am still hopeful of a big dump so that the big lines are doable but even if it just snows a little bit in the next week, which it is doing right now, the touring will be great and the park is already pretty good on Cairngorm at least.
I just got back to Scotland from the World Cup finals in Italy where I was competing in the pipe with the other GB team members, Kate Foster, Ben Kilner and Dom Harrington. Banchory local Ben Kilner came of best of the bunch in Italy with a personal best 9th place putting him in strong contention for an Olympic place next year.
I did not fare so well in Italy falling in one run and not really laying down a smooth run in the second to come in 16h but I was 10th in the penultimate competition the week before in Spain, also meaning I am in a strong position to go to the Olympics for a third time!!I now have a much needed few days at home before making another trip to Europe to go to the British Snowboard Championships in Laax in Switzerland.
The Brits, as it is known, is celebrating it’s 20th Birthday this year, making it one of the oldest snowboard national championships out there. The first ever Brits were held on Cairngorm in 1989 on the fiacaill ridge, the half pipe being dug by hand by the keen group of competitors before the comp. I remember it distinctly as the snowboarders kept getting in the way of our little race course.
I was training with the Cairngorm Ski Club at the time. The half pipe is now a 22ft monster pipe cut with a state of the art machine and prepared throughout the season by the Laax resort. Things have changed a lot in the world of snowboarding in the last 20 years!As well as half pipe there will be slopestyle, big air and boarder X events at the Brits. Many of the riders competing there will then head back to Scotland in time for the Highlander event on Cairngorm on the 10 April.
Lesley McKenna
http://www.chunkyknit.com
Professional snowboarder, film maker and ambassador for Visitscotland. All sorts of outdoor sports from skiing to mountain biking and now mixes her time on the Snowboard World Cup Tour with time in Scotland doing these sports.
Cairngorm - The Big Jump
March 16, 2009 on 11:26 am | In Uncategorized | No Comments
Things are hotting up in the Cairngorm snow park as local riders and riders from far afield are getting ready for the Easter Highlander comp. The comp will see a coming together of Scotland’s finest with the Great Britain freestyle snowboard team making a trip back from the Alps and the Brits to participate in the home grown event.
GBR team coach Hamish McNight will travel back to Scotland directly from the British Champs in Laax, Switzerland with his team to test out the Scottish park and comp scene. Angus Leith on the big kicker last year
Meanwhile out in Europe the Scottish members of the British World Cup Half pipe team are pulling out all the stops for the last World Cup of the season. The Scots are top of the UK tree in the rankings list with Ben Banchory’s own Ben Kilner top male and me top female. We both want to better our seasons best results this weekend in Italy and it would be great if we could both post a top ten result.
In the World Cup in Spain this past weekend I was 10th and ben was 20th. We are both looking good to make the 2010 Olympic qualification criteria with Kate Foster also looking in a strong position. We will then head on to the British Champs and then look forward to coming home for a bit of fun on the Scottish hills and in the Cairngorm park.
Lesley McKenna
http://www.chunkyknit.com
Professional snowboarder, film maker and ambassador for Visitscotland. All sorts of outdoor sports from skiing to mountain biking and now mixes her time on the Snowboard World Cup Tour with time in Scotland doing these sports.
SNOW!!!!!
January 16, 2008 on 10:17 pm | In Snowboarding, Uncategorized | No Comments
What a bumper start to the season in Scotland!!!! Way to go. I hope you are all getting freshies. I am currently in Switzerland at the European champs but I am heading home as soon as possible to get in some home grown powder. Hope to see you on the slopes!!!!
Here is Abi Depster ripping it up at Glenshee at the weekend!!!
See you on the slopes.
Lesley McKenna
http://www.chunkyknit.com
Professional snowboarder, film maker and ambassador for Visitscotland. All sorts of outdoor sports from skiing to mountain biking and now mixes her time on the Snowboard World Cup Tour with time in Scotland doing these sports.
Cairngorm Christmas
December 28, 2007 on 7:25 pm | In Snowboarding, Uncategorized | No Comments
There is nothing I like better than to see Loch Morlich covered in ice and some snow, even a little bit, on the tops of the Cairngorms. That is just the view that greeted me when I arrived home in Aviemore for Christmas. It had been cold for a while and the ground was white with frost and the lochs were all frozen hard enough to go skating on. Unfortunately there was not quite enough snow to have a good slide around on but there was enough to get going. It is always good to get up the hill at this time of year and it is not to be forgotten that any skiing and snowboarding in December is always a bonus.
The Ptarmigan tow was running and there was enough snow to get up a good bit of speed!!!
We spent a lovely family Christmas at Rothiemurchus and even managed to get in a bit of skating on the little lochan at the back of Rothiemurchus tennis club. It felt like a proper old fashioned Christmas card scene with the whole of the McKenna and Baxter caln sliding around on the ice. We had big plans for a boxing day hockey match until we woke up the next day to find the weather had gone mild and the ice was now a little on the thin side. We decided to go for a mountain bike ride instead and ended up at the head of Abernethy.
We cycled around by Loch an Eilan, then up to Loch Morlich and then on to the Green Loch and up to Bynach stables. It was a lovely clycle and certainly worked up the appetite for a second Christmas dinner!!
Lesley McKenna
http://www.chunkyknit.com
Professional snowboarder, film maker and ambassador for Visitscotland. All sorts of outdoor sports from skiing to mountain biking and now mixes her time on the Snowboard World Cup Tour with time in Scotland doing these sports.
December 21, 2007 on 8:05 pm | In Uncategorized | No Comments
Here are the girls from the Roxy Team enjoying their Christmas Party after the Roxy Chicken Jam Slopestyle contest in Kaprun last weekend. The Roxy Chicken Jam is a 6 star TTR snowboard event for girls only. The TTR stands for the Ticket to Ride Tour and is a world wide tour of top level contests including slopestyle, big air, quarter pipe and half pipe contests. unlike World Cup events, which are only held in the freestyle disciplines of half pipe and big air. The TTR tour contests are generally very progressive and media based with a lot of fun side events happening alongside of the snowboard contest. In kaprun, there was a large after party with 5 different DJs playing banging tunes into the small hours of the morning.
The Roxy park at the top of the glacier.
The riding during the contest was very competitive and of a high standard. In the end it was Cheryl Maas, the Dutch TTR Tour winner from two years ago who took first place, with TTR tour runner up from last year, Jamie Anderson from the USA taking second place and local ripper, Austrian Claudia Fliri taking the third spot. The contest was supposed to be held in the Roxy park at the top of the Kaprun glacier but had to be moved down to the half way slope where the DC sponsored park will be in the winter due to very high winds. This meant the girls did not get all the practice they would have wanted but it did not slow them down much. They soon got straight into it with Torah Bright, current TTR champion, blasting off the kicker first with a perfect frontside 360 to set the standard. Torah ride well all day but just could not clean up the landing on her cab 540 spin. Also riding well were the UKs Jenny Jones and Norways Kjersti Buaas who in the end tied for 4th place. Jenny got the 4th on a points breakdown but it was a close call, showing how much all the girls are pushing each other.
Before the contest started I spent the week with my fellow Roxy team mates in Kaprun doing the Roxy catalogue shoot for the 08/09 season. We were lucky enough to get some really amazing snow and lots of fresh powder turns. THis is always a very good thing at the start of the season and especially good after the bad snow season in Europe last year. It was bitterly cold though as you can see from the way our photogrpaher Josie Clyde is well wrapped up!! We wil be shooting all over the world in the next 3 months to try and get action shots for marketing. Hopefully if the snow is good in Scotland we will even get to shoot here!!
Lesley McKenna
http://www.chunkyknit.com
Professional snowboarder, film maker and ambassador for Visitscotland. All sorts of outdoor sports from skiing to mountain biking and now mixes her time on the Snowboard World Cup Tour with time in Scotland doing these sports.
Scotland in Autumn
September 27, 2007 on 10:29 am | In Uncategorized | No Comments
I arrived back from New Zealand this week to find Scotland in the first throes of autumn. It was strange to leave New Zealand in spring and arrive in Scotland in autumn. I was snowboarding last week and am now planning a wee surf session at the weekend here. I am lucky enought to have arrived just in time to see the trees in their summer garb before they begin to change into their autumn colours and then loose their leaves. I really love this time of year in Scotland. It is often the best time of year to go mountian biking as well. The perfect plan for my up coming weekend is a day surfing on Saturday on the Moray coast then a day mountain biking on Sunday around Aviemore. I am planning a mountain biking trip up Glen Einich as this is my favourite place to see the Spey Valley from. This is a great afternoon or morning trip and takes around 2 hours to get up to the loach and a little less to come back down. It is easily made into a day trip by taking either the track to Loch Morlich or the track to Invereshie on the way back down. I like to take the Loch Morlich track and then, on reaching Loch Morlich, take the track past Badagouish and over to meet the back road that runs from Coylum Bridge to Boat of Garten. Another option, which makes the day into a long one, is to take the track that runs through to Nethy Bridge from Glenmore Lodge. I always remember to check the weather forecast before I go and have a plan B for half way if the weather looks like it is going to tun nasty. It is easy to get caught out and at this time of year the weather around Aviemore can be very harsh. The last thing I want is to get caught in a sleet storm 4 hours from home!
Lesley McKenna
http://www.chunkyknit.com
Professional snowboarder, film maker and ambassador for Visitscotland. All sorts of outdoor sports from skiing to mountain biking and now mixes her time on the Snowboard World Cup Tour with time in Scotland doing these sports.
Banks Peninsula
September 12, 2007 on 12:38 pm | In Uncategorized | No Comments
I am now into the last week of my stay in New Zealand. The winter is slowly turning to spring and the blossom is appearing on the trees. The snow is starting to melt and the nights are getting longer, just as the nights back home start to draw in. I have been down here a while and have not had the chance to visit my Scottish friends in Christchurch so last week I headed up for a quick visit. They live in Little River which is a very small village on Banks Peninsula which is a volcanic protrusion just down the coast from Christchurch. As it is pretty much a volcano which has grown over with vegetation and had the crater filled up with sea water the scenery is spectacular. The actual crater has an exit into the sea in the harbour of Akaroa, which was originally settled by the French. It still has a very quaint colonial feel to it and many of the shops there still have French names. We got some of the best fish suppers I have ever eaten in Akaroa chippie. We then headed to Okains Bay where there was once a large whaling industry and settlement. Okains Bay is a beautiful long sandy beach which reminds me a lot of the beaches back home. It was totally deserted except for a very large sea lion bathing itself in the sun!! From there we headed back towards little river which is on the other side of the crater to Akaroa and up to the top of the crater edge so we could get a view of the whole peninsula. We were lucky enough to be there on a clear day so we got s view right down the coast towards Mt Hutt and the Southern Alps, which were shining white in the sun. We were also lucky enough to be able to hitch a ride on a quad bike to take us up the track tot he top of the crater. Here we are with my friends daugher, Isla, who is named after that remote and beautiful island back home.
Lesley McKenna
http://www.chunkyknit.com
Professional snowboarder, film maker and ambassador for Visitscotland. All sorts of outdoor sports from skiing to mountain biking and now mixes her time on the Snowboard World Cup Tour with time in Scotland doing these sports.
