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.
