Quarter the pipe, all of the fun

July 19, 2007 on 7:14 am | In Snowboarding |

Winter is well and truly under way here now. Many people have arrived to train and ride the snowpark resort for the season while a lot of other people wait for the next dump of snow so they can go and ski and board in the other resorts. The snow making at snowpark has been well worth it as they have by far the most amount of snow out of all the ski resorts around Wanaka. Snowpark kicked off the events for the season a few days ago with the Electric quarter pipe jam.

After much pushing of snow by the cats and a lot of shaping by the pipe cutter we arrived up at the park to the awsome sight of a well cut quarter pipe. For those of you who have never seen a quarter pipe before it resembles a 4 m high wall with a curved transition from flat to vertical that you can ride up and then out of the top of. It really is great fun.

As opposed to a half pipe, the quarter pipe is at right angles to the piste so you ride straight down the hill as fast as you dare then brace yourself for the transition, before flying out of the top as high as you can and performing a trick at the same time. If the qurter is well built then the vertical part just before the lip or top of the wall will direct you perfectly back into the transition. The quarter pipe at snowpark was indeed well made and did just that so there was a lot of great riding to be seen.

I rode most of the day with Kiwi local and fellow Olympian Juliane Bray. You can see our double tail grab action here in the picture. In the end local ripper Abby Lockart and fellow local James Hamilton won the honers of best riding throughout the day. We then celebrated the official opening of the New Zealand competition season at the bar up the mountain at snowpark, which reminded me a lot of a similar celebration up the mountain at Nevis Range many years ago. Good times.

I am now waiting eagerly for the half pipe proper to open sometime in the next few days so I can get my pipe training under way. I am also keen for another snowfall so we can get out into the back country. The forecast is looking good on the snow front and it looks like we should get a dump here in the next few days.

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.