Stubai....

Last Friday was my first time shredding Stubai glacier and it was a sick sunny day lapping the park with my friend Bianca. Rad cause we make each other try things on our boards inspired what the other is doing!! Was a fun set up, we each filmed a couple of runs and I managed to get these screen shots of us doing a stalefish grab off one of the rails!! Looking to do lot's more filming this season so I can make an edit!!

Me

Bianca

TuxPow....

First day back shredding in Austria and I got a sick pow day, big overhead sprays of snow, super stoked and I got this sick screen shot from my go pro :D

It's looking super windy up Tux for the next week so doesn't look like I'll get up riding :( but Penken should be opening in a week and going by the snow I woke up to this morning, if it keeps dumping like this all week then it'll be be an awesome opening day!! :D

Scottish Freestyle Dryslope Champs....

Mid Backside 360 - Thanks to Wully Donald for the photo!! :)

Yesterday it was the Scottish Freestyle Dryslope Champs held at Aberdeen Snowsports Centre. I'd entered it due to people saying I should since I was home anyway and I'm glad I did!! I had gone down to the slope on Wednesday night for some practice as had not ridden dry slope for a year and I made some entrance my first run down and all I hear is Gnarly Natalie is back, hahaha!!!!

Each run got progressively better though and soon enough I was spinning off the kicker which I have not done in 3 years!! The spinning was effortless just on landing I would skid out cause you can't use edges on dryslope, hahaha but I started to get used to it, then when the wind picked up I moved to practicing on the rail and box. It was a real fun session and love riding with the guys there many of them I have coached and always stoked to see how much they've progressed since the last time I saw them/ rode with them :)

I have to admit I woke up yesterday morning nervous for the day ahead. I have ridden in many comps over the years but I hadn't for a while and with not having ridden dryslope for a year too although I was coming into it from a good session on Wednesday so I knew I could do it I just had to stomp those landings and stomp them I did!! It's weird over the years on entering the comps it has always made me step my game up and I just go for it and land so it's good to know I can perform under pressure like that!! There were 2 other girl snowboarders riding and they were awesome, was rad riding with everyone!!

It was a fun comp a fun day and I'm stoked on the tricks I did and actually landing them. I had one of the fellow snowboarders surprised at how good I was riding after not having ridden on plastic for a year as he said after one day riding on snow at the Cairngorms it takes him a while to get used to it again!! I also surprised myself big time in how well I rode and I guess just highlighted to me how good and strong a rider I have become to be able to adapt to different conditions like that and normally that is not something I would admit to myself or say out loud but for where I'm wanting to take my riding I need to start believing in myself more, stop comparing myself to other riders cause I am at the level now where anything is possible on my board the only thing preventing me from doing it is having that self doubt so I guess this season is all about believing in myself more and the skills I have on my board and developing them even further!! 

BASI Common Theory Course....

Working towards being a BASI Level 3 snowboard instructor means doing many courses one of which being the Common Theory course which is always held at Glenmore Lodge in Aviemore, Scotland. So I headed home from Austria to do this course, which was good meaning I could spend a week at home in Aberdeen too and catch up with family and friends :)

I'd heard many things from different people about this course, mainly that it was pretty boring etc. But I came away from it feeling inspired having learnt so much on it. Sure it is mainly ski related and when the trainers speak being more from a ski background themselves they relate it all to skiing throwing in the odd reference to snowboarding for the handful of snowboarders that are on the course. Although we did have some snowboarders taking us for sessions which was really good and was stoked to see my friend Ben up there taking us for intervals training and circuits!! I'd say I got a lot out of the weights/ gym/ intervals and circuits sessions as I have done a lot of that in the past for when I trained for running but I was unsure how to adapt it for snowboarding and what workouts would be relevant to working the right muscles for snowboarding but now I know so I can now make a training schedule that I can do over the winter and look forward to training more and seeing how it helps improve my riding by making me stronger and more flexible, etc!!

Also everyone seemed to think I was Canadian cause of my unique accent, haha!! The course coordinator specifically thought Quebec because I am quiet but confident, I'm not in your face and when I speak he can tell I know what I'm talk about, haha!! I guess it's pretty cool when no one can guess where your from, I'm so used to it now, it's mainly people think I'm American, Canadian or Scandinavian but no I am Scottish!! :)

First Snow In The Hoff....

So the people of Mayrhofen today woke up to a wonderful surprise of heaps of snow. When I went to bed there was no snow but it has been dumping down over night and still dumping!! :D Here's a photo taken from my bedroom window!! It's meant to be getting warmer again so doesn't seem like the snow will last for long but still super stoked to see it and it means pow shredding up the glacier :D

Back Snowboarding.... winters here Stoked :D

The Tirol Card went on sale last week which means the season has officially started here in Austria with 7.5 months of snowboarding ahead, not bad for 520 euro (locals price!!) :) Hintertux the glacier is open all year and right now they have a sick park built, the Hotzone official park opening being last weekend!!

So far it's been a mix of weather, bluebird, rain, whiteout and snow due to arrive end of this week but accompanied by high wind!! The past couple of days it's been like spring up the glacier with an icy park in the morning soon turning into a real slushy one!! The glacier is really bare right now and desperately needs snow with icy pistes, so weird to see it like that as I'm used to seeing it with a lot more snow!!

Riding around I have been feeling strong on my board and couldn't be happier being back snowboarding it's not till I was back on my board I truly realised how much I'd missed it. I love riding the whole mountain but I have always loved the park and trying to push myself to go bigger, be better and work on my style. This comes from years of learning tricks on dry slope. I'd say I'm getting my feet back in the park but what's annoying me is jumping, it was always the thing I loved the most and it still is nothing feels better than flying through the air and spinning. Although I just hate the smaller jumps at Tux I find them so hard to get the right speed, I had a break through with that last week but now it's back to sucking again and I'm just not used to this and it makes me feel like a rubbish snowboarder and I know I'm not when I look back on what I've done on my board and achieved!! I think people start to then think that I've been lying to them about all I can do on my board which is pretty disheartening!! I know it's lame to blame the jump and sounds like an excuse I don't know I think I have to give myself a stern talking to followed by a massive kick up the ass followed by manning the fuck up!! I really want to hit the medium jumps too as they look so good and I see people hitting them where I know if they can hit it I can as I've hit bigger before but again there's this doubt in my head for some reason and I don't know why this is happening!!

Last winter I didn't push my park riding which I guess is maybe why I'm feeling like this now, although now I really want to do everything I've dreamed about doing in the park and it took a summer off snowboarding to get that fire inside back burning brighter than ever!! I've been riding with people which has been awesome as I've not had that for so long, you feed off of what their doing and it's good to see/ hear other peoples perspectives on things!! I guess I just gotta keep doing what I'm doing stay relaxed on my board, push my riding and everything will fall into place, when it's time I'll feel it and I'll just know and hopefully things start going the way I want them to on my board real soon and my confidence will keep growing!!

Illustrator Vid....

People ask me how I do my illustrator drawings or theres the ones who think it's just traced or I use some effect but the truth is they take hours of drawing using just the pencil tool in illustrator!! I see the image as a mix of colours that I draw which then comes together to form the main image, each drawing poses a new challenge. Some may not see this as real art but that is where your wrong, art is about experimenting with different styles/ materials etc, I never used to be a fan of illustrator always doing art more the traditional way but I have found the eye for detail I have developed while doing these illustrator drawings has improved my pencil to paper sketching too. It's good to be different and form unique pieces of art, you just have to explain yourself that bit more as people can't believe you have the patience to do something like that!! So here's a short vid of how I go about drawing on illustrator, what you see took me 1 hour and 20 mins condensed down to 2 minutes and the rest of the drawing will take me much longer!!

annnnd the finished drawing....