Artsy

Since I finished uni and couldn't find a job to do with my degree after applying for many jobs and only receiving one interview it has always been an idea to start up something myself. Although I would not be where I am today or having as much fun if I had got a job stuck behind a desk, really doesn't appeal to me, I'm a great believer in things happen for a reason and so far I have been proved right with many things that have happened with this way of thinking!!


My dad has encouraged me to come up with designs for t-shirts and we'll get them printed and hopefully people will want to buy them. Just start off here and see what happens, so I am finally going to do this, having some ideas for tee designs. Hope everyone likes them!!

First surf of 2011, woooooooooooooooo

Saturday saw my first surf of the year, since being back it has pretty much been flat but the wave gods chose to give me waves to ride before I leave, felt soooo gooood to be back in the water :D

Went again on Sunday in the hope there would still be waves to ride but alas they were just teeny weeny and no surf :( but it was a beautiful sunny day so walked along the beach went home then went out for a long bike ride along the railway line, after my bro gave my bike a quick service :)

a watery boardy bridgy backflippy day of fun....

The crew (photo - Wully Donald)

Last summer Nicol organized for the kids from the kids club to go wakeboarding just for somthing different and a lot of them hadn't tried it before, the skiers did water skiing!! I went along and it was an awesome day out wakeboarding at Aboyne Loch in the morning.

Face of concentration, haha (Photo - Wully Donald)

From here we went to Cambus O'May Bridge for a barbecue, after jumping off the bridge a good few times, I was super stoked in doing a few backflips off it, never having done anything like that :) Wee Keilan Bremner who was only 7 even jumped off the bridge, well his dad dangled him over and dropped him in, haha but he did it, loved it and swam by himself to dry land, really was the LEGEND of the day, stoked :)

BACKFLIP!! (Photo - Katie Bremner)

Stoke with this, thanks Wully for the photo :)

Some photo's I love :)

Photo taken by Peter Diender at last years Dawn Of The Shred, so stoked when I saw it :D

Photo taken by Andrew Begg of me doing a rodeo at the slope last summer, one of my favourite shots of me riding as was super stoked to get this trick!!

Photo taken by Dougal Thomson at Own It 2009, backside 360 melon grab....

TTR Trophy Design

So TTR are running this comp where you download the template of the trophy and you come up with the graphics for it. I was inspired by being in Japan for my design. The peace sign with the hands, as we snowboarders are chilled out people just having fun meeting and shredding with others from all over the world, the colour representing the happiness/ joy we get from this and being on our board, the dark side being the not so great moments when things don't quite go your way that we grow and learn from but embodied together turn us into the ultimate rider, one who faces their fears daily, pushing themselves to the limits doing things we never thought possible, this my friends is how champions are born. Hence the mixing of these 2 sides on the trophy, pretty stoked with how it turned out!!

Last Shred on plastic for a while....

So Wed night was my last shred on dry mat before leaving again, the most people I have seen down for a long long time and some faces I'd not seen for a while, including John Barnes and Sophie Addison. It was an awesome day of shred on the slope for 7 hours as rode with the uni guys earlier including radstorm dude Gav Rettie killing it on his new board.


Was just playing around, had fun hitting the butterbox that had been angled as an up box, felt real good, Fraz was taking some shots so maybe he got some of me which would be rad!! Leave next Thursday to Hintertux, pretty nervous but super stoked, can't wait to get some proper shredding on my board again and have a hardcore month of riding where I'm sure I will learn soooo much especially with doing the BASI courses!!

JapBline team edit....

This was the second last day of cruising round with the guys properly before heading home. Was stoked to be just shredding with Craig and Barry had awesome fun and while watching this edit brings back memories of all the good times we had in Japan!! :)

GoProooo :)

So because I'll be heading off again for more travels and lot's of snowboarding I wanted to get more riding footage and travel footage etc to make up some edits. So I got a gopro, my brother went halfs on it with me as a christmas/ birthday present since I was away for christmas and will be away on my birthday too!! Super nice of him, thanks bro :D

Testing it out first photo was of my room hahahaha, can't wait to get some riding footage with it 8 days till I leave to Hintertux, stoked!!

Vans Dawn Of The Shred 5

Away to drop in (Photo Katie Bremner)

Last year Vans Dawn Of The Shred was an awesome day and though I didn't feel this years one didn't quite stand up to the greatness of last years it was still rad day of shred with awesome people.

Backside 360 (Photo Katie Bremner)

The highlight of the day for me was going up the T-Bar with JAMIE NICHOLLS :D could not believe it, spoke to him going up and he is a really nice person stoked to meet and talk to him!! annnnd Katie managed to get a photo of it :)

When it came to leaving I had left my lights on in my car so had to get a jump start by Fraz, thank you Fraz!! Then headed to the Doo Below in Aviemore for the prize giving and Vans famous waffles they are good and even come on a cool vans stick, haha!! There were 2 categories one where you are competing for cash prize and the other just for prizes, I entered just the general one and too my shock but was a nice surprise to end and amazing day I came second :D Soooo stoked.

1st-Orla Doolin, 2nd-Natalie Riley

Thank you to Katie Bremner for the awesome photo's, I had fun riding with her son Fin and was stoked to see local legendary shredder Frazer Rennie zooming around the park doing his legendary tweak off the BIIIIG jump and anywhere else he felt like doing it, haha!! :)

Plastic Shred....

So last Friday night saw my return to Garthdizzle armed with my Bataleon I took my first slide down and did not fall, woohoo. The only time I did fall was when going for some spins off the table top, jumps feel weird cause they are totally different from snow ones and when going up the tow my first thoughts were, everything looks so small, haha!!


My second shred was at the Freestyle Wed night session, was good fun riding with everyone again and I loved sessioning the new butter box they have there. Staying away from the kicker for now as last time I was on it I buggered my knee bad and I want to try use this time to rest it slightly before heading away again as May in Tux is going to be pretty intense with lot's of riding!! Here's a shot I'm stoked with of me doing a cab 180 tail press, that rad photographer Slav Gnatetski took :D

The Highlander....

Rail set up

So yesterday saw the last round of the Highlander Scottish Freestyle series held at the Cairngorms. It was blasting a gnarly gail with white out's so you couldn't spot the jump which everyone was having enough trouble trying to get the speed to clear anyway. Up higher at the rails you could feel it pushing you off them with the direction the gusts were coming from but this didn't dampen the spirits. Scottish riders are a hardy bunch used to dealing with insane weather like this and were still found talking, cracking jokes, throwing snowballs at the top while waiting their turn. Meeting some cool people through out the day and speaking to the 3 other female riders who'd entered that I'd never met before. They were an awesome bunch to ride with for the day and had fun :)

I've always found entering comps just a bit of fun and stoked to be riding with a crew of riders that you only see at events like this. It helps push your riding making you try things you thought you could do but never tried, last year I lost sight of this due to a number of reasons and the fun was taken out of it for me. The first Lowlander comp of the series I created a situation which sent bad vibes to everyone involved and through much apologizing I don't think any amount will help get back the respect I lost, but feel that being away has done me the world of good. I don't think I've ever cried or felt so alienated from everyone as I felt back then and don't want to ever feel like that again!! Of course it was hard going along to the comp because I didn't know how they would feel about me entering but was a way of supporting it and trying to make amends. Big thank you to all for making it an awesome day despite the conditions. Was happy with some parts of my 3 runs was wanting to spin off the jump but just managed to clear it on my last run and taking things on the cautious side due to my knee and heading away again in the near future don't want to do anything stupid when conditions are like that!!

Photo by Neil MacGrain, Orla Doolin 1st, Emilia Vanni 2nd, and me 3rd :)

Needless to say I was surprised but stoked to come 3rd and get presented my medal by Lesley McKenna :) I hope Rebecca (I think that was her name) is all good as she had a super gnarly slam. Just happy to be there and riding with some of the best riders Scotland has to offer makes it a winner of a day for me and can't wait to ride the gorms again on Saturday for the Vans Dawn of the Shred :D I entered it last year with Barry, Ryan Shiach and Vanners were also there making us the only ones representing A'deen hopefully more will be there for it this year as it really was an awesomely EPIC day of shred!!

First Scottish Shred of the Season :D

Heading up on the Team Aberdeen bus with Snoop Dog Dave J and the crew above for my first Scottish shred of the season at the Cairngorms. It had been 5 days since being back and a week since last being on my board I was STOKED to be back on it hard to believe I'd miss a  board being strapped to my feet that much but I did!!


It turned up to be a nice day with the sun out, not a breath of wind and soft slushy snow, Spring shred in Scotland, woohoo :) The others went off riding with their friends so I was left cruising around myself, stoked on seeing what the others were doing when I'd catch glimpse of them on the jumps/ rails. Props to Fin Jacobs for hitting the middle kicker in the park it would be giant to the wee fella!! I took to hitting the middle kicker which felt a lot nicer to go off of compared to the smaller one, just struggled to get the speed knuckling the landing waaaay to much, managing to land properly and ride away only twice, haha it felt good though :) Grant Donald once he psyched himself up to doing this jump was killing it also doing some sick front flips off the knuckle as well.


Met some cool people up there of all ages speaking to them as going up the T-Bar real good atmosphere always up at the Gorms stoked to be back riding there, it may not be Japan but there's just something about a Scottish shred that makes you happy :)

Back in A'deen

So on arrival back in Aberdeen my bro picked me up and took me home where I was greeted by my mum. Nothing had changed other than new windows and a new front door to the house. Felt weird being back and already I was missing Japan but more so the guys I had gone to Japan with and lived with all season. It is the first time I've had real friends like that, ones who you hang out with everyday and go riding with or just have people that share the same passions as you and just a bunch of cool dudes that anyone would be stoked to be with :) It's been hard coming back and not having anyone around like that and miss them!!


I went down to the dryslope to the freestyle Wednesday not to ride but just to see everyone, was stoked to see how everyones riding had improved. Barry was down there shredding the plastic taking a bail of 2 while getting used to riding it again. I was happy to see Nicol again and will hopefully get a shred with him up the Gorms sometime soon. Also stoked to see everyone else and seeing some new faces too. Also Wully Donald the dad of Grant an amazing skier at the slope gave me a bunch of Ryan Adams cd's, as before I left we'd discussed how awesome a musician he is and said he'd give me them, was stoked that he'd remembered and listened to them whenever I got home loving every song :)

Sad Times :(

Japan was hit by a terrible Earthquake, Tsunami and are being effected by seriously dangerous amounts of radiation!! A triple whammy that has devastated such a beautiful country. We were unaffected where we were other than feeling the earth quake slightly as it was that bad, we didn't feel it as were on the mountain but people we know did!! We were oblivious to what was going on and was hard to believe this was happening in the same country we were in. My first knowing of this was when I got e-mails from both my brother and mum asking if I was ok!! Soon after this happened and the threat of radiation was growing Niseko was becoming deserted, everyone leaving, you'd be on the mountain and practically have it to yourself, just seeing the locals out riding!! We left on the 20th March due to all this, we were very sad to leave as we had made some good friends out there and loved the country and the culture but now back and seeing what's happening I think it was good we did out of respect for them and let them deal with this.

POW POW EPIC POW....

The Pow in Japan is incredible, everything you hear about it and more. The deepest, lightest, fluffiest pow you will ever have the pleasure of riding. Due to not having ridden deep snow like this I struggled at first but once you learn how to ride it it is the best feeling, like you are surfing :D We had an epic day at a small nearby mountain Moiwa where first tracks through the trees with each turn sending a huge spray of snow right over your head. So many days that could be the best though with one run or one turn through the pow making you grin ear to ear!!

Riding pow through one of the gates

Strawberry Fields in Hanazono is awesome so many drops of all sizes we had much fun riding through here. Craig and Andy getting a bad case of chin to face, Craig coming off worse with a sore knee and busted nose. I had to to take it easy for a few weeks when my dodgy knee got pretty bad but with the guys forcing me to rest it and being used to dealing with sore knees I soon got back riding more on the cautious side until it built up it's strength again. Nearing the end of the season I was starting to hit more drops and enjoyed this a lot. Annupuri back bowls were awesome when there was fresh snow so much fun to ride through. In January it snowed for 17 days straight and end of Jan beginning Feb it snowed over 2 meters in 72 hours insane!! Check out this report on it....

Japan Snow Report - The Daily Flake 31 Jan 2011 from The Daily Flake on Vimeo.

Here's a photo of Steve, Andy and I after riding through some rad rad pow as you can tell by all the snow on us in Niseko Village outside the Hilton Hotel.